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Think this is a good idea but since its been about 3 decades since we scored from a corner, not going to be much help for us 😀

It's an interesting and difficult question but the starting XI condition is somewhat of a fallacy since most teams rotate fairly significantly nowadays. I'd suggest Lyall Cameron would be an obvious target and there are a few more worthy of consideration such as Clarkson, Penrice, Shankland and Mitov who could definitely become a factor over the next three windows. There are various others that we could argue we should have picked up earlier in the last 3-5 years. Generally though, right now, there aren't many who would immediately come in and improve the first XI per se. Improving the squad is a fairer consideration and Luke McCowan at Celtic has shown a player need not be young to be a decent addition either. We are struggling financially as a club so are going to have to be a lot cleverer in the market going forward. I'm quite pleased at the signing of Jefte and Igamane and there's no doubt as much as we need to explore other continents, we need to have our finger on the pulse domestically too.

Thats like saying you'd rather be knocked down and killed by a bus than a train.

I don't think the players need to be ready to walk straight into our team and improve it either, the key part is identifying players with potential to improve, and your own coaching staffs ability to do that.

A booking if a player is pulled up for time-wasting 3 times. Scottish referees to give more protection to skilful players and book players for over-physical attempts at tackles and don't take the attitude of "it's Scottish football. Our defenders can do what they want to young johnny foreigners."

We have been paying players off for decades. It is part of our 21st century DNA and is reflected in our financials. We buy players for top dollar. We expect immediate performance. We too often don't get it. We want an immediate replacement but forget the financial implications.

Cammy. And he is still here 😁

We've always bought talent from other Scots clubs, and always will, for many reasons. Clubs sign players at 9 years old, many of these kids don't make it, peak early, and many of them don't mature til they're beyond what we'd consider 'young', so there will always be loads that slip the net, no matter how good your system is. I'm not for a minute saying that our system couldn't be better btw. The difference from us buying the likes of Davie Cooper, these guys can go south nowadays and get paid a fortune for playing in the championship, that option wasn't as evident back in the day, so it's harder for us to sign them now, especially in our financial predicament. Anyway, there's a lot of straw manning going on in this chat, at no point did anyone say we'd be exclusively shopping in our backyard, so lets move on.

I think it's good that we're looking at the Scottish market.

Gersnet had a very enjoyable lunch at Malaga Tapas with the legend that is Dave Smith. Who else was there that day?

Weirdly, given our result in Nice, Thursday is a "free hit" for us and I'd say its the least important game of the three. Three points are vital in Dingwall and we really need to start beating Celtic and what better way than in a Hampden cup final. The big question regarding the game on Sunday is which version of Rangers turns up!! Never easy to predict.

Tom Culshaw

Stuart was the guy who founded the site around 1999 and ran it for a good while until I took it over formally in 2006 (IIRC).

Gav aka Gazza8 is another who has been AWOL for a long time. Another I met up with.

Aye, if you meant Malangsob, I banned them a while back for being a cheeky bugger.

I think Gonzo was on the other day. The American fella I might have banned - can't remember...

No, it isn't the case. Read the accounts, it is actually worse than what I have seen reported since the AGM. Worse, because it also includes 4 outgoing loans, eg. any loan fee for Ben Davies. When you compare the 810K to the over 13 million figure spent in the summer window (Connor Barron fee still TBD and paid). Add in the lack of the 5M€ CL play off loss comfort for 24/25, further payments to Hampden, no COVID insurance payment or sale of car park....then the next set of figures 11 months down the line are shaping up to be another major loss.

Seriously dont want Shankland. That shipped sailed. Perhaps when he was younger at Dundee Utd there would have been room for him to come and improve but not now. Scotland in general have a problem with no good strikers available, Shankland cant even get ahead of Che Adams in the national team and Adams is awful. If we are looking at cherry picking players in the Scottish Premiership Its more concerning as to why these smaller clubs are using their resources better with scouting and managing to get players ahead of us. We shouldnt be using the other 10 clubs as feeders without the odd exception, especially with foreigners (of course we have had successful signings over the years like Novo).

This is like your use of stats: make up your own extremely narrow parameters to suit your position. And then you'll move the goalposts. We will not be recruiting 'exclusively' from Scotland. I think it's good that we're looking to explore the Scottish market. We just picked up Barron, we picked up Souttar a wee while back, Ryan Jack even further back. Mordor picked up some orc from Dundee. I would have taken Nesbit and McKenna. Miller and Cameron are highly thought of, just like Doig, Hickey and Ferguson over the last couple of seasons. There are good moves to be made.

Lyall Cameron on a free end of this season, Lennon Miller, Slobodan Rubezic is better than Robin Propper, wouldn't mind Ross Graham from Dundee United who is on a bosman end of '25. Also I'd take Shankland on a free (we all know you hate him you don't need to mention it ) Its not always about improving the starting XI. We play lots of games, get lots of injuries. Have the ability now to make 5 subs per game. We need to build a squad.

No we want to cut costs. Does punting Goldson for a loss and bringing in Propper make sense? Only on a balance sheet somewhere. Does freezing out Hagi for CL qualifiers make sense? Only on a balance sheet somewhere. Does selling Cantwell for 500k make sense? Only on a balance sheet somewhere. Rinse and repeat.

I can't remember if Stuart or someone else (maybe someone called Sandy) ran the original messageboard back in the day. I'm sure that's where Gersnet was "formed" or it was where we were all pointed in the direction of Gersnet. Sites came a long way since those early days of the Internet/social media. Some characters throughout the years, that's for sure.

Penalty shoot-outs taken from centre circle with a time limit of 10 seconds to have shot.

The mighty Rhino.

Short corners like they have in hockey if the ball goes out between centre of goals and 18 yard box line. Penalties - run from half way line.

Didn't we have a set-piece coach under Gerrard?

Arsenals recent success is just one small part. Aston Villa have some niche ball retention capability at throw ins I read somewhere. I'd say as a rule if there is anyway you can gain an advantage over an opponent then do so, this game is often decided by the smallest of margins. How Premier League sides are using set-piece coaches to find edge - BBC Sport

I was reading about his pals Arsenal recently. They are doing really well from corners and set pieces these days. Heard they hired a dedicated set piece coach a while back from Brentford I think? Food for thought.

Here me out: Ange.

As @Frankie says, many of us did, but I might have been a bit more "vocal" though (some things never change 😉 😀).

Fulham, Norwich and WBA were yo-yo's for years, its almost like they could have had their own division in between the PL and Championship. Im glad they are established at the moment. Now its Burnley and Sheff Utd. Yeah Big Ange is getting it today. Clubs whose managers under pressure at the moment: Southampton Wolves West Ham (Monday night West Ham v Wolves) Tottenham Crystal Palace to an extent. Everton - but they will let Dyche keep them up until this contract runs out at the end of the season and let someone else lead them into the new stadium.

Pray for Auckland.

Ross County 0-2 Rangers Hagi FGS @Rousseau I'll have a prediction but you dont need to add me to the league as its too deep into the season.

Gonzo came back on to promote his music, but I get the sense he too has taken the huff after I gave him a friendly warning. Strange that the more outspoken can't take it.

Yeah I get the purchasing of youth players as we cant no team can look at every youngster in the country, my point was more towards established first teamers and more so foreigners. You will get the odd gem that appears from abroad that goes under all top clubs radars and thats fine but Im all for giving our own youth a chance. I think of the 92-93 team and how many Brits made up the core of the side.

And think how much we will save on win bonuses with another season of winning nothing.

Disagree, Durie came with a very good pedigree having played in England's top flight and Dodds was an excellent scorer in the Scottish League.

The comparison is Billy Dodds or even Gordon Durie. Neither was greeted with acclaim but both performed pretty well. I don’t suggest that Shankland is nearly as good as either but it’s the market Rangers are currently in. The alternative is to bring in the likes of Igamane. A lot of people don’t like that either. My anxiety about Shankland is that he peaked last season and having awarded himself a sabbatical this season he might find it hard to engage gear again.

False economy. Is Lawrence Shankland the only striker in the world available in January in our wage bracket? If signing Shankland is a sign of our ambitions and imagination when it comes to recruitment, we'd as well just shut the doors now.

So we want to sell the leagues current top goal scorer and sign a player who has scored 1 goal this season (IIRC) and has 3 "good seasons" in his entire career? Such a Rangers thing to do. Signing Shankland is as ambitious as signing McInnes as manager.

The linesman should be embarrassed by that Dessers goal where he called Jefte offside even though he was a good bit on. The officials are woeful. If in doubt give the decision against Rangers, VAR will correct. That wee pleb Matthew McDermot is also really guilty of this.