Tannochsidebear

When the list came out I had a very quick scan read of the candidates profiles and statements and thought I would go back to it later in the process when more was known. What has happened since has been very very sad indeed. Are some candidates there on behalf of the club? Are some there to push through a merger with RST/RSA? Are some there to push for not merging with RST/RSA? Is anyone actually standing as a Rangers supporter who believes in the concept of RF, a share purchase vehicle to get as many shares into the hands of ordinary bears as possible, to protect our club from ever again being at the mercy of mercenary owners? I am a member of both RST (have been since the start in 2003) and pay into the £11.25pm Share purchase plan, and RF on the £18.72 monthly contribution. It is my belief that I want as many shares in the hands of ordinary Bears as possible. I really dont want the RST to merge with RF as I think there is a place for both to do quite separate things on behalf of their members, and also there may be times when it is good to keep them apart. As both have several thousand paying members, I am sure there are a large number of bears that are members of both. Merging this will probably mean less money going into buying shares as what would be the point of me continuing to pay both £11.25 and £18.72 per month to the same organisation? I am also struggling with casting a vote in favour of what I see as "Club men" like Gough and McQuarrie. On one hand it would give RF some clout to say they have these names on the board and would be easy to get media attention. However the whole point of RF was to stay away from the more confrontational and controversial issues of the day and just be a share purchase vehicle, so it shouldnt need to attract media attention other than to try to persuade more Bears to join with them and help build the fans shareholding. On the other hand the RST has always been more active, vocal, controversial, and unafraid to criticise the board of the day or the footballing authorities without the need to have "celebrity bears" to get their message out. Long may that continue, but the polarising nature of their work has meant that for some fans the RST will not be an option to contribute to, so are we going to lose those contributions to RF if a merger goes through. I haven't got a clue who to vote for. I know some I wont vote for. That list has got gradually longer as the process has gone on. I will probably end up not voting at all. Its all very sad.

Our press will, rightly, be gushing in praise of this, while completely ignoring the total hypocrisy of it. It's what they do.

Kiernan I would think around £1M, Wes £1.5M, Tav about the same. I know Tav has a buy-out clause in his contract and I suspect the other two do also, so if they continue to improve as they have done, it may be we lose them for less than the current "bonkers" market would suggest we should be getting. Some of the English prices are astoundingly high for the quality of the player, and once we have got back to the top flight and if these guys can maintain their impressive performances, then we will need to either get their contracts and buy-out clauses sorted to a more realistic standard, or risk losing these guys for well below their worth.

Here we go with the "normal" Rangers fans line again. Something you quite clearly struggle with. I am so awfully sorry to tire you out. Thanks for pointing that out, and while managing to drum up the effort to not want to engage with it, you do anyway. We cant all be eloquent writers you know Andy, some of us are just normal Rangers fans.

It was a throw-away line not to be taken seriously Craig! I 100% agree that the role here is not to win, but to develop. I really dont care about the match results, I want to see development from here to the first team bench, and then game time. That would be a result. Thanks for the comment though, that is interesting about the training times and makes you wonder what input a current first team player can bring as a coach to the development team then (not talking Miller here, more a generalisation) as it seems to be a popular career move for a lot of players, not just at our club. It has always smacked of jobs for the boys to me. No recruitment scrutiny for youth coaches, just pick a current club player getting towards the end of his career. Surely we should want to, and be able to, attract proper qualified coaches for this oh so very important role that our whole ethos and future of the club is geared around.

FFS the pigeon done more!! It is remembered as the cup final where Craig Thomson cheated and lost the plot, and the pigeon! Nobody I speak too ever refers to that game and think of Miller first and foremost. Take the Laudrup Cup Final of '96, where even though Durie scored a hat-trick he was a distant second in the MOTM stakes. If you want to bring out a video clip of a cup final for a club legend, that would be an appropriate starting (and ending) point.

If these are the values the much-lauded-on-here transfermarkt site place on our players, then I suggest any and all future mentions of this site in defence of an argument is hereby null and void. To answer the OP, the worth of our squad is nowhere near enough as a result of the damage done to us from (at least) 2011 onwards. Given MW's policy of buying (mostly) players with a development and sell-on value, I would say he has done his job quite well in his first season. Wes, Tav, Waghorn, McKay, Holt, Halliday are all worth in excess of £1M at the moment, and hopefully by this time next year are worth a great deal more. He has shown that, generally speaking, he seems to be able to buy a low 6 figure sum player and turn them into a low 7 figure player. The next big question is will he be able to buy low 7 figure players and develop them into being worth significantly more? We all hope so.

This sums it up for me very well. I thought I had fallen asleep and woken up on April 1st. I am all for these nice easy articles that stir debate, but this one is an absolute no-brainer. A mediocre (I know, i'm being kind!) player with a mediocre scoring record (one purple patch aside his record is actually woeful). I see since he started working with the Under 20's as a coach they dont seem to win very often either. Legend status should be treasured at football clubs. It does seem to be overused IMO. I loved Albertz, McCall, Ian Ferguson, but they were not legends. Laudrup, even for taking Pete's point about longevity, simply has to be classed as a legend as he is simply the greatest footballer I have ever seen at our club, and we got the best years of his career out of him as well. The player has to have the playing ability to get punters excited to watch, or such exemplary leadership skills (Gough, Greig) that the legend status sits easily on them. Guys I hear being called legends like Barry Ferguson, Jig, Ricksen, and now Miller, are simply watering down the title to an undeserving level. I dont even like what we have done with the HOF. There are far too many average players in there now, and some I would struggle to even call average. Although we dont have an official list of legends, I would hate this to go the same way.

If we get 3 wins in a week I will be very pleased indeed. Of course I am expecting nothing less!

I see what you did there Rousseau!!!!

Agreed GS. McKay has come on hugely this season. Will be challenging Holt for POTY and is a shoe-in for YPOTY. Unlike Halliday, Holt, Wes, Tav, he has been contracted for some time and it is right that we get him on a new deal before the summer.

The club has to jointly with Hearts take SPFL to task on this stupid appointment. Two of the biggest 3 clubs in the country are not represented at SPFL board level, but they see fit to appoint another Rangers-hater to join their cabal. One can only guess at her remit, but it doesnt take a genius to know we are not going to like it.

Sadly all too true Ian.

Been busy all day so not had a chance to come on for a peek. I must say I am disappointed that this has only reached a 6 pages at this point. I was expecting a ball-bursting 20 pager by now! I obviously need to read a bit about the candidates before commenting, but FWIW I share the concerns that some appear to be too close to the club and may have a problem should fans and club be moving in different directions again in the future. Gough could be good as a figurehead to speak out on fans issues that the club cannot speak about, but given he has pretty much had nothing to say these last 4 years while Sandy Jardine (RIP) and a small number of others were left fighting alone, it does seem strange that now his mate is in the Chair, he fancies being a fans rep. As Club Ambassador he surely cannot say anything controversial on behalf of RF that RFC could not be seen to say? Strange one that.

Disappointed to see another example that the Police rule the roost when it comes to football in this country. I hate these Friday night games, which leave you with the whole weekend with no footy, and horrendous traffic problems on the Friday night. What possible reason can PS have for not allowing us to play on Sunday? No wonder punters are stopping going to football in droves.

I dont understand why these three would want to be part of an independent fans group board. Gough is never here and is too close to King to be independent. If a scenario arises where the board needs criticised, Gough is not going to criticise King. I hope the joint RF/RST board are full of paying punters and not just trying to get in names that will get them column inches in the untrustable media. Neither RF or RST has done anything but good in the last year/18 months so they deserve some leeway here, not forgetting this is just rumour at this time.

You have misinterpreted my wording. Hooked, subbed, replaced, call it what you like. It wasnt intended to suggest it was for poor play. I would have taken the anonymous Halliday off before GZ yesterday in the normal hour mark changes. I have yet to see MW make a tactical change on the hour mark. It seems to me he just makes two changes as part of squad rotation and game time for players. The shape, formation etc never changes, just some people move about to fit in the players he has pre-determined he wants to bring on for 30 minutes game time. He does mention this quite a lot in his comments. Obviously sometimes injuries etc determines the changes, but most of the time I get it right with who is coming off and who is coming on when I predict it at kick off. It rarely takes into account who is having a good game and who is having a quieter game.

Showing your age compo! I have heard Allan McGraw was a fantastic player and I know he was a huge bluenose and was still seen at Ibrox cheering us on well into his 80's with two walking sticks to get him up the stairs. Thats dedication! Haven't heard of the other two. From a more recent time, and assuming you mean Scottish players and not foreign players that were massively out of our reach (Maradona, Messi etc), I always admired (grudgingly) the Miller/McLeish partnership at Dolly, and I thought John Collins would have been a good fit for us before he went to the tims.

While I have my doubts that Zelalem will ever become a top class midfielder as there are too many flaws in his game for his age, I am astounded at those who thought he didn't put in a good performance in the first half. Finally, we are starting to see the boy listen to the coaching he is no doubt getting, and realise he has to contribute more than he was doing in a game. He was regularly further forward than we have ever seen him before, and was trying to find a pass to create a chance. His creative passing needs a lot more work, but no lack of effort yesterday and was the best of the midfield trio. Unfortunately, like at Raith, his second half failed to live up to the first and he was hooked, although Halliday was again anonymous in the advanced role and I am slightly worried about that. Ball was much better today at DM, although it was an easy shift given Killies lack of forward play.

They are just being stubborn. I think only the passing of time and court cases will finally get them to wake up and admit to themselves they got it wrong. They will still buy the record and listen to Clyde though!

I'm guessing it's the off-line, daily record reading, radio Clyde & Scotland listening minority that continue to do the opposite from the mainstream "cos they don't speak for me" !!

Does anyone have the stats for the amount of goals we score when Waghorn starts through the middle as opposed to out wide? I know he was poor today (wasn't alone) but I really don't think starting wide right suits him or our team. I am thinking our last dip in form/scoring coincided with the last time Waggy started wide right for a few games in a row. Moving to a wide position late in the game when we bring on another striker through the middle has worked well as far as I recall, but much less so in reverse. Might be wrong but would be interested to know if stats like that are available.

Spot on Ian. I can't believe any Rangers fan would walk past them and go in and give Ashley money, but it is still happening, albeit greatly reduced. Protest should be every single game until the contract is either ripped up or re-negotiated.

When I passed around 12.05 there was a fairly decent number standing watching. It looked and sounded like primary school kids holding the banner and chanting! Must be getting old!

Hard to make an argument for retaining any of the guys you mention, but we must bring in better quality than them and not more 3rd & 4th tier journeymen or unproven guys. With the mess delia is making over-by, it is likely they will bring in a proper manager (or Stubbs!) as they face up to our challenge again. We must have a core of players who can handle this unique type of pressure, not kids and loanees.