Leaderboard

Rangers should actually go out their way to invite the non-Scottish BBC to Ibrox. It will highlight the fact we’ve not actually banned them and will also highlight the absolute ridiculousness of the Pacific Quay CSC.

Bent's out of shape.

That's his anti-Rangers stance being rewarded. The man who claims "hun" isn't sectarian is obviously the perfect candidate as far as the SNP (who haven't an anti-Rangers agenda, honest guv) are concerned. The usual apologists on here will be delighted.

Probably comparing hubcap collections. ?

Do other supports want to bring back ex players like we do? It's a bizarre phenomenon.

Preview is ready to go. Let me know when you want it up. Also can the line-up be done with the graphic after the preview is the posted?

The Scottish government have formed a cross-party group to tackle sectarianism. Can anyone guess who the convener is? Clue: Surname sounds like "doorman". Dear oh dear.

Promising signs, but we've been here before with Rossiter in particular. We can see the boy has ability, I just hope his biscuit bones firm up a bit.

Three more sleeps!

Could this be Rossiter's time at last. There's a great player there if we could just keep him on the park.

Since that fateful day back in 2012 we have signed our fair share of wallopers.

Downloaded, will listen on way home from work. Hoping it is as good a listen as the previous pods.

Bump for this excellent discussion. Well worth an hour of everyone's time!

Good pod guys. Enjoyable listen. I think you set at it at a very respectful level in the face of some pretty antagonist and consistently poor quality coverage over recent years. I think the conspiracy / mischief making distinction is semantics. I don't think its wrong to state that mclaughlin (and his team) are happy to polish celtic and throw mud at us as often as possible. Whilst as a problem I agree that its very localised to within one area within one dept. Over the years this "mischief making" has also at times permeated into different areas at different times. Kaye Adams and John Beattie have seen some of their shows clearly driven from a certain angle and with no intention of balance or even serious debate. Prehaps its as simple as tims will take an opportunity to attack when it arises and the BBC presents these opportunities at regular and higher profile levels.

Of course, no one has asked why the SFA needed a gift of £2.5m. But hey that doesn't come into journalistic rigour these days at BBC PQ. The Daily Mail ran a story with Haughey confirming that Tom Hunter is part of the deal. Ian Maxwell is asked by other journos if any other benefactor is involved, his answer: "no". Hmmm... You are spot on with McLaughlin et al Rick. Subliminal and supraliminal visual stimuli. All part of action priming by our national broadcasting service.

This really is worth everyone's time this week. @Govan Rear Bear, @A McKillop and @JohnMc do a great job of dissecting the dispute with the BBC as well as answering some of the questions posted on the forum the other day. As always @Big Jaws does a great job of the audio - even with John apparently utilising a tambourine during his contributions?

Sorted ??

Naismith looked good last night, against a team of similar quality to Airdrie.

Why do I have the feeling if we had signed Naismith instead you'd still have this thread in reverse?

We've put up with some heinous things over the years so why don't we just put up with one more heinous thing?! I think I'd rather be forced to listen to a boorish 3 hour lecture about how great the English Premier League is.

We've seen and heard a lot since Steven Gerrard became the Rangers manager pretty much exactly three months ago. As much as the sheer profile of Gerrard the player excited even the most negative of Rangers fans, there were understandable doubts and scepticism. This was a untried manager with only 18 months as a youth coach on his CV. Sure, Gerrard had incredible success as a player but there were (still are?) no guarantees about his managerial prospects. Rangers, running off the back of financial and legal issues for the best part of ten years, and challenging the modern 'invincibles' of Celtic - seven league titles in a row, including an unbeaten sixth title and a double treble - was surely no place for a young manager making his way in the game to learn his trade. After all, this challenge almost broke Graeme Murty, another young man with only a background in youth coaching. Yes, their playing careers were very different but the risk for the Rangers board and their Director of Football Mark Allen, was surely needless? Many neutrals said as much and, if we're honest, really honest with ourselves, we all had the same concerns. Very quickly though, this just seemed different. Gerrard's unveiling in May was the first chance we got to hear the man explain his reasons for taking the job and right away the Rangers supporters took confidence from the way he dealt with the media. This wasn't a man to shirk a challenge. This was an icon, a British footballing legend, who understood the scale of the job and appreciated how difficult it was going to be. 'Let's Go' was an unplanned soundbite but it fit the background well, kept things very simple and inspired fans. Since then progress has been swift. Dozens of transfers in and out of the club. Training camps in Spain with double and triple sessions to improve fitness, tactical awareness and build relationships. Twelve competitive games (nine in August alone) - six wins, six draws and, impressively, zero defeats. In fact, take away some questionable refereeing at home and abroad (and some questionable discipline from one or two players) then that record could and should have been better. Indeed, only two injury time goals away at Aberdeen and Motherwell have stopped Rangers from having the perfect league record to compliment their qualification for the Europa League Group Stage. It's literally been a case of blink and you'll miss it when watching Rangers so far this season. At the time of writing on Friday evening, Gerrard has signed 14 players and moved on 16 first team players. The turnover has been astonishing and, so far, the results impressive with a new defence the pick of the new manager's work. Rangers supporters are delighted and despite some understandable imperfections as Gerrard builds a new squad and system, confidence is building like no other period in the last six or seven years. However, with a two week international break on the immediate horizon, I think fans are looking to take a breath. And the players, especially our central defenders and main striker, certainly deserve the rest. Last weekend at Fir Park, the second half in a quite incredible game took a lot out the team and having to play 30mins with nine men nine hours away in Ufa on Thursday is again asking an immense amount out of this new squad. Yet, we have one more hurdle still to face. One more jump to make. Another tough test to pass - the toughest yet. On Sunday, the team will make the short journey across the Clyde to Parkhead to face our greatest rivals in what is still one of football's greatest games. However, the atmosphere will be markedly different from recent years. First of all, relations between the clubs are as bad as they've ever been so there will be very few bears present - only 800 in fact, most in restricted viewing positions well out of sight of the Sky TV cameras. Secondly, Celtic seem to be suffering themselves with dressing room problems: key players falling out with managers and one goal-scoring talisman being sold. The dynamic seems to be one of promises not being fulfilled, broken trust, suspicious fans and banner protests. Finally, and most importantly, we have a team that can compete. Not just physically but, as we've seen several times this season already, mentally too. Self-belief is a vital component of any successful team - Celtic show that continually against us whilst we've faltered time and time again since our return to the top flight. Make no mistake, our form has shown we can get a result on Sunday. Even so, one of our bigger failings in our various Old Firm humblings of the last two years has been our predictability. A blind man could usually pick our team, guess our system and know where to hurt us. We only needed to concede a goal to fall apart and rarely looked like scoring ourselves. For the most part, we were beaten before the whistle was even blown. This weekend that need not be the case. Sure, Gerrard has preferred a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 most often this season but last week deployed a 3-5-2 that, despite three defensive mistakes not immediately linked to the formation, worked not too badly (in the first half at least). It (or perhaps a 3-4-3) will be used again during this campaign with the loan capture of Joe Worrall from Nottingham Forest increasing our defensive options as well. Moreover, Gerrard hasn't been afraid to rotate his team - in particular his midfield five - so there's no obvious starting XI for Sunday (though I do try to predict this below)! The biggest issue for the Rangers manager will be that of the schedule discussed above. Despite obvious improvements in fitness, players will be tired (at least later in the game) and player indiscipline/officials incompetence won't have helped on Thursday evening. A nine hour overnight flight, just two full days of recovery and only light training drills isn't ideal preparation for any game, never mind away to Celtic, but they played on Thursday too and may not have their usual spring in their step - even if they could afford the luxury of resting key players. Fortunately, we can make changes too. Depending on the system used we can bring in a few players and, ironically, Morelos' daft red card afforded him an extra hour's rest on Thursday. Although I wouldn't rule out a back three, I do expect us to play a four on Sunday as it would be a big risk to bring in Worrall for his debut. McGregor will of course start in goal and Borna Barisic likely the only change to our usual defensive line up. Worrall, Jon Flanagan and erstwhile captain Lee Wallace do offer other options though. In midfield, Lassana Coulibaly has returned to training but may have to settle for a place on the bench though his return might well have been kept as a nice surprise for this game. The likes of Jack, Ejaria, Arfield and Halliday have done lots of good work of late and a combination of those four will surely start. Ross McCrorie may be a wild card should the manager wish for fresh legs and mobility in the engine room. That leaves us three players in attacking roles. Daniel Candeias has never really got going this season but might be preferred to aid James Tavernier on the right side and press high centrally. Ryan Kent has done well on the other flank but with Morelos apparently forgiven for his Ufa immaturity and likely to start, I do wonder if Kyle Lafferty will play on the left. Albanian winger Eros Grezda will hopefully turn out to be a big player for Rangers this season but I don't think we'll see him until after the international break. Glenn Middleton is another option and I do wonder if his pace and direct play could add some doubt to any Celtic defenders? Ultimately, this game will arguably come too early for a few players so I think the manager will opt for familiarity at the expense of freshness. In that respect, we're asking a lot of the potential line-up below but the belief obtained from Thursday's draw and the adrenaline from an Old Firm clash should at least see us through the bulk of the game. After that we're reliant on making the right subs at the right time to deliver the kind of positive result we've lacked against Celtic of late. Another top class defensive display will be needed and our attackers, particularly Alfredo Morelos, must make the most of any chances that come their way. In conclusion, coming away from the East End of Glasgow unbeaten on Sunday would cap off a fantastic first three months in charge for Steven Gerrard. However, god forbid if his team were to return to Ibrox empty-handed, it wouldn't be the end of the world either - not when the full context is applied - so in essence we have nothing to lose with the vast majority of another long season still to be played out. No matter the outcome, the league won't be won nor lost in early September but we do have a chance to lay down an early marker and show we are indeed the real deal. For the first time in a fairly long time ahead of going to Parkhead, I cannot wait... Possible team (4-3-3):

That is an absolutely fantastic preview Frankie. Don't think I can disagree with a single word you wrote. Regarding SG as manager, it may well turn out that he disproves the old perception that great players don't usually make great managers (think Bobby Charlton, Roy Keane, and many more..). I've been watching the progress of Frank Lampard - similar age, status and expectation - and he seems to have had mixed start. I feel the same as I did when Souness came in 1986.