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What's particularly disappointing is none of the 2019 Alkas Cup winning side have made the step up to our first team. There were boys in that side that really looked like they could make it, yet none of them have. Nathan Young-Coombes is currently without a club. Kai Kennedy was named player of the tournament, he plays for Queen Of The South now, Aaron Lyall at Morton, Ciaran Dickson is in prison, captain Kyle McClelland was released by Rangers and played for Coleraine this season. Adam Devine is still with us but for how much longer, and Lewis Budinauckas but as he can't get into the Thistle team on loan currently, I'm not confident he's displacing Kelly or Butland anytime soon. Alex Lowry was the one who probably had the best opportunity but he's currently not troubling the Wycombe Wanderers first team very often. It's not too much to think that at least a couple of those players could have become decent squad players by now at least. You wonder if winning that tournament, and the adulation and expectation that followed it, was the worst thing that could happen to them. If Birmingham want to keep our players I can't imagine we'll be making that difficult for them.

Ben Davies – Defender – Birmingham City Ben was absent for Birmingham as they rounded off a remarkable campaign with a 2-1 win over Cambridge United. The 29-year-old defender has been an ever-present for the Blues this campaign, helping the club record a memorable campaign in their promotion back to the second tier. Apps: 44 Kieran Dowell – Midfielder – Birmingham City Kieran, meanwhile, was a half-time substitute as Birmingham netted late in the final day triumph. The midfielder certainly made a strong impression after making the loan switch to the EFL League One outfit and was a creative force in midfield. Apps: 23 Goals: 5 Assists: 3 Jose Cifuentes – Midfielder – Aris Thessaloniki Jose was a second half substitute as Aris played out a 1-1 draw with OFI Crete. The midfielder has featured in each of Aris’ five fixtures in the Super League fifth-place play-off as they look to end the season on a high note. Apps: 31 Goals: 1 Assists: 3 Robbie Fraser – Defender – Livingston Robbie started and played the full 90 minutes as Livi’s title bid in the Scottish Championship came to an end. Falkirk’s victory over Hamilton Academical rendered the Lions’ defeat to Partick Thistle on Friday evening immaterial, with Robbie and his teammates now shifting their attention to the play-offs where they will face the winners of Ayr United’s clash against the Jags. Apps: 19 Goals: 1 Assists: 1 Cole McKinnon – Midfielder – Ayr United Cole started but was forced off inside half an hour as Ayr United edged Airdrieonians in their final outing of the league campaign. The Honest Men had already secured their play-off berth and will square off in the first leg against Partick Thistle at Firhill this evening. Apps: 14 Assists: 1 Lewis Budinauckas – Goalkeeper – Partick Thistle Lewis was an unused substitute as Partick Thistle sealed their place in the play-offs with an impressive 1-0 away win over Livingston. The Jags are no strangers to the play-offs and will hope their experience in the format can help fulfil their ambition of promotion to the Scottish Premiership. Apps: 8 Archie Stevens – Attacker – Dunfermline Athletic Archie was absent as Dunfermline were condemned to a 2-0 defeat away to Greenock Morton on Friday evening. The 19-year-old featured prominently for the Pars in the second half of the campaign as they preserved their place in the Scottish Championship. Apps: 11 Adam Devine – Defender – Queen’s Park Adam was named in the starting XI for the Spiders in their defeat at the hands of Raith Rovers. The full-back was withdrawn at the half-time interval as Raith turned the screw in the second period to prevail in emphatic fashion. Apps: 13 Goals: 1 Leon King – Defender – Queen’s Park Likewise, Leon started in midfield for the Spiders in their final evening defeat at Hampden. The 21-year-old has featured in a number of positions for Queen’s Park in a productive loan spell in the second half of the season. Apps: 9 Kieran Wright – Goalkeeper – Airdrieonians Kieran was among the substitutes for Airdrieonians in their defeat to Ayr United at home. Rhys McCabe’s side will hope that their improved form since the turn of the year will make the difference in the relegation play-offs as they look to secure their Scottish Championship status. Apps: 24 Josh Gentles – Forward – Alloa Athletic Josh started for Alloa as they suffered final day heartbreak in a 2-1 defeat to Kelty Hearts which ended their hopes of finishing in the play-offs. The young forward made a strong impression for the League One outfit and chipped in with several goals and assists in an attacking role. Apps: 14 Goals: 3 Assists: 3 Blaine McClure – Midfielder – Kelty Hearts Blaine, meanwhile, was a second-half substitute for Kelty as they ended the campaign on a positive note. The 18-year-old midfielder has produced several impressive performances for the League One side in what has been a valuable first loan spell in senior football. Apps: 13 Kristian Webster – Defender – Dumbarton Kristian was in from the off for Dumbarton as they tasted defeat to Stenhousemuir at Ochilview on Saturday afternoon. The 20-year-old defender has featured at both right full-back and the heart of defence for the Sons who were condemned to relegation to League Two. Apps: 16 Assists: 1 Goals: 1 Jack Harkness – Defender – Stirling Albion Injury curtailed Jack’s involvement in Stirling Albion’s goalless draw with Forfar Athletic. The Binos were unable to muster the points required to secure a play-off berth, with Jack featuring prominently in an impressive individual campaign. Apps: 28 Goals: 2 Assists: 3 Leyton Grant – Defender – Stirling Albion Leyton was also absent for the Binos in their final day draw with Forfar. It was the young defender’s first loan spell in senior football and he caught the eye with his performances as part of a back three in League Two. Apps: 14 https://www.rangers.co.uk/article/latest-rangers-loan-review-2025-05-06/46oPF7W37LgH24YlA314rz

I see that Huddersfield may be about to appoint Wagner, who was linked with us. That should be a relief as it may have been our Gotterdammerung.

Impressive stats for Davies. Fit all season. Maybe Rangers should acquire the City medical and fitness staff.

Arteta thinks his team were the best in the whole competition he has to be sacked

Thinking back to 1945. While the world rejoiced at the end of the war, life, like football, found a way to carry on. We lifted the Southern League trophy that year – a small beacon of joy in a world still healing. And as our brave soldiers returned home imagine what the emotions at Ibrox would have been like , a community that had undoubtedly seen loved ones go off to fight. That Southern League win in '45 would have been a moment of shared joy, a small piece of normalcy returning as our heroes, weary but unbroken, started to come home. The same spirit that drove our team to victory on the pitch , fighting for what we hold dear, I often wonder what the atmosphere at Ibrox would have been like? To me, it was more than a noise; it was a lifeline, a sense of coming home. I've been on the pitch after I came back from Afghanistan, and I have to tell you, seeing the Blue Sea rise, especially after losing friends, makes you realise the love and support each Rangers fan gives us is truly speechless. To this day, it is still one of my greatest moments in life. The roar of the crowd shakes the foundations of our stadium. I suppose that's the Rangers family. Just like then, it would have been an overwhelming sense of gratitude, a silent understanding of the battles fought on a far greater field. These were not just heroes on the battlefield; they were our neighbours, our family, fellow supporters who understood the true meaning of fighting for what you believe in. Tomorrow, as we mark VE Day, though it is a day of poignant remembrance for us all, especially for those who fell, as a veteran, I'd like to say thank you for the support. It means the world and would no doubt have meant a lot to those returning home to loved ones and family. WATP.

Maybe they wouldn't want to bother us with these meagre stats ... https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/rabbi-matondo/leistungsdaten/spieler/404384

So, Mourinho then. Jonathan Northcroft, in the ST, explains why not. Or maybe why. I incline to the former, me. JONATHAN NORTHCROFT The decline of José Mourinho: how Special One became ‘ordinary’ Twenty years ago Chelsea won an extraordinary title in his first season, but it is now ten years since his last league triumph. What went wrong — and is Portugal job next step? Mourinho’s phenomenal early impact at Chelsea is a distant memory now he is largely offstage at Fenerbahce Jonathan Northcroft Saturday May 03 2025, 8.00pm, The Sunday Times The decline of José Mourinho: how Special One became ‘ordinary’ There it was, that time-honoured sight of José Mourinho running on to the pitch after victory. In a hostile away stadium, eyeballing the world and wearing that face of vindication. But the hair was white and instead of a young man’s suit he wore a comfy stadium jacket. Then he went for a knee slide and toppled head-first into the grass. This was Mourinho, at Trabzonspor in November, celebrating probably the best single moment in his first season with Fenerbahce — a Sofyan Amrabat goal scored in the 12th minute of stoppage time to complete a comeback win in a big Super Lig fixture. Fenerbahce had two curious penalties awarded against them on review, prompting Mourinho, in his press conference, to speculate that “the VAR was, what, drinking coffee?” He went on. “It’s even worse than I was told. We play against opponents … but we also play against the system. Nobody abroad wants to watch the Turkish league. It’s too grey, too dark. Smells bad.” Surveying the whole mini-drama from a distance it’s hard not to see the Mourinho that critics see, the tyro once named “Rockstar of the Year” by the Spanish Rolling Stone, turned into an ageing performer reduced to lesser gigs in venues even he denigrates. The impression has been there for a while and there was mirth when, in his previous job, at Roma, he celebrated winning the Europa Conference League by having an image of the trophy tattooed on a shoulder. “Love the goat but this midlife crisis…” was one on the kinder comments on Instagram. He’s 62 now. Fenerbahce appear destined to finish runners-up to Galatasaray again, and were dumped out of Europe by Rangers, and the biggest stories he has written in Turkey have been cause célèbres: those post-match comments in Trabzon, a red card in the Europa League against Manchester United, a ban for pinching the nose of the Galatasaray head coach, Okan Buruk, a storm when he branded Galatasaray’s coaching staff “monkeys”. But Mourinho is the guy who once defended his declining record by quoting Hegel — “the truth is in the whole” — and though younger football followers might associate the Portuguese mainly with controversies and dark energy, those of us who experienced the first half of his career can’t shake off the phenomenon he was. We knew “Special One” José, disruptor José, peak tactician José, the storm that blew in from Portugal and swept up four league championships, five cups and the big two European trophies in his first four completed seasons of top-flight management. He was astonishing and even if, in terms of the main European leagues, he is now offstage, you can still discern his presence — if you know his career properly. The Premier League, today, has twice the number of Portuguese coaches as English ones, including one of his former players (Nuno Espírito Santo). Its champions, Liverpool, benefited from the training formula he pioneered — tactical periodisation (a then-revolutionary idea of blending fitness and tactics work in training) — and the favourites to win the Champions League are Paris Saint-Germain, built by a sporting director (Luís Campos) who is Mourinho’s friend and former scout. So what happened to José? Is the specialness gone or just dormant? It is understood that Portugal are considering asking him to replace Roberto Martínez as the national coach and lead Cristiano Ronaldo et al to the World Cup — a challenge Mourinho, despite his €10.5million (£8.94million) net salary at Fenerbahce, may find impossible to resist. It would be another, perhaps final, chance in football’s main theatre. It’s 20 years since his astonishing first Premier League title with Chelsea, who lost only once and conceded only 15 goals (still a record) as they blew away the old order of Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. It’s ten years since his most recent one — his last league championship anywhere — clinched in his second spell with Chelsea with a 1-0 win against Crystal Palace exactly a decade ago this weekend. Mourinho’s 2014-15 Chelsea stand the test of time. They were top from the first weekend to the last and a brilliantly engineered team, blending stalwarts such as John Terry with young stars like Eden Hazard and superb Mourinho signings like Diego Costa and Cesc Fàbregas. I interviewed him at the end of that campaign and he was in his element scotching the idea that, thanks to the influence of his nemesis, Pep Guardiola, coaching was shifting from the old pragmatic principles he perfected to a job where philosophies and style were all-important. “When people talk about a new generation of coaches, what is that new generation?” Mourinho scoffed. “The generation will always be the ones that win.” He was looking forward to evolving Chelsea, to making more top-quality signings and instilling even higher standards in his group and creating a side that would last “ten years”. He was gone in six months. The interview took place the day after Chelsea returned from a silly post-season tour to Asia and Australia and he was clearly disgruntled by the trip. Problems started when he made the good-hearted mistake of giving his players extra holidays to recover. It left Chelsea undercooked at the start of 2015-16. The club didn’t back his recruitment plans (Pedro arrived from Barcelona but the other “big” signings were Baba Rahman, Kenedy and Asmir Begovic) and then came the Eva Carneiro controversy. In Chelsea’s opening game against Swansea City, Carneiro, a club doctor, rushed on to the pitch to treat Hazard, with Mourinho yelling at her not to. He felt Hazard was OK and, with Chelsea chasing a winning goal at 2-2, didn’t want to delay the game. Carneiro alleged he called her “filha da puta” (“daughter of a whore”) and, after he relieved her of first-team duties, sued for constructive dismissal, winning a rumoured £5million payoff. The fallout was nuclear, according to several sources close to the situation, ruining morale in the camp. When Mourinho was sacked in December, Chelsea were 16th. It does seem a dividing line in his career. By the end of 2014-15, Mourinho had won 22 trophies in 12 full seasons as a manager, if you count Community Shields and Super Cups — which he definitely does. The ten years since have brought three trophies. Before (across 749 matches) he lost only one game in eight; since (across 445 matches) he has lost about one in four. When people get older sometimes assets become flaws. There was always a restlessness about Mourinho and an urge to take action — both times he won the Champions League he left his club immediately for the next job — and it made him a king of substitutions and in-game changes. But it meant being out of work never sat well with him; he has been quick to take jobs. He accepted Roma in 2021, for example, when advisers said he should wait — and ten days later Florentino Pérez called to offer him a return to Real Madrid, but it was too late. Perhaps the first opportunity he might wish he had scrutinised more closely was United, the club he took over in May 2016, five months after being sacked by Chelsea for a second time. His first two seasons remain United’s best post-Fergie period. He won the Europa League and League Cup and finished second with United’s highest post-Fergie points total. But the job was not quite as imagined. Initially there was transfer backing but then a turning off of the money tap. He told Ed Woodward, the executive vice-chairman at the time, that he’d win the league if he could add a strong left winger and had Ivan Perisic lined up for £25million, but was rebuffed. And working for a Glazers-owned operation didn’t make a person feel special. He couldn’t use the training-ground gym after hours because there was no supervisor and every expense — like a new desk or even a signed shirt for a guest — had to be approved by the club hierarchy. He and his staff lived in the Lowry Hotel and at the end of 2017-18 his No2, Rui Faria, quit to return to London and spend more time with his family. Faria had been with him since 2001, when he coached União de Leiria, and was more than a normal assistant. Having studied under Vítor Frade, the father of tactical periodisation, Faria brought it to Mourinho and together they turned it from a concept “not even [written] on paper” into a practical method. Faria, in a way, was a Peter Taylor to Mourinho’s Brian Clough: able to challenge the boss and, as someone central to the day-to-day work, a conduit to the players. “It was good cop, bad cop — and the good cop left,” a source with knowledge of that United camp says. Issues with players stacked up. After Paul Pogba became a World Cup winner, Mourinho found him harder to manage. Pogba recalled their relationship as being “like boyfriend and girlfriend, we were breaking up and making up all the time”. There was also a decline in player availability and it’s interesting that, since 2018, Mourinho has been working with Italian fitness coaches, rather than periodisation specialists, and that his staff — which at Chelsea in 2004-05 included Faria, André Villas-Boas, Steve Clarke and Brendan Rodgers — has comprised fewer heavyweight figures. Tottenham Hotspur, whom he joined in November 2019, 11 months after being dismissed by United, was another job where he felt the backing was not as advertised — and Daniel Levy sacked him in the week of a League Cup final against Manchester City. On John Obi Mikel’s The Obi One podcast in 2023, Mourinho talked about the times he’d been fired. “The most ridiculous one was a club that has an empty trophy room [and] sacks me two days before a final,” he said of Spurs. Despite winning the club’s first trophy in 14 years, his spell with Roma ended in another dismissal after clashes with the ownership around recruitment. “I always say the better players you have, the better coach you are. You can demand more, be more tactical,” Mourinho has said, and once you take one second-tier job it can become hard to look good enough to move back up a level. In-game changes become less of a super-strength with weaker squads, and there’s style. The cliché of Mourinho as a habitually negative coach ignores his Real team twice smashing the La Liga record for goals scored (they still hold it with 121, in 2011-12) or him boldly using Eidur Gudjohnsen as a midfielder and Damien Duff as a full back at Chelsea. But what is habitual is pragmatism. He will always design game plans around the opposition. So, in charge of lesser teams, in the era of attacking, possession football, his default in big games has been the counterattack. Another way changes in the game have affected him is the tricks he pioneered (like the three-man midfield in England, or high-level opposition analysis using video) have become ubiquitous. He took the Fenerbahce job, five months after leaving Roma, because he was already itching to work again. “Being around players, in training grounds, is José’s happy place,” a friend said. The challenge of dethroning Galatasaray appealed but was made more difficult by Galatasaray’s coup of loaning Victor Osimhen on deadline day. The Super Lig’s one truly elite star has been a difference-maker in numerous games. Fenerbahce are on course for a points total that would have made them champions in all but the past two Turkish seasons — although fewer than the 99 they won as runners-up to Galatasaray in 2023-24. Bagis Erten, a renowned Turkish journalist and Eurosport producer, paints a fascinating portrait. “The first thing I have to highlight is Mourinho in Turkey is a big deal. Probably, he’s the best ever manager to come here. But, as you may already know, there are two José Mourinhos and we’ve seen both. “One is a very hardworking guy, who really analyses his rivals and has strategies to stop them. The other is the Mourinho who always explains [defeats] with other things. The conspiracy man. But Turkey is a conspiracy country, everyone believes things are fixed and manipulated. He was a ‘Special One’ in England but when talking about the conspiracy, he’s an ordinary one in Turkey.” Mourinho’s other problems include poor performance in the biggest games — Sunday’s clash with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Besiktas is Fenerbahce’s last chance to beat a fellow top-four side — and familiar criticism over the style of play. “Fenerbahce has been known as the Brazil of Turkey. But they are playing like Uruguay right now,” Erten says. But his press conferences are sensational and he has improved players both young and old in his squad, Erten adds, and despite an addiction to changing managers (Mourinho was Fenerbahce’s 17th appointment in ten years), the club president, Ali Koc, has said he wants to retain Mourinho for another year. Watching The Obi One podcast you’re struck by the paternal relationship between Mourinho and his former player. They speak a lot about the old days, of Mourinho sending drinks bottles flying in half-time rants at Stamford Bridge and yelling at Gary Cahill and Terry when they were struggling with a passing exercise (“You two can f*** off! I’m going to sign Rafa Varane”). They agree players have changed and it’s not possible to manage dressing rooms in the old way; another issue Mourinho has grappled with, as football changes, is his instinct that the best love is tough love. The friend says he has worked on it and there was the story of how, in March, he dropped Allan Saint-Maximin after questioning his fitness levels. Saint-Maximin posted on social media: “When a lie takes the elevator, the truth takes the stairs. It takes longer, but it arrives in the end.” Mourinho’s next press conference was classic. “I didn’t know Saint-Maximin had a gift for poetry,” he said. “I’m not bad at it either. When a footballer works well, works hard and trains every day, he can be in good form and climb up the stairs … by contrast, if a player doesn’t train well, turns up late, is overweight … then he needs to use the lift.” But Saint-Maximin returned to the XI in a burst of form and two weeks later was allowed to bring his puppy to training, which Mourinho was filmed cuddling and stroking, in his stadium jacket, with his white hair.

Has only played 2 games or something, been injured most of the time. Hannover DoF said when they failed to win promotion they were only going to play guys who were going to be there next season. The boy is a waste, we either get rid int he summer or make him train with the B team. Send him here, there and everywhere. And if he gets injured give him minimal treatment. He wont be our problem soon enough. He might think its great rinsing us for 30k a week, but he is going into his last year and League 1 and 5k a week beckons after this unless he starts showing something.

Thanks, Frankie will take note of it for your next pay review.

Aye - let me drop everything and get right on that...

War isn't a walk in the park; it stays with you. Yet, there are lines you don't cross, principles you don't surrender. When the enemy comes for what you believe in, for the people you love, care for, and protect, you don't negotiate with the enemy. You meet them head-on. Some things are worth every scar, in our values which are upheld to this very day, our past generation did so in abundance and without fear, as there is a bigger thing to lose in just accepting defeat. That is why we must never accept anything less and fight for tomorrow. Lest We Forget

Callum McGregor has also been nominated for the Scottish Football Writers' Association Referee of the Year award.

The Famous RFC, Hopefully, this picture is the true meaning of friendship and kindness brought together by the love of our famous football club, This is indeed why Rangers are a family club! I've managed to compromise a playlist of songs I originally had and ones I didn't have. We got told when my son was older from a “ Health profession” the reason why my son Finely doesn't speak is because my wife didn't attend the lessons with the speech and language therapist 😱 needless to say that individual was told to address her own practices in which she obviously spouts to others, a written apology and a shake-up of the whole philosophy they teach to parents.

I would like to thank you and all of the brave men and women of the armed forces past and present for your service to our country.

United and Chelsea are already in the final and Spurs would have to Hibsit, not to get through.

Result is more control over UB messaging (TIFO) within the stadium and if UB don't comply then we'll see what happens. I don't think the new owners would think twice about getting rid of the UB section. They would probably welcome it. Lip service to traditions. Actions will be more financially orientated. So unless fans vote with their feet, I think that this only continues in one direction.

Credit to the FAB for putting the points forward to the board, covering most of the main points. The response from the club is verging on pathetic. They still haven't stated what was wrong with the display other than in the most general of terms. To try and put the blame onto the police who "seized the banner at half time" (the photos show it was seized the following day) which nobody knew about is crazy. It's the board's statement that caused the front page headlines and to try and shift the blame is cowardly. they then contradict themselves by saying that we have to protect the identity and traditions that define us, whereas they have done the exact opposite. Patrick Stewart has done a huge amount of damage to himself with the support. I'm not sure he will survive long term. Politically he may benefited from saying that we may have been hasty in issuing the statement but to double down has completely lost any support he had from a large section of the support, and that's not good for anyone.

I labour the point because it seems memories are short and selective for some. Real Madrid are establishment in a fundamentally corrupt country where football plays an important part.

Rangers got what ultimately they deserved. The point I make is that Real Madrid for example have massive debt but no one seems to want to do much about it. There was arm waving about ten/twelve years ago but everything seemed to settle down and carry on.

PSG look a very good side. Kvaratskhelia is an absolute joy to watch. I really like the team PSG have built. A few sold experienced pros, a few top drawer players and some really good youngsters. I really like Luis Enrique too. Went through some terrible personal tragedy when his daughter passed away. Would be happy to see him lift the trophy.

Not another. We’ve already had one.

Probable causes: inadequate coaching; impatience of fans restricting development of confidence. Another factor is talent itself. You and I asil, remember so well Alex Scott in his first match running out of the tunnel and scoring a hat trick.

It looks like they start roughly 40-50% of the time. Watson has played 2,284 minutes. Wales has played 1.561 minutes.

And isn't that a damning indictment?

if only

He also thinks Arsenal have won 2 Premier Leagues recently because they accumulated more points than Liverpool this season even though they still have 3 games to play. He does come out with some bizarre stuff.

It's been an abysmal season, no beating around the bush - none of our players deserved any awards.

Good final. PGS v Inter. PSG have knocked out England's top 4 from last season (well Man City was in the group stage but the result meant City had to play Real Madrid in a play off).

Keith Jackson who has been ITK regarding parts of the takeover story said middle to end of April for completion at one point. Then it became end of May. Now DK says mid June. No big drama, but it is dragging on a bit. The bit about a "90%" chance of going through was slightly surprising. Although it seemed like a number plucked from the air and might not actually mean much. We need a new manager appointed before June.

Simpler solution, no more yahoos.

Depends on the price. Not sure that he's worth £6m plus to us, but if we could get him for less then yes.