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PSV or Galatasaray for Midtjylland.

I'm assuming the club will be trying to get something arranged to replace the Blackpool fixture (closed doors). We definitely need a few more games before the 31st.

I get the sense that Hagi has more potential to unlock, whereas Kamara has, not so much peaked, but his game is developed; he plays to his strengths, but I don't see masses of potential to unlock. If that makes sense... ?

Wednesday night's pre-season friendly at Bloomfield Road has been canceled. Blackpool FC have suffered a Covid outbreak in their camp over the weekend. I feel for the 4,500 Rangers supporters that had secured tickets and booked accommodation, but it's the correct decision.

From a 5 minute look at Malmo, they don't seem very strong at all. In the transfer market they wheel and deal, they obviously don't have much money. They are top of their league but they concede a lot of goals for a team top of the league. Bizarrely, they are 11th out of 16 in their league for goals conceded. And only scraped past Riga in the previous qualifier, 2-1 on aggregate. Despite that, they are well into their season so it's a potential banana skin for us.

UEFA are making an absolute mess of European competition. Even though Celtic should be "fucked" they still make group stages of the Conference no matter their result - same with us I guess. But if you lose in your first game you should be papped out. UEFA has basically taken European football from being highly competitive when it was the European Cup to being little more than participation awards. Shambles

I think the biggest question for us over the next 6 weeks is who we have to sell. If the Veerman rumours are true, that would suggest we are selling Kamara. I dread the thought of selling Kamara, but Veerman looks outstanding. If we can retain our main men though it’s all about staying focused, avoiding complacency and getting fit fast because we have recruited smartly so far and already have a strong squad.

I don't worry about the opposition so much as our ability to crank up our form and motivation on the heels of last season's achievements. I'm hoping some new faces will help to revive the hunger. What I've seen so far in pre-season games has been disappointingly slack and lacklustre. You can see why Gerrard has been reading the riot act.

They'll be fearing us nowadays more than the other way around

The season must be fast approaching: @DMAA has come out of his burrow.

i suspect the club were worried about the optics around this one.

21 days i believe.

Andy Carroll has left Newcastle United, and is a free agent. (Light blue touchpaper, and retire to a safe distance.)

Malmo were shite at Ibrox. we were worse.

Yeah, but last time we played them at home we lost 1-0.... battered them at Ibrox that night.

These things aren’t really in our hands. If Kamara was the one we had bids coming in for then he would be the one to go because we aren’t going to deny people the chance to triple their wages and play in a big league, it’s purely a matter of making sure the fee is acceptable to us and then finding a replacement.

A pity. I think that the lads may hit Blackpool, anyway. Lock up your daughters, Lancastrians.

It won't be easy but we have to be considered strong favourites. No Roofe, Balogun or Kamara is far from ideal though but Morelos should be back by then and Lundstrum also well integrated.

Sorry ,we're away first.

Chance of redemption for 2011

I’ll settle for that draw. A much better draw than Ferencvaros I think.

Rangers V Malmö (SWE) / HJK Helsinki (FIN)

Anyone know how Jacko’s recovery is going?

It’s been a strange preseason so far due to so many first-teamers missing games. Assuming they are fit, hopefully Kent, Morelos, Barisic and Helander will play in the next game.

I dont think there's any easy teams these days

That would definitely be the best draw. Malmo/HJK should be fine too with Ferencvaros/Zalgiris the trickiest out of the three but we'd also be strong favourites.

CL 3rd round draw tomorrow... These are our possible opponents: Malmo/HJK Helsinki Alashkert/Sheriff Ferencvaros/Zalgiris

Fuxake, Josh Windass played without a heart!!

I thought I'd make this a pre-season megathread, for all things pre-season. I'm expecting more from Itten this year. He made cameos last season, but nothing consistent, so I'd like to see him take a step up and push for a starting spot. I'm worried about Patterson. He's more than good enough to play. But, he has Tavernier ahead of him... I'm concerned he's not going to get the games he needs to help him progress. I do hope a youngster can make an impact pre-season. We're still short in midfield, so I'd like to see some signings in that area. In that vein, I'm curious to see how Nnamdi Ofoborh gets on (No-- I didn't look up the spelling... ?).