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  1. About to go on my works Xmas day out then am on a family holiday for a week so wanted to take some time now to thank everyone for their participation on the forum again this year. Supporting Rangers still feels like a fool's errand at times but the last month has shown football remains a funny old game and, as we approach Christmas Day, it's fantastic to see us winning the League Cup, being Scotland's sole representative in Europe post-group stage and, whisper it, challenging again for the title. Yes, we're struggling with injuries and genuine quality during some games but there's no doubt Philippe Clement has restored some belief to our players and fans since his arrival. To that end, I hope everyone has a safe, happy festive period and is able to enjoy a few more Rangers victories as well as, more importantly, valuable time with your friends and family. I certainly hope Santa brings us three more wins before 2023 is out and let's hope 2024 is a prosperous one for all Rangers fans and our club.
    17 points
  2. As Rangers supporters we have been subject to a few Peter Decisions this season already. The lines are drawn depending upon the colour of the jersey here in Scotland. It is the path of least resistance to deliberately err on the side of ra Sellik. During Brendan's first spell at ra Stade de Gadd, Referee Don Robertson awarded Ross County a last minute penalty to secure a 1-1 draw, Brendan used the post match interview, "the Ref' will not have a future in the game if he continues to make similar decisions". The last old firm match saw the fruition of Don. Sellik have worked hard at it for decades. Sir Robert Kelly's history of Sellik published in the early fifties has an opening chapter entitled, 'the first disallowed goal'. Sir Bob relates a tale of injustice from a home game against Hearts in 1908. Private Detctives have been hired by the club to follow officials and, when this fail fails, they can rely on an ardent fan, Kevin Dunn from the green leather heated comfy seats to throw a bottle at the Dllas family home. However, Kevin was not finished, he was so upset at his beloved green'n'grey hooped heroes losing the game 0-3 and league to Rangers, he grabbed a golf club and proceeded to smash 13 of the 14 double glazed windows of the house with entire Dallas family inside. We experienced a Referee strike a dozen years past because of increasing levels of Sellik encouraged intimidation. The above Kevin Dunn was convicted in court, was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay cost of damages amounting to £4,000. Kevin owned a double glazing company and after his court appearance he was applauded and cheered back to his North Stand seat. Cheerleading is not restricted to the stands, both the broadcast and print media can be relied upon to emphasise or ameliorate. Last evening in Rotterdam, Sellik lost 2-0 and finished the game with nine men after two red cards. Peter has now taken over an important job in UEFA and the work to rid the organisation of officials with Masonic tendencies will have already begun.Ra Sellik Skipper, Calum McGregor was at his enlightening best in the post match interview, "in UEFA competitions the leniency isn't very high". Calum knows the foul to cards ratio in Scotland is hugely in his club's favour, he is exasperated that continental officials are not yet on message. Michael Stewart is a former employee of Sellik TV and he knows what he has to do to ensure the continuance of his associate membership of PQ CSC, "what is VAR for"? The Rangers hater went further, "what is the point in VAR if it does not recognise wrong decisions"? Michael was adamant the penalty decision was wrong and Lagerbielke should have remained on the pitch. He is alone in this opinion for the moment. Michael is confused because when Lagerbielke dallied on the ball and was robbed for Roofe to score, it was disallowed as he glibly stated, "it is in the rules". Michael prefers Peter's rules to UEFA rules. In 37 Champions League games Sellik have managed one clean sheet, conceding 89 goals. However, what we must remember as they carry the Scottish standard in Europe, they hit the post against Real Madrid. We are five years away from that incident constituting a goal furra Sellik under the ensuing UEFA directive, 'Peter Decision'.
    14 points
  3. Well, mebbes aye, mebbes naw... I am told, from close, and closed, sources that there will be two 'marquee' loan signings (there is a first time for everything, clearly): Fred from Man Utd, and Said Benrahma from West Ham. These deals will enable Michael Beale to field: Wright Said Fred next season.
    14 points
  4. Feeling rather refreshed and most joyful. Can I extend festive felicitations to my fellow Gersnetters. Rangers won the Cup.
    13 points
  5. It has been an frustrating six months for Rangers fans. At the start of June, a poor season 2022/23 had just ended. With Gio sacked this time last year and, despite some decent performances under his replacement Michael Beale, no trophies were won and another league title was lost to Celtic. Nevertheless, there was still some optimism at that point. Dead rubber or not, a comfortable 3-0 win at Ibrox in the final Old Firm match of the campaign offered some confidence that Beale had got to grips with these games with no previous derby wins prior to that. Further, his new diamond formation looked the part, being defensively sound but with an improved threat in attack. Could the summer transfer window allow him to bring in better players and enhance the options available to him? Fast forward to the start of pre-season and the squad was much changed in good time for 2023/24. Previous key, but also undeniably under-performing, players in Morelos, Kent and Kamara were (or were about to be) moved on. Meanwhile, a variety of others were brought in and, on the face of it, the acquisitions looked suitable: Butland, Lammers, Dowell, Sima and Sterling arrived quickly and, by the time the season kicked off in August, Dessers Danilo, Cifuentes had also been added. The best part of £15m had been spent and, despite some reservations about a lack of wide options, most fans were happy with the majority of our business. Unfortunately, things quickly went wrong for Beale. An opening day league defeat to Kilmarnock showed a new team struggling to gel and despite a reasonable rest of the month, it culminated with a 5-1 humbling to PSV knocking us out the Champions League before what many fans felt was an unacceptable loss at home to Celtic in our first match of September. Already we were falling behind in the league and performances were hardly attractive. Another partial recovery followed with home wins against Real Betis, Motherwell and Livingston in three different competitions but a dreadful defeat to Aberdeen at Ibrox resulted in the departure of Beale less than a year after his appointment. The Rangers board moved quickly to replace him after the caretaker coaching team led us to an unexpected Europa League loss in Cyprus. Belgian Philippe Clement came in and both results and performances immediately improved. Although supporters still had their doubts about various players – old and new alike – six wins in an undefeated spell before the November international break showed an obvious improvement. The new manager quickly identified our lack of width as an issue and also offered a slightly more conservative look to the team: not defensive per se but the full backs weren’t as high and we were prepared to go more direct when required. The feel-good factor was back amongst the support as Scotland also secured qualification to Euro 2024 with no club football. The next challenge for the new manager was a clear one. Post international break we had 12 games in just over a month to navigate. These included tricky trips to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Parkhead but also the opportunity to win the League Cup in mid-December and close the gap to a Celtic team that were just starting to look somewhat unconvincing themselves. For his part, Clement was confident: players were arriving back from injury and he had the best part of a fortnight on the training ground to implement more of his own ideas since taking the job. There was also talk of a new Sporting Director to finally replace Ross Wilson who’d left earlier in the year. At the time of writing though, our start to this vital block of games couldn’t have gone much worse with just two draws against Aberdeen and Aris Limassol respectively and both from going behind to extremely cheap goals. Now, at this point we could talk about the positives in that we fought back to avoid defeat. That’s fair enough and I do believe most of the players worked hard enough in these games to deserve not dropping points. However, the obvious issues in both games can’t be ignored. And, first and foremost, the manager has to take his fair share of the blame. For the Aberdeen game the team selection was largely fine and I don’t think may fans took issue with the starting line-up. Injuries to Raskin and Jack meant a start for Cifuentes whilst getting both Lawrence and Cantwell into the same team could surely only increase our creative and goal threat? Furthermore, Clement spoke pre-match about the threat Aberdeen carried on the counter and from set-pieces; surely that message was a clear one to the players. Not so it seemed as Aberdeen took an early lead from a the simplest of moves; just a few minutes after a similar attack had given us a clear warning. After that, to their credit, the team did recover to a degree. We dominated possession and should have equalised well before a late penalty secured a point. Indeed, we should have won the game as Sam Lammers headed straight at the Dons keeper in injury time. Two dropped points it was though and, after Celtic had only drawn at home the previous day, that really was difficult to swallow for Rangers fans. Doubts were forming again about the mental capacity of this Rangers side. Onto Thursday night and the team had an immediate opportunity to restore credibility. On paper we had our easiest game in our Europa League group: even if Aris Limassol had beaten us in October, Beale had just left, the team was in disarray and surely lightening wouldn’t strike twice? Importantly, this time we knew more about their twin threat of pace on the transition and the ability to be clinical with chances created. They were also less than impressive in a defensive sense and could be exploited from wider areas. Despite necessary changes in central defence, surely this time we’d guard against the quick counter and avoid conceding the kind of avoidable goals we seen in Cyprus? Yet again we were let down. Todd Cantwell, ignoring instruction from the manager, skipped inside and lost the ball cheaply. One long ball later our sleeping defenders were exposed once more and behind we went. Cantwell was taken off soon after and the jeers were loud as the half-time whistle went. Fortunately, unlike Pittodrie, we equalised effectively from kick off for the second period but huffed and puffed after that. In fact, for the rest of the game our failings couldn’t be more obvious. From being unable to do the most basic of stuff: players couldn’t control the ball, simple short passes went uncompleted, decision-making was inexplicable and various players abdicated their responsibilities time after time amidst a general unacceptable lack of quality and belief. Even our substitutes couldn’t provide improvement and we timidly surrendered the opportunity to qualify for the next stage of that competition. Post-match things didn’t improve. The manager admitted taking off Cantwell (one of last season’s few shining lights) was a tactical issue and not down to injury (see the continued huge strapping the player wears during training and games). Clement discussed how he felt the player wasn’t following instruction: fair enough, Cantwell was playing badly and culpable at the opening goal. In that case, why play him there in the first place and why were other under-performing players excused? The Belgian then went on to discuss being happy about qualifying for the Conference League. Again, on its own, securing European football after Christmas is usually a positive but, in the context of last night, it felt ill-considered and glib. All things considered it has been a bad week so far for Philippe Clement but not a period he can’t recover from. However, he has to demonstrate he has learned from a difficult five days. For example, he has previously spoken about taking the fans with him during games and he was absolutely right to say so. A packed Ibrox isn’t an easy place for any team to visit and a loud, clear backing from the stands does provide a tangible benefit to our play. That was missing last night and, as much as the players must take ownership for their own bad performances, so too must the manager. Selecting Sam Lammers instead of Ross MacAusaland, Tom Lawrence or even Rabbi Matondo was a strange choice when the Dutchman has perhaps been the best (worst?) example of what transpired to be a poor summer transfer window. To then persevere with him whilst scapegoating Cantwell to a small degree confused almost every Rangers fan last night. The former Norwich man has undoubtedly struggled this season and was again poor last night – as well as selfish – but I’m still puzzled as to why he was taken off whilst the likes of Lammers and Cifuentes made it into the second half. The latter’s selection was perhaps forced but, not for the first time, his lazy style and lack of any key input to games shows a player disinterested in improvement or adapting to his new club. Worse than that though we have other existing players struggling with their contribution. Ben Davies was again poor at centre-half, James Tavernier had an awful game at right back whilst Tom Lawrence still looks less than fully fit and sharp after 15months out. Elsewhere in the side, new father Abdallah Sima has gone off the boil again on the left wing, Danilo struggles to influence games in attack and we still have a variety of players failing to contribute. Be it via injury (Roofe, Jack and Dowell are constantly injured) or just not being involved often enough (Yilmaz, King and Sterling were supposed to be the future), we have a large squad of 28 players with very few actually performing to acceptable levels. The manager simply must change that and I think the last few days has shown again change is necessary on the park. To that end, Philippe Clement will know all this. He will also know there’s not much he can do until first January’s window but more probably until the summer. He will also be aware that without moving on players his budget may not be to the level required to facilitate the kind of wholesale improvement we need. However, that need not mean he can’t continue to deliver improvement. After all, not all has been lost in the last two games. We’re still well in the title race and more than capable of getting a positive result in Seville. We can also win our first trophy of the campaign in a fortnight’s time at Hampden so there’s much to look forward to and I think that can be lost after bad results. Even so, it can be argued we are back to square one with much of the goodwill the new manager has built up lost this week. To hear the team booed off last night was really disappointing but this was an understandable manifestation of our frustration with a poor start to a vital winter period. I’d like to think the manager will have noted that supporter reaction and be discussing it with his players as you read this. Sunday afternoon is an immediate opportunity to right a few wrongs and it will be fascinating to see how Clement reacts. I doubt we’ll see wholesale changes to the starting XI but will he recognise and fix the kind of flaws that seen Gio and Beale flounder in an increasingly negative tactical mindset or will he relish solving the same problems that affect this team over two years since we last won the title? The pressure is already on…
    13 points
  6. You also said: and so I'm hoping your prediction levels are as off as usual.
    13 points
  7. Full article here: “Chaos is where we are when we don’t know where we are, and what we are doing when we don’t know what we are doing.” – Jordan B. Peterson It’s fair to say that trailing by two goals and down to ten men against Aberdeen at Ibrox in late September 2023 was chaos. And that the performance out at Limassol the following week was chaos. There were large spells during those games when we didn’t know where we were or what we were doing. There had been a perceptible instability at the club for the past two years (even longer to be honest). There were undeniable regular flashes of brilliance in Europe but domestically something was missing when it really mattered. Even when Gerrard’s tenure was at its peak, we never quite managed that holistic balance across all departments at club. We would occasionally hit periods where things appeared fine, or where excuses could explain away unwanted results, but we never really got to a place of stable competence and performance in all areas. For sure, 55 hit euphoric consistency in the league, but the cup exits showed a weak underbelly, an issue with mentality somewhere within the dressing room, added to a notable drop off in quality across the squad, a faltering transfer strategy, and where questionable decisions off the park still haunted us. I had been surprised at the time with how quickly things got away from Gio and his team. How conditioning and fitness and then confidence had deserted a squad that was in the Europa League final just months before. Signs of mismanagement were showing with many senior players contracts running down and Morelos allowed to literally roll off the rails. Fans were right to question why so many of the starting eleven were the same faces that had been there 4 or 5 years earlier. That is no slight on those players, many of whom gave their best, but it pointed to an underlying dysfunction within the club. When Beale came in, I believed he could be the right guy. He knew the club, he knew the players, you’d assume he had observed and learned under his three seasons with Gerrard and would take that experience and build forward. He was given time based largely on how bad it had been under Gio, with the Champions League reacquaintance being particularly humiliating. Beale played on this and very much told the support what we wanted to hear. I admit to tuning out slightly, trusting we were in safe hands – besides things had got so bad that they could only get better, right? The manager shifting focus from drab performances to under-performing players like Kent or Morelos may have been populist but it was not good management. Any manager reacting to the whims of the fanbase and not to his own plan or principles will only last so long. By the end of last season, we had floated into a sub-optimal limbo between Celtic and the rest, where Beale would generally get expected results and invariably lose the games that mattered. Alongside settling for second best and watching another treble for that lot, other things jarred at the club. The squad wasn’t improving, and worse than that our assets were devaluing faster than crypto. Intolerably, the football was terrible - functional football is excused by silverware and that felt a long way off. And so, the chaos and pain of September mercifully saw the end of Beale’s reign. The board has got a lot wrong in recent years but pulling the plug reasonably early was a credible move. The league was slipping out of sight, but not quite beyond a miracle just yet. It would’ve been easy to hang on and hope things improved but no-one believed that. I didn’t know who I wanted as manager. Some of the names in the hat had big plus points but I had acquired a pessimism through our bad choices and bad luck. The wrong choice would be drawn into the maelstrom of chaos rather than rise above it. The earlier purge of Ross Wilson and the summer reorganisation at board level were promising and a recognition that things weren’t working and maybe a reason to be more optimistic. It sounds so simple but what we needed was a manager that knew what he was doing, a clarity of vision. A leader we can all respect. A man that could get the best out of the squad and could give them some needed direction and purpose. Someone that could release Rangers’ potential and crystalize the expectation of winning every other trophy, as a minimum. A man that could bring order to where chaos had had laid down roots. In his first 4 months at Rangers Phil Clement has certainly done that. A squad (and support) that looked beaten to the point of hopelessness has been given a new lease of life. Results improved. The winning streaks that eluded Gerrard, Gio and Beale are now starting to appear. That loss against Celtic is the only black mark since the beginning of December. Performances have improved significantly. I look forward to every game now and know that entertainment is guaranteed. The atmosphere at Ibrox and general mood is polar opposite from before and the bond between players and support has returned. It is still early days but we appear to be operating at the place where Rangers should be operating. From a tired, overly-familiar, over-worked starting eleven we now have competition for places. We are seeing rotation being used pro-actively, players rested, fringe players provided opportunities, all with instructions and roles that suit them best. The team visibly presses, attacks and defends as a single organism instead of a jumbled mess of individuals at the start of the season. There’s a fluidity in the attacking play, attacking from all angles with goals and assists being shared around. This is all achieved from simple adjustments. Taking the forward option. Variation of corners. Sharing responsibilities. Take Lawrence’ winning goal at Kilmarnock, a quick throw-in from Dessers, then a quick free-kick from Lawrence himself leads to panic in the Kilmarnock back line and the ball breaks back to Lawrence at the edge of the box - ten seconds of sharp play resulting in an invaluable three points. It’s not rocket science but we haven't played that game domestically for too long. We’re not perfect and have limited options in some areas, but Clement is getting everything out of them that we can realistically ask for. And when the manager does get it wrong, he identifies it and makes changes early. I haven't seen so many subs at half time at Rangers. For me, the long-term aim has to be stability. To reach a place where transfer windows don’t mean wholesale changes but more the clinical improvement of the squad. And what then follows is the highest quality starting eleven possible for a club of our means, with a wider squad of players both hungry and capable enough to challenge and win those places for themselves. Clement himself has said that he doesn’t want egos but selflessness and team players, with the understanding that any dreams of individual success and glory can be more than realised through success for the team. There’s no bullshit, just a clear plan and hard work. He doesn’t scapegoat or isolate players, just makes his point and moves forward, and the players seem to appreciate and respect that. Everything is focused on the team and being a winning team. Domestically, we have been relatively poor value for money, carrying too many players that haven’t contributed enough to see us over that line. The signs are Clement is changing this. We need to remember the name and draw of Rangers and the calibre of players we can attract here. Even though things were creaking to a shuddering halt behind the curtains we still managed to bring in the likes of Jack Butland. Granted, we also brought in others in that window which demonstrate that where we get it wrong then the club suffers. Clement gave Lammers opportunities, squeezed something out of the situation and was able to find an arrangement in January that suited both parties. Dessers has begun to turn it around. From living offside and being chronically out of condition under Beale to being a welcome presence on the pitch and posting very respectable numbers. The January arrivals of Diomande, Cortes and Silva are beginning to look like decent business after a small sample of games, not just that they represent upgrades but also bring a much-needed freshness across the squad. With every decision our manager continues to earn our trust. Where injuries had previously left with gaping holes across the pitch, Clements squad is now adapting and finding a way. Losing Danilo in December felt like the kind of misfortune that could totally derail our title challenge but Clement never complained or moped. Again, his actions followed his own words - looking for solutions, not dwelling on problems. One player who always gives his best is our Captain. During the death rattle of Beale's reign, I'll admit wanting the captaincy taken from him, more as a symbolic gesture than anything else. It felt like a millstone around his neck and was dragging his legacy down. Upon reflection I was wrong. It wasn’t Tav’s fault that our management, or squad, or conditioning, or tactics weren’t good enough to collect more silverware. We were very lucky to get him for £200,000 and have been lucky to have him for 8 seasons. No player should be irreplaceable at Rangers but we will struggle to ever match his value and output. But that’s football, it’s a game of moments and you need to make the most of them. Things can change for better or worse in a matter of weeks, all you can do is put the best people in place and hope they do their best, hope that they are able to take us over that line.
    12 points
  8. And the winter break starts, I think enough time has elapsed to make a valid initial assessment of Philippe Clément, who was appointed manager of Rangers on 15th October. In that time he appears to have transformed a chaotic playing squad that was on its knees and collapsing. He has persuaded the same players to qualify top of our Europa League group, place silverware in the trophy room and re-engage with the league title race. But more than that, after the long years since Walter left, he has finally returned a missing credibility to the office of manager at Rangers. The absence of bullshit is tangible. While it's still early days, he looks very much like the real deal to me, someone to believe in and dare I say it .... trust. It's beginning to feel like Rangers again and I can't wait to see what we will achieve under Philippe Clément.
    12 points
  9. We need to ignore the possible offside that was never actually tested. The only reference to offside in that incident was as a subsequent determination that played absolutely no part in the denial of a penalty. The issue here is that the referee either failed to notice the handball or chose not to act on it .... then that VAR either failed to see that a handball offence had occurred or did notice it but decided the handball didn't amount to a punishable offence. These are the ONLY issues that should be debated and only the audio conversation between VAR and the referee will clarify what happened and who played what part. The fact a bye kick was awarded following the decision not to award a penalty makes it clear that both VAR and the referee both decided the ball did not come off the defender's hand or body ... again, that is the ONLY conclusion. The upshot is that VAR, having the luxury of examining the video footage, did one of two things ..... it either made a complete hash of interpreting the video or it deliberately ignored the evidence to hand. The subsequent and rather dubious business of the possible offside is utterly irrelevant to whether or not there was either gross incompetence or deliberate corruption at play.
    12 points
  10. It's probably fair I add some context to today's banning. Over the years we will never punish alternative views - even if they may go against the grain. For example, there's plenty to take heart from since Clement came in but it's fairly obvious to me we're still well short in key areas. Dessers, for all his good work, just isn't good enough and we're too reliant on Sima who we ask far too much from. That kind of comment is constructive, fair and and difficult to object too. By way of comparison, cheap insults of players, coaches and anyone else just won't be tolerated despite polite private requests to refrain. Today was a horrible result but we're still well in this title race if we can make the required chances on personnel. That's the ultimate take away.
    12 points
  11. Well I'm excited about winning the League Cup for the 1st time since 2011. My twin boys were still in the neo-natal unit after being born 10 weeks early the last time we won this trophy. Today, I had one of my boys with me (the other doesn't like football) to witness this triumph. Its the 1st trophy he's seen us win live and to see the joy on his face made the victory even sweeter. Hopefully he'll witness many, many more. There were times during 2013 and the years after that, that I didn't know if I'd ever see Rangera win another meaningful trophy. Whilst trophies have been scarce, we've now won the league, won the Scottish Cup, won the League Cup and gotten to the EL Cup Final. I'll never downplay any trophy we win, we are Rangers and we're in the business of winning trophies, it's what we do. But now we move on to Wednesday where we've an opportunity to cut the lead in the league. Another huge game for us.
    12 points
  12. I actually think the support will give a manager, any manager, time if we can see progress. Beale's problem wasn't that we lost to Celtic and PSV, it was the manner of those defeats. The side had regressed, there was no discernible style of play, we were passive when we should have been aggressive, we were naive when we should have been knowledgable. Gerrard got time because we could see progress, despite setbacks. His style of play was attractive, the gap between us and them was closing, the players we had were better and continued to improve. There's more realism in our support than we get credit for. We want to win, we want to win the league, but we'll accept defeat if we beleive the side has given everything and is on the right path. In my opinion.
    12 points
  13. You know there are several good reasons why we should. We take the higher moral position, we have the courage to exhibit our better side, it would set a precedent, we are showing necessary leadership, ...................... etc. Thus, on careful consideration - get that idea tae fcuk.
    12 points
  14. Back in 2012, it was hard watching a Rangers team cast into the lower reaches of Scottish football. There were a few bright lights; Lee Wallace's commitment to the club, Barrie McKay's verve and, Lewis Macleod's determination to prove, 'there can be only one'. I thought Lewis shone brightest, undersold by David Somers for £900,000 and, two appalling knee injuries at Brentford saw the diminishing of what could have been a stellar career. He is only 30 years of age, I wish him every success as Rangers Academy Coach.
    11 points
  15. John Nelms forks the Dens Park pitch with his tongue. John Nelms is a former US Navy submariner, he spent several years based at the Holy Loch. Continually diving too deep, enduring weeks of breathing each others' farts and, when they open the hatch you find yourself in a midge infested hell hole; it all has an effect. This Bubblehead's particular bubble is helium, have you heard him speak? John keeps his mouth open because he is attempting to equalise head pressure, a fortunate trait that Peter finds most convenient. John is happy to be compliant. According to John he fell in love with ra Sellik whilst moored in Argyll and when he returned to Scotland, fronting Texan millionaire, Tim Keyes investment he was anxious to follow his heart. Dundee were the club he utilised to beat his Yahoo desire. He proposed a Dundee - Sellik league fixture should be played Stateside on St Patrick's day, preferably in Boston. He voted twice by e-mail to secure Sellik's nine-in-a-row and muddied the waters by claiming spam folder happenstance that annoyed Partick Thistle, ICT, Stranraer and, Rangers. He created a scheme allowing Gordon Strachan to have dual roles at both Dundee and ra Sellik. John thinks both Neil Doncaster and Murdoch MacLennan are stand up guys and we can all look forward to the SPL investigation that will blame Sean Batty for getting the weather forecast wrong and fining Rangers because they turned up. Of course, Neil and Murdoch will take the line(s) thrown by Gang Hutter, Kheredine Idessane as the basis for the investigation. John Nelms grasped at his fellow Bhoy's buoys : You and your groundstaff have been here since five this morning forking the pitch? Another thirty minutes and this pitch would be playable? The last fixture was delayed for thirty minutes because Rangers arrived late(Kheredine fail failed to mention the crash on the Tay Bridge). The last fixture saw a further twenty minute delay because of pyro' being ignited within the Rangers support(banged to rights on this one). Kheredine did not confront John Nelms with information garnered from his interview with Philippe Clement : Rangers only found out there was a problem after 09.30 hrs because the club kitman had arrived at Dens to see Nelms and groundstaff forking the pitch. He was told they had called a local Ref' to undertake a 10.15hrs inspection. The game was the only senior professional match in the UK postponed over the weekend. Dens Park has hosted 16 league fixtures this season and four of them suffered postponement due to a waterlogged pitch. I will save the SPL the time and expense. Neil and Murdoch will say exactly what Peter tells them to say, just like John Nelms.
    11 points
  16. @Rick Robertson top form on our main site today; please read and share widely... https://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/news/ca-category-blog/513-old-foes-and-old-ghosts The media, government and the governing bodies don’t really have a problem with offensive or sectarian chanting at football. We know this through their actions over a suitably long period of time and a sizable sample set of evidence from many supports. They don’t even appear to have a particular problem with questionable political messages, metallic missiles and fans encroaching onto the pitch with menace. However, they do have a problem when it's Rangers fans doing the chanting. Selectarianism was a phrase coined to capture the appalling double-standards applied to the chanting debate. Long story short, an industry appeared (comprising mainly of those of a certain demographic but fortified with other flavours of detractors) who were able to cause Rangers much discomfort and bad press over a good number of years with this. The mud-flinging and intense lobbying paid dividend and Rangers were ultimately sanctioned by UEFA over an airing of the Billy Boys in Europe in 2019. Over time on social media, many of those actively involved in the industry since the early 2000s, have shown their hand and exposed the real reasons behind their meddling, be it journos, MSPs, NBM or FARE. In preceding weeks merry hell has been ramped up over fairly benign refereeing decisions, with the collective outrage centred largely around unspectacular decisions impacting Celtic players. The collective foaming at the mouth continued into Rangers’ cup game at Hibs. Hibs lost control and the game rightfully went in our favour. You wouldn’t know it but the most contentious and serious incident of the past few weeks was a red-card challenge on Ross McCausland by a Motherwell player that went on to score the winning goal. This is where the premediated Selectarianism with chanting merges with the disinformation agenda around referees. The best way to fight a war is to have someone else fight it for you – and so Michael Stewart steps up as Celtic's useful idiot in this regard. He went into the cup game with a pre-written script and was going to be argue against anything going for Rangers, no matter how stonewall the incident and no matter how stupid he would look. His plausible neutral Hibs/Hearts playing history belies who pays his bills and writes his thoughts. Significant noise was created but even the press changed tact when they realised pretending Hibs were hard done by officials was a dead horse. And this is where sectarian chanting re-enters the picture. Hibs issued a statement on supporter conduct. The timing of the release and clickbait mention of sectarianism seemed to be more to appease their support than genuinely address supporter behaviour in Scottish football. This is the same support that threw dangerous objects at Shankland not two weeks ago and laughed off fans physically assaulting Rangers players following a cup win at Hampden years before. Of course, there’s no show without punch and up pops BBC Scotland's brass neck-in-chief Chris McLaughlin. A man who walks past rampant anti-Semitism, overt pro-terror cheerleading and industrial scale child abuse to get a negative headline about Rangers. Hibs' mention of sectarianism was all he needed to start up the Pacific Quay CSC propaganda machine. As predictable as a disallowed Rangers goal in an Old Firm match, it didn't take long before he had worked strict liability into his narrative. There are two things that aren’t a coincidence here. The first being that their beloved Celtic have a fight on their hands and so we have the lashing out, pressurising/threatening officials and looking for anyway to derail or penalise Rangers. The other being that McLaughlin pipes up as the SNP's hate crime laws are coming into effect. Cast your minds back to May 2021 and a certain Humza Yousaf (ironically then Justice Minister) knowingly posted an obviously fake video to smear Rangers players celebrating their league victory. And guess who done the donkey work in the press to create damaging headlines on the back of this? Using the vehicle of the impartial national broadcaster to peddle his obvious bias. That’s right, McLaughlin again. Worryingly, neither Yousaf nor McLaughlin were held to task or apologised for their involvement in this - indeed the latter's tweet is still there. After decades of mischief making, McLaughlin is still in place at the BBC and able to target Rangers. Even worse, Yousaf somehow failed upwards, unelected and, as incompetent as ever, into the First Minister role. What a damning indictment of the nation. The Rangers board need to be very wary and very canny here. These are loose cannons aimed at the club, probably with a plan and with enough clout to make things difficult. The fake video appeared to pass without formal complaint from Rangers. McLaughlin’s part in continuing the narrative of Rangers and others, and not Celtic, being the centre of SFA's historical CSA report passed without complaint from the club. At some stage Bisgrove and Bennett need to be stronger and ready to protect the club. This doesn’t mean the house of lies isn't built on a foundation of truth. The sporadic re-emergence of the Billy Boys domestically is undeniable; even if it usually fizzes out without any offensive words being used. I’m more than happy for certain chants to fade into history and be replaced by some of the fantastic anthems of recent years. However, against a backdrop of sectarianism and offensive chanting from other clubs in Scotland it was always expected. What is more dangerous is that the Billy Boys has been heard again in Europe. This is stupidity beyond belief when a stadium closure is not just possible but probable. The damage it could do to the fantastic Europa reputation and energy we’ve grown in recent years would be unforgivable. The board and fans groups need to nip this is the bud before it’s a problem.
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  17. That would be interesting. You’re not Barry Ferguson by any chance? On reflection, no, your English is too good.
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  18. I don't think I've seen one Rangers supporter get too carried away with Clement's start. Not one. We've all been burned too many times. Virtually all are delighted with how the team is now playing compared to a month ago, and virtually all are delighted with our win against Sparta, apart from the odd one.
    11 points
  19. Go back twenty-five years and the Glasgow Herald was considered a decent blatt. It had been providing a news service to west, central Scotland for in excess of two hundred years. As the millennium approached, it's Editor was Aberdeen supporting Harry Reid and it's daily circulation was 120,000. The mixture of local news, national and international news combined with varied witty and incisive Columnists gave it's readership what it wanted. The necessary robust Editorials and vibrant correspondence pages took the readership to places of discomfort. The Glasgow Herald was a successful broad sheet newspaper. Now, my fellow Gersnetters will correctly note the millennium was the tipping point for newspaper sales, it has been a downward trend ever since. However, Harry Reid was replaced by old Etonian, Mark Douglas Home in the year 2000 and, the Herald spiralled into an accelerated slump. Douglas Home appointed two Deputy Editors, former Celtic View Editor, Kevin McKenna and soon to be SNP MSP, Joan McAlpine. The Columnists hired highlighted nepotism, the Editor's wife, west Belfast born and bred, Colette Douglas Home, preferred prejudice in Ewing Grahame and, the useful idiot, Graham Spiers. Five short years later the circulation had diminished by two thirds to under 40,000. Today, the circulation hovers around 12,000. The chief Columnist is Kevin Mckenna and being a product of his conditioning he pens articles reference his obsessions. The man who founded his own amateur football team at Glasgow University, 'the Vatican Strollers', the man who was allowed to resign the Editorship of the Celtic View after saying, "the IRA bombing of the Enniskillen Remembrance service was a legitimate act of war" and, the man who Nicola Sturgeon proclaimed, "the poster boy for Scottish Independence" has spent a quarter of a century moulding what is left into his own image. This year the Herald rescued the career of Gabriel McKay - he wrote when seeing the late Queen opening the Commonwealth Games at Celtic Park, "where are the IRA when you need them"? Kevin's charity has extended to Angela Haggerty, accepting an invitation to be her son's Godfather. The Godfather has overseen today's sub-editor headline, "Celtic had to lock out the Green Brigade before Glasgow City Council closed down Parkhead". The headline travels across an entire spectrum and concludes with the fantasy of Glasgow City Council contemplating closure of ra Stade de Gadd - the morons' oxymoron.
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  20. I was speaking with friends earlier about the Amazon documentary on Manchester City that came out a couple of years ago. I watched it as I curious to know more about Guardiola. I'd expected lots of talk about overlapping, inverted false 9s and venn diagrams of spacial awareness and xG. In actual fact you discovered that 'Pep' is actually a bundle enthusiasm and energy who, when speaking with players, spends most of his time psyching them up and getting the side wound up to go out and play. It was a slightly more sophisticated version of 'get stuck right into them from the first whistle, lads'. Now I'm sure there's a lot of false 9s and inverted overlaps and all that stuff going on in training but the sheer simplicity of what Guardiola does was a surprise but afterwards I realised that's what all successful managers do, they fill their players with belief and desire. It's a room of young men full of testosterone, there's no need to make it complicated. I've been thinking about it this week. I wonder if we underestimated how important Gerrard's simple communication was. Everyone said Beale was the brain, and that might be so, but when Gerrard said "let's go" on his unveiling as our manager we all responded positively. Gerrard is passion and desire, as a player someone other players admired and listened too. Beale seems a much more considered and thoughtful person, but does he instil passion in our players? I suspect Gerrard's final words in the dressing room carried more weight than Beale's do now. The great Brian Clough, who won titles with Derby and Nottingham Forest as well as two European Cups had a well documented poor spell at Leeds Utd in between those two jobs. What's often overlooked in his time at Leeds is his long time assistant, Peter Taylor, didn't go to Leeds with him. Clough's 'magic' didn't work at Leeds. He didn't win over the dressing room and he left after only a few months. At Forest he was once again joined by Taylor and the rest is history. Clough famously rarely visited the training ground, he'd watch training but never took part. His thinking was if his players heard his voice too much they would stop hearing what he said. Yet for all his genius, without Taylor, Clough's style didn't work. When him and Taylor fell out and Taylor left Forest they went into a terminal decline that ended with relegation. Having watched us this season, not just Wednesday and yesterday, I worry we've given Peter Taylor our manager's job. Our performances have lacked cohesion and style, i've no idea what formation and type of football we're meant to be playing. Yesterday we seemed to be playing a long ball to the big lad up front, I've not seen that tactic for over 20 years, I certainly didn't expect to see it yesterday. We had a speed merchant in decent form on one wing and never gave him the ball. They'd two rookie centre halves and we never thought of putting Matondo through the middle to see if that might make them drop deeper and create more space for our midfield who were being overrun for most of the first half. When we did make changes we took off the two forwards who both scored, albeit chalked off, and left on the one who looks short of fitness, sharpness and possibly confidence to the disbelief of almost the entire support. I'm not one who turns on managers easily. A search of my posts will show I was in favour of persevering with GvB until close to the very end. I was very disappointed when Le Guen left, I felt he should have been backed. But I lost faith in Pedro after the second Old Firm hammering, months before the Progres fiasco. Unfortunately I've lost faith in Beale. I could just about accept the new players struggling to settle and adapt. But both Cantwell and Raskin are shadows of the players we saw last season, what's happened to them? I know it's early in the season, but I feel I've watched this film before and I know how it ends. It's just a question of when and for all concerned it should be sooner rather than later.
    11 points
  21. It's almost certainly true, I believe him. I mean during his time at their club it was owned by Fergus McCann and then Dermot Desmond and both are known to be subservient to authority and would have shied away from confrontation with referees or the Scottish League. He also played under Tommy Burns and Martin O'Neill and both would have told 'Stubbsy' to put it behind him and concentrate on the match, the ref's decision is final. Plus this is regularly mentioned in the many paranoid Masonic collusion books, talks and films that seem to come out every year. His team mates at the time are forever speaking about it on radio too. Plus it's not like he's an irrelevant walloper struggling to find any kind of gainful employment. Let me be the first to call for the return of all medal and trophies we've won, I can't sleep now knowing about this injustice.
    11 points
  22. It seems, to me at least, that, historically, Rangers has always accommodated the fhilth, compromised with it, generally indulged its fads, foibles, and, let's be honest, its self indulgent tantrums, all the while displaying punctilious courtesy. By doing so, and by maintaining the infamous 'dignified silence', the Club has merely encouraged its behaviour and, of course has received little (read nothing) by way of quid pro quo. In fact, the fhilth has treated Rangers' position as one of weakness, and acted accordingly. The lesson is clear: to treat guttersnipe like gentlemen is a fool's errand. That the Club should even consider giving the fhilth X thousand prime seats with a view to receiving a lesser number, perched up in a high corner, with restricted views, in return, is absolute nonsense. The Club was duped into this arrangement before, and I hope it will not get fooled again.
    11 points
  23. Interesting article on Cifu: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/set-to-join-rangers-jose-cifuentes-has-elements-of-caicedo-and-pogba/view/news/417267 Looking forward to Rousseau explaining the half 8 role to der Berliner as the season goes on.
    11 points
  24. Sorry I have been ill with a particularly virulent case of man-flu, then away on holiday then catching back at work so just getting to this now. Essentially, the lack of content simply comes down to time. The main site essentially relies on external contributions - in the past we had match previews and other Rangers related articles which we could publish on a fairly regular basis from a variety of users on the forum (and elsewhere). Unfortunately, due to work and family commitments, I rarely have time to write stuff myself so I can hardly insist others do so as well. Quite simply I think the online blog is becoming less fashionable. The player ratings were just some fun after I redesigned the site to analyse performance after games which I enjoy doing but had to defer because of work commitments as the season went on. IIRC, I did ask on here for others to help around that time but got no volunteers. Obviously we feature the podcast more heavily nowadays which I think is a great feature of Gersnet but it's modern video functionality as well the rise of social media means main sites, blogs and forums are much less busy as written content is consumed less. Even FF is nowhere near as busy as it used to be. That's why fanzines died and that's why the club's own site lacks content as well. Even The Athletic has stopped their Rangers content. As for the archive stuff - due to the new version of the software that drives the site, I didn't have the ability to port all that over and, again, the original inputting of the data which came from the Chic Sharp file Bluedell references, took a long time to input on my own - time I simply don't have any more. The data entry is a tedious job and, whilst I'd love to re-introduce it, I'd have to set aside a good few months to do it. There's a reason Rangers own version of such didn't get off the ground.... Now, I'd absolutely like to have more content on our main site platform that looks very nice and is featured on Newsnow and Google News - if lacking in regular content. Sensible Rangers relevant articles/commentary of any type are welcome and both myself and Rousseau can publish at fairly short notice (usually same day but certainly within 24-48 hours at the very worst). And if anyone enjoys data entry then I can provide the facility to incorporate the archive stuff. What I would close is with is that even a small venture such as Gersnet takes a lot of time to manage. I'm lucky that @Rousseauand @blueflagin particular help with the forum management/technical stuff and we have several excellent podcast contributors. However, 90% of stuff is done by me and at my own personal cost. We have adverts to help but that only allows us to run on a largely even keel cost wise. We took in £5 from February's ad traffic - ad spend is decreasing substantially right across the industry so it may be I just remove them completely. In closing, Gersnet has been around for the better part of 25 years now in various guises of which I was lucky enough to inherit 15 years or so ago. However, it's largely a one person exercise and merely a hobby that runs alongside my own life which, with two teenage girls, is busier than ever. Nevertheless, I can guarantee you the site will remain going forward but I'm afraid that without other contributions the main site is basically a splash page for the pod and forum rather than the resource it used to be. I apologise for that and am equally disappointed as you but there's only so much one person can do. You - or anyone else - can submit content directly on here or by email via info@gersnet.co.uk Thanks to everyone for their continued support!
    11 points
  25. Great article sir. £200k for the captain has to go down as one of the best buys in our history.
    10 points
  26. Fantastic. I was out of mobile signal in a Bothy in West Highlands overnight, got back to the van in time to hear Diomande slam that goal in, just as my mate pointed out the Killie score. What an end to a great weekend!.
    10 points
  27. Among the many changes that Phillipe Clement has quietly affected at Rangers one has gone almost unmentioned. We finished the match last night with three 20 year olds and a 21 year old upfront, plus Yilmaz who is only 22. I'm not sure I recall Rangers ever having a younger side than the one that finished last night. Getting the best out of young players is not something every manager can do. We started this season with a side built around experience and height, somehow we now have a young, slim, quick side. Far from the finished article, but with a clear purpose and all knowing what they are meant to be doing. Huge credit to the big Belgian. Last night we saw a Rangers side show character. I think we all know we wouldn't have won that match 4 months ago. Not every player had their best game, but every player fought, showed intensity and worked very, very hard. We're not top, but this side is growing every week and they'll get another chance to take that top spot.
    10 points
  28. I'll never forget the moment it hit the net...
    10 points
  29. The type of football played today is different to the football played in the 1950s and the 1970s and even the 1990s. As such the type of player who thrives in it has changed and the type of fitness they possess, or build, is different. I'm surprised there's even a debate that today's players are fitter, I don't think there's any doubt about that, but I accept there's a debate around whether they are stronger or more robust. The English FA did research back in the early 2000s around elite player fitness. Dr Neil Phillips was a medical advisor to the FA during the 60s and 70s. He tells the story of Alf Ramsay wanting to introduce warming up before training to the England side and it being met with resistance by many players. Jimmy Greaves in particular was quite vocal in his resistance to this, seeing it as "namby pamby", despite Ramsay getting the idea from witnessing a training session by Brazil where they had done a warm up. It might be coincidental but Jimmy Greaves retired from first class football at only 31. Does anyone think Harry Kane will retire from first class football at 31, despite being financially secure for 10 lifetimes? The FA's research also compared data taken from the English top flight First Division in 1976, they found that the distance covered in a game was an average 8-11 kilometres, 25 per cent of which was walking and 11 per cent sprinting. By the early 2000s physiologists reckon that Premiership footballers now cover around 12-14 kilometres per match and that a greater percentage of that distance is run at top speed. There was further research published in 2019 around body shape of professional footballers. "The research team included sports scientists at Portsmouth and Cardiff Metropolitan universities and was led by University of Wolverhampton. They examined how body size, shape and age characteristics had changed for footballers since the 1970s. Findings showed footballers have steadily been getting taller, with an average height increase of a centimetre per decade, but in the most recent decade are now also lighter, nimbler and much more angular. Dr Webb, an expert in sports management in the Department of Sport and Exercise Science, said: “We were quite surprised at the findings, and in particular the changes in body shape of those players who are successful in the modern game, these changes appear to have occurred very quickly. "Obviously, the game is developing and evolving all the time but, even so, there does seem to be a very quick shift in the body type of some of the most successful players, at successful clubs. This has added consequence for the clubs and the recruitment of young players, as well as any player transfer strategy. “Clubs should be aware of these developments, and it could help to inform any talent identification and development strategy at an elite club. Clubs take into account physiological metrics, as well as other factors, in any talent identification strategy or approach, and as such these findings will be of interest." Perhaps more pertinent to this thread; "Lead researcher Professor Alan Nevill, a biostatistician and Professor of Sport at the University of Wolverhampton, said: “Footballers of today have adapted to the modern game, and as a result their body shape has altered. Modern players are ectomorphic, characterised by a lean, slender body, as opposed to the muscular, mesomorphic builds which were more common in the 1970s and 80s. “A lot of this can be attributed to the increased quality of playing surfaces where footballers train and compete. Modern pitches are immaculate and well-maintained and not the mud baths that they used to be. Pitches used to get very heavy and soggy, particularly in mid-winter, which accounted for players being bulkier and more muscular.” As recently as December last year, Belgium international and Manchester United star Romelu Lukaku admitted that his poor form at the start of this season was because he was too muscular. Professor Nevill concurs: “Today’s players are more like endurance athletes than power athletes. To compete at today’s high levels, they are also working harder and harder so are much leaner.” The findings, which examined more than 2,600 top-division players using football yearbook data, also showed a dramatic decrease in BMI, which Professor Nevill believes is more a measure of muscularity as in athletes it is an indication of lean body mass rather than fat mass. He said the research could have an impact on talent scouting for the future. “Body shape is clearly important and English professional clubs might be advised to attract young, less muscular, more angular players as part of their talent identification and development programmes to improve future chances of success,” said Professor Nevill. “In an industry that is so financially competitive, any advantage that can be gained has the potential to positively influence future performance.” Lastly, one hundred percent agree with the posters who stated that Murder Hill was psychological rather than physical. Wallace was far smarter than he gets portrayed. The whole 'jungle fighter' 'fire in their bellies' narrative does him a huge disservice. Wallace took over a Rangers side that was good enough to win a European trophy but couldn't beat Celtic for the league. He, correctly, realised that this was a mentality issue in the team, they didn't believe they were better than Celtic, who were managed by Stein and on the way to winning 9 titles in a row. Murder Hill was Wallace's way of changing that mentality. He told the players running the sand dunes would make the fitter. That running them until the were literally sick meant they were now the fittest team in the league, no one was fitter than them, they had an advantage. It was nonsense, but the players believed it, or at least enough of them did. Wallace went on to win the league and followed that up with 2 trebles. In reality you're no fitter running up sand dunes that running up the terrace steps at Ibrox, which is what the players did before this. Fitness is vital, but the right mentality even more so.
    10 points
  30. I don't understand why any Rangers supporter would abuse Clement. He's worked wonders with what he's got.
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  31. I would like to wish all Gersnetters lots of pudding and pie. Can I share a wee Christmas memory from 1971? Christmas day was not an official holiday in Scotland until 1974. Easter and the risen Lord was the big religious festival but, we saw on the TV how much fun the English were having at Christmas and decided to participate. The 25th December'71 was a Saturday, a working day and, Scottish football had it's final Christmas day fixture list. I was a 14 year old schoolboy and when asked what did I want from Santa, my reply was to view Rangers at Easter Road. Santa was good to good boys and I travelled on the Tannochside Loyal RSC to the capital city. 25,000 squeezed into the old Leith ground and watched an attritional game. Large snow flakes began to settle on the pitch in the ninetieth minute as the ball was hoofed from the Rangers box. The ball was hooked on by Colin Stein and the Lone Ranger chased down his own ball forcing Hibs defender, Black to concede a corner. Tam McLean stepped up as the snow began to drive, the corner found Colin, Colin Stein's head and flew into the net. Winter was howling and the Bears were growling, we only sing and dance in blizzards.
    10 points
  32. Good. We can sell one Ross McCausland for decent dosh and keep the other one.
    10 points
  33. Subject: FINLAY SPEEDIE Remembering Finlay Speedie ---(found this on Google) Part 1 Finlay Ballantyne Speedie was born in Dumbarton on 18th August 1880, and the town would remain dear to his heart all his days. He was an excellent sportsman, and in particular a fine young footballer, starting his playing career at just 15 years old with Arniston Thistle in 1895. ---His teenage football career saw him move from club to club on a frequent basis.-- From Arniston he joined Clydebank Juniors the following year, and after another 12 months (aged 17) --he was on the move again, this time as an amateur player for his home town club Dumbarton.---- He never played for their first team in his short spell there, before signing for Duntocher Hibs in 1898.---- He finally turned professional the following year, signing a contract with Strathclyde.Juniors Speedie was a versatile player, most at home at inside forward, and several impressive displays at inside left for Strathclyde attracted the attention of William Wilton at Ibrox.- The Rangers manager had assembled the best team in the land at the turn of the 20th century, and in October 1900 --Wilton signed him for the Scottish champions.-- At just turned 20, Speedie may have thought it might take time to get his first team chance, but Wilton was convinced the player was ready for the first team, and on October 20th 1900--- Finlay Speediemade his Rangers debut at inside left against Dundee at Ibrox in the First Division.--- Rangers won the match 4-2 to maintain a 100% home record in the league for the season, So impressed was Wilton with his new signing, . In just his third appearance for the club, Speedie found himself playing in a cup final, and he took home a winners medal as Rangers defeated Partick 3-1 in the Glasgow Cup.--- The following Saturday he scored his first Rangers goal in a 3-1 victory at Morton in the league as Speedie’s dream introduction to life at Ibrox continued. ----He scored important goals against both Kilmarnock and Queens Park, which set up a potential title party against Celtic on New Years Day 1901.--- A win over their fiercest rivals would guarantee Rangers a third successive title. ----There were 30,000 at Ibrox to see young sensation Finlay Speedie open the scoring after an hour, before a second goal in the last few minutes settled any nerves.--- A late consolation by Celtic seemed irrelevant, as Speedie and his teammates celebrated being Kings of Scotland again. ---He started in 11 of the 20 league games that season, earning himself a first league medal. His debut season wasn’t perfect, however, as he had to endure 2 painful cup defeats by Celtic in the Scottish Cup and the Charity Cup.---- But by the close season in 1901, Finlay Speedie was now an established Rangers regular. Season 1901/02 saw Rangers retain their title,--- but it was a season overshadowed by tragedy in April 1902 when 25 spectators died at the stadium during a Scotland v England international match due to the collapse of a temporary stand. ---Speedie was now a virtual ever present, and he won a second Glasgow Cup medalin the strangest of circumstances when Celtic declined to take part in a final replay after it was ordered to be played at Ibrox after a drawn match at the same venue. Celtic pushed Rangers all the way in the title race, Speedie scoring an important goal against them at Ibrox in a 2-2 draw in October, and played his part in a vital 4-2 New Year win at Parkhead.-- Celtic took this defeat particularly badly, lodging a protest with the SFA over the referee’s handling of the match, which the SFA dismissed. ----Speedie then scored against both St Mirren and Dundee in the last 2 matches of the league season, which won the title by just 2 points. Rangers and Speedie failed to reach the Scottish Cup final again, this time it was a defeat to a very good Hibs team in the semi final that ended his hopes. ---And Hibs also knocked Rangers out the Charity Cup---- after extra teams were included in the competition to raise funds for the families of those affected by the disaster. Finlay Speedie played for Rangers for another 4 years, but he wouldn’t win another Scottish championship. ---The club were forced into selling many of their players and cutting costs to maximise money available to compensate families and to rebuild the stadium. ---Speedie played in 18 of the 22 league games in season 1902/03, . These included a double in a 2-1 win over Hearts, but it was Edinburgh rivals Hibs who won the league, with Rangers third. Speedie scored his first Rangers hat-trick in the 7-0 Scottish Cup first round win over Auchterarder Thistle, and also starred in a comfortable 3-0 win over Celtic at Parkhead in the third round. ----Rangers reached the final, where Hearts were the opponents. It took 3 games to find a winner, with Speedie playing in all 3 matches.---- On April 25th 1903, Finlay Speedie became a Scottish Cup winner . ---This was despite him being forced to play for more than half the match at left back due to J Drummond leaving the field with an injury, and the team playing with just 10 men. Speedie won 3 Scotland caps, all of them in 1903. He scored the only goal of the game on his international debut, a 1-0 win in Wales, and he then played in a 2-0 defeat to Ireland before his third and final Scotland cap in April 1903 against England. He scored Scotland’s first goal in an impressive 2-1 win at Bramall Lane, Sheffield.--He unfortunately missed a penalty kick-- the ball hitting the post He also played in a League international against England in 1903 Third Lanark were league champions in season 1903/04, with Rangers again ending the campaign in third. ---Speedie started in 23 league games in the now expanded First Division, and hit 16 goals in all competitions.--- These included a New Year’s Day derby goal at Parkhead in a highly entertaining 2-2 draw and a hat-trick against Port Glasgow in the Scottish Cup. ---But it was 2 cup finals at the end of the season against Celtic that lived longest in the memory, for very different reasons. On April 16th 1904, a crowd of 63,000 attended the Scottish Cup Final, and Finlay Speedie scored twice early on to give Rangers a healthy lead.--- But things unravelled and a Quinn hat-trick gave Celtic a 3-2 win. ---Then on May 14th, the teams met in the Charity Cup final, and Speedie was again on the scoresheet when he scored a 79th minutepenalty. This was Rangers’ 5th goal of another very eventful match, which saw Celtic down to 10 men for a lengthy period when Quinn had to leave the field injured. The final score of Rangers 5 Celtic 2 gave Speedie his first winners medal in the competition as well as some revenge for the Scottish Cup heartbreak. Speedie appeared in three more major finals in season 1904/05, but none provided him with a winners medal.--- Celtic would end the season as league champions, and they were his opponents in the Glasgow Cup final in early October 1904, a Hamilton goal not enough to prevent a 2-1 loss.--- Speedie scored against them in a fine 2-0 win in the semi final of the Scottish Cup,------- but a replay defeat to Third Lanark in the final meant a second successive runners-up medal for him. The third final he played in was a league championship playoff against Celtic, after both teams ended the season on level points. ---These days, Rangers would have been champions on goal difference, but the rules in 1905 demanded a playoff, which Celtic won 2-1. ---Despite winning no trophies, this was Finlay Speedie’s most productive season in Royal Blue, scoring 20 times in 41 appearances, 13 of these goals in league games. . He started the first game of season 1906/07 in the league against Falkirk then was dropped .--- Becoming increasingly frustrated, he made it clear to manager Wilton he saw his future away from Ibrox, and he played his last game for the club in a drawn Glasgow Cup match against Queens Park on 8th September 1906. ----Within a week, Newcastle United of the English First Division announced his signing for a fee of £600, ----(£100,000+ value today) --and at 26 years old Speedie moved south. ----His Rangers career saw him play 167 times for the club and score 65 goals. Last edited: Feb 9, Part 2 This was a Newcastle team among the favourites for the title, and Speedie enjoyed a dream debut scoring twice in a 5-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday, the team who went on to win that season’s FA Cup. ----Speedie’s versatility saw him appear in every position across the forward line during his time at St James’ Park, his debut was at inside right.---- and soon Speedie was in a side vying for top spot.---- Speedie scored a vital opening goal in a mid-November win over reigning champions Liverpool, was on the scoresheet again a few weeks later when notching another crucial goal in a 7-goal thriller against Notts County and celebrated Christmas week with goals in wins over Bolton, Manchester United and Stoke City. ---When he also scored on New Years Day 1907 in a win over Derby County, his contribution was looking crucial in the league race. Speedie added an English league title to those he won at Ibrox as Newcastle held off a late challenge from Bristol City to claim the title by 3 points.---- For much of the run in, he filled in as an emergency defender during an injury crisis, winning plaudits for his performance in a hard-fought draw at Manchester City. ---On March 9th 1907, Speedie lined up as a defender in the Charity Shield against Corinthians at Craven Cottage, and added a winners medal in this competition to his collection in a 5-2 victory.----- Overall, Speedie scored 10 times in his debut season on Tyneside, despite spending much of the second half of it in the back line. His second season at Newcastle would also be his last. The league title defence ended in a 4th place finish, but Speedie and his teammates went on a good run in the FA Cup. Nottingham Forest and West Ham were beaten before a huge 3rd round clash at home to Liverpool. After falling behind early on in front of 46,000 spectators, Newcastle hit 3 second half goals with Speedie grabbing the crucial second. ---Grimsby were brushed aside in the next round, setting up a semi-final against Fulham at Anfield.--- Playing in his favourite inside left position, Speedie had an excellent match as Newcastle hammered in 6 goals without reply. ----This set up a final against unfancied Second Division side Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Speedie a hot favourite to add an English Cup medal to his Scottish cup badge. ---But the final, played at the Crystal Palace on Saturday April 25th 1908, was to be a massive disappointment. Speedie, along with the rest of his teammates, never hit their stride and had a poor game. ---Wolves were 2 up at half time, and although Newcastle pulled one back with over quarter of an hour to play, the underdogs hit a decisive and deserved third goal near the end to carry off the trophy. This was to be Speedie’s 60th and last game for the club, scoring 14 times. Newcastle brought in new forwards in the summer, and they decided to ring the changes, with Speedie joining Oldham of the Second Division in June 1908. It proved difficult to argue with this, as Newcastle then won back the English title in season 1908/09, while Speedie scored 6 times in 17 league starts for Oldham,--- before a brief 2 month spell at Bradford Park Avenue from April 1909 where he scored once.---- In September 1909, Speedie decided to return home, and was delighted to sign for his hometown club Dumbarton. Part 3--Dumbarton were now a Second Division club, Speedie combining his football with them alongside a job as a Shipyard Engineer.--- He made his Dumbarton debut on September 25th 1909 in a league defeat at St Bernard’s and by New Years Day he had scored 5 times, most notably a double against Vale of Leven. His new club drew champions Celtic in the Scottish Cup first round, Speedie enjoying a fine match against his old rivals even though narrowly losing the game 2-1. ---The Sons ended the season in a respectable 4th place in the league, with signs they were capable of a higher finish the following season. ---And in season 1910/11 that is exactly what they achieved. Speedie was a key man in the Dumbarton title winning team, but a title that did not in those days earn automatic promotion to the First Division. He started in 18 of the 22 league matches, scoring 5 goals. --The title was won by 4 points, but Queens Park were not relegated despite finishing last in Division--- One, meaning no place for Dumbarton. Speedie was enjoying his football despite this apparent body blow, and was a regular starter again over the next 3 seasons. A 4th place finish in 1911/12 was followed by a 6th place. But, amazingly, Dumbarton were this time voted to Division One along with champions Ayr United, with the teams in 2nd to 5th all bypassed. ----The top league was being expanded from 18 to 20 teams for the following season, Dumbarton presumably getting the nodbased on their history. This would be the last season of “normal” Scottish football before the outbreak of the Great War, and Speedie at 33 years old was now back in the top league. He started in Dumbarton’s first game back among the big boys on August 16th 1913, and enjoyed a thumping 4-0 win at Boghead over Queens Park. He started 32 times in the league, scoring 4 times in games against Falkirk, St Mirren, Aberdeen and Raith Rovers.--- On November 8th 1913 he made an emotional return to play at Ibrox, and gave a good display in a slightly unfortunate 3-2 defeat.--- He was on the losing side in the return fixture at Boghead in March too, this time by 3-0. In a tough season for the newly promoted club, Dumbarton ended the season 19th, with just 10 wins from their 38 games. The August 1914 declaration of war changed football, and also marked another chapter in the life of Finlay Speedie. ---He became Private Finlay B. Speedie of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, representing them at football in December 1915 and seeing active service in France in the second half of the conflict. He returned home on leave in December 1917 and played two matches for Dumbarton as a guest player, the first of which was on December 1st against Rangers at Ibrox. He was on the losing side, giving Rangers a 2-1 win.--- Speedie then played the following weekend in a 1-0 home win over Hibs before returning to his regiment overseas in France. In May 1918, his name appeared in a list of wounded personnel issued by the War Office. ---Then in August 1918 it was confirmed that Speedie was recovering in hospital from a gunshot wound to his left leg that he suffered in the French battlefields, and that he had been awarded---- the Military Medal for bravery in action. After the War, he returned to his shipyard job, and even played one last game for Dumbarton on 6th September 1919,(aged 39) ---a 0-0 draw in Division One against Third Lanark at Boghead. ----Overall, his Dumbarton career saw him play 126 times and score 35 goals. ----A combination of age and his wartime wound made the decision to retire from the game an easy one. ---He did make a brief return to the game in the 1930swhen accepting a coaching role at Dumbarton, but he didn’t fill the role for very long. Finlay Speedie died on 5th February 1953 at the age of 72. Won 2 league titles,-- the Scottish Cup,-- the Glasgow Cup --and the Charity Cup for Rangers. He Scored 65 goals in 167 Rangers appearances, including a double in a Scottish Cup Final v Celtic. Won the English First Division and Charity Shield with Newcastle. 3 caps for Scotland and 2 international goals. Won the Scottish Second Division with Dumbarton. A War Hero,---- awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the Great War. There are some great men not in Rangers F.C Hall of Fame, -and their stories are worth remembering
    10 points
  34. The fans booing and groaning at every little thing is becoming a problem. For example, last night they started to moan when Cifuentes passed the ball back to the 'keeper. Did they not realise that there was (a) no pass on, and (b) three defenders around him so if he gave it away it would probably be a 4-on-1 attack? It was the correct pass.
    10 points
  35. Hope they do turn up tomorrow - the game is Sunday......
    10 points
  36. I am just happy he's gone.
    10 points
  37. The Summer 2023 Rangers Transfer Window Rumours and Deals - Thread LINK to a rumour source TM is the TransferMarkt stats side for that player The Summer 2023 Rangers Transfer Window Rumours and Deals - Thread LINK to a rumour source TM is the TransferMarkt stats side for that player SIGNED in Summer 2022/23: IN – Kieran Dowell (25) - AM, Norwich City, contract till 2023 – LINK – TM - 3-year deal close - DONE - 4LADS IN - Dujon Sterling (23) - CB, England/Jamaica , Chelsea - contract till 6/2023 - LINK - TM - DONE - 4-year deal IN – Jack Butland (30) - GK, Crystal Palace / Man Utd. contract till 2023 – LINK - TM - DONE - 4-years deal IN - Sam Lammers (26) - ST, Dutch, Empoli - contract 6/2023 - LINK - TM - DONE - 4-year deal IN - Abdallah Sima (22) - RW/ST, Senegal, Brighton & Hove Albion - contract till 6/2025 - LINK - TM - DONE DEAL - Season-long loan IN - Cyrell Dessers (28) - ST. Belgium/Nigeria, Cremonese - contract till 6/202x - LINK - TM - DONE DEAL - 4-year deal IN - Leon Balogun (35) - CB - Germany/Nigeria, freebie - TM - DONE DEAL ONE YEAR IN - Danilo Pereira da Silva (24) - ST, Brazil, Feyenoord - contract till 6/2026 - LINK - TM - DONE DEAL - 5 YEARS IN – Jose Cifuentes (24) - CM, Ecuador, Los Angeles, contract till 12/2023 – LINK – TM - DONE DEAL - 4 YEARS IN - GONE in Summer 2023 Filip Helander (30) - CH - contract 6/2023 Allan McGregor (41) – contract 6/2023 Scott Arfield (34) – C/LM - contract 6/2023 Ryan Kent (26) – LW/AM - contract 6/2023 Alfredo Morelos (26) – ST - contract 6/2023 - According to FourLads Malik Tillman (20) - AM - contract 6/2023 (option to buy) - loan deal expired Mateusz Zukowski (20) - RB - contract 6/2025 - signed for Slask Wroclaw - fee undisclosed Antonio Colak (29) - ST - contract 2025 - signed for AC Parma - fee undisclosed Lewis Mayo (23) – CH - contract 6/2024 - signed for Kilmarnock - fee undisclosed Fashion Sakala (26) – ST – contract 6/2025 - signed for Al-Fayha - Euro 4.65m Nnamdi Ofoborh (23) – (CM) – contract 6/2025 - Contract terminated - mutual agreement Ianis Hagi (24) - AM – contract 6/2026 - season-long loan to Alaves RETURN in Summer 2023 Mateusz Zukowski – loaned to Lech Poznan – see below Lewis Mayo – loaned to Kilmarnock FC – see below Ben Williamson – loaned to Dundee FC – Rangers contract expires 6/2024 Josh McPake – loaned to Queen‘s Park FC – Rangers contract expires 6/2024 RUMOURS: IN – Giannis Kotsiras (30) – CH, Panathinaikos, contract till 202x – LINK – TM IN – Denis Huseinbasic (21) – CM, German/Bosnia-Herz. Cologne, contract till 2025 - TM - LINK IN - Christian Kouame (25) - CF, Ivory Coast/Italy, Fiorentina,contract till &72024 - TM - LINK IN - Jonathan Panzo (22) - CB, England/Ivory Coast, (Swansea) Nottingham Forest - contract till 6/2025 - LINK (see Morgan W.) - TM IN - Harry Souttar (24) - CB. Scotland/Australia, Leicester City - contract till 2028 - TM OUT - Ianis Hagi – Celta Vigo OUT - Glen Kamara - Turkey CONTRACT EXTENSIONS Ryan Jack - one year till 6/2024 NON-STARTERS: IN - Chris Willock (25) - LW, English, QPR, contract till 6/2023 - TM - LINK - MB says no interest in him or other QPR players (as of 02 May 2023) IN - Jeison Murillo (30) - CB, Colombia/Spain, Sampdoria, contract till 6/2023 - TM - LINK - off to Saudi-Arabia IN - Morgan Whittaker (22) - RW, England, Swansea City, contract till 6/2025 - LINK - TM - signed contract extension till 2027 IN - Luis Palma (23) - LW, Honduras, Aris Saloniki, contract til 2026 - LINK - TM - signed for the Dark Side IN - Iké Ugbo (24) - ST, England/Canada, ESTAC Troyes - contract till 6/2026 - LINK - TM (3.5m wanted) - on loan to Cardiff IN - Marcus Coco (26) - RW, France/Guadel. FC Natnes - contract till 2023 - LINK (see Morgan W.) - TM - signed contract extension 2025 IN - Tim Iroegbunam (19) - CB, England/Kigeria, (QPR) Aston Villa - contract 6/2025 - Link (see Morgan W.) - TM - signed contract extension 2027 IN - Tasos Douvikas (23) - ST, Greece, Utrecht - contract till 6/2025 - LINK - TM - signed for Celta Vigo for Euro 12m IN - Haji Wright (25) - ST, US/Liberia, Antalyaspor - contract till 6/2025 - LINK - TM - signed contract extension 2027 IN - Auston Trusty (24) - CB, US, Arsenal - contract till 6/20xx - LINK - TM - signed for Sheffield United for Euro 5.8m OUT - SQUAD as of 24 / 05 / 2023 Squad listed in order of remaining length of contract & primary position Full squad list at Transfermarkt Squad by primary and optional position at Transfermarkt Goal: Robby McCrorie (25) - contract 6/2025 Jon McLaughlin (35) - contract 6/2024 Kieran Wright (23) – contract till 6/2023 Jack Butland (30) - contract till 2027 Defence James Tavernier (31) – RB - contract 6/2024 Borna Barisic (30) - LB - contract 6/2024 Leon Balogun (35) - CH - contract 6/2024 Leon King (19) - CH - contract 6/2024 Adam Devine (20) RB – contract 6/2025 Connor Goldson (30) - CH - contract 6/2026 John Souttar (25) - CH - contract 6/2026 Ben Davies (27) - CH - contract 6/2026 Ridvan Yilmaz (21) - LB - contract 6/2027 Dujon Sterling (23) - CB - contract till 2027 Midfield Steven Davis (38) – CM - contract 6/2023 Ryan Jack (31) – CM - contract 6/2024 Ross McCausland (19) - LW - contract 2024 John Lundstram (29) - CM - contract 6/2024 Abdallah Sima (22) - RW/ST - contract till 2024 (season long loan) Tom Lawrence (28) - LW - contract 2025 Glen Kamara (27) – CM - contract 6/2025 Thomspon Ishaka (18) - LW - contract till 202x Scott Wright (25) - LW/AM - contract 6/2025 Alex Lowry (19) - AM - contract 6/2025 Rabbi Matondo (22) - RW - contract 2025 Nicola Raskin (22) – CM – contract 202x Todd Cantwell (25) – AM – contract 6/202x Kieran Dowell (25) - AM - contract till 2027 Jose Cifuentes (24) - CM - contract till 6/2027 Strikers Kemar Roofe (30) - ST - contract 6/2024 Sam Lammers (26) - ST - contract till 2027 Cyrell Dessers (28) - ST - contract till 2027 Danilo Pereira da Silva (24) - ST - contract till 2027 Coaching Staff Check out the club's home page Academy / B Side -> https://www.Rangers.co.uk/article/academy-restructure/4skGYIfqugwK1CvGZUHFH0 GONE - ... Women's Side -> https://rangers.co.uk/teams/ladies-senior/
    10 points
  38. The Green Brigade raised that banner on the 66th minute of their match on Saturday. I'm sure many of you have seen their graffiti references to 66 too. Anyone who wants to give them more tickets should have a serious word with himself. Do you like their IRAoke? Do you like their Palestinian/Papal flags? Do you like how they're still trying to wriggle out of apologising to and compensating the many victims of the paedophile ring they facilitated? Do you invite smelly tramps into your house? I hope none of them set foot in Ibrox ever again.
    10 points
  39. Celtic have just announced they won't be accepting any tickets for the League Cup quarter finals.
    10 points
  40. The Daily Update on H&H suggested that it won't matter what the SPFL board decide. Celtic won't give us any tickets and will just accept any resultant fine. If that is what happens then we should just cease any discussions with Celtic about the issue for the next few years as they can't be trusted to abide by rules or agreements.
    10 points
  41. Rousseau struggling to get past Cammy's low block on this thread. It's just like Ibrox because the spectators and bored/frustrated and several are leaving early.
    10 points
  42. The most depressing thing about this isn't the dearth of contenders for POTY it's the poverty of Young Player Of The Year. Usually when a club has a disappointing, injury hit season it means we've had to play young players and perhaps there are some seeds of hope emerging. Tillman will win YPOTY hands down, not just because he's the best young player this season but because he's been the only young player this season. Leon King only started 7 games and looks to be far away from our starting 11, despite our current centre halves performing poorly recently. Adam Devine has started 3 matches, he's looked OK when he's played, but who can be sure. The great hope at the start of the season was Alex Lowry. He's started 1 match this season. He's had injuries and issues off the field, but it's still a hugely disappointing season for him. I recently read Revolution, Rangers 86 - 92 and was really struck by the core of the side that won the league in Souness and Smith's first season. Ian Durrant, Davie McPherson, Stuart Munro and Bobby Fleck all played over 40 games for us that season, Derek Ferguson played 33 times. If our 'business model' is to sell players to wealthier leagues every season then we need to start to develop players and that involves actually playing them.
    10 points
  43. Why don't you invite him onto the Gersnet podcast? As a quid pro quo -thereafter- you could agree to take part in a Sportsound episode.
    10 points
  44. Despite having over 2 months to organise, it seems the Rangers Travel Partner has yet again been unable to provide a travel option for Rangers fans. It was announced today there will be no official flight to Lisbon for Rangers supporters to go and see the game. Sport Options, catering for all 5 remaining UK participants in the two Thursday Cups, have yet again managed to put on a flight at a reasonable price. Unfortunately for me, they (rightly) gave fans who travelled with them earlier in the season first dibs and the flight was filled within 15 minutes with hundreds more missing out. It is completely unacceptable for the club to align with a travel partner who cannot provide travel. I understand the last partner got binned for the very same reason but this new one seems equally incompetent. For fans who don’t want to spend 3 days in various airports zigzagging across Europe to get to the game the day trip or 1 night direct option is the only option, and while it is usually much more expensive that is the trade-off and you can make that choice. The club is normally not shy in making a buck out of the fans, and I can only imagine this scenario is costing the club money too. In 2008 the Nithsdale Loyal RSC booked and ran a 240 seater plane at very little notice to Lisbon for our quarter final tie v Sporting en route to Manchester. It was our second charter of the season following another full flight to Barcelona for our CL game the previous autumn. Surely if a supporters club can arrange, administer and run a flight then these travel partners should be able to provide the same?
    9 points
  45. The only acceptable plates are Royal Doulton with hand painted periwinkles. Edit: I've tried to force a Hyacinth reference, but I'm not sure it works.
    9 points


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