Tannochsidebear

That is getting better now we are over 32K. Hopefully with walk-ups we get to 35K tomorrow which will be a good number. I was disappointed if it was only going to be 20-25K but these figures are much more like it. Bring it on!!

Are we seriously suggesting 20K fans can't afford a £20 cup ticket but they can afford a season ticket, a few beers at each league game etc? So how come if we had drawn the bheasts at Ibrox on Saturday and charged £30 a pop, it would have sold out in minutes? How do those people find the money for that but not to watch us play Killie? The simple fact is there is about half of our regular fan base who can't be arsed going and supporting the club when our income streams are down due to Ashley etc and we need it most. I'm certainly not getting at anyone in particular here, I respect supporters right to pick and choose their games, but it baffles and saddens me in equal measures the size of the cup crowds this season at Ibrox. The very same guys will be chasing for a cup final ticket if we make it (however unlikely that is).

He still has all his friends in the media I see!! I have never taken these awards seriously since well before they gave Hartson and Rickson the joint POTY award in 2005 when neither player was in the top 6 players for their club. The media make a big thing of them to try to boost circulation numbers and fill their pages with easy stories and pictures, but in reality they are about as useful as a Ronnie Delia team talk and about as accurate as an Efe Ambrose tackle. I see Ronnie won the award also, so go figure!

Spot on Bruno! I just don't get that 45K can turn up for a league game but only 20-25K bother with a cup tie against a much better side that should be a much better game. I don't buy this scheduling nonsense, if we were playing Killie in the league at the same time live on to on Saturday the crowd would be 40-45K. We clearly have around 20K fans who believe their ST money is all they want to spend on our club. However if we had drawn the bheasts and the game was scheduled for the same day/time, it would be crammed full, so does that mean our fickle fans are only drawn to certain opponents and if so, why? As a Rangers supporter it matters not a jot who we are playing, it is OUR side I go to see, not the opponent. I have been to many games over the years where I can't remember who we are playing as I go through the turnstiles!

Thanks for the very detailed reply R. My main gripe with the metronome role is that it may be of tactical and positional importance to some sides like you mention, but none of those sides play against 10 man defences in over 80% of games. That is why I think it unnecessary for Rangers, and I believe we would have greater succes with more creative midfield players. Just my opinion. I would argue McKay is already a better all round player than GZ, Barry Ferguson was a fantastic rounded player at 19, so I don't give GZ an easy out by saying he is young as a cover for where his game is at. At 19 with the schooling he must have had to get the attention he had for Arsenal to invest so heavily in him, he should not have as many parts of his fairly simple game needing huge amounts of work. I was a huge fan of Makelele and he is a great example of how that position should be played, and it is nothing like what we are seeing from GZ at this level. I don't watch a lot of Barca, (Real Madrid for me!) so I don't hold Busquets in such high regard, so I am happy to take your word for it. Of course I was being obtuse in my last para, but when in your defence you say he shouldn't be judged on the list I gave, it didn't leave much to judge him on other than the very simple pass/move! I watched him very carefully last night, and as I said in the first half he was pretty much always open to receive the ball, looked to move it forward more than ever before, looked to get forward to support, and yes, kept it simple, very often simply passing the ball back to whoever had passed to him. But after HT, he was not available to receive the ball as often, didn't go forward, mishit passes, got into trouble on the ball. Assuming you agree with this assessment (not sure if you watched it from the ground or on tv - makes a huge difference to what you see a player do) what do you put this down to? Is he too easily put off his game by tight marking, doesn't have the legs for 90 mins, youthful inconsistency or something else?

I wonder if we can expect some positive movement in our relationship with this charlatan now or he has just decided to pick a better spot to fight?

The whole (very well written - thanks R) argument for Zelalem in this role falls down on its very principal. This metronome (hate these coaching manual phrases) position is supposedly to tictate tempo. The biggest fault in our game when we dont play well is our tempo. If GZ is in charge of tempo, then he has failed, spectacularly on some occasions. I said in the match thread I thought the first 45 minutes last night was his best yet in a Rangers shirt. His "tempo" was much quicker, his movement and availability was much further up the park. I nodded with appreciation when he even got caught offside on one occasion as it shows he is trying to learn that he needs to bring more to the party. Unfortunately the half time whistle was his undoing last night. The Raith manager (should I know who he is?) sussed him out and moved his midfield further up the pitch and completely negated GZ's influence on the game in one easy motion. His passing fell to pieces, his confidence disappeared in an instant, and he went back to hiding and was not available for the short pass anymore, forcing us to hit the long diagonal more often in the second half, leading to the hook after an hour. After such a promising first half it was all over 15 minutes later with the slightest of tactical tweaks from the opponents. His role may be an important one for some sides. His individual ability to perform this role is so raw and prone to error that he is going to have to work so so hard on his game to have any chance of succeeding. Perhaps with the salary mentioned on here earlier in the week of around £1Mpa he already thinks he has made it. If so it will be his downfall, and I do hope this is not the case. He needs to add a bit of muscle as he is wiped off the ball and seems to go in the huff if he is tackled hard. Dont they know who he is? He needs to improve his passing accuracy. It is nowhere near where it should be for the simplicity of his passing. The stats may indicate a successful pass if it goes to the player, but when the pass should have been in front of the player, to the side of the player or just simply hit harder or softer, the stats dont tell the whole truth. The eye of the supporter tells you his passing isnt good enough. His shooting when he finds himself in forward positions isnt good enough. Even if he wont find himself too far forward when playing at a higher level, he will always have to make his way into the box at times with us given the defensive shape of our opponents, and this needs a lot of work. I have seen some progression in his game at times, but like a lot of kids, is very inconsistent. Arteta was on a different planet from GZ. Absolutely night and day although he was older, more experienced and had a much better team around him. So not a fair comparison I dont think. If GZ ever plays 30 games in one season for Arsenal I will be utterly amazed. He has too many flaws in his game that would all need massive improvement to get to that level. Can he become a good pro, perhaps making the USA team, sure. But he wont ever be a regular first team pick for a rich, top club side IMO. BTW the "metronome" must be the easiest position in football to play going on Rousseau's excellent analysis. It's not fair to be judged by the tackles you make, the headers you win, the assists or goals you score, the goals you prevent, the opposition breaks you stop. You simply need to make 5 yard sideways passes all day long and always be available to recycle the ball, at the right tempo. Piece of piss!!

Well done again BH. Although I couldnt make this one due to other commitments, I hope to be able to make the next one, probably at the end of this season or beginning of next?

I know English football finance has gone absolutely nuts, but if Arsenal are paying a teenage boy with absolutely no first team experience at a decent level the best part of a million quid a year, then the world has gone well and truly mad. The sooner the SKY bubble bursts and we can get back to ridiculous wages instead of these highly-offensive wages I will be much happier. Unfortunately there is no sign of this happening any time soon.

Absolutely nailed it Frankie, well said. I was just about to take issue with the ridiculous notion that we have not had any self-examination as a Rangers support, but you have put that right too.

I generally enjoy reading your stuff Andy (nationalist pish aside!), and I totally agree with the first 5.5 paragraphs of your post above. But you have totally lost your marbles, with due respect, if you think Spiers is anything other than a bigoted liar. You are a far better writer than him, as are a few others on here. In his very early years when he wrote about golf I understand he was worth reading, although my self-imposed ban on the Herald meant I wouldn't buy or read his stuff anyway. But his lack of understanding of tactical matters in football has always made him a joke figure in Scottish football journalistic circles, and to cover for this he went down the road of controversy, and the easiest way to win favour is to have a go at Rangers, which he has done for the best part of 20 years. To mention Spiers in an article mourning Wogan, Bowie, Attenborough and even McPherson (May that be long time off yet) is doing all of them a huge injustice. No right thinking Bear will mourn Spiers, that's for sure.

I agree with that Pete. I get where Warburton is coming from that if we do a good job with him and Ball, we could get more quality players on loan in the future as other clubs see how well we have developed this talent. We may get lucky and get a right good player next year when we need it more. I find it sad that we are in such a position, but that is where we are at, so we may as well try to maximise it. Where that becomes a problem is when we are sent someone too raw for our needs with too little experience to be able to handle the unique demands of our club and support, but we need to continue to give them game time to hold up our end of the deal.

The big difference is that he is not our player, he is Arsenal's player and in about 15 games time he will be gone never to be seen in Rangers colours again. His "potential" is completely irrelevant to us as Rangers fans, his ability here and now is all that matters, and there are too many areas of his game that need improvement for him to be seen as an asset for us. I think this is why he has not started the big games against Hibs and Falkirk, he is simply not good enough to handle even this level of competitive football at this stage in his young career. That he has the potential to become a very good player I think we can all see, and if we had him signed up on a five year deal I would have a completely different mindset about him, where his mistakes can be more readily accepted for the long term good of our club, but it is hard to accept when you are simply giving him game time to help him and his parent club to the detriment of one of our own.

Damn forgot to put in my prediction. Doesn't matter too much as I was going for 2-1 Waghorn anyway!!

I find it a little strange reading the reasons behind not giving Warburton a new contract at this stage and thinking it is the exact same discussion we were having regarding giving Halliday/Holt new deals. Only a few months into their deals, and having won nothing, it is nonsense to be giving out pay rises when money is so tight to already happy employees.

I wholeheartedly agree with all of what you say there Ian!!

I agree entirely. The attacks on everything to do with our club and our supporters will only intensify come the summer and into next season. It is always high up on a list of fans frustrations. The fans groups are all voluntary, with full time jobs to do and families to support. This should come directly from the club's media and PR department, which should be facilitated sufficiently to cope with the demand.

It has been that way since 1988 Ian, and I dont see it changing any time soon!

I think if this report had come out two months ago it would have been a very different set of results. We have mixed it up a lot more in recent weeks and we look more threatening as a result. I don't need a stato overload to tell me that, I just watch the games.

Think we can take that as utter pish. As has been rightly pointed out, you cannot even speak to the player, never mind finalise personal terms, until a fee with the club has been agreed. Given we are miles out on that, there is no way Saints would allow us to speak to their player. FWIW we won't have an issue with personal terms for a player like that who won't even be on £1k pw at a club like that, and will no doubt double, triple or even more his wages if he comes to us, unless we are now dealing a lot smarter in this area too (I can hope!)

As we are now just a week away from the window "slamming shut" (as they say on SSN!) it is most disappointing that our only business has been a winger who can't even get on from the bench when we are 4-0 up, and a reserve goalie who, injury to Wes aside, won't be chosen to play. MW said many times he wanted his business done early, and it is as clear as day that we need to improve our starting 11 for next season but we haven't added one first pick to the squad, yet. MW is also on record as saying it all gets a bit crazy in the last few days of the window, which I would agree with, but here we are with no improvement. Forrester in and Oduwa out and a new sub goalie that wasn't needed hasn't changed our squad at all. I'm comfortable we will win this league come May without any additions but for me this window should have been all about progression of the squad towards next season. MW has spoken many times about squad unity and not bringing in too many at one time, but if we can't get quality (and I certainly don't mean two guys from feckin Accrington) into our squad in the next week, we will have to bring in around 10 new faces in the summer, which is the exact opposite of what MW has been saying since day 1. Not only am I uninspired by the two we have brought in and the 2 we have pre-contracted, I am even completely unimpressed with the targets we are missing! Hopefully negotiations are ongoing and we can get a couple of players in to improve the first team this week. There are to my mind 5 places needing improved right now. 2 centre backs, def mid, creative mid, and striker. Wilson, Kiernan, Halliday (in current position), Law/Shiels/Zelalem, and Miller are all sub-standard IMO for next season. Wes, Tav, Wallace, Holt, Waggy & McKay will all be fine next season I think, although I still have some doubts over some of them they have earned the chance to see if they are good enough and if we can bring in some quality to play in the other 5 slots we can win the title, or at least run the worst ever Celtic team close ( as embarrassing as that is to admit we may have to settle for 2nd to as bad a side as that). It is up to our management and board to deliver. They have one week to show we are on track.

If Warburton doesn't come second next season with his budget, which will be far in excess of Dolly & Jambos, he should be sacked. 3rd place is not, and should never be, acceptable for any Rangers side in Scottish football. Eco was rightly sacked after finishing 3rd, and he had won two titles, including a treble.

Daily Record reporting, thats what. How many "innocent errors" that paint a negative slant on the club to we allow without legal recourse from this rag? And still we invite them to pressers, give them pies & tea in the press box and first class facilities to file their reports on matchdays, and give them money to run wee adverts for our upcoming games that we dont need to do. Stop co-operating with newspapers NOW!!!!!

These threads really need to be moved to another board. The distance travelled from the OP is staggering!!

I think they are safe in our hands at this time, but I simply maintain we made a huge blunder opening up negotiations with some players unnecessarily early, and the consequences of such a mistake can affect others at the club.