der Berliner

https://x.com/SeafarerMichael/status/1887871143370973281?t=hB_khnEYA-N5HwIvoLKQ4w

... truth be told, I cannot really understand, why we took it to the last day of the window. He'll rot on their bench now and get no end of bother from the retards in their support. Possibly out of football till next July/August. Thus, why not put that down in the first week of January and see whether Dundee would accept cash right now? With a few weeks to spare to think about it? Then again, who knows what happened behind the scenes.

The frustrating thing is - and has been for about a decade - that we cannot adapt to the style of most Scottish team, like JohnMc wrote above. We can talk about transfers and windows all day long, but the managers simply didn't cope with the demands, but used the same tactics with different players time and again. As soon as teams wanted to play football, mostly in Europe (hence the good results), our side clicked admirably. I have little doubt that no matter whom we had signed, would be used in the same way as before, pressed or utilized in a 4-2-3-1 that works only with luck or the odd creative spark or - indeed - penalty. Alas, probably out of necessity 😱, PC used two strikers of late, hence we were able to snatch a few good results. I wait for any further judgement though, as my gut feeling says that we will not deviate much from the system above for some time to come. I don't think we are worlds apart in terms of quality from them, only that they have more and also people capable to take up the responsibility if someone gets injured. Injuries is another serious topic. We lost so many of our important and/or expansive players over the last couple of seasons that it is unreal. And there is hardly anyone able to fill their boots. Currently, it's Cortes and Danilo, but if you go back through the months it was Helander, Ridvan, Danilo, Sterling, Cantwell, Raskin, Jack, Matondo, Roofe etc.. On a similar note, we need a good stock of able Scots or British players. There's a reason why a Tavernier or Lundstram or McCausland, a Brown, Gough, Ferguson or McCall, can go through season after season without much problem. Whereas we seem to have so many fair-weather people that it is unreal. These Britons may not get us to the EL final, but through those soggy nights in Perth or Motherwell. The least is said about the omission of some players from the first team squad for a few months at the start of the season, the better. You would hope that scrapping the B-team wil see more youngsters train and play with the first team squad, that's how those 17+ year old talents are brought into the first teams all over Scotland and Europe. We may look at B-teams later on, but nowadays we should concentrate about harvesting the talent we have. This transfer window fits nicely into the deflating mood about our season so far, alas, the last few games give us a little (sic!) hope of a turning tide.

Zak Lovelace IS heading for transfer exit as fee revealed but one star WON'T be leaving... (from the site not to ber used) Ridvan seems to be staying.

Couhaib Driouech (22) - LW, Morocco, PSV Eindhoven - contract till 2029 - TM - TM stats (only signed for them last summer ... ) ... a MUST BUY, only to see the English-speaking commentators warp their tongues 😂

It was one of these "put to bed early" games, which end up in dire affairs after half-time. We did well enough still, as compared to other games, and while he had two decent attempts on target, I would have had Price for Igamane and McCausland for Cerny too, and sure no Lawrence. The latter was probably put out there to show anyone that he's fit. These young lads want to prove themselves and in games where the momentum is lost, you need this enthusiasm. Too bad that we only started using two strikers - and hence start winning games - this late and thus robbed the youngsters the opportunities.

Don't we like clickbait headlines? Zak Lovelace Rangers latest as Millwall strike £1m deal for young English attacker ... only that they signed someone else. But we shall see.

With Dowell, Matondo and possibly Ridvan and Lovelace off, I would expect a couple of people arriving. Probably no-one mentioned before bar Cameron. Looks to be a window for cleaning and sorting the deadwood out, and getting able youngster into the first team. We do look very weak on the wingback positions, and we have but a half a handful of strikers. At centre-half, Nsiala looks to be a good find (and will take up from Balogun next season), Souttar and Pröpper remain the main players there. Let's see how Fernandes develops.

.... indeed. Remember the drop in performance in other games we lead comfortably at HT, this was sure an improvement. Looks like we got our first penalty of the season ... in February, while they managed their 41st game without conceding a red card.

Point is, they get doubled up and tracked, while the likes of Hagi and Cerny are not. Hence they start scoring. Now that you say it, Dessers for a hat trick!

Yeah, it deserved six. But there you go ...

Matondo's deal includes (according to Germany's equivalent of the Daily Mail) a option to buy for Euro 1.2m, which would still be too dear for them, unless they get promotion.

5 mins of highlights from last night

Word is that Ridvan is in Turkey and in talks with Besiktas, who want to pay us 2.5 m, while we are looking for 4.1 m. Reliability level: vague. Nicola Katic has joined Plymouth Argyle on loan till the end of season. Done Archie Stevens is off to the Pars on loan. Rumour from North Africa: Mouad Dahak - attacker/left-winger, 19, from Union Touraga, Morocco Reliability level: 👻

Rangers in heavyweight chase to land Nicola Bertola According to The Daily Mail, Koppen has had his eye on a cut-price swoop for Spezia centre-half Nicola Bertola, however, the technical director has been dealt an early blow in the race for the towering defender’s signature. The report claims that Inter Milan are also considering Bertola and it would be an uphill battle to compete with the Serie A champions. At 6ft 4inches tall, the Italy Under-21 international would be more than capable of coping with the demands of Scottish football, even if his statistics suggest that he is more refined than that. Currently playing in Serie B, Bertola would jump at the chance of playing regular European football and in front of 51,000 fans every other week at Ibrox. He also ticks every box needed for a club trying to kick-start a player trading model. Moving on in-form Ben Davies, who was refereed to as a “brick wall” this week, on a permanent basis and then replacing him with Bertola is how it should be done. Yes, he is young, but he has played in all of Italy’s top three divisions and has been a near ever present this season for Spezia. Bertola is also out of contract in the summer which means that Rangers could afford a player who, under contract, would be out of their reach. If Inter follow up their interest, the giant stopper would probably be sent out on loan to start with and this could be Rangers’ best chance of nicking an unlikely deal. https://www.rangersnews.uk/news/rangers-could-replace-brick-wall-defender-with-nicola-bertola-as-nils-koppen-eyes-italian-transfer-swoop/

Given the draw and the injury situation ... some achievement. Tonight was not pretty, but we got through it. Hope we can reshuffle the squad for the EL phase now.

Someone needs to take a grip in midfield.

Any talk about Dessers shall be shelved till the summer ... 😎

Brilliant Dessers, holding the ball up and wins a corner, from which a well worked goal is scored. 😜 BTW, I think McCausland can do the wing back shift, he's often tracking back anyways.

Doesn't that also depend on who flanks and supports the respective centre-forward? Our problem nowadays is not Dessers, or any other single centre-forward, but the lack of support he gets from people. In terms of goals that is. For it is not that Dessers is not assisting his fellow players. It's 18 goals and 5 assists this season, 22 and 9 for last. 40 goals in 89 games for us, plus 14 assists. We can all argue about how he doesn't do this or that as someone else did, but as long as we don't have any answer to our main problem, it doesn't matter who we play as the lone striker. Perhaps we simply need to get Kent back, so the penalty-king can follow up on his mission? Speaking of which ... sort of curious, isn't it? The lack of penalties we get this season.

Snatched from FF ... 100% those criticising dessers missing the occasional sitter seem to go very quiet when he continually scores goals out of nothing. He's hardly picked up a knock since coming here and us numbers are very good cosnisdering Dessers - 53 goals/5200min - goal involvement every 98mins Igamane 16/1460mins - goal involvement every 81mins Danilo 20/1791mins - goal involvement every 90mins For added context Kyogo had 104 goals/assists i 10743mins - goal involvement every 103mins.

For those wanting to see the incident again, here's the clip from SS. The last 6+ clips shown are always the same from the angle of the ref, who make it look like the deliberate attempt that Walsh saw from his perspective. The one from the side showed that there was a push and Diomande's arm comes around flailing because of it. Did it struck him? The reaction of the player tells a lot ... since, in this day and age, he'd have gone down clutching his face in faux agony. I overheard the story told by the reporter that Walsh officiated the EL game of Union St. G, sending off 4 players, one/some will thus be suspended next week. He probably wasn't aware of this at the time, I'd assume ... While I can understand not wanting to risk the result, he might have subbed Diomande and Raskin off for Curtis and/or Rice for the last 10 mins. Lovelace did quite well when he came on, setting up Dessers for the deciding goal. These boys, much like Igamane and Nsiala, are not afraid of something spontaneous, and do things more instinctively. Our "veterans" like to think and keep the ball too long, hence, the oppositions can react much easier.

Davies and Dowell have contracts till 2026 and 2027 respectively. If someone in England wants them, they can have them for a decent enough fee. And not 250k or the like. Hopefully our new CEO sees to this. Speaking of loan-players, Cifuentes is due back this summer and has played quite a few games for Aris Saloniki this season. They have an option to buy (think I've heard that they don't want to take it up, but it is still 5 months to go). We paid some 1.2m for him, IIRC.

... and add the VAR lot to this. It wasn't even worth a yellow. Anyway, three points at a rather difficult venue, satisfying 2nd half, lots of chances (on either side), but those out there showed character. When the going gets tough ...

Well, that sounds a bit cynical and is premature too.