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It is gutting to see them benefit from our wonderful work in Europe, but the consolation is that it at least gives us the chance of qualifying for the CL finishing second.

Naughty! Naughty!

Due to overall drop in the coefficient, if I remember correctly then they will now have to go through knock out rounds from now on!!

Dessers for me again I thought he played an excellent game.

That's our problem: judging everything on the last result.

No it's just for next season. If we increase it this season it won't come into operation till the season after, giving us time to win the league.

Exactly - they might not come back!

Twente. Good enough to put the team on their mettle but not so good as to outclass them and not far to go.

I guess the hope is he can stay fit and impress enough that even if they don't get promotion another side will see him and take him on. He's one of those players that eventually he'll come good for someone. It's not going to be us though.

Matondo's deal includes (according to Germany's equivalent of the Daily Mail) a option to buy for Euro 1.2m, which would still be too dear for them, unless they get promotion.

Tough one for Newcastle, if only they could expand the small stand opposite the camera. St James is definitely one of the best stadiums in the country. Villa Park is another and its good they are going to be able to rebuild the stand behind to goal to bring it up to 53000. Everton v Leicester and Ipswich v Southampton today - 4 of the bottom 5 playing each other. While the other bottom side Wolves have a midlands derby against Villa. We will see how Forest respond to their hammering at Bournemouth but Brighton are a bag of revels to predict. Bournemouth have a cracking home record against the big teams but so did Brentford and Liverpool nicked it there so Id expect the same. I think Man City will get something at Arsenal in the big one on Sunday. Jhon Duran has gone to Saudi for 71 Million, fair play to him for the wages but what a footballing waste.

Blackburn up to 5th. Todd Cantwell with the second goal - a player I forgot about as soon as he left the building at Ibrox. Falkirk's lead at the top has been slashed, and Ayr can go top on Saturday afternoon. Must say Id rather Ayr or Falkirk get promoted than Livingston.

Difficult one. Clement will know Anderlecht inside out. Turkey away is always hostile. Twente and Bodo are banana skins but Id probably opt for them.

The teams in that chart are the level we are at

https://x.com/HandsAcrossTW/status/1885400387596738571

Said in the match thread that Dessers, Diomomde, Raskin and Tav were outstanding. Dessers led the line superbly, Dio and Raskin were everywhere but I'm going for Tav. Composed at CB and added another assist to his numbers (as he did at Old Trafford).

I don't like these loan deals it's like hiring a kilt when you look at it the next day you say to yourself thank fuck i didn't buy it because i think once these teams see these duds in action it will be return to sender .

Looks like Bournemouth against the scousers is my pick of the Saturday games with the gunners taking on city on sunday as my television viewing for the weekend , and I see Newcastle have at last made moves on stadium expansion it's either a revamped Saint James park with a new 60,000 capacity or building next door at Leazes park for a 70,000 capacity I had a walk around the stadium this morning and i'd go for the new stadium after all money is plentiful .

From The Guardian: Vaclav Cerny says Rangers feel at home in Europe after qualifying for the last 16 of the Europa League with a 2-1 win over Union Saint-Gilloise last night. Rangers, whose erratic domestic form this season has all-but handed the title to their Old Firm rivals Celtic, held on for the win that took them to eighth place – avoiding the playoffs. Philippe Clement’s side were joined in the last 16 by earlier opponents Lyon, Olympiacos, Manchester United and Tottenham and, asked if European football suited Rangers, Cerny, on loan from Wolfsburg, said:

I can't vouch for this, but it came winging, comet-like, to me, through the ether, so it must have have some authenticity. Surely? Maybe? Just under £9m so far in prize money alone. Not accounting for tv money and ticket sales. Not sure what we clear per home game after overheads, £1.5-2m something like that maybe, anyone have a more accurate number? Europa League prize money Winner : £10.95m Runner-up : £5.9m Semi-finalists : £3.54m Quarter-finalists : £2.11m Round of 16 : £1.47m Reaching knockout round play-off : £250k League-phase wins : £379k League-phase draws : £126k League-phase defeats : £0 How much have Rangers banked so far? Taking the above numbers into account, Rangers have already boosted their transfer kitty courtesy of this year's revamped competition. Gers got £3.64m just from qualifying and topped up their prize money with performance-related bonuses. Wins over Malmo, FCSB, Nice and USG swelled the coffers by around £1.5m, with draws against Olympiacos and Tottenham adding another £252k to the pot - which totalled £1.768m. Malmo 0-2 Rangers (£379k) Rangers 1-4 Lyon (£0) Rangers 4-0 FCSB (£379k) Olympiacos 1-1 Rangers (£126k) Nice 1-4 Rangers (£379k) Rangers 1-1 Tottenham (£126k) Manchester United 2-1 Rangers (£0) Rangers 2-1 USG (£379k) Total: £1.768m How much has Rangers league position earned them? Rangers will also be due another chunky sum from UEFA for their final finishing position of eighth. Each position in the table is worth £63.4k, meaning the club that finishes 36th will earn that figure with an additional £63.4k added for every position higher - and the high-flying Gers have therefore netted a tasty £1.775m For making it automatically into the last 16 Rangers know that they will earn at least an additional £1.47m as well as £252,800 add-on for being in the top, meaning that the league stage campaign in total has earned the Ibrox club more than £5m in bonus money. On top of the £3.64m earned just for making it into the main competition. All of that adds up to a grand total of £8.905m - without including ticket sales from four home matches, and for what promises to be a sell-out crowd for the last 16 match regardless of who the opponents are.

https://x.com/RangersReview55/status/1885302535369421082 Nico Raskin averaged the most tackles and interceptions per 90 (7.72) of any player in the UEL group stage.

Coincidental that we're seeing an improvement in Dessers when he has a striker playing with him?.

I think we all know that, so the anger should be directed at those who sanctioned the deal and not the player. Given our financial constraints it would be doubly foolish to sell him on the cheap. Guy contributes, is rarely injured, has a brilliant mentality. Wish we had more with those attributes.

I'm not Dessers biggest fan but there can be no doubting that playing him in a set up where he is not the lone striker has actually improved his contribution. My criticism last night would be the decision to play Bajrami as the 10 and not Igamane. Igamane looked a little lost in the wide role. Sort of reminded me of when we used to do that to Hagi a few seasons back and wonder why he was ineffective. Dessers and Igamane playing closer together would be interesting to see.

One of the big differences between Kyogo and Dessers is that Kyogo has been able to score in big games. That's not a specific criticism of Dessers. Most of our team have fallen short when it come to big (domestic) games. compared to their Celtic counterparts. However Dessers still does a job for us, whether off the bench or starting as he has done the last few games. The big man doesn't deserve the criticism or abuse that the hysterical section of our support come up with.

For me Dessers has justified the price we paid for him. Realistically, how much were his goal and assist worth to the club last night alone ?

Watching it back, whilst the run was superb, the calmess, composure and control he showed to pick out Cerny was exceptional.

A fine run from Dessers for the second goal last night, you'd never have seen Boyd manage that 😎

Only of they're a success and Dessers didn't dictate the price we paid for him. All he can do is continue to score goals and put in performances like he did tonight.

Unbelievable. It was a tougher set of fixtures than Celtic had.

Great result tonight and terrific achievement finishing top 8. Manager and team deserve a lot of credit. Now start doing it in the league.. 😂😂

Well done Rangers. Considering the makeshift back line, I'm surprised we won. Not the best performance but we got there!! Interesting to note that from the other 7 teams in the top 8, we faced 4 of them in our round of fixtures.

Referee has lost the head and made several embarrassing decisions in a row now. USG play acting at every opportunity too

It's not just Scottish refs...they should have had as many booked as us.

It's not that we need a 20 goal a season striker to replace Dessers, it's we need someone who can stay fit and lead the line well. We did some basic analysis recently and Rangers score more goals when he's not leading the line than when he is. Whether that's a tactical tweak we make or simply because Igamane is better at holding the ball up and bringing others into the attack, I can't say. As you rightly point out Dessers is a 20 goal a seasons striker, but if he's not scoring Rangers struggle. Whereas when Igamane isn't scoring other players chip in more. Having Igamane and Dessers fit and firing is working quite well just now, Dessers as an impact sub or alongside Igamane is ideal with our current squad. I certainly wouldn't want him to leave without at least one other forward player joining in his place. Without wishing to jinx him Dessers fitness is one of his strengths and not something we should overlook to be fair to him.

Looking at the posts in this and many other threads there is a common theme. Winning is everything, and when we are not winning everything is hyper analysed and critiqued. If we were paying Dessers half what we are paying him (which is estimated to be what Kyogo was earning when he first arrived) then everyone would be happy with his contribution in isolation. Our lack of success wouldn't be as much of a factor, though it always really factors. As many have said Dessers has been a victim of circumstance for the most part. When he is scoring he is not doing enough as we are not competitive, when he is not scoring we are not competitive and no one is available to fill the gap. We also have had too many, and still do on high wages contributing nothing which while isnt his fault, he is a sellable asset while others offer nothing with no resale value. Its possible he stays with us for the next few seasons, we rack up some titles and trophies and he leaves a cult hero.

I wonder if this appeal and all the rest of it will have us marked for special treatment from other referees as the old bloke on Dad’s Army used to say they don’t like it up em

That's an interesting way of looking at it actually and probably true to an extent. I'd argue the criticism Dessers gets; not just from Rangers fans but other commentators in particular, really is unique in it's hypocrisy. He's clearly far from the world's best striker but he's also effective enough for the most part.