der Berliner

... and supposedly his deal to Seria B side Monza fell through, hence we are being brought into it.

Given the hit-and-miss ratio of the media and the rumour folk, I would assume that we will sign someone or -two that no-one has yet a clue about.

Added ... IN - Josh Maja (21) - ST, Nigeria, Girondins - ct. till 2023 - LINK - TM IN - Isaac Atanga (19) - RW, Ghana, Nordsjaelland - ct. till 20 - LINK - TM

So will Hearts or Thistle burn more cash for a court case ... we shall see. As with many other stuff, the SPFL cabal has pokered with the lack of and dire need of money amongst the clubs and won. Despite using illegal means, withholding information and straight faced lies and corruption re the vote. If it wasn't so shameful, you could almost admire how they get away with it.

The media over here ... as well as the supporters would go banana-ballistic if anything like the vote-fiasco had happened here. Yet, in Scotland there is next to no reaction from media and officials. On a sidenote ... is there any other league in Europe where the seasons was stopped and a Champion declared despite the fixture list not being fully played?

No. You just have to understand that TM does not know what clubs may want for a price asset and what clubs are willing to pay. Their "valuation" is merely a benchmarkt to see what other e.g. strikers of similar "value" are out and about in Europe.

Should we get Morelos' money, we'll just sign Roofe and then loan Wilson and Brewster from Liverpool, nae bother ...

Or Jason Cummings ... ? ?

Some tasty names amongst the freebie-strikers ... TM

Apparently from a rather reliable source in France. You would hope that the lower the fee, the higher the sell-on clause. I do wonder whether we will be willing to do business before the Leverkusen game though ....

It would also be someone who is essentially an ever present player on the field of play ... and that would probably be Goldson or McGregor, though the latter is at times quite vocal towards the referee. Going by yesterday's game, though we won, it was again a show of what was to come against teams sitting deep. And Coventry, in their first pre-season game, were not as adapt to that as 9 out of 10 Scottish teams are. As was noted, unless we score early and teams open up, dire affairs await us again, not least if Kent and whoever is supporting the probable main striker do not contribute with goals. IMHO, we did not need two holding MF in Jack and Kamara, as they hardly went forward enough to support the attack and had not that much to do either, so quite a bit of unnecessary square passing was evident.* Given that Davis, Arfield, Barjonas and McCrorie are there, you wonder why we see need of a Zungu? (As it stands, we have made an offer, but Amines want more cash up front.) Defoe is injured, Morelos threatening but not scoring. When Morelos went off (couldn't understand that, BTW), we had no natural striker up there, though Kent and Barker tried their luck and were unlucky. I would have assumed Stewart would be the natural choice and when he came on, he provide quite a bit of spark and was unlucky too. IMHO, we seriously under-use him, even on the right flank. So as much as we look for transfer targets, you also look at the management for answers re tactics against the deep-sitters that go beyond Plan A and the hope that Aribo continues to dance his way through the trenches. Might well be that, if he goes on like yesterday, we'll soon have another Morelos scenario on our hands. * Dunno why for some reason these MFs, if given the ball and have plenty of room, do not take a stroll themselves but pass the ball (unnecessary) around and oftentimes to people better covered, thus creating danger for ourselves ...

Naughty me, but Tavernier's cross from the free kick will give him more credit than his over-all performance deserved. Not least compared to Barasic. Of course, when Patterson came on, CC were toiling a little, but his enthusiasm and willingness were a joy to behold. Likewise, Barker and Stewart brought on some energy and inventivness that was missing, would like to see them and Murphy involved with the better players every now and then, exactly in games like these. On another day, Morelos could have had a hat-trick, Hagi a couple and Stewart one too.

I'd throw Stewart on straight away ...

Jones had some "enigmatic" message from some other player on his instagramm account that might not have pleased anyone of the managment. I.e. "I came on for 15 mins, played well enough and then sat on the bench for the next 10 games" or so. Game so far tells us a bit about what to expect when things don't click or team suss us out early. Seen it before. Unless Kent makes all his running and roving count, we lack in attack. Its all fine and well having his and Hagi`s and Aribo's creativity, but we need people at the end of it. Perfect game to show that we do NOT need Kamara and Jack in midfield, as we lack one attacking option to work City's rearguard. And for all the dominance, that counter-attack was inches away from giving City the lead. How often have we seen this ...

This bit of news has since been verified as rubbish, Ojo has a contract till 2023 Balogun will obviously become a hit at Ibrox, as he was born in BERLIN! Has played almost as often as CH as he has as right-back, and so far 31 times for Nigeria, including the WC 2018. Balogun stats

Well, a few of the "B-side" were also to be used as subs in the afternoon-come-evening game ... and then there is the Coventry game on Saturday too. I would hazard a guess that SG wanted to get all these players some game time ... and wouldn't read too much into Jones and Stewart being send to the youngsters. WOuldn't be surprised if both are on the bench at Ibrox at the weekend. It is obviously bad to have quite a few attacking chaps fit and ready to go at the same time. Not least when their slots are filled up with players galore, e.g. "left-wing" ...

Here's 10 mins of highlights

I see no problems there actually ... ?

That last goal was probably the way SG wants us to play and score goals ... only that when it is about points, defenders will jump in more and it gets more nasty. So while this is good to see, we ned people like Hagi (and probably Murphy) trying a shot from the edge of the area ... or when sight of the target.

A Rangers team that probably has not played together before, bar Mayo and Paterson and Kennedy and McPake. Against a maybe maybe-not promoted Championship side seemingly on full strengths and one of the hottest strikers in Scotland ... with a scoreline that did not reflect the play as such, if you believe the report. A good experience for the youngsters ... and one has to hear from people actually at the match about the first teamers thrown in there to get some experience.

Still a bit of a loss as to why people seemingly get annoyed by the city's name. Just help yourself to a quick google search checking out Glasgow Rangers match day programme and you will get stuff from the before the 60s and even 40s saying Rangers, Rangers FC, The Rangers, Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Rangers FC, UK based material or not. I think I saw a match day info from the 1890s that also said Glasgow Rangers ... and you porbably have to take the Rangers historian over the coals to tell him what the earliest documents say. But honestly, it is a subjective matter and you'd essentially waste your lifetime. Unless, of course, someone is of that ilk that needs to tell everyone the very very-est rightest name of "our" club ...

You obviously need some ego to make your way as a footballer, after all, youngster will have to replace "veterans" at some point. (I know Craig wil jump in soon but) Kyle Hutton was one of those in days gone by, whose ego got the better of him, laughing and slagging off Bears questioning him and his attitude. Kennedy (as the story goes over on FF) also has some pedigree as a Yahoo, but who knows what happened. QUite a few bits and pieces to be found over there regarding this particular affair. As SG has said, people have to commit to the club - and I don't think he was primarily referring to contract extensions - and all that it stands for and behave accordingly. If their character is off, so they will be sooner or later.

Some whispers that he was on a plane to London today to meet his agent ...

"Luvly" to note the remark by the Premier Sports commentator that Celtic "were awarded the title because they had a 13 point lead" (or to that extend).

For all their multi-million players, Lyon and Nice didn't produce as many clear cut chances as we did. Murphy's should have been in like McCrorie's and Jones', even though perhaps all a bit against the run of play. Very concentrated performance from all the subs, what happened from HT till the 60s minute was IMHO far too similar to the tail end of last season. Like the look of Murphy, very direct and always chasing for second balls and mistakes. Wonder what the future holds for Barjonas and Middleton, unless SG opens his squad rotation up somewhat.