ascender

Which is part of the problem, we should have moved on from a number of these players by now.

This is murder.... we're in for a thumping at this rate. Set pieces are a mix of zonal and man marking, but it doesn't really matter what we do if the players don't bother their arse to do it right.

Which got me thinking again yesterday (although might have been the morning pints and early afternoon hangover)... could we as a fan-base accept "success" in Europe over winning the league every year and adjust to that way of thinking? I mean obviously the answer is a resounding "no", but if we can't have both...

To be honest, apart from that inaugural CL run and the odd result here and there, we've been utter dog$hit in Europe for my entire lifetime. Maybe that's what it comes down to though, that its just not easy to have a squad capable of doing both which you could argue Celtic are proving, but in reverse to us.

The attitude from the players yesterday absolutely stank, but I just can't believe we've ended up here with this bunch of players, playing the (almost) same formation and making the same mistakes and displaying the same issues we've all seen for the last 3/4 seasons. Nobody got pass marks yesterday, on or off the pitch and we do need to be a bit realistic about the finances - Celtic are still ahead in that regard because of how long they've been unopposed to get the CL qualification along with their player trading model etc. I also think the size of our squad is probably the main reason we didn't buy any more players. We have various big earners who are either injured or aren't first XI picks. That was a terrible display from McLaughlin. But most of us thought he was the best option of our 3 keepers and probably still is. Why is McGregor still here? Dropping him was the first big (and easiest) decision Gio had last year and he bottled it. McCrorie or McLaughlin should have been in and we should have either signed a new #1 in the summer or promoted McCrorie and let Greegs and maybe McLaughlin leave. All of that has meant Gio has another tough decision to make and its of his own doing. Luck hasn't been with us with injuries, but you need a strong spine of a team and in the SPFL in particular, we seem unable to do the basic sort of defending you need to do. We've got away with so many near things over the last 3/4 years - set pieces, corners, long balls etc where you need a couple of centre halves who can just do the simple things well. Goldson's fitness record is incredible, he's been a great servant, but we need better. I was surprised when he re-signed as I'd have been happy for him to go. At some point we need to move on. Do we ever learn? Are any of the coaching staff not seeing the same things we are? When was the last time Kent had a few games in a row where he played to the best of his ability? Sakala? He's not a striker, he is at least unpredictable when he's playing wide and cutting-in, but he seems to be down the pecking order, so why is he still here? Helander & Roofe? Still here, on big wages and utterly unreliable over the course of a season. Morelos & Kent? In to the last 6 months of their contracts. Are either work keeping based on what we know we'll get (or not) from them over the course of a season? Jack looks done. McGregor, Davis & Arfield - Reasonable wages for players who aren't going to start every week. Influential in the right games, but are they worth it for the cost? Young players - at what point should we take the punt that some like Lowry and McCann are worth giving a real run in the first team rather than spending money on incoming transfers who may not be any better than them? Setup far too defensively in many league games. Very one-note pace and system in these games. At least we've added Lawrence who seems to want to shoot from outside the box. But ffs, watching us week in, week out, its like nothing's changed since Gerrard came in (not just some of the players) and we're just going to keep on doing the same thing week after week expecting a different result. Europe's been incredible, but surely its not asking much of the management and players to be able to setup differently for the different challenges we face?

Just in… f*cking hell that was grim… but not unexpected I guess which is the worst bit. When that first goal went in I just knew what was coming. I know Gio has tweaked things in the way we play, but so much about how we setup, struggle to break down defences in Scotland and some of the weaknesses don’t seem to have changed one bit since Gerrard’s time. And as quite a few people have mentioned, the core of our team has been the same for years, during which time it could be argued that we’ve underachieved, time and time again in Scotland. It could be a very long season… Off to have yet another beer.

I was really looking forward to seeing Lawrence at the weekend.. What is it with our ongoing bad luck with injuries??

I don't think its looking good for Ryan Jack unfortunately, but I think we are ok with that position. A creative midfielder who can go past his man with drive, some pace would be good. Will Roofe go? Will Morelos go? Kent hasn't signed an extension either... I've not been keeping up with the finances, but presumably the CL groups gives us a more predictable income, earlier in the season compared to us going far in to the Europa League? Hence its not unreasonable to expect some cash is made available?

Can't quite believe it. Amazing stuff. Speechless.

I can't watch this...

A lot of this has come out of the blue to me, I thought he's been looking trim during the close season and I hadn't heard any rumours about his attitude - everything I'd read on social media seemed to be saying we had to be patient with him as it was a serious injury with a long recovery time. I can only guess other things have been going on and Saturday was the final straw for the team.

It was Dumbarton and the player doing the assault was Ally Love who seems to have been around league one and two for ages and he was the guy who was given a ban for racially abusing a player when he was with Clyde. So its hard not to be incredibly cynical about a 31 year old player doing that at the end of a game when you're 7-0 down.

I see the Glasgow Times are running a story today saying McCrorie is going to leave following McGregor's decision to stay as that's effectively guaranteeing another season with no chance of a place in the 1st team.

If McCrorie isn't considered good enough to be our #2 by now, he should be let go. And I know Gio hasn't been here that long, but enough people who have been are still in and around the club. Presumably McGregor is also on a reasonable wage which could perhaps be better used on someone else? I just find it a bit strange, that's all. Or maybe it just confirms funds are more limited than thought and this means we don't have to spend any money on a keeper this summer and still end up with three decent options.

What do we think happened here? He obviously wasn't match fit when he joined us, so was that the crux of it? He didn't have the games to get properly match fit and we didn't have the luxury to take a risk on him as we were still in for every trophy available until very recently. I seem to remember he also picked up some niggling injuries along the way which is always a risk with someone who is trying to get up to speed at this point in the season. Hindsight is always great, but I do wonder what the thinking behind this deal was, or what assurances we had about his fitness.

I'd have thought someone in Sweden would sign Helander and a club in Europe somewhere would take Itten? Simpson might be a nomimal fee/mutual agreement sort of thing. McLaughlin's show yesterday just confirmed for me he's more than capable of being our number one. He's not a sweeper-keeper, but he's not afraid to come well out of his box to help recycle the ball or clear it. And how great was it when he came for a couple of corners yesterday? Opposition corners when its all even or we're only one up have given me the fear, but he just came, grabbed the ball, no panic. Do we think we might see Diallo again next season? Someone seems to have had a word with him and he seems to get what's expected of a Rangers player in the last few times I've seen him. I know effort isn't everything, but he's clearly talented. I thought Souttar played well yesterday too, so is hopefully a good addition.

He seems like such a nice, down to earth guy with lots of humility and is clearly loving life here. Given his age and all of that, I'd hope he's in no rush to go anywhere and is looking forward to the CL qualifiers as one of the first names on the team sheet.

I just don't see the benefit to keeping him around unless he was moving into coaching or something? At the moment, McLaughlin will be number one unless Gio plans to sign someone who will come straight in to that position. I suspect we'll sign someone younger with a view to giving them some experience next year and acting as #2. If McCrorie stays, that's the position sorted for the next while although with McCrorie, if he's good enough, he needs to become our #2 and if not, should probably leave for his own career.

Yes, Itten was floored by something this year, possibly after-effects of covid, not sure if it was confirmed anywhere. Those players who seem to struggle fitness-wise, its a shame, but when you play as many games as we do with Europe on top of the league, we can't afford to carry them anymore, so is that Helander, Roofe and Jack we need to move on?

Deleted as its nonsense!

We're almost in the same position as we were this time last year. We need to sign a few players who will improve the first XI (I know its an outdated term) - so quality over quantity. I guess the difference this year is that there's others like McGregor & Davis who may retire and some who're at the point where we should cash-in on them given their contract situation.

Apologies... I'd only be suggesting that if we had a loan with an option to buy. I couldn't see it happening otherwise - he's also entering the last year of his contract so maybe that would be a more realistic option at the moment, I don't know.

He's hardly untested though. He's looked like one of the best players on the park in the internationals I've seen him play for example? We are stacked in central midfield but I'm hoping for a bit of a clearout and a fresh approach. I don't know how you can compare him to Ramsey which was one of those gambles which would either turn out brilliantly or be a massive waste of time and money. I'm skeptical about the Gilmour thing happening, but if it does, he's someone you could build your midfield around for years to come.

Gilmour would be a no-brainer if we could make it happen and on the face of it would seem to suit all parties. I'm really interested to see what Gio does in the summer.

Oh, and next year, if there's players like Lowry who appear to be good enough for the first team, can we just use them please? Thanks.