der Berliner

Maybe its just me, but nigh every time I see these "English" u21 and u23 players they look far more athletic and physcially sound than the Scottish chaps. On a wee sidenote, we sign a 20-year old that is meant to be playing first team football, probably as a back-up for any CH and leftback. He's but "or" already 20, pending on the point of view, i.e. only 20 and considered first team material "or" already considered first team material at 20. Why would I say that? Because most of our development players are also 20ish ... https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/glasgow-rangers-reserves/kadernaechstesaison/verein/12573 Just noted that as of now, Josh McPake seemingly hasn't had his contract extended. Was under the impression that he was one of our more talented guys.

Neat bolt right out of the blue ...

Yeah, some "12 month loan with option to buy" thing, possibly due to connections of Ross Wilson and Soton plus the latter's monetary problems. We shall see.

That's not the team that went all the way through Europe for three season's on the trott though. IMHO, we got a good bunch of players and need to fill out the quality department somewhat. As we did throughout the years, only in days gone by it was easier to find "that certain" quality at a price we can now afford. Still, if you look those full games of old which appear now, you will see that on the whole, we sure did not play smashing football 24/7 even with the likes of Laudrup, Albertz, Gascoigne and Co.. Sometimes, IMHO, we seem to forget this and these teams also had to grind out results against the likes of Falkirk, Dundee et al. With Hagi, Kent, Aribo and some others, we have quite a few who have the quality, albeit being a bit raw. Speaking of which, even Morelos is not the finished article yet, but look what he does. What we should do (repeat mode on) though is throwing in certain players who can win us games against those lesser lights teams that will simply club their way through games without being checked by the ref, Rangers players who know what to expect and can cope. That is the likes of Arfield, Jones, Kamberi, and Stewart. Who sure have the quality to beat the dross they are facing (and else wouldn't be at Rangers). In that respect, we sure have tactical shortcomings that need to be adressed. Meanwhile, it looks like the Scum are now in for Lyle Taylor (and Scott McKenna) ... according to a Jim White tweet (that did not mention us).

Some whispers on FF (from " a very good source") that we are in talks with Ivan Toney / Peterborough United, 24-year old striker who has a year left on his contract. Likewise, some quiet whispers that we may still move for Florin Kamberi (remember, he did cost Hibs just 100k).

That's a neat way to describe the going-ons in Scotland since March. May I be the first to congratulate Scotland for being the first country to reach the Fourth World Status?!

I do agree with a lot there. What bothered me more than the odd player having an off-time is that while we have the squad, we rarely use it to its full capacity and/or adapt to the opposition at hand. Meanwhile, the FourLads-Blog has a new article that also covers the transfer activity ... https://fourladshadadream.blog/2020/05/27/a-look-back-as-hagi-arrives-and-Rangers-return-now-in-sight/

Regarding transfers ... St. Mirren have now cut lose all their players with contracts running out, had offered Hladky a new one but he declined. I would expect to hear from him and us soon now.

... and here was me thinking I saw him run box-to-box time and again chasing people ... while other, younger players gave up or just looked on. Our main problem was that those who were supposedly our front-line faltered the longer the season went on. In any case, his experience will help the younger guys off the field too.

I expect that if it was us, the mhedia would have squeezed that out of Hibs. Murphy ... nope. If we get him back fit, he'll be a valuable left-sided attacker who can shoot. It should be between him and Jones for left-wing, Kent should play through the leftish-middle. EDIT: Just checked ... when he got back to fitness, he played 10 (5 as centre forward) games in League One, scoring 7 (4) goals and assisting 2 (2). Not the greatest standard, but not bad either.

It looks like Florin Kamberi is on his way out of Hibs and he is or them are seemingly in talks with another club. Burned his bridges at Hibs when he joined us on loan and will most likely not play for them again. Was always a good option from the bench and I would have loved seeing him and another striker up front.

NewsNow Rangers brings up this ... Lyle Taylor at TM https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/05/30/rangers-reportedly-want-an-international-striker-who-rates-joe-aribo-highly/

From us to St. Mirren (I think), Aberdeen snapped him when he rose to fame (and we had no money) for 300k and then he went to England. Yet, for one McLean we let go in days gone bye, there are dozens who won't make it and never fulfilled some early promise. Likewise, at times we simply had better people in front of them in the first squad so making a grade with us and/or getting competitive games was simply not on ...

Some murmurs about Kenny McLean ... check the twitter link below, though not much more info there. IN -Kenny McLean (28) - defensive midfield - Norwich City - contract till 2021 - LINK

The point is that the one vital decision has been made and the rest of the lot is and has been a side show. What happens next is of no urgency to the puppetmaster. Sounds like paranoia, but your mental age would have had to be arrested at a rather young state not to see through this all. The icing on the cake is that Lawwell and Co. now press for a quick start to get TIAR going ... even when NIAR was not possible to be won on the playing field days ago. The creep show at the top needs to be removed and all influence from one club made impossible.

4-2-3-1 worked as long as Alfredo was banging them in. The whole system, for the best part of two season, rested on him scoring the goals. The "impact" from attacking midfield was far too low and inconsistent to whittle away the brickwall-brigade. Especially against teams that dug in, our attackers were easily swamped and coverd by 2 or more players and there were hardly people stepping in from midfield and running into spaces or produce some end products. Arfield here and there, Kent here and there, Aribo ... even Jack. But these people need to hit double figures or at least hit when Alfredo does not. There is no doubt that 4-2-3-1 works well enough against opposition that likes to play more open, but as I said before, at home against the brickwall-brigade, a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 / 3-1-4-2 should be considered.

There will even less support for this kind of save-the-relegated-teams excercise than there had been for the initial vote. Just drags the circus on while teams shed players in cost-cutting attempts et al. You would hope some of them just go the full monty and drag the SPFL to the court regarding the first vote and all that came of it.

My reasoning (as per first posting on this) was that had the season not been closed, the clubs would sure have kept their players on, even if contracts were due to run out in June. This was no issue now and thus they shed their squads like there is no tomorrow (as Dunfermline, Ross County and Co. did). Well, there is, but "when" is the question and the gap till then is one the clubs do not need to finance for these players. I would assume that in normal circumstances, the freebie-players would probably face a few weeks without a new employer too, but this "window" might be longer than usual.

When we start again to out-muscle and out-fight the likes of Livingston at home, we are already loosing. Stewart, Jones, Morelos and Kamberi can hold their own, Aribo is excellent in retaining and getting the ball. Jack and the three defenders should be able to cope with the "menace" that their attack will be, so we need to beat them in their own half and penalty area.

And here was me thinking my first post was clear enough about extending the season and thus having player contracts possibly extended too.

Well, if the contract is up on 30th of May it is up, isn't it? It might have been different if the season was to be extended and deals might have been extended too, but as it stands, who would stop them just not extending any deals that are up?

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/saido-berahino-manuel-benson-rangers-22093076 Berahino is only 26? Thought he was more like 36. Benson Manuel is a right winger, with quite a lengthy contract still going. Saido Berahino on TM Benson Manuel on TM

... there was some calculation made in January that we will pocket a total of up to 18m for our whole campaign, which would be some "consolation". Probably not as much (and I don't want to dig the article up right now), but still enough cash to make our accountants smile.

... and against Livingston at home ... McGregor Edmundson - Helander - Katic Jack Stewart - Aribo - Hagi - Jones Morelos - Kamberi ... ?

Do keep in mind that by the time we play them, they will have quite a number of competitive games under their belt against quality opposition, while we will be rusty after an inforced break.