OnlyOneAmoruso

Pretty encouraging figures at this juncture I would say?

Full marks if you read the full thing

http://www.rangers.co.uk/articles/20...254024_1967825 Heres a run down of how each Rangers player performed. This isn't by me, it's from Laudrup1 on FF. Alexander did what we all know he can do. Was steady and reliable, caught a couple of crosses well and took two corners out of the air too. Didn't have any chance with the second which was a close range tap in. The first...now don't get me wrong, it was a cracking shot high into the net and close to the top corner...however he 'nearly thought' about moving for it. I think this is the slight difference between him and McGregor (and the reason that Smith took the option he did this summer over the no.1) I've seen it a couple of times with him. It's very hard to criticise but I sometimes think to myself "McGregor would have gone for that / actually got it" Certainly, if we're selling folk and McGregor is one to go, we're not gubbed if he has to stand in as we all knew anyway. There's not a gulf between them there like we've had between any other no.1s and their deputies (think more Klos / Waatereus than Goram / Maxwell) The two full backs. Cole's very much in the Stevie Whittaker mould of full backs. His tackling from time to time is suspect but he's good at getting forward (doesn't chip in with many goals all the same) and has looked decent for a couple of seasons now. He played reasonably well as usual but alot of the Killie play went down our left hand side. Kinniburgh is just back from an injury after a succesful loan spell at Oxford. If he hadn't been injured towards the end of that loan, he'd likely have gone on loan again after Christmas. From the first u19s double winning team, he's in the same boat as a number of others. I see him as a very capable player but like McMillan, Shinnie and Gallagher, given they're all 20-22 years old now, they're time may have passsed. I could well see Kinni being moved on in the summer with Wylde having appeared in the first team ahead of him already. The two centre halfs are promising. There's been alot of talk about Witkorski in the last wee while as folk become more aware of him. Both him and Chris Scott are doing well in the 19s and, considering they were up against guys like Sammon and Fernandez yesterday, didn't make too many errors at all. The second goal could well have been defended better all the same. They're maybe not "classy" in the Danny Wilson sense of the game but do have more presence. Nothing to suggest they won't progress further as they continue. Both are still available at 19s past this season too. Stirling, for me, is a cracking player. He's got a bit of a swagger about him in the middle of the pitch. Quite slight but will dictate play in games. Not comparing him to Gazza at all but he'll go past players in a similar manner by harldy moving the ball or his body. Again, like Wylde, I can see him being retained while the likes of Shinnie move on. They're maybe not any better as players (give or take) but being a couple of years younger, have that on their side. He showed his usual performance yesterday with a couple of great balls through to Little and small individual pieces of play that light the game up from time to time. Was good to see Bendiksen back. He was struggling with the pace in the initial stages as you'd expect of someone out for the best part of 18 months. Before his injury I was saying he reminded me or Reyna (and having seen more of Davis now, him too) in the sense that he can play on the right or in the middle and does alot of work while contributing with forward runs. I'd be surprised to see him leave without him getting another year of a chance given the problems he's had. Given that we paid �£100k for him too, I'd imagine he's expected to make something of it. He'll need time to get back into it though. Jamie Ness only played the first half before being replaced by Hutton. He's more of a Thomson type player. A left sided defensive midfielder. Big noises were made about him as Wilson and Fleck were also touted for the first team. McCulloch and Edu plus Thomson all being there in that role for the first team may mean he's going to have to wait a bit longer but he's got a great chance based on his career so far. Did have a poorer game yesterday than he can though. Beasley was just his usual self. Got hoofed in the air a good few times from late and poor tackles. Other times he was just bounced off the ball. Did make a great run for his goal though and took it well. I hate hearing folk go on about him being too lightweight. He's got a tonne of caps for America and played in a CL semi with Eindhoven against Milan which they only lost in the last minute? Are folk telling me that being up against Maldini wasn't as challenging as anything the Hamilton left back can do in the SPL? He is light but while the SPL is a rough league, it doesn't mean someone of his stature shouldn't be able to handle it. He's shown on a few occasions he can do it but we need to play to his strentgths and not expect him to be making tackles like John Brown. Some of our fans just can't accept a player who's not a "traditional Ranger" and always want to criticise. I think along with his lacking stature being blamed for his injuries, he's actually had a bad run of it with us. I hope he can show more of what he did at Tannadice earlier in the season. There's signs he can be a player for us but will never be a Laudrup. Little impressed me most of all yesterday. The Reserve Team Loyal have all long been of the opinion that Rory Loy scores more goals, seems to be quicker and shows more skillful turns to beat players than Little does. For what ever reason though, Little's ahead of him in the managements plans. Yesterday he played as well as I've seen from either of the two of them in a while. He was beating mean in the box to create space for a couple of shots and also held the ball up well regularly (getting the assist for the goal in that manner too) He's not a spectacular player in the sense that he won't do what Fleck does at this level from time to time and score a screamer but has attributes which mean, as he's shown, he will be capable in the first team. For me, he was our MOTM yesterday.

One supporters name is known chilledbear. What I don't understand is why he didn't notify the protestors like N_L (who had went to great time and expense to organise a call for clarity) that he would shortly be in a position to provide clarity? NL and RWA had been on RM in the days leading up to the protest campaigning for support and not being criticized for it. I fail to see why Contacts couldn't have contacted () them and kept them up to date? Why keep everything a secret and then put out an ill-timed article on the eve of the protest?

I think he might. He is a massive Rangers fan. Whether he's the right choice is another matter. Personally I'd like to see someone come in who is proven at the highest level in a decent sized league. I'm not sure Davies fits that bill as good a job as he has done at other clubs and continues to do.

Colourful.......

First his outstandingly titled autobiography and now this http://www.rangers.co.uk/articles/20100216/champagne-super-novo_2254024_1967407

One thing that struck me during that is that in December we played 6 games and we scored 26 of our 58 goals. That means that in the other 19 games we scored 32 goals. Crazy statistic!

Warnock? Yes he seems like a good player in a problem area. If the Doc is using players such as Nicholson, Ross, Hughes (or even potential multi-million players such as Adam & McCormack) as evidence of a good scouting system then Liverpool have produced players such as Warnock & Mellor would be proof that Liverpool have produced players also. Carragher has been at Liverpool and in or around the first team for 13 years. Gerrard for about 11 or so.

That's definitely a fanciful notion and I think what calscot was getting at. No-one does that, it's about doing it on comparative terms. Letting go of McCormack and Adam for a combined fee of 500k when their new clubs could now rake in up to and exceeding �£5m combined is an example of how it goes wrong. If the player is ultimately not successful at the club but still clearly talented then they should be moved on for a profit and the money reinvested. It's unrealistic to expect us to breed 11 world class players who will play together for 15 years. It's not unrealistic to aim for one player every 2 seasons to come through from the reserves and cement a regular place in the first team and eventually be moved on for a decent amount of money. On top of that another couple of players coming through who are perhaps slightly less talented but who can become decent squad players or moved onto to middle of the road english clubs for �£1million or so (as an example). We can see examples of it just now and long may it continue. We can see that players like Fleck and Wilson have the talent to go that little bit extra. We can also see that with the right training and application players like Little and Shinnie can go on to have very successful careers but perhaps not as successful as the first two I mentioned. That's just an opinion based on having seen the four of them for a couple of years.

Depends what you define as above average I guess. Plying their trade at mid-level Championship clubs isn't above average to me. Alright Doc, I take it back. The youth system is as good as it's ever going to be. As we're in a footballing backwater then we shouldn't strive to improve ourselves with something as trivial as scouting and a youth academy

While solid players, I don't think anyone can seriously take that group of players as evidence that our youth system is a success?

Good point mate but to take Ajax as an example again (sorry Pete) thats almost my point. The players become simply too good for Ajax and are sold for massive amounts of money which is then reinvested in grassroots and the first team squad. Players such as Van Der Saar, Seedorf, Kluivert, De Boer x 2, Kanu etc were eventually replaced by players such as Van Der Vaart, Huntelaar, Babel, Sneijder, Heitinga, Nigel De Jong and all have moved onto bigger clubs and been replaced at a fraction of the cost with money further money ploughed into grass roots. Only in the last 5 or 6 years has this appeared to dry up slightly as other clubs appear to have cottoned on to how the process works. Some of those examples are not definite, for example Sneijder of course didn't directly replace Ronald De Boer in the team but you get the drift. The youth set up now is certainly much improved on years gone by but until Auchenhowie becomes a youth academy rather than just a training facility I don't think we'll see it's full potential. I hope you didn't get the wrong impression by my OP, I was merely putting some thoughts out there. I don't think it's a simple task but I don't think it's the stuff of fiction either.

Well if rumours are to believe Smith was to be 'replaced' my Craig Levein a few months back. He's arguably of a higher standard than Jimmy

Who is the top of the tree? Do they even have one?

Primark's own brand Lamb dressed as Mutton

I sit in the same row as the back row of the Directors Box, approximately 10 seats to the right of the last seat in the box (if you are looking up from the pitch). Donald Muir was sitting here the game before last. I couldn't quite reach over to give him a :box: though I WAS prawn sandwich brigade when it was The Waddell Suite. Now I believe it's the Chairmans Club (?) and the section was reduced (and price increased no doubt) to 3 rows in front of me

I don't think I have either! In fact, I think I've only sat in Govan Rear, Main Stand Rear and Club Deck in my almost 17 years solid attendance.

I dno't think I've ever seen a site with quite so many moderators, administrators and directors. Baffling.

My old man wouldn't appreciate me ditching him and likewise he wouldn't want to move from his padded seat

My ticket is included in my season ticket or I would certainly take you up on that.

I bet the Ibrox Suite isn't 'cheep'

I'd say so mate. For me, he'd be in the team most of the time. Specifically at home and against teams where we are faced with 10 men behind the ball at all times. We need something unique in these situations to force a breakthrough. The Hutton Factor. For tough away SPL and most European fixtures a defensive minded right back would be preferable to me.

Ignorance on my part Pete (and speaking to Red, White & Ajax on FF ) regarding Ajax. I think it's just assumed when you think of their mid 90's team and latterly players such as Sneijder & Van Der Vaart. Who is your Dutch team?

By Matthew Lindsay