BrahimHemdani

People in glass houses and all that, regrettably TBB has been heard loud and clear increasingly this season, at least away from Ibrox.

Or "cumulative" perhaps?

I hope we have a large security presence in the toilet areas otherwise I can see considerable retaliatory damage.

He was a consistent goalscorer in League 1 but appears to have failed to replicate that form in the EFL Championship as he has done in the SPFL Premiership. Conclusion - he's a League 1 player. http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/joe-garner/leistungsdaten/spieler/46111/plus/0?saison=ges There is no doubt that you are the eternal optimist; but I think if you had to watch Garner's efforts in the flesh so to speak, you might have given up all hope by now.

Admirable sentiments and it's good that someone is making these points to Police Scotland on behalf of the fans, although one assumes that much the same would be addressed in the pre match briefing between the Match Commander and Robin Howe (who previously held that position) and David Martin for Rangers. I do feel however, that great care should be taken with such public statements. The second sentence is a bit of a monster and when I was at school long ago, I was taught never to end a sentence with a preposition; although I know that "rule" has been somewhat relaxed these days. And (yes I know don't begin a sentence with a conjunction!) surely it should be "the minute's silence" not "the minute silence", which is capable of two meanings and might be deliberately misinterpreted by some mischief makers. Let's all hope that the match passes off without incident, at least off the pitch.

Let's go through this again; No you didn't simply say they were weakened, you said you were "happily rejoicing" in them being weakened. Really? Why not just standby what you said, if you're rejoicing in the fact that Hearts are weakened by a serious injury to a young man who you see as a possible Rangers player of the future, then you are entitled to your opinion; nauseating as it will be to most right thinking supporters. Personally I would rather our opponents are at full strength, so that when we beat them they have no excuses.

I would have no problems with Dodoo getting a run in the team ahead of Garner. Garner has ably demonstrated that he is not a goalscorer at this level. Dodoo has 4 goals and 2 assists in the equivalent of less than 5 full games. He didn't do well at Tynecastle but who did? Since then he's had exactly 2 mins football whilst Garner has huffed and puffed but failed to blow the house down.

That's exactly what you said. I didn't insert it; you did and you did so in the context of Paterson's injury.

For the avoidance of doubt I am not advocating splitting home gate money. It's not a case of more money per se, nice as that would be, it's how the current pot is split that is the issue. I'll try to clarify further when I have more time; but for now you might want to know that Mr Neil Doncaster would agree with you.

I'll deal with your last point first. I don't think we're "far superior" to Aberdeen. However, I do think that our performances have improved to the point where can perhaps claim to be the second best team in Scotland, though clearly we are yet to find a degree of consistency (two good performances in five outings and played well in patches before tonight are testimony to that), Aberdeen have similar problems. We have recorded a 2-1 win over each other and have some very similar recent results e.g. drawing with St Johnstone and beating Hamilton 2-1. (Believe it or not, my real predictions were that we would lose 3-1 at Parkhead, 2-1 at Aberdeen and draw 1-1 tonight; but peer pressure forced me to make other predictions in the League.) I think you're missing my main point about Europe, so let me clarify. It's my estimation that the team we have at present will struggle to get past Europa League Q1/Q2 unless we are very lucky in the draw and unless we get some reinforcements. I base this assessment on having watched much better Rangers teams struggle against what might have been regarded as inferior opposition in qualifying games in the past most recently e.g. Malmo and Maribor in 2011. I have also taken note of Mr King's statement at the AGM "It is my belief that Rangers is presently well enough resourced to achieve our next major football objective – a return to Europe. A further investment in players will be required at that point." I agree with the first part of what Mr King says; but I disagree with the second part. If the further investment is not made until we qualify i.e. next summer then we will already be playing qualifying games before any new players arrive or have a chance to bed into the team. On that basis I am indeed pessimistic about our chances.

I confess I do find it desperately disappointing that any Rangers fan would rejoice in the fact that a team, in this case one of our closest current rivals, is weakened by the long term injury of a player.

I appreciate all your corrections and I'm sorry that I have added to your bamboozlement. It's disappointing that you have no desire to address the real issues here. We are football fans just like Aberdeen fans and should be concerned about their legitimate complaint because (a) we might be in the same boat at some point in the future and (b) it affects the attendance at the match which in turn affects the competitiveness of the home team. Do you not agree that Scottish football is uncompetitive and do you not agree that it would be more competitive if stadia were better utilised and the available monies were more evenly divided? With that I bid you adieu, to sleep per chance to dream of full stadia and future success in Europe.

You might want to consider sparing a thought for the unfortunate Paterson, whilst rejoicing in the "significantly weakened" Hearts team. If he doesn't sign a new contract, then he'll have to rely on some team taking a chance on him at some point between January and June, otherwise he'll have to finance his own rehab. No way should we take any such chances, remember Daniel Prodan, or was that before your time? What about the mysterious case of Oleg Volodymyrovych Kuznetsov who apparently injured his cruciate ligament in his second game for us against St Johnstone in 1990 and did not play again for a year. Lastly, I give you one Matthew Crooks. Has he been a worthwhile investment would you say?

If so, he knows a man who could bridge the gap.

I'm sorry that I've bamboozled you since that was not my intention. However, your comments clearly suggest three things: 1) there is something inherently wrong with Aberdeen wanting to have as many travelling fans at a match as possible to support their team; and 2) there is an issue with the fact that most Aberdeen fans come from Aberdeen; and 3) there is an issue because Rangers have more fans than Aberdeen and a significant number of Rangers fans are not from Glasgow. Once again you fail to address the real issue here; which is that because of the unreasonable demands of TV many Aberdeen fans who would wish to travel by train will not be able to attend this match; whereas if the times were reversed our fans would not be so inconvenienced getting to Dundee. In your state of bamboozlement you also miss the more important point that Scottish football suffers greatly from a lack of competition, which affects attendances and which would be significantly enhanced if the capacity utilisation of stadia could be increased and there was a more even distribution of commercial finance.

If there was a vacancy, which isn't likely and if we had some decent money to spend; I'd be tempted to go for the vastly experienced and successful Juande Ramos, who has just left his second spell in charge of Malaga CF of his own volition. I know I am dreaming but it's the privilege of an old man.

Usual hyperbole from GS.

Yes we will get into Europe but given the fact that our revered leader stated that there would be no significant new investment in the team until we get there, we may not see any new players until after we are knocked out in Q1 in July somewhere in the back of the European beyond like Azerbaijan or Kazakhstan. The team we have now doesn't have a prayer of getting into the group stages of the Europa League.

As a striker, totally ineffective. It's one thing being a good trier, and Garner certainly is that; but the primary job of a striker is to score goals. Garner has 3 in 17 league games including none in the last 9 over two months. We paid £1.47m for his services which transfermarket rate at about a third of that. http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/joe-garner/marktwertverlauf/spieler/46111 He scored goals in League 1 but struggled apparently as a lone striker in the Championship; so we overpay for him and ask him to play a similar role. I don't understand the logic behind that decision, can anyone enlighten me? Oh and BTW who is our most effective striker, why one 37 year old Kenny Miller with 4 goals and 4 assists in 19 games, more or less a goal or an assist every other match. Until we can find someone better, he gets a start in my team every time.

But then the whole argument for Hodson was as cover on both sides. Now the situation arises he's not used. Go figure.

Impossible to understand Tavernier preferred to Hodson unless it's as a wing back in a 3-5-2.

I would think that MW will take the opportunity to start O'Halloran, Forrester and possibly one of Dodoo and Miller. I think Garner needs a rest and Waghorn may start but doubt he'll play 90 mins.

Like it or not both Collum and Thomson are regarded as elite level in Europe

I agree he made mistakes in the Aberdeen match but right now he is the best we have. He is far better than Collum or Thomson and deserves his chance.

I don't believe this is a PR exercise, it's a genuine and valid complaint, as most on here recognise. Can you please explain to me and anyone else who is still listening, precisely what is wrong with any club wanting to have as big as possible a travelling support as they can and why it is an issue if most of a team's fans come from their home town or city? Whilst not in the slightest denigrating Rangers fans who travel the length and breadth to follow the team; do you not understand that Scottish football would be immensely stronger and far more competitive if even half the teams in the SPFL outside the old firm, could fill half their stadia with home fans.