BrahimHemdani

Nice lad but no one else will take him; at least not for money. And, yes, Scott, I did once compare him to a legend; we can all make mistakes.

I wouldn't call Niko Kranjcar a 30-year old dud. But paying the likes of O'Halloran £9,000 a week (so I'm told) when he was on £1,500 at St Johnstone, is not only unnecessary it's downright lunacy.

I agree that the current Board are better than the previous charlatans. I also agree that is was necessary for King to buy the shares to take control; although I think those that sold were happy to get out. My point is that he is deliberately trying to disguise his personal share purchases as "investment in the club" which it is not. Where I think we may also disagree is that he used others to help him drive the share price down to a point where he could no longer resist buying and that in the short term at least that action was detrimental to the Club. It would be interesting to know, the total of his personal loans to the Club.

"For various reasons, a significant part of our increased player budget has been tied up in resources that have not, up to this point, made a meaningful contribution on the pitch." This is a true and very telling statement. How many of the 11 players brought to the Club in the summer are playing regularly in the team? Answer: 2 or 3. Yes "It is inevitable that there will be setbacks such as this as players adjust to the higher level required of Premiership football and the special demands of playing in Glasgow for a club like Rangers. Injury has also played its part." But questions must be asked about the advisability of signing such as Crooks, Dodoo, Hodson (OK perhaps cover at FB was justified), Gilks (did we need two first team keepers?), Rossiter, Senderos, even Garner (essentially a League 1 player) and yes Barton (given his past record). How many of those are ever going to be regulars in the first team? Some of those are going to have to be off-loaded to make way for players who can take us to the next level i.e. Europe. The question that was posed about the one dimensional role of McParland is valid. I well remember Mr Murray once lamenting at an AGM about the hundreds of thousands in wages that were sitting in the stand; that was bad enough when we were blessed with a team of internationals; it is quite another in our current circumstances, even if the numbers are now tens of thousands of pounds, we can't afford to carry passengers and rotate for the sake of rotation as often seems to be the case in team selections and substitutions. "It is an ongoing requirement for Mark and his team to review and rotate the player pool to ensure that we are getting the best possible value for our investment in players ". I disagree; every player we have in the first team squad MUST be capable of playing a starting role, right now that is manifestly not the case. "It is my belief that Rangers is presently well enough resourced to achieve our next major football objective – a return to Europe. Perhaps, Mr King, but if so it will be a close run thing. " A further investment in players will be required at that point." No argument with that.

"So far, between myself and my co-investors we have invested 6m by way of shares and 13m of interest free loans taking the total to a little less than 20m. " As you suggest, Pete, this is deliberate obfuscation. The loans MAY be become an investment in the Club if converted in whole or in part into new shares; but the purchase of shares from third parties is not an investment in the Club.

Can't argue with the analysis and pertinent questions raised in this article.

Ross County 0 Rangers 3 FGS Garner (which probably means it will be Miller)

Enough to spoil a sunny Caribbean afternoon.

No idea how I managed to edit Ian's forecast. Anyway just to confirm mine as 2-0 FGS Forrester

Hi from Charlotte Amalie in the US Virgin Islands where luckily find myself in a cafe with wifi as the team news came through. So change of FGS to Forrester.

I think Warburton has looked at this and said that Sinclair is the biggest threat so he has opted for Hodson rather than Tavernier against him (bit like McLeish with Ricksen and Khizanishvili) and with Waghorn yet to recapture his previous form he's opted for Tavernier up front rather than dropping him altogether. But it does seem odd to play a semi final with one striker on tbe pitch and four on the bench. Looks more like 4-4-1-1 but hard to tell from FL. How have we set up?

I've really enjoyed watching Kranjcar and thought he worked extremely hard and was a big influence at Inverness. I wish him a speedy recovery.

Assume Wilson injured so Hill is the replacement and he doesn't want to play Senderos and Hill together hence Kiernan in as well. Worried about this central defence.

Nice to be back in Inverness for the first time in 4 or 5 years after a pleasant journey up on the train. Always one of my favourite Scottish trips. Not much has changed though Pat MacKenzie's menswear shop has reinvented itself as Primo and sadly the nice soap shop in the Arcade has gone. I am struggling with JFK's contention that we are the second best team in Scotland when we've only won 3 times in 8 league starts. True we played Aberdeen off the park but couldn't convert our superiority into goals so left the Granite City without a point. Given that neither Aberdeen nor Celtic could take 3 points home from Inverness I feel we'll do well to emulate them. Kranjcar must start after his MOTM performance v Thistle; now that the rest of the team realise that they need to give him the ball back when he's in space after the first pass. I think we'll start unchanged with Forrester for Miller perhaps the only change.

I think this is our best possible starting line up. Senderos and Wilson are our best two CB's of a bad bunch and offer a right and left foot combination. Kranjcar is the one player we have who can really unlock a defence with one pass and has to get a run of games to get back his match sharpness. I prefer Halliday lying deep; so IMO this is the best combination of last season's MF with some added class. From what I have seen so far Miller is still a better striker than Garner will ever be so he deserves to start. I also believe Waghorn's best position is wide right where he is more effective than O'Halloran whose final ball is terrible. Tempted to go more than 3-1 but I would like to see this line up get a few games to gel before getting too carried away.

Rangers 3 Partick Thistle 1 FGS Miller!

Definitely a liberty dB to start the thread without an article! I'll hazard a guess at a team: Gilks; Hodson, Senderos, Wilson, Wallace; Windass, Kranjcar, Holt, Waghorn, Miller, Forrester That said, Warburton has as big a hard on for Kiernan as I have for Krnajcar so he may start in place of Wilson; though I think Senderos and Wilson is our best combination. I'm sure Hodson will play and it's anyone's guess whether it would RB or LB. I've gone for Miller as FGS but he may have to sit this one out if O'Halloran gets a run; Waghorn will definitely start and doubt Mackay will get closer than the bench.

Given that Scott often agrees with me, I'll cut him the same slack as I suggested with Mr Barton; I'm sure it was an unintentional slip.

PM me with cost TB and I'll take it under advisement!

I agree and would add that he probably thought they were the best we could get with our limited resources. Let's not forget he persuaded Barton to join us rather than playing in the EPL (probably on lesser money but possibly with the lure of a two year contract) and also persuaded a man with 80 caps for his country to give up the easy life in the US second division. For what it's worth I still believe that Kranjcar will come good, his early passing down the left to Wallace and Mackay before he became embroiled at Parkhead and his fabulous footwork on the edge of the County box in his cameo role on Saturday, being just two examples of what he can do. But the manager will need to give him games (starting tonight?) if he is to get back his match sharpness and the other players will need to give him the ball back when he passes and moves into open space so he can play the killer passes or shoot at goal.

Like many I suppose, I can't make up my mind if I've been fortunate or unfortunate to get a ticket for this Friday night fixture. I've had a look at the trains and accommodation but really don't fancy any of the B&B's that are still available at around £60-£75 a night and hotels upwards of those figures. I know that some SC's will go depending on number of tickets they are allocated but not sure I'm up for 2x 3 hours or so in a bus (with due respect to the SC's, some of whom I've travelled with before). So I'm thinking about driving up after lunch/early afternoon and returning immediately after the match, possibly getting somewhere to stop overnight down the A9. Anyone who wants to share the journey, please post here or PM me for details.

And Crooks apparently, though we have yet to see what he can do.

I would think he was handed a letter drafted by our lawyers: 1) detailing the complaint against him (breach of club rules) 2) referring to his subsequent media comments (possibly also a breach of club rules) 3) referring to his already having been advised to stay away from the training ground last week 4) formally suspending him for three or four weeks (including or excluding last week, depending on how last week was framed) 5) warning him that any repetition would lead to the immediate termination of his contract for cause. I would then think that off the record, Warburton would have suggested it might be best for him to find a new Club. I suspect that is the main reason for the three weeks, because in football terms that's a heck of a long time and unlikely to be justified by the events. (There used to be a "rule" that the maximum suspension in contract terms was two weeks (wages), not sure if that still applies.) I would also think that the suspension would be on full pay. Nothing has been said to the contrary. Since we only have Barton's version of events it is difficult to judge but IF he is subsequently dismissed then he might have a good case on the grounds that the initial action (first and final warning) was not justified by the events; but it looks like Rangers would be prepared to take their chances and any award by a tribunal would be reduced by a percentage to reflect his part in the events.

Yes I understood that; I was getting at JFK's analogy not you.

Yes in terms of points, but as I pointed out they are above us on goal difference due to only losing 4-1 at Parkhead and winning 3-1 at Dundee.