maineflyer

I've already posted that I think McCoist (or someone) should have taken over 1st January and I agree that Smith has little to offer now. But that doesn't justify behaving badly and letting ourselves down. It's nothing to do with 'the Rangers way', which I think is a shabby phrase made up by the shallowest amongst us. It's about behaving properly, in a way we can be proud of after the current moment is gone. Walter Smith has never been a great manager but most of the greats were actually less than history painted them to be ... but he has been a great Rangers man and a terrific ambassador who has always worked hard for the club. Above all, Walter is one of us and we should all bear that in mind before cruxifying him. By all means criticise the manager but mind the man while you're at it. :cheers:

I want to see him replaced every bit as much as you do but let's not lose the plot. Walter Smith has been a great servant of this club and if we're half the club we think we are then we won't be drumming him anywhere. What we'll do is ensure this great guy leaves with his pride intact and our thanks ringing in his ears. Anything less and Rangers is completely finished.

As a measure of how difficult it is to win three in a row, only once since 1935 have we won more than two titles in a row and that was our NIAR era. Celtic have managed it only twice in the same period - their own NIAR run and Strachan's recent three in a row - and you have to go all the way back before the first world war to see them achieve it again. Somehow you tend to think it happens more frequently. If you look back over the last fifty years, both clubs have won 22 titles but Celtic have won more titles than us in every decade except the 1990's, which is somewhat alarming. Just found it interesting.

When we played them off the park at the piggery to clinch the league title. We were simply so much better than them that the result was inevitable. Everything seemed destined to go in our favour and nothing they tried could change the predictable outcome. We were strong and their every weakness was on show for all to see. Their discipline went out the window and their fans cried conspiracy. Last night looked like a similarly inevitable outcome. All our weaknesses went on show yet again, our management seemed incapable of doing anything but repeat past mistakes and, as we struggled, our discipline evaporated. More especially, they win every psychological confrontation and seem as strong as we are weak. They responded to that epic disaster by appointing Martin O'Neill and have spent heavily ever since to ensure it didn't happen again. Where is our response going to come from? Because, make no mistake about it, we are a distant second best to celtic right now and the gulf isn't closing without a radical change of direction.

Edu is a waste of space, end of.

Time is Walter's best friend because it tends to make us forget some of his appalling decisions on the transfer market. WTF was the point of letting Novo go and hiring players that never play?

Foster is a far better player than Whittaker. I can't see what's to debate, Whittaker is rank rotten.

I'm afraid Walter is fully culpable in another sad failure last night and as a result we got entirely what we deserved from the game.

No one can believe Regan is a neutral in all this. His hands were dirty before he took the job.

What I mean is it will take a considerable time to improve and extend this squad, which will require funds we don't have and management we really know nothing about yet. Yes, it is possible to win the league this season but it's also increasingly unlikely as the disadvantages of a small and cheaply-assembled squad become ever more obvious. You cannot easily turn around the effects of years of under-investment. Even in terms of style, we are seeing how difficult it is even for an experienced manager like Smith to change the leopard's spots. This low ebb will go on until something is done that will start to change the underlying problems. That remedy might start this month or it might not appear for years. What I'm absolutely sure of is that until it does appear we're going nowhere. That's just the reality of our long decline.

With respect, I think you're missing the point. This season can't be saved, it's way too late for that. The question is whether this is what we have to put up with for the next season or the next several seasons. Looking at the current Rangers board, I'd suggest it looks like the latter.

Truth is we'll have to wait and see I suppose .... wait and see if any sharesale ever takes place, then wait and see if we have a business leader or just another blowhard with a mirror.

Just to be clear, I'm not taking an unduly negative view of Criag Whyte (can't say the same for Ellis) ..... it's just that I've seen nothing from him yet to suggest he will be any different to David Murray. He may be entirely different but we should acknowledge that only when we see it.

There's nothing 'sad' about acknowledging the fact that Rangers is a business as well as a football club ... or properly assessing how that business is run .... any more than it's sad to assess the effectiveness of a player's ability to pass a ball more than 10 yards. A business is a financial operation first and foremost, any other view simply shows a lack of understanding. Inevitably, it has to be judged on the financial results it achieves. To that extent, we shouldn't confuse our assessment of a business by daft emotional tags. It's neither sad or happy or even melancholic. Rangers as a business is a mess however you assess it. It isn't a mess because David Murray is a self-obsessed bastard with no roots in our Rangers heritage, it's a mess because he made some extremely poor business decisions. On the other hand, Rangers as a community is equally divided and rudderless - that's not David Murray's fault but has arisen because too many Rangers people decided to sell out 120 years of history and buy into a dream that was dead before it was born.

Absolutely right. I've never felt comfortable with this 'guarantee' of �£5m per annum from Whyte/Ellis. It smacks of Murrayesque 'and I'll spend ten pounds' nonsense to get the fans onside. How exactly will this guarantee be expressed - will they be lodging the money on acquisition? Of course not. Haven't we had enough of this flybynightery, or are Rangers fans still hungry for more bullshit? There's only one way to live within your means .... and that's to live within your means, not to cultivate aspirations based on vague promises of magic numbers. What we desperately need is leadership with the ability to run a profitable business, not a business funded by debt. But that takes real ability, not the sleight of hand we've been used to for twenty years and that always gets found out in this sort of operation. There has been no sign whatsoever that Whyte or Ellis has this approach or this ability.

I'm agreeing with you ... and alluding to the fact that our other income streams have been under-developed for years.

There you go .... and that's only part of the problem.

No it doesn't. Even in this fucked up world, the notion of earning money isn't altogether dead. Or did we forget that under Murray.

It's not about how much money the owner has but how much he delivers to the management that isn't based on debt.

It's real in the offence but not in the compliment ... or is it real in the throw but not in the catch? Why am I asking you?

The RST hasn't announced it so it must be bollocks.

It's OK, I know he's lying through his teeth. Poor comment about age though, even if he doesn't exist.

I'd recommend Whittaker starts with a lager and moves swiftly on to vodka.

The one consolation is I don't believe the OP would post rank speculation. However ...... Nnnnyyargh....

I could have come up with other preferences for manager but on the whole I actually am positive about the appointment. I think change always offers up the opportunity to be positive, it just doesn't always turn out the way we'd hoped. Nevertheless, in general, change is good. If this was always going to be the outcome I'd rather they appointed McCoist to take over 1st January. As for attracting new players, there's the small matter of funds but I think we've more chance of attracting new blood after the announcement than before it.