der Berliner

Well, he didn`t do his chances any harm last Friday, a bit strange in timing, but what do we know ... Juninho Bacuna set for Rangers exit as Birmingham City near agreement for Dutch midfielder Gio van Bronckhorst is open to allowing Bacuna to return to the English Championship in this window. Birmingham City are closing in on a deal for Rangers midfielder Juninho Bacuna. The Blues are keen on giving the Dutchman a return to the English Championship. Birmingham are unable, as it stands, to cover what Bacuna is on at Rangers but an agreement looks likely to be struck. The Dutchman moved to Rangers from Huddersfield in August but has struggled for first-team football. Steven Gerrard signed him but he hasn’t had a lot of game time under his successor, Giovanni van Bronckhorst. His fellow Dutchman is now set to allow him to leave. Bacuna netted his only Rangers goal in a win over Ross County in November and has made 12 appearances since being signed by Gerrard. It would be a return to the second tier of English football for the Curacao internationalist having joined from Huddersfield Town five months ago.

... of the right-winger slot. And fair enough, as he`s more left-sided. Akinkunmi Amoo ... a 19-year old 1.63 m "tall" RW from Hammarby.

That`s some Viking trash talk up there 😄

Got a lot of bother, similar to Simpson these days. And IMHO, the latter did well enough (albeit against Stirling) as a left-sided CH in a back 3 or during his odd forays as a left wingback. IMHO, he didn`t harm his chances with Gio.

Let`s see how our support takes it should Goldson indeed sign for anyone else in this window. A large chunk of the Jambos didn`t take well to Souttar signing for us. The thing with Goldson - or any other of our defenders* - might be that they are not challenged at Ibrox as they are with e.g. English teams. Yes, Goldson did generally well in Europe, but truth be told, in most games for Rangers we more or less start to look at him as someone able to play pin-point passes out of defence or headers at corners into the opposition`s box, rather than his defensive exploits. Similar to Tavernier. But that is not what managers in the English top and second tier would primarily look at when signing a centre-half, nor what he would face week in week out. You do wonder what his (or our) real reasons for not offering a better / signing a new deals are. It would probably be the most "diplomatic" solution if he`d went because of family reasons etc. as it would keep the support off his back. Meanwhile, Skov Olsen`s deal with Brugge seems to be edging closer, according to Danish sources. * Unless there were good defenders before joining us, e.g. Barisic or Helander

All in all a worthwhile game. Good to see us adopting a different system, albeit it needed time to get going for some players. Quite a good few second row guys got game time and took it well, aside from Barker (and no wonder there, given he`s been out since almost BC).

He`ll be on the same wave-length with Aribo ... hope he keeps it going, who needs another signing then?! 😉

Did he? The commentators were quick to point out the "brilliant save" and big miss ... goal-line equipment and all that.

Let`s see ... McLaughlin Balogun - Goldson - Simpson Lundstram Tavernier - Hagi - Bacuna - Barker Itten - Sakala

https://www.footballscotland.co.uk/spfl/scottish-premiership/rangers-submit-letter-sfa-eight-22828001

If we talk, the effect boils down to nothing happening.

Imagine a club takes all this stuff to the relevant authority and asks about an opinion and actions to be taken. In fact, there should be some referee-supervisor who watches on and notes all these errors of judgement or blatant ignorance of the rules - no matter what team or game. And if people either have "certain drops" in "certain games" these people should either be dropped to a lower level or being send home for good. Our (and other clubs`) reluctance to say something or calls out refereeing inablities is starting to get pathetic. As Hannah Arendt once said: Someone who knows that he can disagree also knows that in a certain sense he agrees if he doesn't disagree. We let the Clancys and Maddens get away with it and thus they just carry on.

Our chap should have fallen and we`d have received a free kick. The linesman must have been fully asleep ... utterly pathetic.

As I said before, if our "wing play" doesn`t live up to what we require, i.e. pressing or providing an outlet, as well as having a shot on (sic!) target as often as they can, we have but Morelos up front against 2 or 3 defenders. Yesterday, it was large spells of reacting to Aberdeen and chasing them, rather than the other way round. Bassey was a bit jittery and had too many stray passes out of defence, Kamara and Sands (whom I won`t blame for much, as he`s not used to the Scottish game*) were tightening up the DM, but the whole front line simply did not click. And when this happens, as has been said, you do wonder why changes weren`t made earlier. The presence of Sakala, Morelos and Itten up top alone would have made Aberdeen be more cautious ... as well as providing us with better people to aim at. If anything, Itten is a target man and can hold up a ball. Hagi was marked and fell out of the game ... and we probably only had Bacuna as a straight replacement - and someone who can play the unexpect cool pass. With 5 subs available, we should have changed more people earlier ... and earlier. * I don`t really get picking Sands ahead of Lundstram, and away at Aberdeen at that. He`s a solid player and knows the Scottish game ... and may even be able to put the smile of Brown`s face with a solid tackle. Changing him in for Wright was baffling, not least when Hagi and Kent were the more obvious choices, given their performance levels.

On a wee positive note, holders Borussia Dortmund managed to lose in the German Cup (last 16) yesterday eve at 2nd divison team St. Pauli, 2-1 the final score, Haaland scoring a penalty.

Well, Gio saw it from the sidelines too. BTW, when we lost out in one of the cup semi/quarter finals last seasons due to penalties, twice the oppoistion goalie moved before the shot was taken ... as one can see in the highlights. But there you go. One can never blame Scottish refrees for being good referees.

I would have to think hard whether Aberdeen had a real shot on taregt bar the penalty, we gave them far too much respect from the off and hardly got our act together. We should have hooked Hagi and Kent much earlier, but the whole midfield display was rather ragged, and the balls from the back hardly found an intended target. Even before the penalty Aberdeen started to have a go for it, Kent`s absence didn`t really matter then. Could say it again and again, we should have played with two strikers, as Morelos alone was hardly able to press their defenders on his own and Kent and Wright were not up there often enough. We got a point and given the performance, we probably didn`t deserve more. NB: What a sad sad human being Brown is ...

Truth be told, my interest in football lies with Rangers and I know a few bits about the German BL. Saint-Gilloise is the real surprise this season in Europe, well drilled and not ladden with "star"-players, I would assume. That might work well for a season or two, including the promoted team`s suprise factor. They need to keep it up and hold to their best players though. Another suprise package - on a lesser scale though - is my home town team 1. FC Union Berlin, who got promoted in 2019, endet that season in 11th position, grabbed spot 7 the season afterwards and are 5th right now. Working with a low budget*, hardly any "star"-players but are well drilled. Sometimes that works. * Last season 17th place with Euro 76m compared to Stuttgart (150m), Eintracht Frankfurt (205m), Hertha Berlin (224m), Mönchengladbach (246m), Leverkusen (395m), RB Leipzig (559m), Dortmund (593m) and Bayern Munich (830m).

Methinks the Bulgarian media actually saw that Caskie stuff, put it out as real interest (without knowing better) and the Scots media followed suit. That being said, I`ve seen the BBC gossip page using Teamtalk, HITC et al as sources too, which is beyond parody. I usually check any foreign rumour at the actual news outlet to see whether they got it from their own folk or have some "according to sources in Scotland" lines in it.

Some reports from Denmark suggesting that Club Brugges has jumped ahead of us in the Olson deal ... ... but we shall see. In any transfer dealings and rumours I always remember Nacho Novo`s words: If a player choses not to come to Rangers, it is his loss, not ours.

From the link, he wants to sign permanently this month, yet Hearts want a "huge offer" to make that happen. I suggest a "lucrative friendly" or 250k ...

John Souttar: Rangers set to sign Hearts defender on pre-contract Souttar will become a free agent in the summer when his Hearts contract expires; Blackburn Rovers are one of many English Championship clubs interested in the defender; Rangers are set to sign the centre-back on a pre-contract; watch Aberdeen vs Rangers on Sky Sports on Tuesday https://www.skysports.com/amp/football/news/11788/12515621/john-souttar-rangers-set-to-sign-hearts-defender-on-pre-contract

It`s being rumoured that Souttar was in Glasgow today with club officials. We shall see ...

One of the coolest goals I ever saw.

Changes to the OP ... IN - Cedric itten OUT - Jermaine Defoe Will wait till there is something more concrete about the Stephen Kelly loan rumour.