Tannochsidebear

I'm sure I read Ashley was not interested in even discussing being bought out from the retail contract. Times and opinions change however, so hopefully we are continuing to ask the question.

Haven't heard of either of these as I don't follow Portuguese footy but I'm impressed at the level we are buying from. Experienced top-level players is what we need - can anyone confirm ages, preferred positions, strengths etc, and will they have resale value? To think some defended buying from Accrington Stanley and Wigan as the best we could do 12 months ago, when our finances haven't changed much if at all since then.

I can't see Jack being a first team regular either, but a fairly cheap improvement to our bench/squad. More savvy and experienced at SPFL level than Halliday, Crooks, Windass etc.

Possibly, I genuinely don't know, but Bearger sums up my sentiments above in that C1872 shouldn't be paying for projects that the club should be doing, and should be increasing share ownership (or saving towards it at the moment) as its sole priority.

I disagree with funding projects through C1872 as I wanted them to concentrate on share ownership, but I accept the democratic will of my fellow Bears and am now looking forward to hopefully a few exciting and special projects being proposed.

Jelavic perhaps?

Thanks Craig, I suspected we might have come in a bit with the Alves signing alone.

Currently most bookies are offering timmy at 1/7 and us at 7/1 with Dolly at 11/1. It will be interesting to see how these prices fluctuate as we get towards the first matches on 5 August. Just like opinion polls for elections, this is of course not an exact science or proof of victory, but a fairly accurate guide as to our chances. We were around 3/1 if I remember correctly to win the title last year before a ball was kicked. It shows the level of work required to close the gap - I wish I had seen the prices a week ago to see if our signings and speculation over other possible signings has had any small affect on the prices so far. Worth keeping an eye on over the coming weeks.

I really hate the Rhebel, I'm sure he said nothing of the sort.

Delighted with this signing, quality player and signed up early. I hope there are a few more of similar stature to come before the European tie.

We done it ourselves 3 years ago, unbeaten throughout an entire league campaign. I was embarrassed at the club and our then manager trying to make a big thing out of it as our budget dwarfed that of all nine of our opponents put together. Very similar I'd say to timmys achievement this season, nothing to shout about really. I put it to a couple of tims I know well who of this treble side would get into MON's treble side of 2001 - I say none of them and they struggle if they are being objective to name anyone confidently that is better now than they had before. Ends the conversation quite quickly!

It is almost certain that we will start our campaign away from home on Sunday 6th August, due to tv commitments, Europe commitments and the historical honour of the champions being awarded a home game first up to raise the league flag. Last year was different because timmy asked for a change so they could whore themselves off at a friendly in weekend 2, and also because we were also champions.

Happy birthday Ian. I assume you must have also had birthday cup final wins over the years?

It has happened you know! He has scored a couple of crackers this season, which I heartily acknowledged at the time.

Of course it is being negative. What part of being a fan and predicting a poor result for your team is not being negative? Especially so on a free "just-for-fun" wee competition on a supporters forum. The joy of going to live sport, and football in particular, is that anything can happen on any given day. Every supporter going to every match has to go with that gut feeling that today is going to be our day, even if the opponents are better or our form is poor. I know you, like me, travel to every match. What is the point in going if you have no wee feeling that the Rangers are going to have one of those fantastic days from out of nowhere? When thinking about your prediction in the predictor game, let that wee positive gut feeling out and type it onto the screen. You will feel so much better! I couldnt cope with the guilt of knowing I took my team not to win, even in a freebie fun competition.

That sounds really exciting and cutting-edge technology. What does it mean?! All this info and stats wont be worth anything for fans in the ground if the issues surrounding the quality of signal is not resolved. I cant get any 4G signal at Ibrox during a game and need to go to 3G to even get livescore updates, and have virtually no chance of getting on twitter or facebook during a match and never at half-time. These stats would be an interesting review on the bus home, but the point of it seems to be in-play so hopefully this is the pre-curser to some decent signal coverage inside the ground. Screens in the concourses are to be welcomed. I had noticed that they had taken down all the blank tv screens in the concourse (Copland Rear) for the last home game of the season so I was hoping something was being planned for next season. At present there is no point buying a rising stars ticket when I go down to the concourse at half time to catch up with my mates and cant see or hear the winning numbers. Screens in the concourse would probably add a considerable number of sales to Rising Stars, far less the other benefits, or even just being good matchday service for the paying customers.

I cant submit an entry predicting anything other than a Rangers win. When I am fairly sure we are not going to win, like at Tynecastle under Warburton, I just try to go for the right number of Rangers goals and the FGS. From memory that night (might have been another game however!) I would go for a 1-0 Rangers win just to try to get the Rangers goals right and the FGS. I was certain we would concede goals but gave that bit of it up for my own piece of mind that I wouldnt be going for a negative result. More than one way to take part without being negative and forecasting a bad result.

You can post your prediction a day or two before you know! Fair point, I wasn't thinking about non-UK Bears and time differences.

Cant make it tonight but well done to anyone making the effort to attend. I doubt there will be 50 people there as this has been quite low-key but I hope there are many good questions and answers given to make it all worthwhile. I hope we can get a Gersnetter in attendance to give us some unofficial minutes?

1. Have a cut-off of 90 mins before kick off for entries. I have used the edit mode myself when I hear the team sheet a few times but as this is not available to all players this should be even-handed. 2. 3 points for a Rangers win (if correctly predicted of course), 1 point for a draw, and feck all if we get gubbed. We should show solidarity with our team! It will also take away the negativity option of going for a draw or a defeat just to get points. 3. Cup games score the same as league games. A correct prediction is a correct prediction, no matter the competition that game comes from. 4. 2 Bonus points if you correctly get the jackpot of an exact match. If you predict a 3-1 Rangers win with Garner for FGS and that is exactly what happens, you should get a bonus for getting all components right in the one game. 5. 10 points off for anyone going for Miller for FGS - you are only doing it to wind me up!!

Or "the morally and financially bankrupt failed Lincoln City manager"

If I can take just one thing out of the hilarious DR article to prove it wrong, it is where they say Halliday is not on the list. He most certainly has been told he is not part of the plans, but said he wanted to stay and show the manager he was wrong. So he most certainly is up for sale, and if the DR article gets this wrong, how can you give any credibility to anything else?

A year ago we were all singing about a magic hat. The cup final was a huge disappointment which was the culmination of about 6 weeks of really poor performances after our week from heaven in winning the league, diddy cup & SCSF on pens against Delia's diddies. So last summer it was fairly unanimous on here that we needed to improve in all areas to compete in 16-17. We seemed to miss out on target after target and only signed squad players that were no better than the players we had, with our two marquee signings of Barton and Nico we went into the season with high hopes of running them close in second and hopefully winning a cup. The opening fixtures were in our favour and we should have went into the first OF game with a lead, therefore putting pressure on them. However it was clear from day one of the league campaign that we looked a poor side with a struggling draw. We have never got nearer than that to them this season. The first tactical capitulation from MW at the piggery saw us destroyed 5-1 and we went on to lose every big away game under MW as he failed to introduce tactics to deal with decent opponents who dealt with our formation and poor defending with ease. This also saw the Barton debacle where a falling out with MW saw him sidelined, and then effectively sacked. I dont think MW truly had the players on board after this. A brief response when we beat Dolly & Hearts in consecutive weeks at Ibrox had us all hoping we had turned the corner and we were well clear in second place at that point. However the wheels fell off again after the winter break, culminating in the shambolic handling of the MW "resignation" issue, and the 6 game Murty reign where he oversaw two good home wins in the cup, but a run of 1 win 1 draw and two dismal defeats in the league saw us lose our second spot and we would never regain it. The "search" for a new manager was finally resolved after 6 weeks with the appointment of Pedro and after a fantastic debut win at Ibrox over Accies, there were a couple of setbacks. Injuries also hampered his rebuilding of morale and the side and youth was forced into the team, who coped admirably in the face of some dubious tactical formations. The catastrophic capitulation at Ibrox to the tims when absolutely everyone knew we had to flood the midfield and deny them space and time but we went more open and offensive and got gubbed had a lot of Bears asking questions of Pedro's capabilities, but he can look to his record of 6 wins in 11 games with a poor side minus a lot of injured players with some hope for next season if he can get his targets in place. Two cup defeats to our biggest enemy hurt badly as well, and to only finish third a huge 9 points behind Dolly depsite having massively more resources is an utter embarrassment, of which I am truly ashamed as a Rangers supporter. To not win the league this year is acceptable, to come so far behind a workmanlike but still quite poor Aberdeen side is shocking. This was our season from hell, make no mistake. MW takes most of the blame, as he set the side up, bought inadequate players, refused to learn the tactical lessons from his first season, and had he not jumped he would certainly have been sacked long before the season ended. Turns out the magic hat was just a bread wrapper folded differently. Onwards and upwards bears, onwards and upwards!

FFFFFFFFFFFF F F F F FFFFFFFFFF F F F F F Will do a more detailed one tomorrow!

Would like to add my congrats to YB for a well earned win, and many thanks to Rousseau for putting in the hard yards and sorting it all out every week. Happy enough with 6th in such a poor season as I only ever predict a Rangers win, so was never going to be a successful policy this season! I look forward to next season's predictor competition and trying to improve on 6th.