BrahimHemdani

Boyd has had plenty of chances to score a good few goals and has missed horribly on numerous occasions. He made his bed in Turkey and with the brief interlude at Kilmarnock has gone downhill ever since. How anyone can suggest building a team round him is ridiculous. He's one of those players whose careers will not extend beyond his early 30's and he only has himself to blame.

That's not quite the calculation, Laudbertz. It's the loss of the Rangers v Celtic games that is the big issue and to a lesser extent Rangers away games because of the atmosphere created by the travelling support (although they still have that with Celtic).

Agree with all of that, TB As I said on the other thread, Doncaster told me at the time that the broadcasters have no interest in any Scottish games outside Rangers v Celtic and to a much lesser extent Hearts v Hibs. Therefore they are lucky to have any deal at all right now (SKY could have cancelled when Rangers were put out) but on the other hand once Rangers are back, and more importantly back challenging, the product acquires some value again. As you point out this is especially true for Rangers and Celtic away games because of the atmosphere created by the travelling support.

From memory it's about a million pounds a year and they had to pay back £750,000 when Rangers went out the SPL (partly because of the added costs of building gantries etc at the smaller grounds to cover the Rangers games in the lower leagues. The deal was predicated on 4 Rangers V Celtic games a year. The broadcasters have no interest in any other games. They could have terminated the contract at that point. Hearts v Hibs was a nice addition but they would not have paid any significant amount of money for those games and virtually nothing for any non old firm or Edinburgh derby games. There just isn't the viewing audience to justify it.

Including one of those cardboard cut out men they use in training; if you hit the ball of one of those you have a better chance of the pass going to another blue jersey than giving it to Black.

A few weeks with our coaches at Murray Park should knock all that out of him.

McDowall’s assistant, Gordon Durie, confirmed that only Haris Vuckic will be available from the quintet who moved to Ibrox at the close of the transfer window 11 days ago. He said: “There’s only going to be one of the boys available tomorrow night in Vuckic. The other three are with the medical team at the moment. http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/8511-defensive-decisions-for-gers

Then looking like: Robinson; Faure, McGregor, Zaliuskas, Wallace; Law, Black, Hutton, Vuckic; Daly & Miller?

I don't want to wish ill on anyone but that might be a blessing in disguise.

That's a fair decision IMHO. But please, please, not Mohsni on Friday. McGregor & Zaliukas (if fully fit), for me or even Faure; but not Mohsni.

Broadly speaking I agree with that scenario, although it is likely that the shares would be offered at a discount to the current price, perhaps 25p - 30p, that may be offset by a continuing rise in the price as RFB and to a lesser extent RST and others continue to buy up to the EGM. Not sure if they would be best advised to ask members for a one off payment or simply buy what they can, which could be perhaps 750,000 - 1,000,000 shares in a rights issue (depending on actual price and money in the kitty) or simply continue collecting money and add to their holding month by month. Either way there is no question now that they are going to be a significant force in the future of the Club.

Took my advice then

It's an incredible achievement after a very sluggish start; that's 6,000 new members in the past 6 weeks. Up to 8,491 now; although it will slow down post the EGM, the prospect of 20,000 members is no longer a pipe dream. They will now be bringing in more than a million pounds a year. A 5% share holding is now achievable within a year and probably much sooner. The only negative is the prospect of a new share issue diluting the percentage holding as the original plan only to invest half of what was raised in order to have money to invest in a rights issue seems to have been abandoned (rightly IMHO) in favour of building up as large a holding as possible in as short a time as possible before the EGM.

Apologies, would help if I clicked the expand button

Cheers, on second look it looks deliberate to me.

Simonsen won't appeal that sentence.......

Thanks. Hard to say if there was intent but it looks to me that he could have hurdled the Raith player without too much difficulty. I'd say guilty as charged. Another point here is that the SFA can only charge him if the ref didn't see the incident. The ref saw the elbow and booked him for it apparently, even though that could and probably should be construed as violent conduct. If he saw the elbow, surely he must have seen the alleged stamp. If he saw it and deemed it an accident, then the SFA can't pursue it. So presumably the Compliance Officer must have asked the ref if he saw it and the ref said no.

Only audio coming through on that one.

Can just imagine Bill Struth or Scot Symon's reaction, he wouldn't have got near the training ground never mind the dressing room. Mind you same might have applied to Prso!

That's incredibly lenient.

Anyone got a link to a video?

I don't agree with your assessment of the Newcastle players on Sunday. Vuckic, even lacking match fitness, was prepared to attack the Raith defence on the right, the left and through the middle, that's something we haven't had for quite some time. I enjoyed watching him play. Aird should be doing it but has failed to develop. Templeton can do it but never wants to release the ball and is obviously out of favour. The nearest comparable player is Shiels but he also seems to be out of favour. Streete looked very comfortable at the back and made one terrific tackle in midfield to stop a breakaway. I'd like to see him alongside McGregor. We have to reserve judgement on Ferguson and Bigirimana until we see them play. Mbabau does not appear to offer us anything except perhaps an alternative at RB. It is far from ideal that 2 of the players arrived injured and 2 more have now succumbed but if we are paying nothing or next to nothing and ultimately they help us to get promoted I don't see the downside.

Fair enough but I want us to get promoted and that was in dire jeopardy with the players we have right now; so I'll take the Newcastle cavalry, just like Custer would have taken reinforcements from anywhere.

It has to be said that sending us Mbabu doesn't look good. Streete looked the part but may well have been carrying an injury too, the signal went to the bench very quickly when he went down. Vuckic is definitely good enough at this level and probably also the SPFL, he'll pick up sharpness and match fitness as he's guaranteed a game. By all accounts Bigirimana has the best pedigree so hopefully he can spark up our midfield. Ferguson has good international experience so hopefully he can do us a turn on the left.

KEVIN MBABU is still a couple of weeks away from full fitness but he's already thinking about playing at Ibrox and stepping out in front of the biggest crowd he'll ever have played in front of. The 19-year-old Swiss defender started life as a loan Rangers player on Monday when he arrived at Murray Park for the first time. He has been working with the club's physios this week and hopes to get back to full training on Monday. Mbabu spoke to RangersTV this week and explained that he's excited to play at Ibrox in front of so many fans. He said, "I know this is a big club and I have seen them a while ago when they were playing in the Champions League. "Rangers are a really big club in Scotland but also in Europe as well so I am really looking forward to playing in front of the fans at a stadium like Ibrox. "I have never played in a game in front of that many fans before, but I'm looking forward to. The biggest game I've ever played in was in front of a thousand fans, so I might be a little bit surprised when I play at Ibrox for the first time." Fellow loan player from Newcastle Haris Vuckic played his first game for the club at Ibrox on Sunday and commented that he thought the game was a bit more aggressive in Scotland than the had been used to whilst at the Magbies. When asked if he was prepared for the physical aspects of the game across the border, Mbabu was optimistic, "I don't think I will be surprised if the football in Scotland is a little bit more aggressive than in England because that's how I like to play football. "I'm aggressive and tough when I play and I think that I can adapt to a new team well. I think that I can offer something to the team when I am fit. I can bring my pace and I like to get forward and get crosses into the box from the right side and that'll help the team score goals that will help the team get promoted. "I didn't get a chance to speak to any other players who had been up to Scotland before I joined because it all happened so quickly. I got the offer on the Sunday night before the transfer window closed and everything was done within 24 hours." When this article was first published there was a paragraph about how he'd had three injuries last season as well as the current one and had only ever played one first team game for Servette as a 66th-minute substitute more than 2 years ago and none for Newcastle. Someone obviously thought that might not sound very good. Just the type of player we need.