craig

Fully expecting Celtic to win today we will be on the same points as them - but when you look, after just THREE games, how many points have been gifted to them and robbed from us, you can see why it will be a struggle to win the league !!

Well well well...... You can chalk up two points lost by us due to a terrible call from a linesman.

I am pretty confident he will make you eat them BD !!

Not sure I agree BD. If we play with a midfield 3 (or is that 5) with Mendes, Beasley, Novo, Davis etc etc then I think we would need the workhorse type that Thomson is. Also, I don't think it is too much of a surprise that Thomson had one of his best games in a long time last week whilst playing beside Mendes - he was breaking up play but getting forward much more too. I have to admit that I like Thomson as a player. One thing though - you said that you hoped Edu would replace Thomson - Edu is a defensive midfielder so not sure that he would bring the creativity that you desire. Thomson is a Stuart McCall type player - quiet, unsung, hard-working and effective. At 2 mill I reckon we got a much better deal than Celtic did for Brown (watched him on TV against St Mirren and he was no better than Thomson IMO)

Worked for McGregor too !!

Not so my man. He completed most of the pres-season but then got injured at the end of it - should be due back soon though

Nice article and agreed on the vast majority of it. I am not a big Miller fan but I think you are being a tad harsh on him with the "Law of averages as a forward player for Rangers you're going to have the odd good momment such as the run v Hearts to create the goal that sealed the points" statement. Why do I feel you were harsh ? Because KM created that chance for himself with no influence from other Gers players and he started the run pretty much on the halfway line. I do agree Re law of averages in general - which makes our forward line look less appealing as none of them seem to be putting the chances away !

I dont know why they keep buying it - nothing ever changes on their top, it is green and grey every year !

I think it depends on where he plays. Good CM but nowhere near as effective when played wide right.

Jon, are you looking at the OP's post properly ? It wasn't a team but 3 variations on the DEFENCE. And, as the OP says, he has Bougherra in TWO different positions, being LCB and RCB. I think you might have taken his original post and assumed he was posting a starting XI.

What you on about ???? Weir will be a starter when he is set to celebrate his half century - surely that is a considerable amount of time ? :fish: )where are the smilies ?)

On your bad week Jon ? :fish:

IF Weir is out then it has to be Bougherra and Broadfoot as CB's. They did pretty well at Falkirk and it would mean minimal disruption. Whittaker and Papac at full back.

Maybe they will be playing Edu at RB

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/scottishpremier/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/08/08/20/manual_180947.html&TEAMHD=scotspremiership IFK Gothenborg defender Mattias Bjarsmyr claims he has been approached by Scottish giants Rangers. Danish side FC Copenhagen have already had an offer for the Sweden international turned down this summer. Rangers boss Walter Smith is now said to have joined the race for the 22-year-old, with Goteborg thought to be demanding more than �£2million for the promising youngster. "I don't know much about that (Rangers), but I have also heard that." Bjarsmyr told Expressen. "There was a guy who called and told me about Rangers, but I told him to talk to my agent Martin Dahlin. "Martin is handling all that and he has not told me that there is something serious."

Read the bloody posts then :fish: (just kidding) - the article said that it could collapse, thought to be over financial issues between Davis and Fulham. It will go through. I am not sure I would prefer Davis or Bresciano to be honest. Bresciano is more naturally suited to the right side of midfield than Davis (and I cant see Davis getting a CM role with Mendes in there and also BF when he comes back - Thomson and Edu will be fighting for the grafters position). The flip side of that is that Davis is a Ger, wants to play for us, has graft and some guile but, just as importantly, is 5 years younger than Bresciano.

Indeed assumptions are not facts - but where facts cannot be determined one has only two options 1) make an assumption or 2) bury your head in the sand The good thing about assumptions is that we would be completely open and honest in that we simply don't know and have assumed something. Now, dependent on how we go about this (given BD and I are both busy people) if something requiring assumption is as simple as being "either this OR that" then we can build a scenario on both assumptions. Without having a look at the information available to us it is a difficult thing to even envision. Have to say though, I am intrigued about it enough to want to attempt a shot at it.

Difficult task without having access to full information so there will be assumptions, no doubt. However, would be nice to prove if SDM is the hooded thief he is portrayed to be by some or if he is a touch more innocent than that !

I agree that a football club isnt like a normal business and everything in your first paragraph. Re your 2nd paragraph about truths being a basic tenet that should be applied more.... I couldnt agree more but sadly there are many, many companies and their executives who will lie through their teeth to achieve their own means (we only need look at Enron for the perfect example and there are plenty of others - the Enron execs not only put the company under but also wiped out the pension funds of all their employees - and yet some of the execs STILL believe they did no wrong). Now, that said, SDM is not governed to the same extent by having to appease shareholders (as he owns the vast majority of shares) so he should find it easier to hold your basic tenet true. However, I suspect he lost all sight of being honest on a regular basis a long time ago.

Mendes was still MOTM for me but Thomson ran him close - to be honest I dont care who got it - the bigger thing, for me at least, is we had TWO midfielders vying for MOTM and those two midfielders looked like they had been playing together for YEARS. I look at Boyd perhaps slightly differently from others. He didn't score granted but he DID get himself into the position to give himself a chance on a few occasions (in the first half when he tried to lov the keeper then in the 2nd when he was one on one). He at least gets himself in the right place at the right time which will invariably mean that chances will present themself to him. Velicka on the other hand did very very little too and IIRC only found himself with one half chance - yet, again, we find ourselves giving Boyd the hard time. I am neither pro nor anti Boyd - he just brings goals to the team and I can see the argument on both sides. But I felt, in the 2nd half at least, that he put a shift in and put more pressure on the Hearts defenders and did more defensive running than I have seen him doing for a long time. At the very least, it looked to me like he was TRYING to be more of a team member, which is what WS and AM wanted of him was it not ?

Sounds like an interesting project my man. We could, if we find the time, start WAY back when SDM took over, look at the cashflows and primary statements and pluck all the major relevant parts - pick the bones from it if you will - would be interesting to make an effort to prove one way or another how much SDM has taken from the club, sold off etc etc - still a difficult job though but one to get our teeth into

I wasn't as engrained in the RST as you seem to have been MF - I got a life membership as I felt that they truly had the fans best interests at heart and many of the public statements originally made by the Trust were well thought, professional, articulate and defended both the club and the fans against a biased media (in fact, some would say they played a role that should have been carried out by the club itself). I was of the impression that the worm turned at roughly the time when the resignations began to become public. At that point the Trust seemed to implode very, very quickly (so quickly that it was apparent, to me at least, that something was wrong prior to that point but which had been suppressed successfully). Obviously as I dont know anything about the behind the scenes actions of the Trust and its Board I am surmising. The one thing which upsets me is that the Trust COULD HAVE been to the betterment of both the club AND the fans - but egos and agendas stood in the way of that and any of the progress and credibility initially made by the Trust was eroded far quicker than it had been built.

Absolutely no question - he had a midfielder beside him who he knew he could rely on. It was glaring that he felt he didnt have to be as restricted as he had been in previous games when he was the only natural CM playing. And it was a joy to watch him picking the ball up and making those forward runs - he and Mendes seemed to inter-change the forward runs excellently.

Glad you said squad. Davis isn't good enough to get in the team...... how times have changed from a week ago hey ? Seriously though, Davis a week ago would be a starter and now he is inthe position of struggling to get in. Makes for good competition, hopefully !

Not just a BIG exercise but a difficult one unless you have access to the fixed asset register or know for sure what asset sales took place in which year. If material they MIGHT be disclosed in the financials but no requirement as such..... We could possibly work in tandem on this BD - when time allows.