der Berliner

Turkish club Trabzonspor have reached "an agreement in principle" to sign midfielder John Lundstram when his Rangers contract expires at the end of the season. (beinsportsvia Scottish Sun) Rangers are more likely to pursue a permanent move for Abdallah Sima than fellow loan forward Fabio Silva. (Football Insider) QPR and Southampton handed boost in Rangers transfer pursuit Kemar Roofe has been linked with a move to Southampton and QPR this summer ... The 31-year-old is out of contract at the end of the campaign and is expected to walk away from Ibrox for nothing – in a boost to the clubs in pursuit. Fulham, Sheffield United, QPR and Southampton have all been mentioned as potential future destinations, should he depart the Scottish giants at the end of his contract. Source James Tavernier and Connor Goldson will “cost a lot of money” to take away from Rangers so they are both expected to remain at the club to next season, according to Philippe Clement.

Matondo is no real loss, as his last game showed. Far too erratic in his standard right now. Sima much more so, and it beggars belief how all our quality performers suffer one injury after another. Silva, Dessers, and Roofe are fit, and they all can play across the front line. Maybe it is good that we rested Wright for the more important games ... 😎

Just to keep Rousseau from overreacting ... no new thread just yet; Former Rangers manager Steven Gerrard's Al-Ettifaq are ready to launch an offer to bring 32-year-old Ibrox captain and right-back James Tavernier to the Saudi Arabian club this summer. (Slaati via TeamTalk) Steven Gerrard is closely monitoring Connor Goldson's situation at Rangers as the Al-Ettifaq head coach mulls over a possible double swoop on his former club for the 31-year-old centre-half and right-back James Tavernier. (Daily Record) Trabszonspor are making progress in their bid to sign Rangers left-back Borna Barisic and midfielder John Lundstram, according to reports in Turkey. (The Scotsman) Rangers are keeping close tabs on St Mirren teenager Ethan Sutherland, who has been linked with Manchester City and Chelsea after the Premier League duo recently sent scouts to watch the 17-year-old as he impressed on the wing and at left-back on loan to Alloa Athletic. (Football Insider)

Maybe we try to get him the same vitamins Davie Weir got?!

Dessers doing his job, Cantwell's best performance, Butland with fine saves, and Balogun a rock. If only Lundstram would play like that every week - wouldn't mind a replacement though. Sterling solid too, Souttar with a few uncharacteristic sloppy moments. Most of the young players today far too erratic, namely Matondo and Silva, McCausland not so. Hope Sima is okay soonish.

What's all the Dessers talk? Totally hilarous criticism. He's hardly get a decent pass and if he does, his fellow attackers are all over the place or not catching up. Its him and Cantwell doing the most pressing, you wonder if we actually have "wingers", since they play so deep. Matondo is in his bad-game performance mode, far too hectic. Might score a hat-trick now, of course. BTW, I want Sakala back.

Wee check ... 4 games so far, 4 wins, goals for 11, goals against 2 MD 10 - Ibrox - 2-1 (Tavernier, pen. (Goldson); Danilo (Tavernier)) Butland Tavernier - Goldson - Davies - Ridvan Lundstram - Raskin Lammers - Cantwell - Sima Dessers Subs: HT Danilo -> Dessers 64. Wright -> Raskin 76. McCausland -> Cantwell 83. Jack -> Lammers League Cup - Semi-Final - Hampden - 3-1 (Tavernier pen. (Danilo), Wright (Danilo), Tavernier) Butland Tavernier - Goldson - Balogun - Barisic Jack - Lundstram Cantwell - Lammers - Sima Danilo Subs: HT Wright -> Cantwell 71. Lawrence -> Lammers 77. Davies -> Balogun 77. Dessers -> Danilo 90. Sterling -> Tavernier MD 16 - Tynecastle - 1-0 (Sima (Tavernier)) Butland Tavernier - Goldson - Balogun - Ridvan Lawrence - Lundstram McCausland - Cantwell - Sima Danilo Subs: 19. Cifuentes -> Lawrence 71. Sterling -> Ridvan 71. Roofe -> Danilo 88. Lammers -> Cantwell MD 27 - Ibrox - 5-0 (Diomande (Cortes), Cortes (Lawrence), Dessers (Souttar), Dessers, Silva (Lundstram) Butland Tavernier - Goldson - Souttar - Ridvan Diomande - Lundstram Sterling - Lawrence - Cortes Dessers Subs: 56. Silva -> Lawrence 56. McCausland -> Sterling 71. Raskin -> Diomande 71. Wright -> Cortes 79. Roofe -> Dessers

A lot of what happens in the summer will depend on grabbing the title and with it a guaranteed CL group income, no matter how the results will go there. Should we achive this, Sima is probably highest on the agenda. Cortes and Silva at best new loans, as their contracts are long at their parent clubs, Clement hooks Silva far too often of late and Cortes has barely set a foot on Scottish soil. We shall see. Diomande (obligation to buy) and Raskin are for the creative CM role that we have seriously been lacking, but both don't look physically made to complete a full Premiership run. Lundstram and Jack ... many thanks for the memories. Maybe Sterling can step into that enforcer role, but we do need one or two more. We need at least two more centre-halfs, since Balogun won't be here next season, Davies most likely neither. Hagi (2026), Lammers (2027), Cifuentes (2027) are out on loan and might come back for the manager "to have a look", while Devine (2025) has been playing football again with Motherwell (he was not used by them for half a season, it seems), as a left and right midfielder. Still baffled by Beale's decision to loan out Hagi ... and it backfired handsomely.

Stats wise no doubt. Those are envied by most wingers and even strikers. Performance-wise ... you are the chap with the stats, what's his cross-/pass-completion ratio? Is it wrong to wish that a defender is doing his prime job first and foremost? There are reasons why concede bad goals time and again, and since "we play as a team", we also lose as a team. Our centre-halfs are more often exposed for a reason. Hence, I suggested a 3-at-the-back and let Tavernier run his race on the right wing as per usual. We need to plug the gaps. As for the rubbish ... no-one wants to get rid of Tavernier, I would assume?

I was under the impression that Raskin was to be the ready-made replacement for Davis. that is, a C/DM that knows his job, plays in his position and took the responsibility off the centre-halfs in playing the ball out of defence and up to the front. Jack could do that too, but not at the level of Davis, but he's still IMHO the best DM that we have at the club. The use of Lawrence, Dowell and Lundstram in these roles backfired heavily on us, and while Diomande (how can a thumb injury keep a professional player from playing?) looks good, he's somewhat erratic when it comes to consistency. Having him and Raskin playing in CM might work, if these chaps finally get some playing time together. Aside from tactics, the amount of injuries to important players and some signings never really get going has seriously hampered any improvement this season. Given how tight the league is, this sort of thing can quickly break a "season's neck". Defense-wise, Ridvan, Sterling, and Souttar should stay, but we do need improvements in the summer, including back-ups. Hence, throwing away this season may set us back even more, given that automatic CL group participation is on the menu ... mainly thanks to our runs in Europe (oh the irony).

Well, you wouldn't want to hand the Scum the Double, and it is another major trophy for the Ibrox Treasure Vault. As for the last few games: we've had our fair share of injuries, especially to players that you hoped would improve us, even change the course of how we play, namely Danilo, Cantwell, Sima, and now Cortes and Ridvan. What irks me most - and has for about 5 years now - is that we simply fail to learn that the way we play (better players or not) against Scottish opposition is simply not working. While it is totally fine for Europe or against teams that play more open (Dundee did, but we never got our act together), time and again we are a blunt force that hammers at the door, yet fails to get in. The last game against Ross County at Ibrox we chad 40+ shots, 23 on target, but scraped through 2-1. By now, the alarm signals are as loud as a Kinzhal homing in on its target. Yet, we stubbornly soldier on and on and on.

😱😝 ...

Find another Gersnetter to pester ...

Funny how most people want us to stick with this garbage 4-2-3-1 or laugh at suggestions of utilizing the squad properly ...