Norris Cole

Another one bites the dust. For now.

"I'm just in he rang me this morning to contact another impecable source. at this time NO OFFERS ARE ON THE TABLE but where this story originated is straight from the marble staircase. there is at this time interested parties; but NO WHERE NEAR the stage of buyout bids. in a nut shell the original source SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER than to leak this from his privileged position within the club"

"FO has been out at a funeral all day and isn't ignoring everyone. The guy is convinced this is the real deal, so remember you heard it on VB first if true."

Rest assured if we see anything it'll go on this thread.

Yet to make up my mind whether that's good or bad news.

Correct Little at the moment. Thread by a regular 'foreveroffended' called "Dont shoot the messenger, Buyout almost done and dusted" "Just heard from within a consortium has bought us. Confirmation or denials , please post here later" He later confirms the source is from within Ibrox. The only other post with anything approaching info: "Having spoke with forever, I've no reason to doubt the sincerity of what he's saying.Admin I believe are very much on the case. As the thread says though, don't shoot the messenger. he believes the source to be reliable."

There's a pretty massive rumour over on VB about a consortium buyout nearing completion. Source from within Ibrox apparently. Of course we've been here before many times...

What for?

Aye Iran pumped USA at France 1998.

Couldn't agree more. Part of the problem to date has been the one-sided nature of the 'anti-sectarianism' 'debate'. Things might have been different if their IRA songs had been attacked or banned in the manner TBB was. Would they rather ban TBB but not be able to have their weekly IRAoke, or would they leave TBB alone to keep their IRA songbook? Funnily enough I also agree with MF's point above re. censorship, but as you say what cards do we have left?

Motherwell 1 - 2 Rangers (Boyd 2)

Baws. That last post was about Walter. Long day and aw that...

Marc Burchill was pretty good though. (surely I don't need a sarcastic smiley)

He's going to manage without a contract from January, his friend is no longer chairman, and he's getting his final crack at the CL. I'd be amazed to see him take another pre-season training.

There's no doubt TBB made a comeback last season among sections of the support, heard it with my own ears on a number of occasions. I honestly believe that with the dust having finally settled on Pamplona/UEFA-gate more and more fans are waking up to the dubious nature of the "ban". I'm pretty sure there's also a lingering resentment among the Rangers support at the unchallenged proliferation of "political" chanting by Celtic fans we've seen in the past couple of years, all the more galling in the face of our own continuing out-of-proportion sanctions.

To finish second in a group including the World Cup winners, runners-up and quarter-finalist represented a remarkable success, even more so considering the mess we had been in before. The difference between Burley and the two managers you mention, is that the SFA's specific job remit for Burley was that Scotland qualify for the World Cup. He had the luck of the draw that neither of his predecessors enjoyed, yet he couldn't make the play-offs. In short, he failed. As far as I can recall Smith's job remit was to rebuild the team after the Vogts shambles, and McLeish's to continue Smith's progress. At this, both were a success. The next man in should have at the least consolidated on this success. Even if you like Burley as a man (and I don't dislike him), if you look at the bare facts, he has taken us backwards.

Gary McAllister is destined for the job at some point and I think the next manager should have him as part of the set-up in some capacity, preferably assistant. I know they were Burley's picks, but it's typical of the SFA to settle for Pressley and Butcher when we could have, say, McAllister and Jordan.

If you compare Strachan's managerial career to Burley's, Strachan's is far superior - he's been a success at every club he's been at (in many respects Southampton was his most impressive). I still maintain that Burley was given the job on the back of eight games at Hearts, which as a criteria just isn't good enough. As I've said, I'll be surprised if it's not one of Strachan, Smith or Levein. The first two would be as good as Scotland could get while the latter would be an uninspiring choice IMHO. The SFA have a tricky balance to strike. They need a manager who can inspire the players, as both Smith and McLeish did and Burley doesn't, but they also need continuity i.e. a manager who will stick at it for a number of years without jumping at the first available job in England. Strachan strikes me as a patriotic kind of guy who would take the job seriously, while Smith, who in all likelihood won't be at Ibrox past the summer (in a managerial capacity anyway), would see it as his final mission and therefore could do it until he retires. For what it's worth I think David Moyes is the best Scottish manager around, Fergie aside, but he'll see the Scotland job as a step down and I'd be astounded if he took it if offered.

I think Miller can play the lone striker role, but the reason he can't play up front himself is that ultimately he can't finish. Hope that makes sense. His performance last night was classical Kenny Miller - did the work of two men and caused the defence continual problems, but couldn't hit a barn door to finish it off. One of his best performances of the season for me but when you're your team's only striker you're being paid to score goals. It's no doubt been said a hundred times, but combine Miller's running with Boyd's finishing and you've got a very, very expensive footballer. I thought Weir had a fine game, but he'll only be remembered for his part in Holland's goal unfortunately. That said, I agree that we're in dire need of cover. To ask him to play in every single game for the third season running isn't going to work, and I'm concerned about his lack of pace in the CL. I don't think there's any real doubt this is Davie Weir's last season.

They're from AberdeenMad (and no, I don't know what I was doing there either).

Helicopter away I say.

Big accusation Fraser. Show me where I insulted you.

What's wrong with that?

That's the Tartan Army, you said I hurled abuse at the team. Speaking of abuse, here's a few choice titbits I picked up on my cybertravels last night: "Blame grandad weir for his shit header. stupid hun Prik." "Kenny Miller is a useless bottleing hun fud" "McGregor, Ferguson and Boyd have let the country down ... They disgraced themselves and the nation" "When the new Scotland boss is appointed, and Boyd walks back into the squad, I will burn down Hampden" "Boyd should never play for Scotland again .......... he is at the right club for turncoats!" "Hope they dont blame Miller some bam says, i friggin do, if he had his shit hun top on he would have scored, Prik."

Show me the pointless posts and abuse then.