Tannochsidebear

Lets just say it out loud. There is no place at Ibrox for a mid-thirites mercenary striker who has lost his only asset, has never been good enough for us barring one fluke season, cant pass, cant control a ball, cant finish, has a dreadful scoring record (one season apart) and was just as guilty as any of the others we got rid of in the summer of putting in well below-par shifts during our dreadful season. A couple of goals in the play-offs doesnt change the fact he is finished, and IMO wasnt ever good enough to start with. He adds no value, drains a wage well in excess of his talent, and takes up a squad place that I would rather have Gallacher, Hardie etc take up who have a chance in the game.

Just heard that three signings expected to be tied up by end of this week, a defender a midfielder and a striker all from down south. Been asked not to give names so will respect that but at least I was happier to know we are closing in on targets. I will say that one player is coming for a £4K pw DROP in cash as he wants to play here.

Lol. My wife's family come from Stonehaven and when her cousin told that joke it was much better than when I read it online!

:party::celebrate::yay::woohoo::clap::bouncy::celebrate2::jump: Dont think I need to add any more! Oh what the hell;

I love that one! If you cant say it in a sheepy accent it really doesn't work!

Good research lads!

Jim Stewart has an outstanding reputation as a goalie coach over a long number of years, but I have to say that I am far from impressed with his work at our club these last few years. From the mediocre Alexander that didnt improve one jot in his shot-stopping or distribution during his time with us (both areas that needed a lot of attention IMO), through the outrageous decision to give Simmo another year after the Dundee Utd debacle among others, to the decline in Cammy Bell since he has been with us. As such, his thoughts on our new keeper won't hold as much credibility as it should in my view.

I repeat that I have it on very good authority from within the club that Jig is desperate to get a coaching job, and has begged for various jobs, and is currently trying to persuade the club to let him at our U15's. That is fact as I know it. I speculate that he wants to stay to keep his favours (cash or otherwise) with certain journos for leaking the inside info at the club, as he has been suspected of doing since his arrival in 2007.

That's a fair point Gribz. Any championship football I seen last season I was not impressed with the quality. Take it down another level and I guess I fear that players comfortable at that level is not what I want for my club. If the guy had been there 1/2 years at his age I would be more content, but 4 years at that level without a bigger club seeing enough to buy him, plus being a free agent for six months before we got him doesn't get me too excited. It will be interesting to see if he can walk straight into the team ahead of Bell, who has been in the Scotland setup and looked good before his injury, but was terrible when he came back towards the end of last season. I am hoping that was just the same form and malaise as the rest of the squad and a new manager and some competition will bring out the best in him. Not long now to find out!

Under 200 behind now. As stupid, parochial, small-minded and irrelevant as this is, GET VOTING!!!!!

Durie didn't have his coaching badges, so was pretty much always going to be leaving, despite him trying his hardest to cling on and also an attempt to throw another coach under the bus to steal his job instead. No loss.

I must admit to being slightly underwhelmed at this signing. A keeper who has spent 4 years in the third tier of English football with nobody exactly burning down a path to his door despite being able to sign for anyone on a free from 1 Jan. If MW thinks he can get by with players from this level to win the second tier here then he is probably right, but issuing 3/4 year contracts to a guy like this who has not shown enough to interest any of the clubs in the top two divisions in England over the last four years does not remind me of signing Chris Woods or Andy Goram. While we absolutely must win the title this year, we also must be ready to meet our 16-17 challenge head on, and players from the third tier of English football are not going to be good enough to see us to the top of our game, and into Europe again. I would have no problem if we gave the guy a 1 or 2 year contract to see us through the top flight, and we can always issue a longer better contract if he turns out to be any good, but issuing 3 or 4 years deals to someone who has only ever played a million miles below where we want to play doesnt sound right to me. Regular English Championship players are fair enough for where we are, League one is pushing it a bit too far for me. I wish the guy well and the manager gets a free pass to sign who he wants with the amount of positions needing filled, and it may be he likes Bell and wants a solid back-up, but I dont see a 24yo coming on a 3/4 year deal to be backup. He might not be making marquee signings given our financial position, but he better start signing some players that will excite a lot of Bears to buy ST's.

These things are all a little pathetic and irrelevant. Voted!!

I can only think we are building from the back. Get the CH sorted first as we were very soft there last season, and generally attacking players are harder to come by in our price band/league status. Word reaches me that the wage thief also known as Captain Calamity is still touting himself to the new guys for a coaching role with our kids. Scary stuff! I can only assume this is because he can earn more money by selling his inside info to the press, as he has been suspected to have been doing for years.

CR4 is £348

And still his supporters insist he gets more right than wrong. Sad and deluded the lot of them. Are there really Bears out there that are the same in reverse as these people? I do not know of any Bears that are so infatuated with them that they know everything about their finances, boardroom, history, corporate structure etc, but there seems to be countless tims that are far more knowledgeable about our affairs than most Bears. It is one thing to have a look at the financial figures when they are released to see if there are any areas for winding up your mates in the pub, what they do is not healthy, and in my book shows a clear mental health issue.

Due to land back at Glasgow airport at 12.15 on Saturday, so hopefully make it through luggage collection and passport control and get home before the end.

You are not dealing with a normal fantasist here. Regarding his completely made-up story about King offering his shares to Ashley. If both King and Ashley came out and said it was a lie and that there was absolutely nothing in it, Ill Phil (and his followers) would come out and say of course they are going to deny it in public etc etc and reiterate their story, having had the oxygen of a retort to fan the flames of their infatuated madness. A watching brief from the club, waiting for him to make a libellous mistake and then jumping in, and all Rangers forums agreeing to not discuss or publish anything he says would be the best way to deal with him.

In the old days I understood that the weekly pre-match press conference was a two-way beneficial process where the papers got content for their match-day editions, and the clubs got some good PR and perhaps some more people turning up to watch the game. Nowadays, especially so in our case with the make-up of tabloid journalism in Scotland, I do not see it as a two-way street. The papers still need content, but we do not need them. We have our own social media, website and various fans forums that are much more entertaining and informative than the Record ever will be, and I for one would bin the Friday presser, the rags in Scotland do not deserve this freebie when all they give us back is snide comments, untruthful articles, and abuse our supporters. We could easily do an in-house one-to-one with the manager and a player which gets the same content out there, but is easily contained to avoid any damaging slants being taken. As it is on video, nothing can be taken out of context which happens far too often in the papers. If the papers want to pick it up, they will need to credit our official website with it. Papers can ask for one-to-ones with the manager from time to time, (obviously anyone with previous would be denied) but we should be in complete control of our own output, and this in turn would drive traffic to our club website, which in turn brings more sponsorship money and attention to it. I would be happy to give tv (those Companies who pay for tv rights, either live or highlights) a pre-match interview as it is harder to show things out of context on video, and we obviously have to support those companies who support us or our league.

A good article I agree with from FF; In the fifteen years of FF.com the main drivers for traffic are - 1/ Signing new players 2/ Big Champions League nights 3/ Games versus Celtic The club needs a fresh approach to covering signings - and indeed its whole output via the various media options it had. But let’s stay with what it can control rather than getting into arguing about the Scottish media: the club website needs a change of culture. Under the various regimes of Murray, Bain, Green, Easdale, etc the tone of output was restrained and bog standard because that was the culture imposed. The natural enthusiasm and mischievousness of the likes of Andrew Dickson was strictly limited. Rab Boyle’s pre-match picture stories are great but again could be a bit more rock n roll. We need to allow the talent to run free. The club needs to drive season ticket sales, promote a positive feeling and generate a crusading atmosphere that will take us back to the top flight. Fans have an insatiable thirst for information about the club - so let’s give them as much as we can. Not just the standard pictures holding a scarf aloft and not just one ‘welcome to Ibrox’ chat on Rangers TV. Let’s spread the news by getting different interviews in depth with each new player - get him, get his former colleagues, fans of clubs he has played for, even journalists who covered his career at this old clubs - and let the fans get to know the players rather than having an invisible velvet cord separating fans from players. We’ve got a new regime at the club - let’s also have a new culture in coverage that the club produces: honest, in-depth, cutting edge. We’ve got the people in place to do it if they are let off the leash. http://www.followfollow.com/news/tmnw/mining_the_signings_864482/index.shtml

sorry, double post.

Ah, the good old days when an AGM could consider such unimportant details instead of what we have had to endure since the turn of the Century. While I would agree with your point regarding RW&B strips, it can not go without comment that the most popular strip in our history was the orange one. The sight of Hampden 75% resplendent in Orange at our National cup final was quite a sight to behold, and showed that tops outwith our "traditional" colours can be successful if done properly. Clearly, the purple monstrosity is not an example of that.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one then if that is what you think, as I think pretty much the opposite and dont see the point of going round in circles again.

You are talking out a hole that shouldn't be used for talking i'm afraid. You know fine well what is meant by both stupid new songs, and our proud songbook of old songs that comply with our (stupid) new laws. It is not having it both ways, it is apples and oranges. The UB don't act like the Rangers supporters that I grew up with, in my experience of sitting beside them at certain away games over the last couple of years. My comments have absolutely nothing to do with how I worked with them (until they spat the dummy out as it wasn't "Ultra" enough to be seen to be working with the club and authorities) while i was part of the RFWG, when I defended them to the hilt on several occasions. I am delighted that the club have got the feedback that they are not wanted in CR and have scuppered that idea.