Zappa

This article has Mark Warburton quoted as saying as well as Spurs he's also speaking to 2 other London clubs today about what players they have available.

In the Gascoigne documentary you really get a sense of both sides of his life. One of the sad things is that he actually genuinely thought he could play better while drunk. Tragically, he's now a completely broken man. An emotional, mental & physical wreck who sounds like he's losing touch with reality.

That's one of the reasons why I wasn't impressed with the writer & director Jane Preston's portrayal of his time with us. She was more interested in portraying his time at Rangers as being about sectarianism & IRA threats, than she was about the magical moments and all the amazing goals he scored.

Celtic tore them apart. We were completely outplayed and there were several of their players who looked like a totally different class to any of ours.

There needs to be a good balance in the squad though and that balance should ideally include some real quality - even at this level - because we absolutely must win the league this coming season and preferably with some style and a good amount of breathing space. There literally is no time to solely concentrate (and gamble) on developing a large bunch of our own youngsters, so the new management team is in a bit of a catch 22 situation and if they think bringing in a couple of quality players on loan will help us, then it's hard to see any justification for moaning about it.

I did say that loan signings need to be players of a high standard and fully fit, but maybe you missed that part of my post. As others have said, loan deals for us should be players who are better quality than what we can afford to buy or get out of contract.

Seriously mate, you need up your game. The text in your signature is longer than most of your posts on the forum!

Never mind twitter and it's 140 character word limit, I think you need a discussion platform with a 40 character word limit. Is there such a thing as 'twit shorter' ???

Spot on BB. I also think it shows that Stevie Smith isn't daft when it comes to being questioned and prodded by trouble makers in the press & media. He makes some of the other players who left recently look a bit dim and naive by comparison.

I've added two links for you. Looks like multiple news outlets are publishing exactly the same story word for word.

We need to bring in the best quality available to us and if that means a couple of loan deals on top of the permanent signings we make this summer, then it can't possibly be a bad thing. So long as the player/s coming in on loan are of a high standard and are fully fit, then it's going to strengthen our squad and give the manager more options.

Friday, 10 July 2015 16:30 Gazza: Twenty Years Ago Today Written by Nick Thomson TWENTY years ago today, Rangers pulled off arguably the biggest coup in the club’s history as they signed mercurial genius Paul Gascoigne from Lazio. It was a capture of monumental proportions as the most high-profile footballer in Britain and perhaps even the world headed to Glasgow to join Walter Smith’s all-conquering side of the time. There were those who questioned the wisdom of signing Gascoigne however. He had a history of injuries, on-field disciplinary problems, off-field skirmishes and there was a feeling that he was past his best. There is little doubt though Gascoigne played the best football of his career at Rangers, and often his play was as good as anyone’s who had ever donned the blue jersey. And it was Rangers' good fortune during this time to have not just one but two very special players. With Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup in the side, they were formidable. Gazza could do just about anything he set his mind to with a football. He had instant control, quick feet that could take him past player after player and such wonderful vision to make defence-splitting passes that 40-yard killer balls were a commonplace. He didn't help out much in defence, but when charging forward with the ball at his feet he was a breathtaking sight. He had such awareness of what was going on around him that he could change the course of a game in an instant, creating opportunities with a flick or a lob. Or he could ghost past a wall of players to set something up. And then there was his shooting. He had a high strike rate for a modern-day midfield player - 39 goals in 103 appearances in the blue of Rangers. Born in Gateshead on May 27 1967 and had played for Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspur and Lazio before signing for Rangers for £4.3 million. He was 28 when he came to Rangers and scored on his home debut in the 4-0 victory over Steaua Bucharest in the Ibrox International Trophy in July 1995. By his fourth League match he had catapulted himself into Rangers folklore with a stunning goal in a 2-0 victory over Celtic. But his most important contribution in his first season came, inevitably, when the chips were down. It was April 28, 1996. Rangers were facing Aberdeen. Victory would give them their eighth successive League title, but they were 1-0 down and looking far from comfortable when Gascoigne took the game by the scruff of the neck. First he collected the ball from a corner on the left side of the Aberdeen penalty area. He went past two defenders and from the narrowest of angles chipped the keeper for goal number one. Next he got possession inside his own half, ran more than 50 yards straight at Aberdeen. His strength and determination saw off the challenges and with his left foot he placed the ball into the far corner for goal number two. Finally, he sealed his hat-trick and the Championship with a penalty. It was a one-man show, the stuff dreams are made of. But it took a Gascoigne to make them come true. It was a fitting climax to what had been a magnificent season for him. He went on to play a key role the following season too as Rangers made it nine league championships in a row. He departed Ibrox for Middlesbrough in 1998, but his contribution at Ibrox will never be forgotten. http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/on-this-day/item/9597-gazza-it-was-twenty-years-ago-today

Who said that? I'd have thought the lad Jordan Thompson would have played as well.

I watched the 'Gascoigne' documentary film this week and ended up being a bit disappointed, both in the man himself and also by the way his time at Rangers was portrayed by the writer and director Jane Preston.

Thanks guys. Here's the latest schedule then. If anyone fancies writing a preview for a certain match just say which one and we'll put your name down for it. _____________________________________________________________ Upcoming: JUL 25 - Hibs v Rangers - Petrofac Training Cup R1 - Frankie AUG 02 - Rangers v Peterhead - League Cup R1 - Pete AUG 07 - Rangers v St Mirren - SPFL Championship - 26th of foot AUG 16 - Alloa v Rangers - SPFL Championship - Rousseau AUG 18/19 - TBC v TBC - Petrofac Training Cup R2 - ??? AUG 23 - Rangers v Hibs - SPFL Championship - Zappa AUG 25/26 - TBC v TBC - League Cup R2 - ??? AUG 30 - QotS v Rangers - SPFL Championship - ??? SEP 05 - Rangers v Raith Rovers - SPFL Championship - ??? SEP 12 - Rangers v Livingston - SPFL Championship - andthefoxsays SEP 19 - Dumbarton v Rangers - SPFL Championship - ??? SEP 22/23 - TBC v TBC - League Cup R3 - ??? SEP 27 - Morton v Rangers - SPFL Championship - ??? _____________________________________________________________ Completed: none _____________________________________________________________

That's excellent news. To have sold about another 4,000 tickets since yesterday morning is superb!

I should've just used your "shut up and be grateful" line instead.

That's the schedule updated again because new forum member and article contributor andthefoxsays has volunteered to write the preview for our first game against Livi on 12 Sep' and I've also put my own name down for the Hibs game at Ibrox on 22 Aug. If anyone else fancies writing a preview for a certain match just say which one and we'll put your name down for it.

We sold him to PSG for somewhere between £1.5m and £2m.

We sold Kenny Miller to Wolves for £3m the same day Eck took over from Advocaat and we sold Reyna to Sunderland for £4m the week before, but I guess that doesn't count. Other ones which you could maybe count are Ricksen who we sold to Zenit for £1m and Sebo who went to a French club for £1m. Then there's Cuéllar for nearly £8m, Cousin for £3.5m, Adam for £1.35m (£500k + sell on fee), Mendes to Sporting for £1.5m, Thomson to Middlesbrough for £2m and Bougherra to Lekhwiya for £1.7m. I suppose that's about it.

You directly mentioned the previous incumbents in a comparative manner when you said "if the previous incumbents had similarly failed to tackle the numerous problems that exist, with stories changing from one interview to the next, they would have been rightly slaughtered for it", so I didn't put words in your mouth at all. Let's not get bogged down in semantics though because it was perfectly clear what you meant. I'll try to be clearer here to save any possibility of confusion. It's ridiculous that you talk about the previous incumbents in that way when what they actually did was CREATE numerous problems and not tackle the ones which existed, whereas the new board are actively trying to tackle the problems created by those very same previous incumbents. As for people chosing a 'side', it's high bloody time they did. Most of us aren't blind or daft, but plenty of people fell for Charles Green's bullshit and lies while he and his cronies were planning their blue pound pension funds and setting up contracts that are the worst commercial contracts our Club could have gotten, even under the circumstances. So is it a bad thing for folk to side with guys like Dave King & Dougie Park & co when it's almost a certainty that for once we have people in charge who actually care about the Club and will put the Club's interests before their own? I know where my loyalty is and I'm perfectly comfortable chosing a side when I know it's the right side. Wallace was ridiculed because he took over 4 months to come up with a business review which was practically a waste of time because the majority of it's content could have been written by any of us free of charge and we don't need to be told what we already know as if we're a bunch of simpletons. The hard work behind the scenes shouldn't be based on shitty reviews and piles of moonbeams, so the 'where's yur plan Dave' and 'where's yur money Dave' brigade need to wake up and give us all peace. There's a massive amount of work to be done, we all know that and the guys in the boardroom know it more than anyone. The Club's ownership and management structure has changed for the better and most supporters are willing to trust that the new board will do it's best to do what needs to be done in the best interests of the Club.

I was wondering the same myself.

Come on, there's really no need to be facetious. There's a massive difference between some inconsistencies across King & co's planned and unplanned interviews and what some of the previous incumbents did and I'm sure you know it. The new board's been in place for 4 months. During that time I think a lot has happened (even more so behind the scenes no doubt!) and there's going to be a lot more happening over the next few months, most of which I think will be positive, so some patience might be more prudent than sniping.

He was probably our top goal scorer over last year's pre-season matches and then he was dropped and shipped out on loan while Aird notched up 22 first team appearances under Ally, Kenny and the magic clipboard in the space of 6 months.

You're being quite impatient trublu, especially in terms of the investment and improvements to infrastructure side of things. The investment will come in the form of a share/rights issue which we were told would take time to implement and won't happen straight away and improvements to infrastructure is clearly something that they're working on, but again will take time to implement. As for transparency, it's pretty much just a buzz word, but in fairness to the new board they wanted to speak about the Ashley contracts at the EGM Ashley called recently, but were gagged by a court order because Ashley doesn't want Gers fans to know the details of the shitty Rangers Retail and Sports Direct deals.