Tannochsidebear

I was in full agreement with you right up until the last sentence, then you go and spoil it.

I know fine well I should give all Scotland players my full support, I just cant. I am well aware that is a failing of mine, and was the main reason for the original post, to see if it is only me with this affliction or it is shared with fellow bears. As for scum players playing for us, at least we know that would never happen...........

I dont see what is wrong with promoting the flags of your country, and it was really pleasing to see all the saltires hanging out the cars in the build up to the Italy game. Shame they all disappeared shortly afterwards. I am glad you like FOS, musical taste is a very personal thing, it is just not my taste and I cannot listen to it. If I am watching a Scotland game I turn off the sound for FOS being masqueraded as our National anthem. That is my choice.

For someone who does not even live in the country they profess to love so much, I think you will understand if I refrain from taking Patriotism lessons from you. Perhaps if you chose to live here, living the rivalry, putting up with our demonisation at every turn, listening to how great they are from their mhedia friends, then you would understand my point a little more. I thought it was clear that the wry smile at FT was due to there being 5 OF losers in the team and my long-held belief that if there are more of them than us in a national team, we under-perform. No answer forthcoming to the question posed? I stick by the fact that I am proudly Scottish. I am Scottish, both my parents are Scottish, and all 4 grandparents are Scottish. My wife is also 100% Scottish and my son is Scottish. I am proud of our heritage, the great inventors we have given the world, our part in the shaping of the world. Around the world people have great respect for the Scots when you meet them and this also makes you proud for your country. The small matter of the international football team does not really have any bearing on being proud of your country. What I personally dislike is the National dress (the skirt) the bagpipes which are an embarressment to music, and the fact we have promoted a second rate folk song to our national anthem because of an anti-english agenda to bin GSTQ because England sing it (rightfully) as their National Anthem. I am fully behind your idea of cramming all the internationals into a winter break. Take a month off for the players to recharge, get their clean-up operations etc and get ready for the second half of the season, while those unfortunate enough to be selected for their country get to go off and play 8-10 games in a month all at once. It would perhaps refocus supporters like me into going back to being interested in international football again, as all the focus is on the internationals for a month at a time. Unfortunately I dont see it ever happening but I do like the idea. I dont particularly require a National manager to be ex-Rangers, but they must be qualified to do the job. Burley has never had a big job to see if he is any good. Yes he did well for ONE season with Ipswich, but that was over 10 years ago. If that really is the peak of his management career, then he is most definately not the best man for the job. A Scotland manager should have managed at a big club or have international management experience. He falls short on both.

It has to be NIKE. Proper global branding. Go anywhere in the world and you have NIKE sports shops and you can see a selection of clubs tops from this group. There are celtic tops in sports shops that would not be there if they were not with NIKE. Similarly our tops are not there. If it is not NIKE, second best would be ADIDAS, as at least they have global branding as well. Not as much as NIKE I dont think, but it would certainly get our stuff into shops worldwide. We missed out hugely by not having our tops in sports shops around Europe when we reached the UEFA cup final.

I know I shouldn't and I should know better, but I did have a wry smile on my face when the final whistle blew in Macedonia last Saturday. I didn't see the match as I was travelling down to Birmingham for the weekend to watch the Masters, but I listened to most of it on the radio on the way down. It always intrigues me why I dont want Scotland players to do well if they play for celtic. And on top of that if there are more celtic players in the team than Rangers players, I cannot wish them success. I am proudly Scottish, but some of our "Scottish" culture really annoys me. Bagpipes, tartan, kilts, anti-englishness and that truly awful so-called anthem FOS. The results of England, Wales and NI dont even register with me, international football is just an annoying break from the real stuff in my opinion. I must admit that when we pushed France and Italy close under Walter, and then Alex in the last campaign I couldn't help but get caught up in it a wee bit and actually went to the local club to watch the Italy game on the big screens. Even then I could only look at players like McThug and Hartley and wish them every misfortune and wonder why the manager could not find someone better than them to play instead. I pick on the celtic players when they play for Scotland. Every bad pass, lost header or mistake is further proof that they should not be in the team, and Rangers players mistakes are "unlucky". Under new management, with a ridiculous pair of assistants, Burley has a lot to live up to. I was naturally sympathetic to Scotland's cause under the previous two managers due to them both being former Rangers managers. Burley on the other hand looked to me as under-qualified for the job. He ran away from Hearts before we could see if he was any good and his greatest success in England was over a decade ago. His first few friendlies last season were hard to judge as Rangers players were withdrawing due to our mammoth campaign, and friendlies are a waste of time. To pick 5 celtic players in the starting line-up barely a week since they were gubbed in the OF game was a poor call. The OF game is huge and their confidence must have been shattered (LOL). He can state that he had call-offs, but you must ask yourself why. It is already looking like Berti mark 2, with players seemingly uninterested to play for him, and I am sure most players will ask themselves why they should turn up to be coached by someone like Pressley, a player with "limited ability" if ever there was one, and no coaching experience at all, while Butchers experiences in the game since hanging up his boots are, sadly, hardly admirable. So I leave you with this question, When was the last time a Scotland team won an WC/EURO qualifier with more celtic players than Rangers players in it? Answers on a postcard to Iceland before tomorrow night.

Likewise mate. Shame I couldnt stay for a beer and a longer chat, there's always a next time.

Agreed. Especially when you see the form they have knocked up, a one page "Word" document that must have taken about 2 minutes to create.

And if a Billionaire comes in, he wont give a toss and take his money and run. It is easy for Murray to say he will only deal with people with Rangers best interests at heart, when nobody is wanting to buy it at all. The proof will be in the purchase/sale.

In January 2007 we were admittedly miles behind the filth. The PLG moonbeam had failed and we needed big investment in the squad and team to even make us competitive. While Walter on the face of it has done really well to completely transform the squad with under �£10M net spent in 4 windows, our chairman has systematically failed to give Walter the funds required to try to catch up with our rivals. We have spent less than them in a period where we needed to invest more than them. Only their incompetance in the transfer market has allowed us to close the gap, and perhaps even overtake them. Strachan's continual bad buys has been of more benefit to Murray than anyone else. Also, their failure to bring through any of their own talent in the last two years has meant that they were unable to sell on a "Hutton" to allow them to strengthen other areas.

I think Hibs thought that was the fairest way of making a voucher available for rangers fans to contact them directly. They obviously need to vet every fan that applies in order to comply with SPL regs on unacceptable conduct, so a voucher will have all the required info on it for bears to fill in. They are following Falkirks lead in this regard, but at least they are not using the local paper like Falkirk did. Personally, I think it would have been better for them to put a dowloadable form on to their website, or to buy tickets online. These options may be considered later in the season or perhaps for next season if this system is to continue. Again, I think Rangers will back down and go back to charging us an extra admin fee of around �£2-�£2.50

We beat them then??

I see the point you are making Beattie, but I agree with the other posters on this thread. Just because someone else is worse off does not mean you are doing well.

Of course I have some sympathy for season ticket holders who like to go to away games but do not wish to join a RSC. Thise are the real losers from Bain's 5% charge but you dont count in the eyes of our club. Just keep renewing and dont ask for anything. As far as the Hibs game is concerned, a voucher will be in Mondays Sun for ST holders to apply directly to Hibs for a ticket. First come first served. Good luck.

No, not that one, I mean the good old Rangers Supporters Association. Much maligned and much smaller than in its heyday, the RSA has done its member clubs proud this time. John McMillan, the secretary of the RSA, has held meetings with both Hibs & Hearts over the last couple of weeks and has secured ticket allocations for RSA member clubs for this seasons matches at Easter Road and Tynecastle. The long standing history and good record of the RSA was a key factor in negotiations with the clubs. As John and the rest of the RSA often get some abuse for perceived inaction or press statements, I thought it was a case of credit where it was due.

Correct, he loves the attention. I would love to see the bears just ignore him when he does his half time blessing, he would soon stop.

He also said that Weir missed the OF game, and that McGeady was one of the best wingers in Britain. Our National team is back in Berti-esque territory i'm afraid.

If they cannot blame the ref or linesmen, they jsut get their friends in the mhedia to deflect all talk of our glorious victory and instead talk about victimisation of poor wee neil for days on end afterwards without a shred of evidence or proof to back it up.

If I remember right they only get about 6 minutes from each game to show as highlights as part of the broadcasting deal. Gone are the days of 20-25 minutes of highlights from the main game, live broadcasters wouldn't pay the money they do if punters could see about a quarter of the game a day later.

I think Fletcher is a good player, as long as he is beside another good player in centre midfield. I dont think he is the one creative player we are desperately looking for, but is certainly better than playing defenders or strikers in midfield. Maloney I am not impressed with. Was a one trick pony while with the scum and I for one was always fairly happy when he was in their team as the likeliehood was he would go missing for most of the game. Dont give him any free kicks in front of goal and you are fine. He was just another in a long line of undeserved POTY winners from the sellick-minded mhedia.

Yes we certainly can win the league and IMO we will win the league. It will again come down to away games against the top six sides, and we cannot be any worse than we were last season in this category. Improve that record, repeat our excellant home record, and the title is ours. Whilst not wanting to talk about the scum, their lack of improvement from a squad that was average at best last season does not make me fear them at all.

That is a good assumption to make from that. Expect it to be picked up and in the papers tomorrow. I was quite glad we missed out on Shittu as I have not been impressed from what little I have seen of him, and for that kind of fee as well. I dont think we need another centre half, with Cuellar, Weir, Webster, Dailly, Broadfoot as well as the younger players who are waiting in the wings and even Hemdani could play there as he did reasonably successfully in the PLG era. I would much rather we concentrated on a winger and a quality central midfield creative player.

Given that your question is what do we think WS thinks is his best 11 and not our own opinion, if everyone was fit and in form, my Watty XI would be McGregor Whittaker Weir Cuellar Smith Novo Ferguson Thomson Beasley Miller Cousin And in Europe, Miller would be much deeper, or Hemdani might come in to make 3 in the middle of the park and Cousin up on his own. Again, not my choice, but given how he has played players when available and what he has said about players when they are missing etc, I think that might be his first choice.

I agree with that as well. However there is room for some debate and discussion around this. I am fully expecting any further purchases to be either funded by sales or Bosmans/loans for the reasons I gave earlier. What the manager decides to do with the little he had available is an entirely different debate altogether, and I dont think anyone could argue with your assessment as quoted above.

It has been privately admitted by Murray/Bain to corporate sponsors etc that we must compete in the group stages of the CL 3 years out of 5 just to break even. Less than that will result in large losses and player sales. More than that will lead to a transfer budget. I agree with Bluedell's assessment entirely. Again, no inside info, but looking closely at the info available together with snippets of info gathered in the Murray releases tells us that the above is correct. Remember Murray came out last Autumn and told us all that we had majorly overspent last summer but he seen it as necessary to compete. It was not long after that statement that he started trying to offload our best player at that time, Hutton, to pay for his overspending last summer. So there you have the reason for the sale of Hutton and none of that cash being reinvested in the team becuase it was really paying for Naismith, Whittaker, McCulloch, Cuellar etc. The CL money is I have stated earlier, just to enable us to break even. The days of budgeting for being beaten in the first round of every cup are long gone. The UEFA cup run was financially better than expected, but I think a large part of the profits of that went on player bonuses and towards this seasons budget. We get that from reports of huge bonuses for getting past every team from Bremen onwards and the previously stated fact that anything over and above from CL group money is profit that can go towards a budget. Unfortunately we blew the league so we cannot now rely on the CL group money yet, so we have to keep aside the largest part of the profit from last year in case we dont make the CL groups. If we make the CL groups we can then release more to buying players, but by then the best players are gone and you are left with loan deals and unwanted players that could be good but are more of a gamble.