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You fools! Don't you know @compo was there 3000 years ago, when four lads had a dream!

Correct answer.

Did he not take that photo on his box brownie?

We wore hoops before they did.

Great stuff from @Rick Roberts as always: A write-off. A disaster. A humiliation. A farce. A b*stard of a season. All phrases I’ve heard used to describe Rangers 2024/25 campaign, with most of them uttered before Halloween yet still accurate. This has been a tough season to look back over and in a way it was doomed to failure before it even began. Our absent and estranged board signed up to lock us out of our own stadium for months, at considerable cost. In a two horse race, where we need everything going right, this was an unnecessary hinderance and disruption. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but in this instance hindsight wasn’t required, this was a known risk/outcome/expense at a critical time which was wilfully entered into. In totally unrelated news, many scratched their heads as Clement was given an extension to his contract for no apparent reason. On the pitch we stumbled out of the blocks. An uninspiring 0-0 draw at Hearts set the tone. We would win our next three 'home' games at Hampden but when we got thumped 3-0 in an insipid display at Parkhead on the 1st of September there was a feeling that this might not be our year. Loses to Kilmarnock and Aberdeen at the end of October pretty much extinguished any lingering hope of a league title. And that was that. Looking back over this season and I’m aware of a familiar feeling to that experienced from the lower league years. There’s a thick fog clouding my memory of the season, specific games and moments are blurred and lost in the soup. Instead of a vivid recall of goals and victories or a focus on performances, movement or milestones being passed, my mind has moved onto questions like - how long has Dessers been here now, has Danilo ever looked like a striker, does the Cortes obligation to buy mean we really have to buy him? All of this is probably down to the fact that we aren’t moving forward and we certainly aren’t competing. There wasn’t an edge at all this season - no needle, no banter. Last year, we clawed things back and applied pressure for a few weeks around New Year and then dropped away. The year before had nothing of real substance either. We were back and strong with 55 and Seville '22 and yet we have regressed and nothing is more damning than our rivals having just secured four in a row and overtaken our trophy count. Think about that for a minute. Year upon year of wasted time. From a position of parity to relative oblivion and another season where they stroll to a treble. Europe has been a welcome comfort blanket and a source of hope/pride but a diminishing squad will eventually make hard work of that too, and there’s a feeling that it has a convenient distraction for our players. Our current predicament comes down to the lack of accountability within the club. Our board have left critical positions vacant for extended periods of time. We have filled roles with juniors and interns. How can that inspire confidence in the players? And if the board couldn’t be bothered do the fundamentals correctly it begs the question of what other tasks have they half-arsed or ignored altogether? As a support we’ve been fobbed off with managers being jettisoned or scapegoat players being swapped out or given away, when we should’ve been at the front door demanding that our club is ran professionally; demanding that we get an experienced chairman, CEO, director of football, medical teams, PR dept, whoever… Thinking back and it has probably been like this since the Sydney Cup debacle. It may be simplistic or unfair to say the board gave up and stopped trying back then but in reality that’s what it looks like from the outside, so frankly I don’t care if it’s unfair. It’s taken us three years of gradual decay to truly wake up to the damage done. They should have stepped aside back then. They should’ve looked each other in eye, acknowledged that they were not up to it and sold up at that point, for the good of the club. The damage is inexcusable and heart-breaking. Our club was built by great men and dedicated, loyal fans and it has been deflated by incompetent halfwits. I don’t think can express my resentment strongly enough. You could pick any half a dozen fans from the crowd and they would formulate and action a better plan to run the club. Breathtakingly bad, legacy-destroying idiocy. Another area where we fell (continue to fall) woefully short is in domestic cup competitions. Clement managed to muster a decent performance out of the team for the league cup final in December 2024. To lose on penalty kicks was a sore one. To not be awarded a clear penalty by VAR was scandalous, and even worse after hearing the audio from the officials. Put simply, they conspired to not award a penalty which would’ve won Rangers a domestic trophy. Again, the Rangers board are found wanting off the pitch. This was not an isolated incident. We have a terrible domestic record over the past ten years. Much of that is through not being good enough on the park, without argument; however, more than a few recent trophies have been decided by questionable decisions. When mistakes only go one way they aren’t mistakes. A real Rangers board would only allow that to happen once. It’s now a predictable pattern, a running joke. I’ve said this before, if the players are regularly undermined by questionable decisions then is it any wonder that they lose confidence and focus during games? If they aren’t seeing real leadership or protection from above, then the sense of unity must be damaged and uncertainty must creep in at times during games. The season continued and led us along a dark and increasingly tortuous path to where we’d meet Queens Park at Ibrox in the last 16 of the Scottish Cup in February. Queens Park would deservedly win 1-0 and give Clement and his players the eternal shame of our worst ever cup result. Clement's press conference did not convince anyone and even for a board that had dropped standards and accountability to new lows, this was one sore face too many. He had to be shown he door. Clement had some promising moments, especially during his first six months with us but upon reflection his team/philosophy just stopped doing the good things, the necessary things; besides his record against Celtic was tragic, whilst his record against selected other clubs wasn’t great either and was only getting worse. We just couldn’t get a run of more than three or four wins going, which would never be enough to mount a challenge. His press conferences had initially been a breath of fresh air but quickly became unlistenable. He also fell into the understandable/unavoidable trap of trusting his players and giving them too many second chances - interim manager Barry Ferguson is currently airing regret at this same mistake. This is more a failing on the club as a Director of Football or any trace of continuity would prevent such mistakes from being repeated across regimes, across multiple seasons. Player wise it’s fair to say Raskin has stepped up and was deservedly awarded Player of the Season, so that is something to cling to at least. Cerny is a very good player, but he’s not ours. Signings like Diomande and Igamane get pass marks and certainly have potential if used right and, if their inconsistency is coached out of them. We can but dream of Balogun being ten years younger because our defence appears to have vanished. The fog of mediocrity and inconsistency clouds the rest of the squad. Most of our senior players have fallen from grace; Butland, Danilo, Tav and Ridvan can leave and no one would care or even notice. Dessers may have his moments (a great attitude and nice smile) but he should have twice the number of goals for the chances he gets, added to his biggest weakness - that he rarely scores when we really need it, when it matters. For Clement personally, the signings of Propper and Cortes are damning - the latter especially so after confidently asserting that he would clear up our injury problems. We seem to be at a familiar place come the end of a season where we have more big ticket players sitting on the bench than on the pitch. This cycle has to stop. Clement was a passable manager, but we needed far better. And so we have a takeover imminent. Being honest, I would rather our current owners just ran the club with a modicum of professionalism and common sense but since that is beyond them I guess a change of ownership is necessary. Hopefully new owners can bring fresh ideas and much needed energy, without losing the soul or essence of our club. The entire operation is currently a shambles and much like back in 2016 there are a lot of easy fixes that can improve things instantaneously. The question is will they have the knowledge and nous to deal with the entrenched hostility of the SPFL, SFA and wider Scottish establishment? Or the tact and empathy to deal with a success-starved support? And surely this time the new owners will hold themselves and their placemen to account, with success and actions being both the metric and unifying call? There is money to be made at Rangers, which requires success to unearth it, and that would keep supporters and owners happy.

Gerrard was backed financially with us, which is part of the reason we're in this state currently. Honestly, too many are looking back with blue-tinted spectacles. It wasn't great - outwith that one season where everything went our way, including no crowds and no competition.

We could go real retro and have blue and white stripes or even more retro, blue and white hoops.

Got sent this. On WhatsApp, so it must mean something You wouldn't see the Red Bull logo on this. So I'm in.

I think anyone with a modicum of common sense knew before the season started we had no chance lack of money lack of decent players but the lack of determination from the board to put things right was astounding if your going to sack the manager you should have someone lined up to step in but we never and you see the result I’m beginning to wonder if the board knew about this American involvement long before it became known now all the fans have is looking forward to next season (how many times has that been heard ) we haven’t a clue who’ll be in charge or how much will be spent we can only hope .

You're*

Always has been, but try telling that to the other half who has picked out the accessories to go in the thing 🤣. She’s learning her lesson slowly when she needs to be driven somewhere. My response is simple: I’m only going out during the daytime and need to be back before sunset haha.

Blue is the colour

Ditching the Blue would actually kill me tbh it’s my 🧬 it’s practically woven into my skin , I recently purchased a new car and added my cherished reg plate thinking my car was a Avatar Blue through pictures etc I seen and videos doing research driving mainly in light conditions may I add , the main point I’ve noticed is when it’s in the shade it’s like a dull green yet when in sunshine it’s Avatar Blue. I hate to admit it I’m actually thinking of not driving it and getting a new one as my plate doesn’t deserve it. Have faith in Blue @compo there really isn’t any other colour out there even if you do go with Fancy Avatar blue, I was influenced tbh by the other half that’s last time I’ll be doing that for sure until I need something else ofcourse 😂

Erse.

🤢 A can't say it mate, even in jest 😂😂

Mon the hoops 😅

That was quick 🤣

Were those tops not loaned from a boating club for this photo? I am sure I read somewhere that they had to borrow those as their own tops were filthy, having played a game that day.

Fair question RE Clement. Although it wasn't his decision to freeze out Hagi (that situation was a disgrace IMO). I do think Clement mentally checked out after our transfer business last summer. Not defending the results.

Teams have a knack to sell us people who are simply too weak to play a few months of football on the trot. Reckless fouls aside, in my 40odd years I have not seen that many (important and/or expansive) players getting injured - or fall apart - like during the last 4 or 5 seasons. And I doubt it is simply down to fitness training and coaching.

Not to mention his squad management, not wanting to sell players when offers came in, giving players big wage deals, persisting to rely on with clearly injury prone players like Jack etc Many will state the board didn't back him after 55, and they would be right. But COVID hit us hard financially, and there was quite a bit of value in that squad if you were willing to sell.

That was included in the 'no competition', but yes. He probably deserves his own category.

and Neil Lennon

out of contract...

No worries. I just saw an opportunity to post a gif, and I took it...

You’re not wrong sometimes my mouth moves faster than my brain… and my knowledge of proper verb conjugation is Shockingly bad 🤣 * correction from @Rousseau I blame my medication and the three Anthrax jabs I was given 🤣

Would have, not would of. Standards, and all that.

Aye PSG we’re the better side last night far better at times

PSG are the real deal which is great. I still think they will get out done in the final from Barca but it would be worth seeing them win just to rub it up Mbappe. The English pundits who go on and on about them having the greatest league - PSG have out played Man City, Liverpool, Villa and now Arsenal. But at 1-0 anything can happen, Arsenal need a performance like they did in Madrid and having Partey back will be a big boost.

Is that not a replica of the 1980-81 strip from Umbro with different material and Sponsor

Aye, we need to move a load on, I'm really hoping that next season I dont have to set eyes on yilmaz, lawrence, tav, Dessers, danilo and quite a few others.

I reluctantly entered the 60s but I’m not going further than that.

That's a given mate, doesn't take Nostradamus. They're being made by Umbro. Their designs have always been minimalistic.

Not to jinx anything btw, but this feature seems to be working as normal without the workaround.

It's HRH Prince of Wales.

Is the bald one (behind Jean-Luc) Steinsson?

Therein lies your problem. Have you not had enough of instant answers? Is it not time for a slower, more thorough, percolated, solution?

I think whats happening is someone needs to upgrade their Nokia for a real phone with a proper camera.

It's what we do though. It's hard to imagine what fans expect Rice to do playing in a team that's struggling. He may show better qualities when surrounded by good, well coached players, just like his current manager did.

Not sure if it's accurate but I quite like it.

A throwback to the 80-81 season...wouldn't mind a Davie Cooper these days, or a player with even half his skill would do.

Should take anyone's dual ownership fears or whatever is happening at Leeds right off the table. There in black and white, it is not the 49ers taking over us, it's a consortium which they are part of.