der Berliner

Tavernier, Barisic, Helander and Kamara ... I doubt that their performances have gone unnoticed. Same with Goldson. The latter, much like Kent, will, IMHO, be loyal to SG for a season or two at least though. Morelos`market value will have improved somewhat, given that his allround-play has improved (dramatically) this season, something that will attract the better managers who don`t simply look for goal-charts. Should Morelos decide to go, we need to keep in mind that Stewart`s contract is up, as is Defoe`s. I would assume we have a few targets lined-up for that case. Likewise, I wonder how many of our better youngsters will be given a chance at first team level.

We hardly sold any player for a big fee, at least not one that would compensate the signings coming in. While I hope I err here, I do expect some of our prominent stars will receive offers and we`ll accept a few, which would happen sooner or later anyway. In the Scottish financial climate, even without Covid-19, it is the one way to make a club of our size work smoothly, ST money or not. IMHO, we will gear the start of next season on qualification for the CL group stages, no matter what. For that income will play a large part in setting us on a healthy, if not to say very healthy financial footing. Once that is achived, we will go on from there.

IMHO, the very definition of "sectarianism" has received a very specific (anti-Catholic) meaning in the West of Scotland since 2007+/- onwards, and in a similar way "racism" (anti-Irish) too.

Not only did they break various protocols, but they actually also returned with one chap having contracted Covid-19 and nearly a dozen more went into quarantine. Did e.g. anyone ask who the couple to the right of Brown were, siting within arm`s length? Article recounting the trip.

So ... there was (another) official summit and the SFA shall act more strongly against racism. Or perhaps voice their concerns with UEFA about Kamara's and Roofe's abuse. As important the topic is, can anyone see a reaction of the SFA that exceeds that of UEFA?

Imagine a gang of 50+ of Celtic going to Dubai, behave against all sorts of protocols out there, with one player leaving the bubble and did not quarantine afterwards, one player contracting Covid-19 and 10 have to self isolate ... and all Mr. SFA-chairman Maxwell has to say is that: "the Scottish Government allowed the trip an hence we won't investigate". Did the government allow them to break protocols or denied the SFA any charging of Covid-breaks? Neither is the case and it should be taken to the SFA's doorstep by us as well as the player's union. But we will probably accept our bans (because the players did breach the protocol) and say that what other clubs do is not our business ... ?

Some rumour that Balogun has actually played the 23 matches that activate his one year extension deal. Dunno how true that is.

Speaking of defenders, Leicester and Villa apparently looking at Helander, with Elfborgs Joseph Okumu mentioned as a replacement: https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/a/R90KO2/avslojar-landslagsmittbacken-jagas-av-premier-league-klubbar Will be interesting to see. I reckon Goldson will stay no matter what, Katic will return and Simpson (somehow I totally forgot that we signed him) is there too. No-one knows what we`ll do with Balogun and whether Helander might be willing to have a crack at the EPL, Leicester being a good choice. Oh the excitement ?

For those willing to test their German ... Leon Balogun im Interview: "Mich interessieren diese elenden Kampagnen nicht mehr" ... for the rest I snatched the translation from FF Really interesting interview with Leon Balogun in the German football magazine Kicker: "Leon Balogun (32) won the championship in his first season with Rangers. In the interview, however, he also talks about a recent incident that still affects people. Mr Balogun, how much joy about the championship is still there after three weeks? Very much, when I think back to the moment. But our everyday life went straight on. We still had the Europa League and now we still have the cup. And above all, there are still a few records to break. Fewest goals conceded, most games to nil, things like that. Of course we tried to enjoy the moment, but we had to ramp up again pretty quickly. I'm sure that when we then receive the trophy on the last matchday, we'll be able to celebrate properly. For the first time since 2011, Rangers have edged past arch-rivals Celtic. How? I'm probably not one hundred per cent the right person to answer that question. I've only been here a year now and this year everything has been outstanding. There are some people at the club who have experienced and had to experience completely different times. Rangers had to be relegated to the fourth division after insolvency in 2012 and had to work their way back up bit by bit. What I've witnessed at least: Since Steven Gerrard took over (in June 2018, ed.), we've been on the heels of the others. "The others". You're not allowed to pronounce Celtic? What do you mean allowed. I try to avoid it, also out of respect for the deep rivalry. I wasn't there myself, but there must have been a player here once who had shoes that were largely green. Someone on the coaching staff must have made a friendly request not to wear those shoes again. Fortunately, you don't wear a green jersey with the Nigerian national team... On one of my first international trips as a Ranger, I posted something in my Instagram story, whereupon a fan wrote: "Yeah, big guy. I'm happy for you and all. But please reconsider your colours." That was just a joke, of course, but you can already see that it goes very deep. So back to why were Rangers better than "the other club" this time? We didn't collapse. We still took each game on its own merits and always kept the big picture in mind. We're still unbeaten, and then of course you hear a lot of sidetracks, expectations rise. But we've really stayed very relaxed about that. There is meticulous work behind it. After draws, and there were only five of them, it felt like a defeat in the dressing room. Not because it was so dramatic, but because we just resolved so firmly not to allow ourselves to do that. In the past, the other club would strike and take advantage of our mistakes. This time it was the other way round. And you don't get a 20-point lead just like that. Was the special touch of spoiling Celtic's historic tenth title in a row still felt? Yes, because the fans weren't there. A huge part of what makes the club, the derbies and the atmosphere, is gone. The club tried to explain to the new players how much that means. Because they didn't know such a situation. The fans weren't there, but our players were well aware of what a long time of suffering the supporters had gone through in the years before. Then you get a feeling for it. The club had to apologise after the championship was decided because there was a bit too much celebrating with the fans outside the Ibrox stadium. Let's face it, you can't really blame anyone, can you? I can't imagine that things would have been different elsewhere in a long-awaited championship. And I don't think the club is responsible for that. It's not like the club can lock down the whole of Glasgow. All you can do is appeal. But please: Especially in this lousy situation that we've been experiencing for over a year, there was something that made a lot of people in Glasgow incredibly happy. And then they gave free rein to their emotions. Under the current circumstances of the pandemic, was it the best decision? Probably not. Is it still emotionally understandable? Absolutely. The maker of the success is not quite so unknown: Steven Gerrard. Was it him who convinced you to move from Brighton to Glasgow in the summer? Quite simply, yes. How? I was on loan at Wigan and we had five or six games left. My advisor said he had two offers for me. One of which he thought was "unbelievably big". How do you build up a suspense? Yeah, really. I thought, "What's next? What's this?" When he told me, my first reaction was rather calm. It wasn't so much the club I had in mind at first, it was more the Scottish League. I don't think I'm stepping on anyone's toes by saying that this is not one of the most popular in the world now. But apparently you could be persuaded. My advisor told me a few more things, and I did a lot of research myself. I could play in the Europa League, train under an absolute legend. And I could also play for a championship. In Mainz or Brighton, it was always about staying in the league. And what did Gerrard tell you? We arranged a Zoom call with Gerrard and the sporting director, Ross Wilson. I had a bit of a fan moment and admitted it, so we could all laugh about it. He told me what the job was, what he expected from me. That I fit in perfectly with the way he wants to play and that I have the right attributes, i.e. athleticism, dynamism, aggressiveness, security on the ball. That suited his philosophy of shaping the game and pressing high. Then it was really just a matter of coming to an agreement. He would then contact me after games, call me or write to me on WhatsApp. He gave me the feeling that he really wanted me in his team. You were seeded straight away. How does it feel to be in a defensive line when you almost never concede a goal? When we had just one action where the opponent came to cross, we looked at each other as if we were 0:2 behind and almost conceded the third goal. Sure, you develop a certain confidence and maybe even match luck from that, but we never rested on that. It definitely fills you with pride. Just recently, however, something went wrong, and that was in the Europa League. Did you have the feeling that you could have done better against Prague? Prague definitely had that feeling and in the end, unfortunately, they were right. I saw a video where they cheered when they saw our name in the draw for the last 16. We didn't approach it like that at all. Doable task, yes. But difficult. You have to take a team that beats Leverkusen in the group stage and knocks out Leicester one hundred percent seriously. If you look at both games against us, the better team probably won. That's how honest you have to be. After one hour, your teammate Kemar Roofe saw the red card, a little later you received the second yellow. However, the match was overshadowed by a racism scandal. Slavia professional Ondrej Kudela allegedly insulted Glen Kamara. I was already in the dressing room at the time, but I saw it with Kemar in the dressing room and had it all told to me afterwards. What can you say? I wasn't personally affected, but it could just as easily have been me. Or Kemar, who was actually insulted on social media afterwards. These are things that just make you angry. Unbelievably angry. You look at the scene and you see: the guy comes running in from 30 yards and picks out the player. Glen, you should know, is a totally calm and relaxed player, one who always avoids conflict. He had tried to laugh the situation off because he had already been mobbed several times. And then to see the guy holding his hands over his mouth and whispering deliberately in Glen's ear ... That's incomprehensible to me. That was calculating. He knew one hundred per cent what he was doing. There was no apology. Slavia even denied the incident. Kudela is said to have "only" said "fucking guy". An apology would have been a lie anyway. If you're so deliberately trying to cover up what you're saying, you know exactly what you're doing. If you think you have to behave like this, stand up to your husband and don't talk your way out of it afterwards. He seriously tried to make the victim out to be a liar. That's even worse. The incident triggered a huge wave, with professionals everywhere showing solidarity with their teammate. Even outside the Old Firm, Celtic captain Scott Brown gave Kamara a hug. Do you think it helps to avoid further cases? No. I took my hat off to Scott Brown's action, it was unbelievable. A very, very big gesture. Also the way he said after the game that there are things bigger than football. That was huge. It's right that it's making waves around the world, it has to be. But? What's missing is UEFA or FIFA taking action. I'm no longer interested in these wretched campaigns. That's all well and good, but the campaign content must be lived out authentically and not just remain empty words. Designing captain's armbands with the inscription "No Racism" is useless if racist incidents are not punished in the end. I have the feeling that "people of colour" are used to promote the supposedly cosmopolitan and inclusive values of the FIFA and UEFA brands. But when these very players are targeted, all too often there is just embarrassed silence. I wish that the expensive campaigns would be followed by action. You seem resigned. I don't expect much. The past shows us again and again what happens in such moments - namely nothing. It's just sad. But I, for one, will not stop loudly calling attention to these things. In the hope that something will change. There is far too much silence."

Well, we could trawl a few of the midseason games for your's and Craig's comments. Those draws or them 10 games we won by the odd goal. Yeah, I guess it was all about points and not performance, dire stuff et al. Hindsight is a fine thing, now that the main objective is achieved. And no, the Scum did not went off the boil after the new year in a fashion we are totally unfamiliar with, no no?! But anyway, ifyou think everything`s fine as it is, so be it.

I guess we have an admin that can check the IP ... for starters.

Well, well, nice way of turning stats into an argument and say that we played fine football all along. Despite the odd "dire affair". It´s not just (unless you are a purist) the results and goals we score, but the play we put on the park and the amount of chances we miss along the way. It`s not just in terms of goals scored, but tactics tested. You won`t make me believe that you like us being set up 4-2-3-1 against the trench diggers with our fullbacks doing the wingers job, sometimes more admirably, sometimes not. And obviously you`ll throw the fullbacks' assists column at me and I will calmly ask, how that might have looked for a true right/left winger? Since we hardly needed Tav`s or Barisic`s defensive abilities that often. In other words, why not put 3 defenders on, spare a DM to and play more attack minded at home against 0-5-5s? Every now or then at least? We never tried and thus will never know. Nothing about Barcelona, just UTILIZING the material we have, instead doing Plan A over and over again. And sure everyone on here is happy about how it all turned out - with a wee reminder that the Scum fell apart along the way too and quite a few players haven`t had to cope with the pressure of 50k people breathing down their neck every other week. We have clicked more often than not this season, but there is room for improvement and as always, we are a project in the making. So why not talk about that?

What`s the P&P for Europe?

Craig, you obviosuly see these dire affairs against the trench diggers from just one perspective. So be it. IMHO, we seriously underuse the options we have and it was far from easy going nor pleasing to the eye to have our 4-2-3-1 against the 0-5-5s et al.

You think we don`t have any issues with breaking down the trench diggers? Far far too many games have been dire to terrible affairs with us not able to breaking down or getting in behind those teams, and we usually used the same tactics and players over and over again. Stewart might not be THE answer to all problems, but for all the pace he perceivedly lacks, he`s got a keen football mind, trickery and ability to play a fine pass and find good spaces (aside from shooting himself). It looks like SG prefers the drive and dynamics of Kent and Wright and sometimes Aribo, yet, when there is hardly any room for that, as we have seen countless times, that approach become a blunt weapon. Again, we have the tools to unlock that and play different systems and styles, but we don`t utilize them to their full potential.

From the football side of things ... We went back into our Plan A mode with virtually the same players again. Arfield and Aribo seem to take long minutes before they get going, Kamara at times also joggs about and the game seems to by-pass him. He is there in a few vital moments too, but you probably know what I mean. As opposed to the ever-present Jack, when he is fit. Up front, a bit fresh blood in form of Wright as well as some change in creativity in form of Stewart might be useful, not least as quite a few teams have figured out how to play Aribo, Kent, and Arfield. In that respect, with competition regarding the title out of the way, we might attempt a more aggressive approach up front, e.g. 2 real strikers, if only to see how it works against the trench-diggers. We have the players, so why not use them?! As for Patterson, it will be a shame that he drops back into the wilderness as soon as Tavernier is back fit again. I know people will say how valuable Tav is for "our game", yet Patterson have shown that there is right-wingback play aside from Tav. Likewise, it would be cool if we have a good right-sided attack "duo" like we had with Tav and Candeias for certain games, a duo we can utilize better than makeshift right-attackers that we see now. In that respect it is sad that we shoe-horned Aribo, Hagi and even Arfield in there, instead of our prime right-winger/attacker Stewart - at least every now and then. You do wonder what the future will hold for Patterson and, truth be told, Tavernier, who has been here for some years and will get suitors from down south.

Unbeaten in the league. With Wright we became more aggressive again, would like to see more of him ahead of Aribo, who seemingly needs time to get going right now. I see some remarks about a point stolen. IMHO we pay McGregor for what he did today as much as we pay Morelos and Co. for scoring goals. He is here because he`s a top player and every now and then it is okay that he actually earns his wages ?

Stewart is there for (probably) his final bow at Ibrox, I would expect, but not today. Mainly because he`s not on the bench. Wright, Roofe or Itten it is.

.. but you have to admit, he has done his hair neatly today ? But yeah, Kamara is a bit off the pace, even though he usually looks like that every now and then. Maybe introducing Wright to chase their midfielders and defenders.

McGregor in typcial Scum heartbreak Rangers-keeper form. Pretty even till the goal, then they had their tails up, but we worked ourselves back into it. Sweet strike by Kent, might have been contender for 2nd spot in goal of the season behind Roofe`s. Eagle-eyed Collum at Edouard`s dive, then he missed Helander`s "handball", which will sure be debated by the "experts". Meanwhile, Morelos (for a change) working Brown into a frenzy fit.

He was doubtful before the match after taking a knock on Thursday, so we are lucky that he makes the bench.

He is and we missed him badly against Prague. McGregor Balogun - Goldson - Helander - Barasic Kamara - Davis Aribo - Hagi - Kent Morelos Subs: McLaughlin - Bassey, Patterson, Zungu, Wright, Roofe, Arfield, Defoe, Itten At least Hagi from the off, one would hope that everyone is up for it from the off ... and if not, we change quickly. I reckon we`ll see more of the "peripheral" guys after the split.

Or in other words: Racism has no place on the football field, nor in any society. The events of Thursday once again showed that, sadly, a lot of work is still to be done. Football belongs to everyone and we are all equal. We are fully in your support, Glen.

Again, I agree. Yet Roofe most likely didn`t even see him come out that far, as he was watching the ball. Likewise, on the other hand, the goalie saw him clear enough and looked at the end not knowing whether to stick or twist. It`s not his blame to get booted in the face, obviously, yet he could very well have expected what might happen and acted accordingly too. The end result is that we will miss Roofe for the CL qualifiers, Balogun for the first one too, if we sign him on for another season.

Well, yeah, but was it ever done at a Old Firm game? As for the game, our back-line looks rather thin. Katic and Tav are out, Helander and Patterson doubtful, which would leave us with Balogun, Goldson, Simpson and Bassey as right-back/centre-half cover. Could become interesting, given the "inexperience" regarding the Old Firm style of "football". Too bad that Jack isn`t there, as he would have provided decent protection. You would hope we send out Hagi, Wright and Kent from the off, with Morelos up top. No need to again wait till Arfield and Aribo get going in a match.