Tannochsidebear

On the triple punishments, I dont agree with that. It should still be a red card. Perhaps no future suspension if it was a genuine attempt that was just mis-timed. I like the treatment on the pitch idea, especially that they have said it is only if the result is a card for a bad tackle. It means the fakers have to go off the pitch, but true victims can continue without having to leave. I also like the idea of penalty goals - but can see it causing huge controversy as to what constitutes a relevant incident. In Scotland I know who would benefit most from this!

Agree OV, have said that for years. It should be an indirect free kick to the opponent.

This is exactly my position too. Great to read there has been a fantastic amount of offers to help.

So the only reason for not coming at least second is that it is a new situation for the squad. I'm not buying that at all. They are all professionals, most of whom have now had a year in Scotland to get used to it all. Over half the teams in the top tier are not much (if any) better than Hibs, Falkirk, Raith, QotS etc. They will also all play the same way (bus parking!) as our 15-16 opponents. If Warburton is half the manager we think he is, he should be some distance ahead of a poor Aberdeen side that were miles behind the worst celtic team ever. I dont think we have any right to win the league now that celtic have brought in a proper manager and will no doubt make good purchases as well, but if we are not second with our resources it is abject failure. There is no other way to dress it up.

Dont be daft, its a two horse race as always. If we sort out our defence and bring in a quality striker, it should be ours to lose. The squad across the road needs huge change with so many players not good enough and taking up big wages, that will take them more than a year to sort out. Our problems to improve are much easier to solve than theirs. I wont be calling for Warbs head if we come second, but third with our budget and players is not an option. Our wage budget will probably exceed the other 10 clubs put together. We have the best manager in the league who has had a year to bed in and see what it takes. We have the best training facility, sports science and medical staff in the country. We have been planning for this season for a whole year. In what universe should we expect to come behind Aberdeen or Hearts when you look at their players, managers, facilities, budget?

I didnt see the game as I wont pay for Premier Sports and I didnt see it listed anywhere else, so it was bbc scotland website match thread for me to follow the game - McKay got a mention when he came on and nothing after that. Given the summary of his play from Craig above, surely BBC Scotland weren't bitter enough to ignore the only thing worthy of note that Scotland could take out of the game? No need to answer, I know how those bitter tims operate by now.

That is exactly my understanding of it too.

No reasons as to why he resigned? The elections were only a wee while ago and he campaigned relentlessly to get elected. Strange.

I'm in, should be fun. Looking forward to tournament. Not sure who to go for to win it. France as hosts will be hard to beat, Spain probably have the best squad, the Italians & Germans are always dangerous in tournaments, but there may be one or two dark horses (Portugal, Belgium?) also worth a e/w punt if the draw works out favourably. England's defence is not good enough for them to succeed, Wales & NI will not get out their groups IMO, so lots of things to ponder before Friday.

I am getting worried about this, as SL will only target one club. Ralston makes a few good points in that for a change, in that it stinks of posturing from a failing government who wants people to look elsewhere and not at their own shameful record in power.

I should add that there is far more chance of me going to Annan at home than if we were playing a friendly against Barcelona at Ibrox as friendlies don't appeal to me at all, and haven't been to one for about a decade.

As expected, they took nearly a week to carve up the fixtures for us. If you started with a sheet of paper and those 4 opponents and your task was to make the fixtures as unattractive as possible to ensure we earn the least amount possible from this format, I reckon you couldn't have done a better job than what they have done. Congrats SPFL, Job done. Thankfully I am on a Baltic cruise and will miss the first three games. This saves me from attending Fir Park. Crowds will be dreadful for our two home games, be lucky to hit 20K I reckon. At that time of year we struggled to get more than 25K for a Euro qualifier, so a group cup tie v Stranraer is not going to sell well. I will buy the tickets to give the money to the club, but I don't imagine we will be playing anything like our full strength team if we have already qualified for the last home match, so a reserve match v Annan won't be so attractive to many.

Meant to add, the fact the justice sec, a known apologist for the filth, thinks this would work is further bad news. They truly thought that the current act was only going to hammer us and they wouldnt be caught up in it. Thankfully the police can read law and can see that it works both ways, which it wasn't supposed to be. The Police is about the only thing the bheasts still cant control, although it was fairly obvious that they are working on that with apologist federation reps already in place and quick with an uninformed soundbite if it makes us look bad.

SL would be a really bad thing for us, given our political & media landscape in this country. The slightest wee thing will be focuses on by a compliant media, and then the bheasts will hammer away at the SFA/SPFL until we are punished. It will not happen in the opposite direction as they have so many media apologists, any IRA-oke is either not heard, dismissed as not sectarian, or even if it was bad enough to get up in front of the beaks, dismissed by the oh-so-friendly compliant officer. We would be docked points, fans banned, etc for the slightest thing. Anyone who thinks I am over-reacting only needs to look at the media treatment of how our players being attacked on the pitch by rival fans has been turned into why did we sing TBB.

I remember having quite a few conversations with Tims that went along those exact same lines Bearman!

I am quite sure we had more of the "death slots" of Friday nights than celtic, and also more of our games, proportionally, on the lesser watched BT than on Sky. However we should not get too carried away with the results, as when you take into account that there are a seemingly huge number of bheasts watching every single one of our games in the hope that they can hear something to be offended by, or see one of our players do something they can report, and that Rangers supporters generally would watch re-runs of River City before a celtic game on tv, then the figures can be somewhat skewed.

So they haven't even started the investigation yet? Staggeringly incompetent, even by the SFA and Regan's low standards. There can be no doubt this is to be dragged out for as long as possible.

With no European place, this has always been the diddy cup before we even knew another even diddier diddy cup existed. Its importance is measured only in early season bragging rights or as part of the treble. We should never take any domestic cup lightly ever again as our fans deserve as many major trophies as our team can deliver for what we have went through. We have won nothing of note since "54" in 2011 and while we have had bigger concerns since then, that no longer holds true. I for one want the treble in 16-17 and with no Europe to "distract" us, this has to be the target.

Wasn't overly impressed with Ball. If he genuinely isn't better than Wilson/Kiernan (managers selections would point that way), and he isn't better than Halliday in defensive midfield, then he Simply iSNT going tO be an asset up a level next season.

Sshhhh, you are supposed to have forgotten by now!

If they won't release numbers they can't be taken seriously. It could be 2 out of 10,000 who were on the park that they have banned. The media should be hounding them to release the number of fans they have banned, they certainly would be if it were us.

Agree, he missed a lot of time with injuries, but he didnt ever look settled at the club. We even tried him in midfield (like Ricksen after him) just to get him out of the defence. If rumours at the time were true Advocaat had the choice between Valgarren (sp) and Konterman and we let the Belgian go to the tims and Advocaat took the Dutchman as he thought he would bed in better with the other Dutch players already at the club. In hindsight, the signings of the two Dutch bombscares, Konterman and Ricksen for a combined £8.5M was the worst bit of business done in that era, considering not only the fact both were poor players, but the Dutch contigent then became too big and it led to dressing room cliques that ultimately cost DA his job. That third summer under Advocaat was when he had the chance to really kick on both domestically and in Europe, but we made a mess of the purchases and we have never recovered.

Re Numan, it was between him and Roberto Carlos for the best left back in world football in 1998. It was quite an amazing coup that Advocaat managed to persuade Numan to come to Rangers. He is easily the best full back I have ever watched in person. Pace, power, accuracy in passing, and first and foremost a fantastic defender. Roberto Carlos had more goals about him with his famous free kicks but Numan was better defensively. Sorry for continuing this thread a bit OT, but Numan was absolute class, and I doubt we will ever see his quality again playing in Scotland.

Shame they never got him!

Another 24 hours goes by without the fixtures released. What on earth can be the problem with this that it takes 4 days (and counting) to work out where/when these games can take place? Dont we just know for certain that if a certain club was involved this would all have been done and dusted long before now? I hope they are not using the same "computer" that they use for league fixtures - we are likely to be drawn away for all 4 games!