Tannochsidebear

I think you are spot on with your recollection of the transfer of Trevor Steven. IIRC Marseilles did not want to pay the final instalment (the original �£5.5M was to be paid in 3 chunks), and we arranged to buy him back for the amount that was outstanding (around �£2.4M). So we bought the player for �£1.5M originally, and received �£3.1M from Marseilles for what amounted to a 18 month loan deal. Not sure about your Tannadice recollection though Gribz, I think you are thinking about 1990, as Butcher was still here for that title win. The only other titles we won in the 1980's was in 1987 at Pittodrie and 1989 I think was won at home with a 4-0 win over Hearts (Mel Sterland??)

That is a good thought Calscot, but the production costs of such a set-up would be astronomical. There are also a lot of fans who would not open their curtains to watch another SPL game other than their own team's (like me), so would not be the slightest bit interested in such extensive coverage. Out of the coverage you mention above, I would probably watch the 30 min preview of our upcoming game, the 15 min post-game analysis of our game (as long as the pundits were reputable), and on the odd occassion I might watch the 90 min re-run if we had a great victory (OF game etc). Would I pay �£200 for that, no chance. Would any St Mirren fans pay �£200 for that profile of their team, perhaps but as we know there are not so many of them. Same goes for the other provincial clubs. That leaves you with the big 4/5 clubs, with only really 2 of them bringing any kind of marketable support. You are therefore paying out a helluva lot of money to show all the St Mirren and Falkirk magazine shows, re-runs, previews, for very little audience or income. That is a loss. I feel the only answer is for Sky to negotiate a tv deal with the SPL, and to incorporate the SPL coverage into its Sports package. Their professional coverage is a class above anything we have had either before or since they were last involved, and while it may not be as lucrative as Setanta's supposed package, the truth is Setanta cannot even pay the old contract off, so the new contract was no more viable than if Gersnet had made the offer. You cant trust the GAA loving scum, thats for sure, and we should never have gotten into bed with them in the first place, and I will be delighted to hear today the expected news that Crocker, Booth, Hartson, Delahunt and the rest of their biased setup have lost their jobs.

I remember that Trevor Steven title winning game well. I only got a ticket about 2 minutes to 3 (yes that's right a 3pm ko on the saturday for a title clincher) and me and my big mate could be spotted at the very back of the terracing behind the goal where Steven scored on the tv highlights. I suppose I am lucky to have been there on all 3 occassions when we have lifted the title. However, I was also at Tannadice behind the goal at the other end in 1998 when the bloke in front of me, who was listening to the radio from the piggery, shouted "ya bassa" and slammed his radio onto the ground in front of him into a thousand bits, and at that point I knew the scum had scored and that we would not be celebrating "the 10".

Rangers minded, for us just means plain and simply a Rangers supporter, as the term does when used with any club like Newcastle, Liverpool etc. There is only one club to my knowledge that uses the term as a cloak for their preferred religeous and political beliefs, and is non-sporting. No prizes for working that one out.......

But that was us, not the great unwashed with their away record!!

Thanks for the comments guys. I had Beasley as one of my leavers too until I thought that for continuity we would be better off keeping him, or we need to try to bed in two wingers at the same time. I agree that Weir should not be an automatic first pick next season, especially with many more midweek games to play this year due to a combination of CL and a shorter season, but again I feel we dont have the money to bring in two quality centre halfs in one window, and Weir will probably be captain and first pick unless his fitness/form becomes too much. I would hope that we use him more sparingly however, and that he should not play in home games against the bottom six for example. That would give him 8/9 games off to allow him to be fresh for the big games. Unfortunately we would then be moaning about consistency of selection being important for a back line to achieve consistent form, so we really cant win! I also agree that Papac would not be first pick in an ideal situation given our style of play, but that we cannot afford to replace him with a quality first team pick when other positions need it more and we will not be bringing in a lot of players this year. Perhaps with a decent CL run (not coming 4th) and therefore more euro football post xmas we can strengthen in January but I dont think we can fix everything in one window given our financial mess.

Exactly my thoughts on it, all 3 of those "unseeded" clubs would easily turf them out.

In the third QR for non-champions (that sounds nice on its own doesn't it!!), the scum will be drawn to play one of the following 5 unseeded teams; Sparta Prague, Dinamo Bucharest, FC Twente, Dinamo Moscow or Sivasspor (Tur). Should they get through that round (it would be 50/50 if drawn against Prague or Twente IMO) they will be unseeded and will play one of the following 5 seeded teams; Arsenal, Lyon, Shakhtar, Sporting Lisbon, Panathanaikos. Again they may have a squeek if drawn against Lisbon or Pana. This is how it will pan out if all seeded teams win their previous round matches. As the scum are 9th in the rankings out of the 10 teams due to play in QR4, there is virtually no chance of them becoming seeded in the final QR. here is the link to see for yourself http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/seedcl2009.html

The prof sums it up brilliantly, and the fact that this is his specialist subject and is academically entitled to his views based upon his years of research in this area lends his argument, and per se the whole project, an added credibility. This is the only article that does not talk specifically about Rangers (Rangers are not even mentioned) and I must say I find it to be a perfect way to finish off the whole project and I hope you have put this as the first article for the reader to read in the whole compilation, as it gives a certain credibility (if only because the others are written by "mere" passionate fans) to what will follow. I cannot wait to see a copy of the whole thing now, and even more than that, I really hope it is given at least some serious attention by the club. They will certainly not agree with everything in it, and may feel some of it does not reflect the way they see the club, and that other items are not possible, but I just really hope they allow a mature, sensible debate to at least eveolve from it. That would be a lasting legacy it not only deserves, but that the club as a whole could only benefit from.

Taking on from the thread cut from the paper about players leaving, I started thinking about I personally would like to stay and go for next season. With Dailly and Hemdani already gone, and Ferguson (the top earner) on his way it seems, I would hold fire on trying too hard to get rid of McGregor and Boyd. I think that together with Edu Thomson Davis Lafferty Whittaker we have the makings of a good young side that are not only all worth big money should they have an impact on the CL games, but ultimately are good enough to win consecutive SPL titles and are not on huge money (Davis aside probably). The ones we should be more concerned with leaving are McCulloch, Velicka, and Smith(G), and we couldn't cry over more of the fringe players being replaced with our young promising players. We could get a decent fee, this year only, for Mendes and I would reluctantly sell him before I would sell McGregor or Boyd as I think the loss of Mendes would have a lesser effect on the team than the other two would. That is seven players I have noted that I dont think would affect us too badly, and if you add Adam, Gow, Smith(S), Naismith, that would be 11 leaving and would allow one or two more experienced players to come in to fill the real problem areas of the team, like the wide areas. My 24 man squad for next season is starting to look like this; GK: McGregor (1st team), Alexander (2nd choice), Robinson. DF: Weir, Bougherra, Papac, Whittaker (all 1st team), Webster, Wilson, Broadfoot, Wylde, MF: Davis, Thomson (1st team) Edu, Aaron, Beasley, new LM, new RM, plus one of Furman/Shinnie/Efrem. ST: Boyd, Lafferty (1st team) Miller, Fleck, Novo. We also have a lot of good proscpects in our reserves/U19's who should be looking to make a breakthrough, even from the bench this coming season. Players like Ness, Emslie, Loy, Campbell, Lennon, Lowing, Little, McMillan, Hutton. We have heard a lot of good things about these lads, and I would love to see us giving them a taste at the right times. Clearly I would love to see better players throughout the team, but given the financial mess the chairman has made of us again, coupled with uncertain times ahead, this squad should be good enough to see us through the season, unless we have major injury problems. The new midfield signings would have to be first team picks, but as we are getting rid of 11 and bringing in only 2, surely we could afford the wages for a couple of decent players that would bring the flair and creativity so badly lacking in recent years. Any thoughts bears?

Perhaps I am just lucky to live and work in the Glasgow area and can get to the main superstore anytime I like, but I can safely say that I have intentionally never set foot in to a JJB store (superstore excepted) since this deal was announced. Despite it turning out to be financially viable, (there was a real doubt about this at the time as the phrase "credit crunch" was still years away) it said everything about the downsizing of the club, our image, and the loyalty to our staff. It also looked to me that Murray was selling off another of our assets for a quick buck to get rid of the debt (that he has now got us back into), and I vowed never to go into a JJB store until this deal finished. All the fantastic novelty items you used to be able to pick up in Rangers shops all quickly disappeared despite assurances to the contrary that they would be expanded upon, and the build up to Manchester was an even more disgraceful open goal missed than Van Vossen's.

Yes Frankie, I know that and you know that, but the poster seemed certain that there were not any, so a simple request for confirmation (a story in the Daily Rhebel would not suffice!) and if it turns out he is in fact correct I would be happy enough as the seedings for the 4th round as it stands seem to make it slightly easier, given that Fiorentina, Stuttgart and Atletico Madrid are all in with the scum in the unseeded section.

Can you post where this is laid out in fact please, because I cannot find it on the UEFA site, and it is their competition.

Step one achieved. Out of the 3 players who were out of contract, I think most would accept Weir has earned a new contract and the other two have not. Now we move on to the 7/8 players who move into their final year..........

Bert Kassies site is always spot on. If he says there is seedings for the final QR, you can pretty much guarantee that there is, especially when the evidence to the contrary came from the Scottish Mhedia. I think what the press were trying to say was that is was not certain that the scum would have to play the 3rd/4th place team from the big 5 countries, as it would depend on the individual team's co-efficients. That has been proven to be correct as Atletico Madrid will be in the non-seeds along with Fiorentina and the scum, whilst Sporting Lisbon and Shakhtar are seeded. Whatever way you look at it, they have a really hard task to get out of the 3rd QR, never mind the 4th! If we can have 3 of the 5 sides above us in the rankings that have to play a qualifier to fail, we will be in with Real Madrid in pot 2!!

THat is first class, I was reading the live text on BBC while at the game at Tannadice just to see what was happening and they mentioned that CP had gone wild with the news of a United equaliser and had a wee chuckle at it at the time, I never realised it was "Operation Tango". If 2005 was "Helicopter Sunday", then surely 2009 will have to become "Tango Sunday"

The goal machine for me. He scores all kinds, from the cracking volley against Partick, a few more from outside the box, a couple of free kick blasters, a few headers, and a few tap-ins to add to several good attempts that hit the woodwork or were well saved. It would certainly be the longest highlights reel of them all.

You have got to love the press in our wee country. You can guarantee that if Caldwell had been sent off in similar circumstances (no laughing at the back there) the assistant referee would have got no peace from them until he had agreed to tell his bosses to rescind the card. They have plenty of previous for this when it suits them, but despite already knowing what the referee's report will contain before it is even posted, they have no such certainty about the Bougherra incident.

Come on now, BD, you surely have not forgotten the Kilmarnock v Scum match where the sunday paper did the "Simply the Best" hatchet job on him on the morning of the match, and timmy called him an Orange Bassa for 90 minutes!! As it stands, that was the only appointment involving either of the OF that McCurry got in 2008-09.

No, I think to a certain extent it happens at all clubs. Home-grown talent has not been bought and presented to the fans by the club, and given the media glowing tributes that automatically get the fans onside with the signing. I do think we are worse than most clubs in the extent of it though, and it is always worse at home games than away games. I have never understood why it happens, I for one always give full support to young cubs coming through the ranks into the first team, and always try to defend them and encourage them. I would always prefer the home-grown player over a bought player if they are of similar ability. Home grown players are also generally on lower wages due to them coming through the ranks, and therefore cheaper for the club as well, not to mention that we dont pay another club a fee for the player, taking money out of our club and giving it directly to a rival.

Adam has been guilty of trying to overplay the ball at the wrong times. He has vision for a pass, he has the quality to execute it, and he has the balls to take it on rather than the easy route, knowing that if it comes off we are in behind the oppo defence, but when it does not come off, he gets it in the neck. As he gets more experienced, he will learn when you can get away with that type of pass and when you just have to take the short, simple option and move on. He can hit a good dead ball, but has been a little inconsistent. He got far too much abuse at Ibrox from his own supporters, as seems to be the case with our youth players coming through the ranks, and that of course puts even more pressure on him. He also needs to get himself fully fit and motivated, and work harder when we dont have the ball. We are not good enough to carry a midfield passenger. I would not mind him getting another chance at Ibrox next season, and hopefully the experience at Blackpool will have shown him how good he could have it at Rangers, and motivate him to really have a strong pre-season and force his way into the team, and perform like he can do. We badly miss goals from midfield, and Adam can get goals and assists for us, but only if he can find consistant form.

A player I admired from his Hearts days, and I dont say that about too many players. I would have loved to have seen him get some game time recently, and I would have no hesitation in putting him straight in beside Weir for the Hearts game, a much better option than Dailly who is an accident waiting to happen. Will give us much more aeriel threat in an attacking sense as well, not to mention a bit more pace at the back as well. A complete no-brainer to me, that is why I am 100% certain Dailly will play at CH on saturday. Good old Walter.

I have said for over a year now, that he just has to stay at Ibrox, work hard, continue to do what he does, ignore the media, and he could threaten Ally's goals tally. He came to the club young enough to become a legend. It is entirely up to him. A Rangers legend is an exclusive club, and bears never forget their legends. Does he want to be a legend or just another in a long line of strikers?

They score a lot of goals from set pieces, so McThug and Caldwell always chip in with half a dozen each a season, including the obligatory handballs and offsides.

He has certainly only ever won one title, in his first season. As for cups, with only 5 subs allowed, he has often been overlooked for even a bench place. I think he may have been suspended for one final as well. We only made one final in his first 3 years, and I am not sure if he played against Motherwell in 2005. I dont think he was on the bench against QotS as only Fleck and Davis came on.