Tannochsidebear

just seen #21 from COTW mentioning Dorrans in Pena's slot and Barjonas holding and I wouldn't mind seeing that given a chance as well.

Can this Nemane not play instead of Windass? The young loanee has done nothing of note yet, so that makes him a better option than Windass! If he can only play on one side, Candieas can play either side as he has consistently swapped over with Windass during games anyway. I dont see any reason why we need to continue with Windass, he now needs taken out the side for his own good. As for the rest of midfield, Jack slows everything down and doesnt protect the defence half as much as he should, I would have the energy, movement and far better creativity of Holt every day of the week ahead of Jack. Holt's energy also seemed to bring better performances out of Dorrans, so its a win-win there. Wes Tav McCrorie Alves Elton Holt Dorrans Candieas Pena Nemane Morelos Given it is struggling Killie at Ibrox, I would love him to give a chance to a Morelos/Herrera partnership up top, with Pena dropping out. Lets see, there might be some magic there, but if we dont try, we wont know.

Every manager appointed mid-season comes in to a set of players who have been under-performing (hence why the predecessor got sacked) and who are not his first choice. Good managers, and even some average ones, get a bounce for a while and results and performances improve. Not under Pedro they didnt for us. As I said in the OP we havent won 3 games in a row since he took over. I have read you several times downplaying the Progres result. It is the worst result in our entire history. Bar none. That cannot be downplayed, nor should it. If Pedro didnt have his first choice picks ready for this game, then he takes the blame for that. The same scenario existed for Progres, a lot of new players and they started pre-season the same time as us, yet on a budget about a million times less than us. Our Under 20 side should have been able to beat them. Whether we went on to make the groups stages or not (most think not & I agree), to be eliminated at that stage cost us a fortune, and the manager has to be criticised for it. We are as far ahead of Motherwell in financial terms as we are behind celtic. Yet we lose to Motherwell and its fair enough, and we lose to celtic and we cant expect to compete? It cannot be both. I dont expect to win every non-OF game domestically, but I certainly do expect to win most of them, and I most certainly expect us to win a SF at hampden with 80% of the support behind us against a provincial club with perhaps one player (Moult) who would make it into our 18 man squad. We certainly do have good days where we play well and win easily. Everyone goes home happy and we move on to the next one. The problem is that under this manager we have never built any consistency of results or performances. He has been here 7 months, 25 games, spent £10M, which a substantial amount of time and resources, and I dont think it is too much to expect him to produce a team that knows how to beat the likes of Motherwell on a consistent basis. I agree that unless he has a disaster and loses 3 on the trot that he will be given more time (wrongly IMO) and the board will see where we are after the OF game at Xmas in relation to Dolly and the rest of the league below us, as any change for the season should be with an opportunity for the new guy to do some deals in January, both in and out. One thing that troubles me greatly was that coming out of Hampden yesterday and walking back towards Battlefield, and even on the bus going home, there was a real apathy about our situation. The result was not a huge shock as it should have been. There was no angry shouting, no trouble or gesticulations. Most people walking along the crowded streets were not even talking about the game. It was a shrug of the shoulder and an acceptance I never thought I would ever see from Rangers supporters, so there is without doubt a realism amongst the hardcore that actually attend Rangers matches, which might be different from the internet only guys, that we have no divine right to win, and we are a Rangers side in name only.

Rangers 0 celtic 2 scsf Rangers 1 celtic 5 Rangers 1 Aberdeen 2 Progres 2 Rangers 0 elq Rangers 0 celtic 2 Rangers 0 Motherwell 2 lcsf 14 wins, 4 draws and 7 defeats out of Pedro's 25 competitive games. We have not won 3 consecutive games since Pedro took over. I read a lot of excuses being made for the manager. Pedro is exactly as his CV suggested he would be, mediocre at best. The longer we kid ourselves that he has a chance to turn it round, the further away our recovery stays. It is as clear as day that Pedro is putting everything into this job but getting no consistent performances out of two sets of players, either the ones he inherited or the ones he has brought in. That is down to his lack of managerial talent, pure and simple. I like him, I like to listen to him speak, I would love him to be a success. He carries himself well, is very dignified and understands what we are all about as a club and support. But what he speaks about doesn't come to fruition on the park. Somehow his vision and ideas are either being ignored or are not understood. That is the manager's job, and he is unable to get it done. I predicted on day one he wouldnt see his first anniversary, not because I want him to fail, it is because he had no right being appointed by Mr Park and our board. It was a bad gamble on a 100/1 shot with the future of our club (thankfully only our fortunes on the park at risk), and it has failed. The board have backed him loyally and financially, and if they didnt bin him after Progres (which was a no-brainer) they wont bin him after yesterday, and we will continue winning a couple and then not winning, while losing all the big important games. We may still grab second place if Dolly is also inconsistent, but we will not be making progress until we change manager. Some say can we afford it, I say can we afford not to? Who to bring in i'm asked? Apparently we got around 70 CV's last time even though Pedro was a done deal, get the word out again and we may be surprised by some of the talent out there that would love to manage us. I dont believe we will make a managerial change, and I dont know what kind of result will be bad enough given some of the results mentioned above were not enough for the board to make a move, and we may well win our next couple of games and think we have turned the corner again, until the next setback. It is, in my opinion, always going to be this long and winding road under Pedro, and inconsistency doesnt get you anywhere, even in Scotland where the level of quality is at an all-time low. The squad is vastly improved, as it should be with a near £10M outlay, but still short in a few areas. We look defensively much better (not hard after MW) and we look like we have goal threats. We have some better players in midfield. But are we really that much better a team? At this stage last season under MW, we had 15 points after 9 games, had just lost to celtic in the SF of the league cup. So we are 2 points better off but lost to a provincial club in the SF this time round. Obviously MW didnt have Europe due to the disgraceful performance in the SCF, so we cant compare Euro campaigns, but clearly MW couldnt have done any worse than the worst result in our 145 year history on Pedro's watch. So for £10M have our fortunes improved at all?

I cant argue with any of that. We have been here before however with a couple of decent wins and performances and then it all falls apart and we start again. It is crucial, if Pedro wants to be here past Christmas, that he can find a way of getting a run of wins together. 2 wins and a draw or defeat is never going to be good enough. However he may be excused a draw or defeat if he has won 6 games in a row, or goes 10 unbeaten with a couple of draws thrown in. I dont see this happening because I dont think he is a good enough manager to achieve this, but I really, really, really, want it to happen and I so want to have to give him credit and an apology. There is no room for error on Sunday. A semi final defeat to Motherwell, no matter how it comes about with poor refereeing or a howler of an error from one of our players, will see the call for his head intensify. If we agree that celtic are financially way out in front of us and that we cant realistically compete, then Motherwell are to us what we are to celtic, and they should not be able to compete with us IF we are on our game.

This has always been my favourite Rangers song. I wish it got more airings at games these fays instead of the stupid chants for players who are not very good (Cardoso, Windass), or other songs that have come back but will lead to trouble eventually. We have a huge catalogue of good songs about our team and legendary players, we really should use them more.

That's fair comment, the linesman just jumped the gun a bit. It happens, well to 11 of the 12 teams it does!

Bit late to this but wanted to say I was really pleased with the performance and result on Friday. What pleased me most was that we were up for the fight, and we matched their physicality all over the pitch. I thought Pena had a smashing game, popped up late into the box on many occasions which is exactly what we have been missing. Dorrans had a fine game too and Holt did all the work Jack does, but still managed to get up the park for an assist. he brought the energy to the midfield and I don't think it's a coincidence that Dorrans best game to date comes with Holt beside him instead of Jack. It looks a better fit with Pena ahead of them. If we can get Pedro to see what everyone else can see, I.e. that Windass is not a Rangers player, we are looking a bit better all round. Finally, I'm sure I'm not the only one to work out that as soon as we get Miller away from the squad, we have two very good away wins and a 7-1 margin. Just saying like!!!!!

I would still like to see a Morelos Herrera partnership given a chance. We dont need Windass and Candieas both putting crosses into the stand, one is enough, so perhaps we can find a way to get two good attacking players into the side and see if a partnership can develop?

Is there any chance McCrorie will be retained and Fabio "Kiernan" Cardoso will be dropped? To me McCrorie has played better in his couple of games than Cardoso has to date. I would like to see how McCrorie plays with the experienced Alves talking him through the game. Not sure if McCrorie can play as comfortably on the right side of centre as I havent seen enough of him, and pretty sure Cardoso will play but what do my fellow Gersnetter Bears think?

When a player like Scott Brown with a complete lack of ability to do the basic things in football apart from run about fouling opponents and is made out to be some sort of lynchpin and hero, it is no wonder we lag so far behind.

It really shouldnt make any difference if St Johnstone knew our starting 11, but I take the point that there should be no leaks from within and that everyone should be doing everything they can for OUR success.

Sorry, but just who is O'Ware? DavieP has also got it bang on in the current PR drive to get KM back in the good books. It seems that being a top class leak gets you some favourable press in return!

I dont see the difference between an "independant" C1872 appointee or one of the C1872 board who attends on behalf of C1872 - they are still not going to be able to report back to the membership what was said. In some cases they may not even be allowed to report back to the C1872 board, although I would hope that would never become an issue. A C1872 rep on the main club board can only be a good thing if the C1872 board has enough good board members who are not there for the blazers but there to genuinely represent the members and are not afraid to hold the club board to account for answers to the questions the membership are deeply concerned about. The issue then becomes how to gain enough trust from the membership to the C1872 board that they are doing this and getting something done when there is a cloak of confidentiality thrown about everywhere. It is a very difficult situation to try to get absolutely right. I would add that it seems clear that C1872 is somewhat "owned" by the club at the moment via the Club Secretary being also allowed to remain on the C1872 board, which I hope is rectified at the next election. It is clear his first priority is to the club, which is fine, but his placement on C1872 is there to keep them in check, which is far from acceptable IMO.

I thought I had heard that somewhere but wasn't sure if it was live yet. Thanks FS.

Far and away the best thing about the recent OF game was the match day programme which included 16 pages dedicated to our fantastic win a decade ago. Interviews with Beasley, Jig, Walter, KT all giving their insight on the game, the tactics, what they were thinking etc Not sure if you can buy them online or a web edition of it, but I would thoroughly recommend it.

I was on the same flight as the players down to London this morning (went to Wembley for NFL match) and I was surprised to see Miller in players track suits when we were led to believe he was going as part of his coaching duties. The coaches and support staff all wear different colour trackies from the players, quite smart they look too! Pleased to say everyone was well behaved and a credit to the club, as you would expect. Seen them all at Heathrow for the flight back up but they were on the flight before me. Obviously Miller has been sent as punishment for something and nothing to do with coaching role. He sat in the row behind me and mixed fairly well with the other players both at the airport and on board.

Delighted to tough out a good win on a terrible pitch, more so given the terrible start. After a really bad OF defeat, you want to see a reaction from the players and after a minute we are standing there thinking that was not the reaction we had in mind! Thankfully there was no panic and we got ourselves back into the game with a great piece of play from John, and 3 goals in under 10 mins made the game safe despite yet another dreadful refereeing performance. Is this mandatory from referees to err against Rangers in every match? We can now hopefully let the players and coaches regroup over the next two weeks before a really tough Friday night trip to Perth that will be a much harder task than struggling Accies. I was speaking to an Accies player on Thursday night who thought they had little to no chance as they are not doing well just now and he was trying to dissuade a tim from lumping on Accies at 8/1. I hope said mhanky got his bet on! I hate these Friday night games (not as much as an international break!) as it leaves a huge hole in the weekend but it is so much sweeter with a good solid win under the belt. So enjoy the weekend Bears, ignore the papers and Scottish broadcasters on tv, and we go again in a fortnight.

Was Murty's draw with the bheasts not at the piggery? Or is my mind playing tricks here?

Nothing about Miller in there. I half expected, if the stories are true about him being exiled, to read about him being a doubt with a niggle. Time will tell. Hopefully Alves can come back in as well as John, who looks worth a run in Wallace's absence. That should improve the defence, and another game further down the line for Pena should see him continue his improvement in form and hopefully he can last 75 mins or so as he builds up to full participation. Just get us a win tonight Bears or it is going to be a veeerrrrrryyyyyy long fortnight until the next game!

On first hearing of this story my initial reaction was that it must be nonsense, as Miller has always been a model pro, well regarded by teammates and coaches, and to think of him having a bust-up with any player or manager just doesnt ring true to me. It is well documented what I think of him as a player, but I regard him highly as a professional. The one thing that gives this some credibility is that it is Jackson reporting it, all from Miller's angle. Miller is well known to be a leak and Jackson has often been his journo of choice. The beauty of this is that we will know over the weekend if this has any substance or not when we firstly hear the 18 man team for tonight, and then get the reports from the U20's trip to London. If Miller is not included in the 18, and then is snapped with the youths in London, then we can then, and only then, give this some credibility.

While some are arguing my choice of adjective (nobody seems to have a problem with me calling Delia an idiot, which was my point that we have appointed a similar stature of manager), at least we can all admit (or nobody is arguing against at least) that this was a terrible appointment. We are not going to close the gap until we get in a proper manager that is a good fit for our club. I havent a clue who that is, but I know who it isn't. I really like listening to Pedro, he talks a good game and is very passionate, but all of what he says does not transform onto our performances on the pitch. We play without passion, fight and desire, while you see Pedro going nuts and putting everything into it on the sidelines. Why do his players ignore his instructions? Why do his players give up at the slightest setback? Why was Pedro the only one to challenge Brown in 90 mins yesterday? It looks like a complete lack of belief from the players, most of whom he signed, in what he is trying to tell them, how he is wanting them to play. Our board bought into what Pedro told them he could do. They backed him with cash we havent spent in one window for probably about a decade. He got all his first picks and he got them all in very early at the beginning of June onwards. Now at the end of September, nearly 4 months from the first batch of these players signing and about 14/15 weeks since we went back for pre-season training, we are still hearing some are unfit or not settled in yet. To give them time to bed in a new team. Pedro says we will play a high pressing game. We dont. Pedro says we will be fast through the transitions. We aren't. There is a lot to like about Pedro the man. There is not much to like about Pedro the Rangers manager. The whole point about bringing him in in March was to get him time to start the rebuild so he could hit the ground running this season. A very early Euro tie (and subsequent exit) meant he had a lot of pre-season time to get his team and new recruits gelling to hit the ground running. There simply is no argument for saying this team needs more time to get it right. We have won only 3 of our opening 7 league games. We have won only 1 of our opening 4 home league games. We currently sit 5th, having dropped 10 points out of 21 already. We were humiliated in Europe, the Progres result being the single worst result in our history. We have won only 4 of 10 home league games since Pedro took over. This squad is more than good enough to be comfortably second in this league. The main reason it is not must come down to the manager.

I really hope so, and taken one game at a time there is no reason we can't. Remember the same gap in budgets and class we are moaning about today, we have to our advantage over everyone else. We just need to believe it!

I thought we competed well in the first half. Typical cheating from CT denied us a pen and the chance to play against at least 3 of their side on an early yellow card, with a lead to hold on to. I would have loved to see how both teams played if we got the opener. I don't know what Pedro says at half time but we just didn't come out to play in the second half, losing the vital opening goal to sloppy play, then weakening the side with the wrong first sub. We can't just compete for 45 mins every week. When the second goal went in (looked like poor goalkeeping again but I was at the other end?) we just completely chucked it. To have inferior players and lose the game is one thing, to totally capitulate and not lay a glove on them in the last half hour was what really annoyed me. We let them cruise through the rest of the game and only poor choices and poor finishing avoided this becoming a re-run of the last Ibrox OF game. The manager must take the blame for our lack of belief and fight when we go behind, it's happening far too often. 10 points dropped after only 7 games, only one home league win in 4 attempts, 8 points behind already. At what point do we say enough? 15 behind after playing everyone once? 3 tough away games (Ham,St J, Hearts) in next 4 now that the Dolly game is postponed. Or do we judge by how many we are behind Dolly and forget about the scum altogether? That might be fairer on Pedro but given we have vastly outspent everyone else in the league we really don't want to fall any further behind them either. As a footnote, and to try to find some positivity, every time I see this Celtic side I am less and less impressed with them. If we had spent about £40M on a squad and only had that to show for it, I would be quite upset. Team of physical brutes with very little creative talent. I hear Roberts got MOTM, I thought he was garbage and was hooked because Rodgers agreed! £2M loan fee just to borrow him for a year is terrible business. Easy win for Anderlecht coming up I think! If only we could get our act together we won't need to outspend them to catch and overtake them.

Apart from the last sentence I disagree with everything Boydy says here. This could have been written by Spiers it's so bad.