UCF2008

I should probably add that I am itching to see any SPL club having to form as a Newco just to see if they're treated in the same way as us. ...Except for Dundee who are as good as relegated and following two recent insolvencies would maybe deserve at least as bad as what we got.

There's only one club I'd be happy to see die, a few that I'm indifferent about. None of those are the one's in immediate peril though.

I wouldn't expect Ally to deliberately deflect blame in such a manner given what we've all been through. Like I said before, his wirds were either very poorly or very carefully chosen here.

The general impression I'm getting is that nobody's job at the club is safe right now. Whether that's down to poor performance on or off the park or a combination of the two remains to be seen.

I think you know that if he was able to tell you he would. So we can either all speculate what might be amiss or we can take his statement for what it is and hope for the best.

One thing I would say is that we obviously couldn't find a solution last weekend. Having defenders find themselves parked on the half way line with nowhere to go but back to the keeper for another aimless punt up the park isn't the answer to unlocking that type of defence.

If you're attacking a brick wall it can be frustrating as we've found to our benefit on a number of occassions in Europe. With that in mind we've also seen when the tactic hasn't worked for us. I'm no master tactician so I couldn't tell you exactly why. Maybe that's the question Ally should be asked or asking himself.

I don't expect anywhere near £10m to be spent on players next season unless we're both playing in a restructured SPL or Championship and the transfer embargo is lifted. I'm not saying it's moonbeams. I just don't expect us to be spending that sort of money in a January transfer window to face SFL opposition.

Every break they had was a lucky one for them because our keeper and defence were all at sea

Thanks to the size of our squad when we started at the bottom and then the transfer embargo, he does kind of have a point.

I didn't say we played good football. I said we played the better football for most of the game. It clearly wasn't good enough and like I said before, they defended very well and we didn't. We didn't defend at all.

I'm not having a pop at them. They played the best tactic available to them and it worked. My point is that the same tactic isn't available to us at this level not because Ally is a poor manager but because he knows the fans wouldn't stand for it whether it worked or not.

...playing against better teams in Europe? Exactly.

They sat back with ten men behind the ball for most of the game playing a pressing game in their own half and hitting us with the odd counter. I know the standard of football this season has been very poor at times, but any Rangers manager using those tactics against SFL opposition would be slaughtered win, lose or draw.

If we'd played their tactics against them or any SFL side and won Ally would be getting the same level of criticism as he's getting now.

I read it as a broader statement in response to broader critisism. I didn't see any reference to any single game. I also didn't see us being outplayed by Annan. We lost the game and we were a huge disappointment but we were still playing the better football for the majority of the game. That's not to take anything away from Annan who unlike us did defend very well.

Shareholders? Sponsors? Everything has to be painted as rosy as possible right now. Doesn't make it true though.

That's true. If Ally was a foreign manager with a poor grasp of English then I'd almost expect these type of comments, but given his ties to the club and what we and particularly he has gone through over almost the entirety of his time in management at the club, I think there might be more to it.

If you automatically think the worst of the man for whatever reason then yes, I suppose you could look at it that way

I realise the lines have been blurred this season due to squad size, but you do understand the difference between youth side and reserve side don't you?

I don't have a problem with the statement although I can see why it might appear insulting to some. Some of the content is worrying though. “As I say there is no-one from the outside that really knows what’s going on.....I’m very aware of the difficulties everybody is facing at the club....they don’t know the full story and they are a little bit misguided." Given the troubled times Ally has had to guide us through, these words are either very poorly or very carefully chosen. Either way it should be a cause for concern.

The longer we're not playing top flight football, the more financial harm done to our own club. Three years with massively reduced turnover. I'd like to know how that's going to make us stronger than ever.

Are dignity and pride really getting in the way of accepting this hypothetical invite though? Or is it stubborness and spite? You say you never want to play any of them again. I feel the same way, but the reallity of the situation is that we more than likely will have no choice. Hoping to lengthen our time away from the SPL by one or two years is just delaying the inevitable and won't make it any easier to deal with. They'll still call us all the names under the sun and we'll still hate the lot of them with a passion. Talk from some fans about using that time to build a new footballing philosophy is constructive in terms of positive thinking and little else. As far as the real world of Rangers in Scottish football is concerned its just romantic claptrap = Not going to happen As for our youths, they're better off developing in the SPL. They may not get the same opportunity as they've had this season, but if that turns out to be the case then it's inevitably going to be that way and again another year or two will make no difference.

how much are the watch and wallet worth?

Which might be a reasonable sentiment as far as the coaches and directors of our youth are concerned, but not the man who's been our reserve team coach for the past 5 years.