der Berliner

Butland Tavernier - Souttar - Propper - Jefte Diomande - Sterling Cerny - Dowell - Matondo Danilo Subs: Kelly, Barron, Dessers, Davies, King, McCausland, Fraser, McKinnon, Rice. Thank the heavens that Tavernier is fit and ready! We'd been slaughtered without him!

Yeah, it was C&P from the German board and since this is a late game, some company was bound to show it. Wasn't clear which one though.

The wage thing regarding Hagi is a bit strange. We shed a lot of (supposedly) high-earners this summer, with only a few (if any*) arriving ... IN - Jefte IN - Oscar Cortes IN - Mohamed Diomande IN - Clinton Nsiala IN - Connor Barron IN – Liam Kelly IN - Hamza Igamane IN - Vaclav Cerny* IN - Robin Pröpper* OUT - Robby McCrorie OUT - Sam Lammers OUT - Connor Goldson OUT - Jon McLaughlin OUT - Kemar Roofe OUT - Borna Barisic OUT - Ryan Jack OUT - John Lundstram OUT - Abdallah Sima OUT - Fabio Silva ... and we don't want Hagi's increase till January or next? And thus kept him out even of important CL qualifiers and thus blew millions? Same with Cantwell. Yes, he wants to go, but where are we that we pay someone and do not expect him to be a professional still and do his job? And thus kept him out even of important CL qualifiers and thus blew millions? These are the questions someone needs to put in front of Clement.

In what way? People weep and cry all day. There's the cure.

Rangers are looking into a deal for former Manchester United defender Brandon Williams this summer after suffering a major injury blow, according to the Daily Record. Rangers Want to Sign Brandon Williams - Carrington graduate available on a free transfer Having come through the Carrington academy at Old Trafford, Williams broke into the Manchester United team under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and made 37 appearances before falling out of favour. He has since gone out on loan to Norwich City and Ipswich Town, but was released by Manchester United at the end of his contract in the summer which makes him available to sign for a new team immediately. The 23-year-old is capable of playing in both full-back positions, and was described as "brave as a lion" by his former Old Trafford boss. Now with a busy schedule ahead, Rangers could look to make a move to bring him to Glasgow quickly after the news about Ridvan. The budget at Ibrox has taken a hit after they failed to make it to the Champions League, and a deal for Williams could be fairly easy to do. Winger Rabbi Matondo has been linked with a move to Elland Road as Leeds look to strengthen their attacking department following the losses of Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter. The Wales international expects to leave Ibrox despite featuring regularly under Clement when he has been fit, and the Whites are eyeing a permanent deal or a loan with an option to buy for the 23-year-old.

Alas, the Women's team signed a new lass, Camille Lafaix, so here's some treatment for your eyes ...

Referee - Matthew MacDermid Assistants - Ross Macleod and Craig Ferguson Video Assistant Referee - Greg Aitken Assistant Video Assistant Referee - Alan Mulvanny Missing - Zak Lovelace, Nicolas Raskin, Hamza Igamane, Todd Cantwell (not in squad), Ianis Hagi (not in squad), Óscar Cortés, Ridvan Yilmaz, Scott Wright Doubtful - Leon Balogun (back) Injuries: Scott Wright (muscle - early September) Zak Lovelace (lack of training - early September) Nicolas Raskin (ankle- end of September)) Óscar Cortés (knee - end of September) Ridvan Yilmaz (knee - end of September) Live on Rangers TV

Like I said regarding Dessers, BTW. That said, it just looked like after chasing the ball at full tilt, he twisted his leg somewhat. Has happened to many chaps, even at the EC recently. Dunno if Jefte will be banned for the Europa League (different competition), but we should give Fraser a few minutes.

Looks like Ishaka has been sent back. And if we look for experience and a cool head in CM at a low cost, a certain Stuart Armstrong is a freebie these days.

We need strikers who can perform at Premiership level. They snapped Miovski up from Budapest for 600k and there are sure similar people who can do a similar job. Strikers with some experience. It was not because of Miovski that Aberdeen finished where they did, and who knows what his goal tally might have been playing for us. That said, he'd be wasted as a single striker like the dozen before him. The line of thought is that there are good strikers out there, for much less than what we are willing to splash out. Right now, as we did with Morelos, we play one chap against anyone and have virtually no back-up, yet supposedly look at 6-7m guys from England (Sima, Whitakker who are not even strikers) or some project chaps. And while doing so, sell a guy who scored for fun away on loan (instead for us ... because we played him out of position) for Euro 2m after buying him for Euro 4m a year ago. It beggars belief that neither our DoF etc. nor the management team - up until now - could sort the striker situation. You would have hoped that these chaps know the continent talent and seasoned warriors better than those chaps we had in their position before.

You see, this is very true. Yet, a look at TM just told me that we are back in the first tier since 9 years. For a couple of years (give one or two more) the Scum was far ahead of us in terms of personal and money. While they are still way ahead in terms of money, e.g. last season - and our European runs - showed that we are by no means underdogs or blatant outsiders. More generally ... No-one knows what the future holds, but the time of projects for every new manager should be over by now. This is simply not a club like Sunderland, Everton, Tottenham and the like, who just lives a life as a football club with the odd highlight every 3 years. We have but one competitor, a beatable competitor. Outside factors aside, we should be able to get our act together with much more ease than we have shown these last few seasons. Instead of blasting out 12m or the like on a couple of strikers, we should acquire a handful of capable people like Aberdeen found in Miovski. People able to put the Hibs and Dundees to the sword every other week. Bred and butter players, not future assets or CL/EL darlings. A lot would change if we finally adapt to the style of play in Scotland, not trying to do Plan A better for years.

Anyone checked whether Marco Guida is actually a member of/related to the Fratelli d'Italia? I'm asking for a friend ...

That said, the year we returned, I think Morelos and Jack were certainties for strange yellows and reds, some overturned, some not. For a couple of years, the let the Compliance Officers loose (wherever he/she/it is nowadays). Last season it was referees and VAR again. We'll see what they whip up this season, sectarian songs anyone?

Well, we got Jefte (20), Barron (21), Nsiala (20), Cortes (20), and Igamane (21). Now we are looking at Mahamadou Diarra (20). You would expect that our u23/B-Team squad is littered with 18- to 20-year-olds, primarily and hopefully the best and talented chaps out there. Or they wouldn't be with us. Given that the B-Team has not played league games last season (did they?), these chaps should and would be under close supervision from our first team coaches too? And still we do not get any sign that either of them is in any way or shape good enough to hold his own against even the lesser lights of the Premiership? But we've sung this tune for ages. In the days of Sir Walter et al, our squad was big enough and littered with enough quality to bar any youngster's way into the first team. Unless you were excellent. Perhaps we should ask Everton to loan us Patterson back?

Total conundrum. Instead of addressing the obvious, "we" like to blame this or that player for being not good enough. From the days of Waghorn onwards, we have shoe-horned strikers into that one-striker role against a packed defence and even if he clocks up 20odd goals like Colak and Dessers, he gets it in the neck. When our team is not failing because that striker's inability to covert 80+ % of his chances, but because our team simply lacks fire-power beside him. We need a Sima or two quickly, or simply play with two strikers in certain games. It's blatantly obvious.

I think I have read this line for about a decade and a half now, and nothing happens ...

The only "good" that comes of yesterday might be that we won't have a mid-week game before our visit to the Scumhut.

Speaking to BBC Scotland, Rangers manager Philippe Clement on Jefte's second yellow card: "I've seen the images back, it's clearly not a foul. He jumps higher and that's everything that happens. "He is not moving his arm towards the man or whatever. It's a crucial decision in this game. Everyone who watched this game saw we were the better team on the ball against a good Dynamo Kyiv team. "We had a few chances to open up things and we knew they would get tired in the second half, then we get the red card five minutes into the second half. "It's a big moment in the game. But even then, with 10, I'm really proud with my players and what they showed. "Until the goal, we were the team getting the better moments even within. The decision was a gamechanger. One decision of one person, you take away the dream of others. It's really hard." https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/live/c3vxly6qyl4t#LiveReporting

We've been playing a shit system for ages now. I had high hopes of Clement changing this, but they are shrinking fast ...

Wee sidenote ... that's Raskin, Cortes and Ridvan out injured even before the season has started in earnest.

Very true. Still, we have been a work in progress ever since Warburton took over and - despite all the money the Scum has to dwarf our budget etc. - we simply cannot get our act together with rather obvious things. It never helps if important games like these are essentially happening in pre-season, but for all the new players Clement brought and brings in, we continue this 4-2-3-1 trash and are seemingly unable to learn from previous - glaring - mistakes. It really is a test to my love of football seeing us toil on and on with no real progress in sight. Tonight was just Part 342 of it.

Truth be told, we have a knack to grab managers who can't spot the obvious. Last season's two weeks of madness cost us this year's CL millions. This game was just the icing on the cake ... and IMHO, we wouldn't have gone past Salzburg anyway. Atrocious refereeing aside, this team lacks a creator in midfield, while we squabble over Hagi's wages. And now we won't have the money for him, nor any CL cash. Pure madness. All three creative chaps we had at the start of last season are there, but we don't use them ... for one reason or another. The last time I checked, e.g. Cantwell still gets paid? While I laud his left side formation, our DMs are dysfunctional. Their work their socks off, but essentially do the job of one guy. Lawrence hasn't been there at the weekend, yet he starts again and does effectively nothing - again. Instead of changing the obvious, Clement swaps the most creative chap McCausland for Cerny. The latter does his job, but why swap McCausland? And what is wrong with Danilo? We need attackers for counter-attacking football ... and nothing happens. Well, we didn't deserve CL football for that sort of management and play. Not that the Ukros deserved it either. Alas, Europa League is up next. Goodness me, I could puke all day thinking that we once again gifted the Scum these millions because of the shyte we produced last season and now. And knowing that a simple change in tactics might have turned the corner ages ago ...

Slava Ukraini ... remember?

We have Danilo and Wright on the bench, we need to play on the counter. Can't envisage that with Lawrence ...