John Barr

I tell you, i watched a few teams from last night who would be in Pot 4 and they were pretty good. Debrecini from Hungary spanked a nifty Levski Sofia side who had a couple of fair quality brazillian in it. Some of the goals they scored were nice. And they passed it around really well. I actually enjoyed watching what i did. They also have a ferocious home support, and i for one hope we don't get them. Before i watched them i had heard of the name but knew nothing and thought in my mind we would thrash a backwater team like that from Hungary. We need to look to avoid them. F.C Zurich struggled in the second leg of their tie but in the first leg they swept away the Latvians. At times they were good too. I switched onto see their ground and supporters and was amazed at the noise this small ground was capable of producing. The Austrians never stopped chanting the whole game and they have a few good players too. I think we'd struggle to get a draw away to them. Maccabi at home looks a tie we could struggle with, again a tight ground with a very vocal support, but the players werent as good.

Green aurmy!

You can't blame Rangers fans on here for being synical or suspicious and asking if it is the McLelland situation again. For years now the fans have been dragged along the ground, being strung along by Murrays latterly terrible ownership of the club. As a result noone trusts what happens inside the club anymore. Hopefully this new guy will bring a freshness with him though.

Like SA i was going to put 'credit where credit is due', and this is an apt phrase for him today. But, to be honest up to that point he wasn't one of our better performers and persistantly gave the ball away in bad positions, over commited himself in tackles, took up poor positions. This was definetly the case in the first half. But, i would use SA's phrase for him in the second half as he saved our bacon and did get in around the ball more and also gave the ball to more offensive players to make runs. Sometimes i feel McCulloch thinks he is a natural defensive midfielder, thinking that position is his own. I may be being unfair to him, but i lost a lot of faith in him because he was so awful for nearly two seasons in the left midfield role for us. He does look good at times in this new role he has, but other times he is being found out badly. In short, i am happy to use him as cover for Edu and Thomson in this position. But i sure hope he is nowhere near this position come the Champion league games, as he will be found out there.

prefered draw.. Pot 2 Chelsea Rangers at.Madrid Urina Pot 3 Chelsea Real Madrid Rangers Urina I'd love a crack at Real MADRID. we havent played them ever in the champs league as far as i can remeber and with all their big stars it'd be a packed out house and a money spinning tie. Chelsea, Liverpool, Man u OR Arsenal would be the same. And i feel we would need a minnow to whack to get 6 points that would guarantee us a parachute into the Europa league. I have to say that looking at the teams involved in all sides i find it hard to see us qualifying to the last 16 with the squad we have now. Even moreso to play on a tues/wed and also expected to win games on a saturday is asking too much from those players. We are asking to fail at some degree or another. Worst draw(in terms of unexcitedness) would be.. Sevilla Gers Olympiakos Debrecen Worst draw(in terms of we would fail to compete with them) would be Man u/chelsea gers Kiev Wolfsburg

Any one hear the Arsenal fans singing to Celtic fans "you should have gone to see u2" lol:flipa:

I doubt that will ever happen. I do like Ryan Shawcross a lot though, i'm a big admirer of his abilities and was hoping we would have been able to have sneeked him under the radar as a replacement for Weir. An ex Man utd youth player with a point to prove could have done very well with us. But the secrets out by the looks of it. Michael Turner too. I watched him with great interest last season. Apparantly he began his career as an Inter Milan youth player before being bounded around the lower leagues of England, until Hull were clever enough to spot his talent. I saw a figure of �£12m quid for Turner. Way 0TT but nevertheless he is a classy defender.

I have always hated this scouling -faced nonce. He believes the hype coming out of the towers that he is the 'best passer of a ball in scottish football', and also according to them is miles better than any other defender in Scotland:confused:. Ha ha ha well, i have been waiting patiently for himself to show the world what he really is, and now there is no hiding the fact that he truly is a disaster of a defender after the Arsenal game and the Norway game. Don't know about anyone else, but i just cannot stand to even look at him, he makes me feel quite sickly. And if i hear him grunting out an interview i quickly bash the mute button to preserve my delicate hearing which is super sensitive to paranoia and delusions which this tosser has a tendancy to blurt out on seeing a microphone. Who's the champs Gary?:spl:

best quote of the night. From Arsenal fans singing to the Celtic fans at 2-0 "you should have gone to see u2, you should have gone to see u2, gone to see u2, gone to see u2" PMSL:flipa::flipa:

I agree with those qualities, and it is an awful lot to handle for any manager. I do like the thought of Fergie being next Gers boss, but maybe after he has taken a job in the u.k and proved he can do it here and not in a farmtown in the other side of the world. I also think it is an interesting and viable alternative to the usual candidates of Ally McCoist and Ian Durrant. I will be watching with interest from now on what success Fergie has out in Oz.

Heres an interesting bit of VT i found whilst browsing Sky Sports news and the Rangers section. I advise you to watch the whole 7 minutes as i found it very interesting to see how an ex legend is doing abroad with managing a foriegn side. If you don't want to watch the whole 7minutes and want to reference the most interesting comment, fast forward to 5 minutes and listen out for the comment on the Rangers management job. Some may have seen this as it is dated 9th april 09. http://www.skysports.com/video/clips/0,23791,16482,00.html( if you press this and Walter Smith comes up, just go down to the bottom of the page and access the 'Ian Ferguson' interview. It seems to be putting up a Smith interview sometimes. But it's Ferguson you want to watch)

1978 was my first ever Gers kit. Before that i had a horendous '74 Wolves home job size extra tiny(i was 3)

With all due respect to you SA(and i DO respect you and agree with most of your comments), i think your fingers not quite on the button on this one and i for one don't believe it's as bad as you say. Beasley can go anytime though. I'm skint too but i'll pay his taxi fare to the airport.

Everyone, all together..... "Green Aurmee" *Paul Whitehouse style(i'e t.v add for those who don't know what i'm on about)

I know that, but he is being almost groomed as a right back. He can play there and up front.

I think we may need him for the Jambos game though. We witnessed how hard it is to go there when they are up for it last season when they went 3-0 up on us. I dont think Walter will risk him for even that though. Unfortunately i think McCulloch will be in that position as Walter seems to like him there.

Thats fine, and i think it is a good point. However, you have to remember we have brought NO-ONE into the club. So, to play a strong team your going to ask the same players to play around 50 games, 2 games a week? The modern player isn't up to that. Maybe i am asking too much to play 7 youths at a time, i admit that much. But, your idea of playing the strongest team week in and week out with no break for those stronger players will subject them to lethargy and fatigue sooner rather than later. And when that happens, where do we go for the next best thing? Walter has rid us of 8 players and cut the first team squad dramatically. So, the whole first team squad could have been utilised for say 40 games before they feel fatigued. But, if we don't have strong youth players to come in and give them a rest say once a month, i think it's asking for a disaster. My 7 players IS asking too much and your right it will caause problems. But that doesn't mean to say we should leave them out the squad and don't play as many as we can and for as long as we can. Having revised my initial post, i feel it may be better to play 1 or 2 youths at most every 3-4 games(the weaker games), and maybe another 1 or 2 on the bench coming on for 30mins at a time. If we followed that plan, they would be playing with 9 or 10 stronger first team players which wouldnt make the team as weak. This would enable at least 4 or 5 youth players to get around 6-10 games each(including sub appearances) before the next transfer window. Well, it's either that i feel, or enter the transfer market and beef the squad up with 2 or 3 good players to replace the 8 gotten rid of.

Smith made that error last season, i don't want to see him doing it again this season. Ok, the boot was on the other foot(or however the expression goes) He waited to see if we got through an easy tie before going into the transfer market. This time he is waiting to see if Celtic go out the Champs league before going into the transfer market. I think he is a sly, cunning old fox thinking about doing it this way, but as for last season it blew up in his face in an extravegant manner. I just hope he doesnt wait too long as i can see the difficulty some teams are having in bringing new players into their clubs, and some of them are better placed than us right now. Everton are finding it hard to get anyone in and they are financially better off for players than we are right now(although they may be lacking in terms of stadia etc to us). I just feel he is cutting it fine. I am prepared to go with him on this, but if he gets it wrong again, he is going to lose a lot of faith.

Spot on! You got it right, the others didnt use their brain cells lol:fish: Yes, i may have overlokked Naismith because i see him now as a first teamer, if not, pushing for a regular slot whereas the others are just entering into the first team. As for Lennon, ok he can be seen as a striker, but i have seen him play on the right as an attacking midfielder, and it may just be my opinion, but with his speed and good technical ability i see him as a useful right midfielder. He is not too hot at tracking back though.

it's not a team that would play every game, as i said in the post. They would play, at most, once a month in lesser fixtures in the league and cup. I understand your concerns too, but if you read what i wrote under the team, can you not see why it is time to try and push these guys through to first team experience with lesser important fixtures?

I think Rangers are getting ripped off a bit with Adam and Gow. Wasn't Gow going for around �£750,000k at Xmas? If not, he is certainly worth that when you consider some of the cart-horses getting flogged around for Millions. Also, It just beggars belief sometimes how Rangers are cutting their nose off to spite their face in this transfer market window. Everyone knows when you win the league that it is a neccesity that you have to strenghthen in order to win more. I dont mind so much some of the names we have gotten rid of, i.e Dailly, Hendami, Fergie(all big- ish earners), but to bring in NOBODY at all is just asking for us to have a disaster of a season. I would like for this to be put on record. Because in 6 months time i predict that Rangers will be scurrying around the transfer market trying to Strenghthen their squad in January after finding due to injuries and suspension coupled with the problem of being in 4 competitions and most of their players being in International football, suddenly they find the squad is too weak. Mark my words.

I saw this when it came on the news last week and sniggered at the thought of Bellend 'thinking' he is too good to sign a shirt that belongs to a poor, diseased Rangers fandan. Well, that is what he probably thought, as his mind would have been poisoned by the dims when he played there so he thinks he's better than us. My belief of this was confirmed when you can hear him say whilst walking away when the guy says "uch come on", and mutters "NO CHANCE". You are, have, and always will be a pure fanny Mr. Bellend:flipa: Who's the Champions Scumbag???:spl:

.... for lesser fixtures like Hamilton at Home etc? (GK)Alexander or McGregor (RB) Andrew Little (LB) Gregg Wylde or Steve Smith (CB) Danny Wilson or Jordan McMillan (CB) Bougherra or Weir (RM) Steven Lennon (LM) Aaron Niguez (CM)Kevin Thomson (CM) Edu or Ness (St) John Fleck (St) Kenny Miller or Boyd Smith might not go for this, but i have been hoping since around the start of last campaign that he would give a lot of first team experience to the most talented youngsters we have. It is a long time since we done something like this and with the financial state not allowing us to sign ANYONE it is imperative he brings through youngsters now instead of playing the same 16-18 first team players. If he doesn't do this then Rangers won't win the league a few years down the line as the squad of upcoming players wont be strong enough to compete at first team level. There are so many young players really kicking off now and putting the pressure on for first team experience, so it'll be interesting to see where Smith can play them, or not as the case may be. The ones i have listed in the team are the ones I feel are the most likely to succeed, but there are a few others i like the look of. But theres no doubt in my mind that the likes of Little, Wilson, Wylde, Fleck, Aaron, Mcmillan, Lennon, Ness, Loy, Elmslie, Efrem and Shinnie have what it takes to make it with the correct first team experience. Trying to mix a few of them in a first team with the more experienced players will be a challenge for Smith, and one he hasnt really been proven to do in the past except for maybe the odd few per year. But, as i mentioned, the lack of signings means he now HAS to put the youngsters in because theres no way the squad of 18 or thereabouts we have will be able to play another 50-60 games and win all the trophies the fans demand. So, i'll be watching where he tries to put the youngsters in to bring them through this season.

I was really pissed off with Setanta. They made sure they took the month of July off of me before announcing they were going bust. And trying to find information about how the administration would affect our direct debit payments was to be found nowhere on their website, in their phone numbers and on the Setanta screen itself. So, in the end i went to the bank and cancelled it myself as this company clearly cannot be trusted. And i would urge all you bears to do the same because when they take another �£12.99 off you next month i suspect you may just feel as pissed off as i was to find they take that money and you get a blank screen in return.

Man City are a team that are really annoying me the now. They seem to be buying strikers just for fun now. Including their promising youth strikers i wonder how many they have counting Samual Eto'o. I realise they are trying to crack the big 4 and learned a harsh lesson last season, but the way they throw money at people and expect them to sign for a mediocre club is very annoying.