Tannochsidebear

Happy enough to have let Windass go as he is not good enough for what we need, but the fee is garbage for an English player in the English market. I would also call into question his ambition - leaving Rangers for Wigan shows none whatsoever. Enjoy your ride into quiet obscurity Josh, what a waste. He has talent but clearly no heart, and very little desire to make it to the top, or to stand up when his side needed him to. Happy also to let John go, although under £1M for an international fullback is again dreadful business. We cant focus on their value to us, its their value to the buyer we have to fix the price around. The money down there means £2-£3M is not even a gamble, and for a full internationalist with experience, its nothing at all. Yet we rejoice at getting someone off the books for £800K. Will we never learn? On what we still need, it's still the same as it's pretty much always been, a creative midfield player to break down well organised defences. A number 10 for those who like to use the number system. It's what we need most in our domestic league over every other position. That is the one first team place I think we still lack for domestic success. Other than that it is depth and cover. Our keeper is sorted, the back 4 of Tav Goldson Katic and bandage-heid, Coulibaly, Jack & Arfield in midfield (with McCrorie, Rossiter, Ejaria etc as backup) and Morelos up front with Sadiq as cover. The 2 wide forward players can chop and change between Candieas, Murphy, Kent, Middleton - all seem pretty similar standard but offer different things - so could be rotated dependant on opponent. I'm probably forgetting some players as well, apologies if any of them are any good!

If the team puts on performances like last night, there wont be a problem with the atmosphere. It has ever been thus.

Wow. Just wow. What a performance from us last night. That is the best Rangers performance since Walter was the gaffer. A proper European night at Ibrox where the crowd got the place rocking due to the efforts the players put in against a quality opponent. The 20 minutes before half-time we could easily have buckled. Flanagan got roasted, their midfield won every ball and second ball, and their one touch quick passing from the back into midfield and around the pitch was sublime to watch. But apart from that spell, we were the better side throughout and deserved our victory and to take a two goal lead to the second leg. At 2-1 you fancy Maribor, at 3-1 you have to fancy us to get through, although a lot of it will depend if we can prevent Maribor from getting into that groove that was lovely to watch but truly awful to see happen to our own team. We can easily lose 2-0 next week if we do not work just as hard as we did last night. We have to work on picking their guys up at set pieces, they won most of them in our box but couldnt direct them goalwards. Of course we could beat them again if we take our chances as they look suspect defensively, and as always in these situations, the first goal will be huge, both in terms of who gets it, and the timing of it. Standouts were Coulibaly (MOTM for me), Morelos & Tav, with notable mentions for Arfield who supported Morelos in closing them down high up the field and led to us winning the ball back in good areas on several occasions, and McGregor who made a couple of vital stops that Wes could only dream of. And yet for all the positives, I felt Ejaria, Kent and Candieas didnt have great games. So we can improve on that as well if Jack/McCrorie comes in for Ejaria, and perhaps Murphy's experience and savvy for Kent's inexperience. While I could have shot Candieas for passing forward to a clearly offside Morelos and spurning a great opportunity for 2-0 which within a minute was 1-1, his work-rate is extraordinary and his link up with Tav is telepathic and so good for us as a unit. I just wish he had a final pass or a decent finish in him as he frustrates the hell out of me with every cross that fails to hit a Rangers player, or opportunity to shoot that turns into a pass. It felt like we got our old Rangers back last night. I was mightily proud leaving the stadium. Thank you to the management and players.

Games like last night show that the UB are not required to create an atmosphere. All it takes is a good tough game, and a good performance from our team and the place is rocking. Absolutely nothing to do with the wee boys in the corner. A march to try to show how important they are, while hiding their faces as if they are on some sort of watch list or are afraid of arrest is nothing to do with supporting the team, and nothing to do with the matchday atmosphere, which we keep hearing is their entire philosophy. I will ensure I am nowhere near it.

It looks like it was the 4th official who shouted in Clancy's ear to send the h*n off. Now that has been shown to be inaccurate, what punishment awaits the 4th official who lied to the referee? A)Does he get to sit out a couple of weeks? B)Does he get demoted to a lower league for a couple of weeks? C)Does he get slaughtered in our media with all his past mistakes highlighted? D)Does he get given the Rangers game to referee the very next match? Answer to youcouldnaemakeitup@scottishfa.bawbags

While I am happy for Docherty to go out on loan, I believe letting him go to the third tier is not going to achieve anything. The standard in the English Championship is poor enough, the next tier down is downright awful. A young player of ours is going to learn very little of what we require from a player at that level of football.

That seems a very worthwhile use of funds. Voted.

At the outset of this tournament with our ranking being so low as to ensure we were going to be unseeded for 4 rounds of qualifiers it looked almost impossible to reach the group stages. The list of seeded teams was so strong that we needed a miracle to avoid all the big guns waiting in the draw. Step forward the unique system where the draws are made in advance of the ties being played. We were the seeded team for the first round and got Shkupi who were around the middle of the unseeded rankings, which was fair enough. We then somehow managed to draw Osijek, ranked 33 of the 37 seeded teams and we avoided Seville, Besiktas, Atalanta, Aalkmar, Leipzig who would surely all have been far too strong for us at this stage. As an unseeded side for the third round draw, we again got lucky drawing the 15th ranked side Maribor and avoiding the likes of Zenit, Basel, Olympiakos, Feyenoord as well as Seville and others. Then the real slice of luck in that as Maribor were 11th highest of the 26 sides in our draw, they became a seed and as their opponent, by default so did we. This meant that instead of Seville, Zenit, Basel, Besiktas, Olympiakos, Copenhagen, Braga, Bucharest, gent, genk, Maccabi or Feyenoord we get Ufa or Progres! While it is certainly true that Maribor have had some fairly impressive results in Europe over the last few years, including beating 4 Scottish sides in the last decade or so, we really couldnt have got this much better and if we can continue to defend as well as we have done this season to date, we will have a really good chance of making the group stages and some much needed European pooled tv income, nevermind the 3 additional sellouts at Ibrox where we can test ourselves against some good sides.

I was certain I had put Tav for first goal, and I got Tav in the first goalscorer sweep on the bus yesterday on route to Dollyville, and I was at least compensated a little by the fact I would get some points for my correct prediction. Check on here now and I got no points? So I go back and check my posting and there it is in black and white "Morelos FGS". How the F did that happen!!!! Even more gutted now!

The cheating Clancy has been covered enough in this thread, and obviously highlighted even more because we failed to see the game out. On the football side of the match, yes we were far better than them, very well organised, defended well and tried to break on the counter as Dolly pushed more forward late in the game. Our rookie manager got the tactics (post red card) pretty much spot on, but made a hugely important error with his second sub. Bringing Ejaria on for Jack was clearly the wrong move, and absolutely everyone round about me (and on the bus back home) couldnt understand why that wasnt McCrorie to directly replace Jack in the middle 3 in front of the defence. The space Anderson gets to score is exactly the space Jack would have been occupying, and by transference where McCrorie would have been. It was also a mistake not to replace Windass with Sadiq with 10 mins to go. Windass, for all the abuse he gets as a lazy so and so, worked tirelessly yesterday but both he and Murphy were clearly out of gas and while SG subbed Murphy, he kept Windass on blowing out his backside. That lack of an outball in the final minutes cost us at least a couple of possessions. Dont read this as criticism as nobody other than the officials deserve criticism for yesterday, but we could have helped ourselves get an almightly GIRFUY with a couple of important changes. What is more worrying for me is our total lack of goals and shots on target. 5 goals in our 5 competitive games to date is a worry. We are missing too many good chances, Murphy in the early minutes yesterday was a terrible miss, and we several times made the wrong choice of final ball when we broke on them and wasted great opportunities to put the game to bed. Of course we have had a lot of difficult matches so far with a brand new team and this can take time to settle down, this Sunday's game is our first opportunity to play a much poorer side than us and see if we can find a ruthless streak to put that game away early and convincingly. Before that against Maribor we may not get a lot of chances against a very experienced and streetwise European opponent, so we simply have to start making better final balls and taking our good chances when we create them. Our whole bus was gutted on the way home, yet most of us would have been fairly happy had a draw been offered pre-match. That tells us a lot about where this team is going, if the officials allow us a fair crack at it of course!

A great piece by @26th of foot and a great post #19 by @Gaffer both are are far better quality than anything you could hope to read in the papers on the journey up to Dollyville tomorrow, well done gentlemen. I think this will be a very tough game and while it would be great to put a few past them and lay down a marker for the season ahead, any result other than defeat can usually be taken back down the road with some satisfaction. While Dolly has lost their main scorer in Rooney, they continue to be a well organised, physical and capable side who collected more points against the other 9 sides than us or the breaststroke managed last season. Their problem was in bottling it against the OF, and we must hope this continues tomorrow. Another consideration will be the officials. Too often last season we were hampered by dreadful decisions and already today I hear the beasts get another soft pen to ease their margin of victory. I read here that Clancy has been given the whistle for tomorrow, so head-scratching decisions should be aplenty by 2.45pm. I have called Clancy out as a biased cheat against us on several occasions over the last couple of years but I’m told it’s just incompetence - surely that would balance out - so tomorrow would be a good time for some of the dozens of decisions we are owed from this piece of trash! i hope our 10 can beat their 12!

Dolly 0 Rangers 2 FGS Morelos

Yes, I done it last night. It is quite extensive and covers matchdays at ibrox, catering and merchandise, ticketing, membership scheme. Easy to complete with the odd comments box as you go through. I would encourage bears to take part.

From that list it looks like a 50/50 split between teams who should be too good for us, and teams who are no better than the Croats or Maribor and would give us a 50/50 chance of making the group stages. Looking for another kind draw on Monday to give us hope of European football throughout the autumn. You would say Rapid, Leipzig, Atalanta, Bordeaux, should all be too strong, we would also start as underdogs against Belgrade, Burnley, & Ufa, but the rest we would really fancy our chances against, especially as to play them we will have to have taken care of Maribor as well, which will be a hugely difficult task.

Thats the first 5 weekends of the season we play on Sunday. Not a Saturday game until Dundee at home on 15 September, by which time that could be our 14th competitive game of the season (if we beat Maribor). Of course should we get through to the group stages (not counting chickens, just making a point!), that will be another 6 matches moved to Sundays, add in a few away league games moved for tv purposes and you could be looking at us playing over 20 games before Christmas not on a Saturday. Thats the price of tv deals and European success lads, I hope all of the above comes to fruition as it will show we are making good progress as a club. Of course its the match-going punters that suffer the most with the changes to travel plans, but nobody gives a toss about us. Pay your money, turn up and make an atmosphere for the good tv viewers to be entertained, and dont complain!

I thought the Croats were technically good players, but they didnt have any creatively gifted players that could open us up. Pretty much the same as us against our Scottish opponents where we can pass sideways with accuracy and put crosses into dangerous areas, but both sides lack a creative spark as to how to open the door and create goals. I wouldnt be looking to sign any of their players as I didnt think any of them were significantly better than ours. The best team won over the two legs and nobody could have any complaints about that. We really need to be searching further afield than our last opponent.

I will need to take your word for that Rab, as I haven't listened to Clyde for over a decade, it is the only radio station banned in my office, and until such times as I hear that their sports coverage is balanced I wont be going back. I dont listen to BBC CSC either, but a discussion about who is worst is a race to the bottom where there is no winner, only Rangers and our fans as losers.

You say that Rab and I tend to agree with you, but Radio Clyde has been just as bad as Radio Scotland for years and years and as a commercial organisation are still going and show no signs of ever becoming impartial. I dont think its about the licence fee, its about the scum that work there, and their bosses who approve of them.

The young lad has looked lively in his few appearances to date, hopefully the official move up to first team duties spurs him on again and he continues to improve with the experience he is getting.

I'm really worried about this game tonight. Although we won the first leg, it was a very tight game, and on another day we could easily have lost 1-0 instead of winning 1-0. If the Croats get the first goal tonight, the fans will get restless and the players will get nervous and apprehensive about playing their normal game for fear of making a mistake. It's what we have seen from our side since 2011, and I think it would be unfair to think that we have re-written our whole squad's mindset in just 3 competitive games, 2 of which were against a pretty poor side. These are the type of ties we should be winning easily given the difference in budget, but we seem to rarely look like the money we spend on wages/players compared to our poorer continental cousins. It would be nice to get back to having some confidence in european ties against sides we should be beating. If we get through tonight and against Maribor then we can perhaps say we are seeing a turning of our fortunes, but that for me is a long way off. I hope to see Kent continue instead of Candieas, who is so wasteful with the ball. I'm not sure if Kent will prove to be a decent player, but I am sure Candieas is not of sufficient quality to hold down a starting place. A bit harsh on a player who works really hard, has a good link up defensively with Tav, but he is a creative player and I dont think his final ball is good enough often enough. I am impressed so far with Coulibally, albeit only 1 game so far, and hope this can be the protection for the back 4 that none of the players playing that role managed too well last season. Who partners him when we go 2 holding players (as we surely will tonight) is debatable, I prefer McCrorie to Jack of those currently available but think the manager will go with Jack. I hope he doesnt let us down as his temperament is definitely suspect, as is his concentration. Ejaria reminds me so much of Oduwu who was with us a couple of years ago. Plenty of flair and fancy touches but will he have the workrate and quality to make a lasting impression? When Sadiq gets up to full match fitness it will give us more options, and perhaps we will see him from the bench for 30 minutes tonight. Hopefully he can get off the mark tonight and get himself off to a flyer which will also see us through. A clean sheet sees us through, but realistically, we want to start the game positively and get the first goal which will force them onto us a bit more which should let us hit them on the break. However if we want to show we are a proper football team again, we should be winning these sorts of matches at home. SG talks about making Ibrox a fortress again. It starts tonight! C'mon the Gers!

If they are not councillors, then they cannot stop us going ahead. Only council intervention can prevent us going ahead surely? If your neighbour puts in an objection to your house extension, it is still up to the council to decide if it is a valid objection or not, it is not just accepted as gospel.

Why are we automatically assuming there will be a termination fee that we will have paid to the player? I dont believe there should be, as the player knows he wont get any game time this season as he isnt in the plans, and if he wants to play football he has to move on. Terminating his contract allows him to negotiate freely to get a sign-on fee elsewhere and a decent wage as there is no fee to pay to us. Either we hold on to him for a fee and keep paying his wages in the meantime, or he gets to leave for free, we get no fee but dont need to pay him anymore wages. That works for both parties. Usually when there is a mutual termination that means the player has a deal lined up with another club but they dont want to have to negotiate with us over a fee. If it turns out we have paid him to leave, it will show we have learned absolutely nothing about these deals since the Martin Bain era.

I dont care which political party these cretins represent, they are purely using this as a way to vent their sectarian hatred for our club under the guise of doing something for the community. The argument is a futile one, but it has of course gained traction in the MSM due to it being against Rangers. It is not the colour of their rosette that makes then anti-Rangers, it is their sectarian upbringing. Replace them with another of the same rosette if you like, as long as they have no hatred for our club if they are going to represent the ward that our club resides in.

Fantastic result and a proper professional defensive job to restrict Osijek to few chances, only really one of which was a good chance. Like others in the thread I agree that we looked vulnerable in wide areas and I thought Tav and moreso Flanagan were getting roasted at times by their opponents. In the pre-match we were informed that Osijek's main threat would come from their good wide players, so it was a little worrying to see us try to play narrow, thus going 1 on 1 in wide areas too often without Tav and JF getting proper backup. Our counter-attacks were poor with the wrong choice made too often, hopefully that is just still a bit of rust as it is still really pre-season for us. This was the first game played at a proper football pace, the previous tie and the friendlies were not played at this pace, nor were the opponents as technically strong as the Croats were. I'm hoping the players that need game time get it on Sunday in the bounce game and our match-sharpness continues to improve ahead of a very difficult 2 games in 4 days that are hugely important to our whole season. With the high profile signings made to date all being to make us harder to score against, it must be especially pleasing for SG to have got 3 clean sheets in the competitive matches to date, and the trio of McGregor, Goldson & Katic looks already like a new Iron Curtain in the making. Here's hoping!

Really looking forward to the game tonight. Absolutely gutted that I cannot be there due to the Rangers (non) Travel Club & Thomas Cook (profit before service) shambolic inability to source a reasonably priced plane for day trippers to use. That team line-up that has been leaked is quite a gamble with two new players in key roles who havent even had a bounce game with their new teammates yet (why no bounce game last weekend? - mental!) and we must hope they can hit the ground running as we cannot carry passengers. It seems we have jettisoned the frustrating Windass and the inaccurate Candieas, two of last seasons players who had great stats but were too often found lacking when it mattered in big games or when we needed something special. Perhaps Windass may be a decent impact player to come on late in the game against a tiring defence. We'll see. Faith has been retained (for now) for the totally out of sorts Morelos, and we know there is a good finisher in there, and we will still get s full shift of work from him, but his head seems to have gone in front of goal. Strikers need confidence and if one goes in off his arse it might be just what he needs to get going again. Here's hoping. A good result would be any victory of course, or even 0-0, 1-1, or any single goal defeat where we score like 1-2 or 2-3. I hate losing 1-0 as it sounds ok but lose the first goal at home and you're usually out. Obviously any 2 goal deficit would be very difficult to overturn at a packed Ibrox next Thursday. This is the first test of many for the new management, so we have got to hope he has got the players to play with belief, attitude, and we get a bit of luck. C'mon the Gers!!