Totti

We've been going nowhere for years. Those who bury their heads in the sand and post pointless topics suggesting otherwise just end up looking completely ignorant.

I'll listen to Miller's thought on football when he can control a ball in less than 7 touches

0-0 or a loss sadly.

That is complete nonsense. If you honestly think Boyd has the attributes to play on his own against a decent European side then you must be blind. Even against Celtic he's generally pish with someone next to him doing all the work.

A very average player in the premiership who Boyd makes look like Henry. Our best striker by a mile who has shown himself at Hull to be a pretty average player. Tells us all you need to know about our squad and it's worse now too.

I believe in Boyd against crap opposition but he'd be completely useless tonight against Stuttgart unless he gets an easy chance or 2 laid on a plate in the box. His all round play is shocking and he has no technique but he certainly can bury the chances against poor sides when its made easy for him

Don't really see the point in this. Lloyds aren't really to blame. We got ourselves in a situation where we became heavily dependent on borrowing and there's always the risk that situations might change and the loans will be recalled. Rangers fans boycotting Lloyds is less pissing against the wind and more pissing against a hurricane. With regard to the whole fans association, trust etc debate I don't really see why there's such an anti RST sentiment on this board. I'm not a member of the RST and haven't really put too much time into researching them but everything they say tends to make sense and they appear ready to broach the real issues whilst other clubs/associations toe the party line.

With our 'all players are available and we are completely bankrupt' message that has been portrayed to the media in recent weeks, expect bids of �£1-3m max for a player who could probably command a 4-6m transfer at least.

Whilst Wilson is certainly talented I'm not sure how you can call a 17 year old with very few appearances defensively 'as dependable' as our star player, who has proven himself over many, many games. Also, call me a cynic but whenever stories start coming out about our big names possibly leaving I'm always inclined to think that there's a lot going on that we don't know about and that a certain Dodgy Dave will be at the centre of it all. I don't really believe a word that comes out of our club tbh. And is Lee McCulloch head of our PR department now? Every day he's spouting some nonsense in the papers. At least he's found a position in the club

As I already said, I have no problem with players being tried in different positions now and then. It's the fact that Smith constantly puts players out of position even if it doesn't work eg Lafferty. Game after game hes terrible there. Won 4 trophies? With a lot of luck and against shambolic opposition. With the level of opposition we currently come up against in the SPL we should be mopping up everything with ease. Getting to the final of the UEFA Cup was great and all but his subsequent European campaigns (and all the previous ones bar 92/93) are a better testement of his managerial ability.

Yeah but my last line still stands.

Totally agree with the bit about the entire game needing changed. To be honest Britain as a whole needs to improve grass routes football. The government needs to spend money encouraging kids to play football again and to get the sufficient coaching. In Holland they have kids spending hours on ball skills from 4/5 years old. In our currently we put far too much emphasis on how big, strong and fast people are. Players who look good at 16/17 usually drift away. You get more credit for how hard you can kick a ball as opposed to taking a touch, looking up and playing the correct pass. Harry Redknapp is also very correct about the 'xbox generation'. When I was a kid (I'm only 22 mind!), I was out every day after school playing football for hours. Now kids are spending all day on their state of the art ps3's and xbox 360's. Parents are also scared to let kids out these days. In many foreign countries you have kids out all the time playing football and this puts us at a disadvantage. As for Boyd, he's certainly worth having in the squad but against any half decent defence he often looks completely hopeless and he needs another player beside him, something Scotland can't really often afford to do. Scotland aren't exactly awash with talent at the moment though and Boyd would certainly be useful when the sorts of poorer sides like Latvia that Scotland can often struggle against.

Walter Smith shouldn't have come out and said the banks running the club. It makes us look pathetic and puts all our players in the shop window for low prices. Whatever state our finances in, we keep it as hidden as possible. Try to put a positive spin. Either Smith simply said it to deflect criticism from hime (said it days after losing 4-1 to Unirea) or its some sort of calculated move by those upstairs. There's clubs with debts 10x ours who manage to downplay it better than we do (and not just clubs who can cope with such a debt)

Having the press on our side won't win football matches. Personally, I completely ignore all Scottish papers and couldn't really care less what tripe they type. 'No one likes us, we don't care'. Bringing Souness in because he'd speak out to the media is a very feable argument, unless his role was purely on a PR/Executive level. Of which again, he has no experience.

I think to be honest, the questions that needed asked were needed to be asked several years ago and it's too late now. One thing I would like to know is how a man with David Murray's experience in business could twice manage to practically bankrupt a football club? Chasing the dream might be an excuse the first time round but not the second. Smith was allocated far too much to spend on mediocrity like McCulloch, Miller and Lafferty and that is why we are in this mess. Running a football club is about adhering to budgets and spending prudently. We go from one extreme to the other - freespending then everything goes tits up and we're left barely affording bosman transfers. Since the end of season 02/03 we seem to have needed to rebuild the squad each season and its just a nonsense.

Out of work for 3 years after doing terribly with Newcastle, has done little of note in the last 10 years and his credentials are at an all time low in terms of management. As for being owner, what business experience does he have? How do we know he'd be good at running a football club? Far too much stock is put into this 'Rangers man' and 'he won't be afraid of Celtic' ideology. What we need first and foremost is a manager in charge with talent and recent relevant experience and an owner who knows how to run a business and football club efficiently. I think a few too many people are thinking of the man in charge before he went to Liverpool and also seeing his comments on sky sports.

Silly post. James Milner is a versatile (and crucially good) player who can play anywhere in midfield, and is comfortable on either sides of the wing. Not to mention this was a friendly, where the result is irrelevant and the idea is to move things around and be flexible. Smith plays players compeltely out of position even if it doesn't work (which it rarely does). Lets not forget at any one time Smith can have us playing centre backs at fullback, fullbacks at centre back, central midfielders out wide, strikers on the wing... There's nothing wrong with trying a player in another position or doing it as a stopgap. The problem is Smith does it all the time, all over the park, causing great confusion. He also STICKS with players playing out of position, even if it doesn't work. Has Lafferty ever looked good on the left? Has Stevie Smith? If Stevie Smith had any chance of becoming a good player again, being stuck out to dry out of position is ruining his hopes. It's like SAF (to continue that analogy, don't get the Fergie out of position point though) playing Gary Neville on the wing, even with adverse performances. It just wouldn't happen. FFS, even Christian Daily has played up front for us.

Back 3? Do you live in the 80's or something?

To be honest, the names suggested so far are so appalling that I'd give a foreign manager another try. If it doesn't work, fair enough. Move on. There's countries worse off than Scotland who have managed to attract big managers. Scottish football needs a revolution. The current squad are crap but maybe with the right tactics and knowledge of the world game a foreign manager could get the best out of the young players coming through. The thing holding back getting a decent manager of course is the money that would be offered. This is one area the SFA shouldn't hold out on. Just don't give too long a contract. Money might be tight but having the right man in charge will be priceless. The best two realistic candidates at the moment are probably Smith and Levein. Smith will probably get Scotland back to some sort of respectability and make them strong defensively but he'd only be a stopgap and to be honest I've seen a bit too much of his brand of football in recent years. Levein might not even want the job and even if he does, is he really going to be that much better than Burley? doing fairly well in the SPL with average teams shouldn't have you in the running for the Scotland job. We need someone with knowledge of the European and world game.

you said after regularly playing in the champions league we should conquer Europe and be regular challengers...Unless we're taken over by a billionaire Arab then that isn't happening in my life time! Generally speaking, only the very elite can be considered regular champions league challengers like Chelsea, Barca, Man Utd etc.

I made one criticism about our fans rioting. And yes I will criticise what needs to be criticised about the team. I'm a realist.

You just slagged off FF yet appear to be just like the typical posters on there. If anyone with a low post count says something against the grain, they must be a tim. Sigh.

We've portrayed ourselves far too much as a selling club in recent years. Even if we are, you don't tell everyone that. I remember we once even told the media how much Daniel Cousin's minimum fee release clause was! We may as well have said 'Hey everyone, our main striker is available for �£3m.' A club thats clearly skint and looking to sell isn't going to get high bids for their players.

I was obviously being sarcastic to emphasise a point.

Rangers, but I know challenging for the champions league is not going to happen any time soon... Realistic aims in the future would be to regularly qualify/challenge for last 16 and quarter finals, which other clubs in poor leagues often manage.