Tumshie RFC

I had an industry exam the following day in Falkirk so I had the day off months in advance but as soon as McGregor made that save in Bremen I immediately thought my study day was going to come in handy. In all honesty I thought our name was on the trophy.

My wee cousin was at school at the time and his mum wouldn't let him go and because he was on the CCC scheme he was in the ballot for a ticket. He said I'd get his ticket if he got 1. He gave me the confirmation letter on the night of the Motherwell game the Wednesday before - however, he said his mum was letting him go and could I get him a seat on the bus! Could have throttled there and then!

Left Stonehouse at 6am but because I had the exam I said that I wasn't going to drink. That all changed 10 minutes later when our bus was stuck in a massive traffic jam just down the road in Lesmahagow!

Stopping at the services down south it was unbelievable to see so many red, white and blue. I don't think the staff at these places could quite believe it. My dad and his mates were already down in Manchester and speaking to their hotel staff they were expecting between 25 and 30,000 people to make the trip!

When we finally got down to Manchester, myself, my cousin and my mate went into a Tesco Express and all they had left was rosy wine.

We quickly found our mates who were at Piccadilly Gardens. My dad and my uncles were at Albert Square and if I have 1 regret of that day it was that I didn't get a chance to have a beer with him that day.

We went and got another cargo and food about 6ish before we went back to Piccadilly Gardens and tried to get into the Fans Zone. I could sense then something wasn't right and there were too many fans there. We were getting crushed quite a bit. I just had a feeling something was going to happen so we made our way to a nearby pub - an Irish themed pub ironically.

I can remember looking around at all the leprechauns and harps and turned to my mate, who had also went to Stuttgart and Lisbon that season, and thinking "it wasn't supposed to be like this".

The game was pretty pish I thought although I think we came up against a very good Zenit side. Coming back out I wasn't aware of any trouble until I got a few calls and texts from people back up the road.

We eventually found our bus and got back up the road. Overall it was a great day but it wasn't a patch on the few days I had in Lisbon.

He's gonna be on a low wage and he's proven at this level. Seems a low risk and definitely one worth taking.

He's been a great servant to the club and I'll always be grateful to him for staying on when others decided against transferring over. Unfortunately with the signing of Cammy Bell there is simply no need to have two SPL standard keepers in the squad. Thanks for five years of wonderful service Neil.

Shareholders in Rangers who are (supposedly) looking to increase their shareholding giving an interview to Chris McLaughlin on a bus? Ok, so they own buses, but if they owned amusement parks, would they do an interview on the dodgems or the ghost train? Embarrassing doesn't even begin to describe it.

What PR Exec thought that was a good idea? Was he the same guy who told the Tims it would be a good idea to hold a press conference in Bairds Bar.

Another disaster waiting to happen.

Will always wonder what would have happened if he hadn't turned the Rangers job down after John Greig resigned.

I agree with some of the proposals such as the play-offs, one league body and fairer league distribution. Hopefully a step in the right direction.

Disappointed the game wasn't on a Friday night like the last one. I'm stuck in work when I'd much rather have been at Ibrox.

only Little, McCulloch, Wallace and Macleod have had good seasons IMO. I went for Wallace but all 4 would be worthy winners.

Work our way back up. We won't be eligible for Europe for another two seasons anyway.

How many home grown youths do Dortmund play? I'll wager it's a lot less than us, so what can we really learn from it that is relevant to us?

 

Ajax imo don't really count as firstly, the whole Dutch system is behind them - which I'd love to transfer to Scotland, but that's not Rangers' remit. Also, according to Pete, their youth system hasn't been that successful of late.

 

The more I read about Basel, the more I think they are more relevant to us.

All the more reason why we should be investing in a proper scouting system Calscot. We even miles behind Celtic in that respect and that was before our recent problems.

For the money we have spent on Auchenhowie we should be producing better, technical players than what we currently are. That can come down to the coaching as well which also needs to be looked at.

Your right about Basel though - another great example of what can be achieved even if you do play outwith one of the big 5 leagues in Europe.

Walter Smith and Ally McCoist are the glue that are just about holding Rangers together. I'm not a fan of Ally as manager but the soul of the club is more important.

Dortmund, Ajax and others are a great example of what we should be trying to achieve at the club. We need to invest heavily in youth and a proper scouting system.

At Dortmund the most important man at the club is their Director of Football Michael Zorc who has full control over the youth programme and the scouting system. They don't buy a player that they can't sell on for cash.

Interesting to note as well that Dortmund would have went down the same route we had to last summer if Bayern Munich hadn't have given them a 3 million Euro loan when they were right in the financial grubber - and we are still waiting on transfer fees and prize money from the SFA/SPL.

Would be great if we could get back to talking about what was happening on the park.

An absolute disgrace is just about all you can say on this subject. Feel sorry for the Founders Trail organisers who have worked bloody hard over the last few years.

God I hope so.

Not a surprise after the Whyte revelations were revealed. At least he stood up for us when we needed it the most.

I still don't understand why they can't take certain parts of the deal which I think everyone agrees with i.e wealth distribution, play-offs, single league body and implement that first.

Problem Scotland has that there are just not enough teams to have a competitive 18 or 20 team league

Have the police not stopped the Blue Order and Union Bears from expanding into the next section of the Broomloan Front?

Green is entirely right in this case. Any club in the situation like ourselves should be looking at younger players. We shouldn't be signing anyone over the age of 30.

Want to see Little being given an extended run up front. Both he and MacLeod are two of only a handful of players who will be playing with us once we are back in Scotland's top flight.

If the SFL re-organised itself into two divisions it would definitely be a step in the right direction. I still don't understand why the SFL didn't try and do their own TV deal last year which involved ourselves. Was it because of the infamous Five Way Agreement?

No-one to blame but themselves. When we left I thought the first thing they would do is change the 11-1 voting system and they didn't. All fans want is a bigger league with play-offs; it's not rocket science. What other country on the planet would ask fans to fill out umpteen different surveys about what they would like to see and then decide to do something completely different.

I like Boca but can we really afford to pay him 16k a week in the third tier? I doubt it.

Very injury prone unfortunately. Seems to get himself in good positions although his finish sometimes lets him down but he took his goal well and seems to be better than Naismith.