der Berliner

Another right out of the blue thing than no-one heard a whisper till "a deal was in place". Don't we love that? Don't we hate that? 🤪 Now that we have a left-back, we can move Ridvan to left-wing till Sima is back! He's of the right size and has all the abilities.

He's got raving reports from some people, but it is probably best to see how he performs in our league first. Wonder whether that "obligation to buy" is a serious as Bayern's was with Tillman ...

Great servant to this club and his country. A quiet legend.

Highlights without commentary ...

Dessers - like most others before him - needed some time to adjust and does rather well. He's our only real striker though, who knows how much time Silva has to get going. Alas, we now have a squad that scores goals and does not rely on a Morelos, Colak etc.. All goals were well taken and Lawrence's IMHO should have stood. A few miss-haps in defence apart, this was a very sound performance. Lundstram covered the DM role excellently, clear MOTM performance. Anyone coming on did well too; you clearly see a difference between Matondo and Wright, as the former was rather erratic with his shooting, while the latter had two rasping efforts saved. Sterling will become a very important player for us, I just wonder where Diomande will play ... All in all, very sound.

You note the quality, he thinks much faster than most around him ...

We'd be mad to sell the Little Tiger!

Butland Tavernier - Souttar - Balogun - Ridvan Lundstram - Raskin McCausland - Cantwell - Matondo Silva Subs: McCrorie, Jack, Dessers, Lawrence, Sterling, Wright, Barisic, King, Devine. One just hopes we don't wreck McCausland, he's been starting games for fun thee days, no matter against whom and on what sort of pitch. He looks to be THE find of this season (aside from Sima). While today you want to play the best you have, Dumbarton was one of these games he might have been rested. IMHO, our best two centre-halfs in action tonight, let's hope they hold firm.

The name Anas is of Arabic origin and is commonly used in Muslim cultures; it means “affectionate, loving, friendly" or “friendliness.” The name Anas also has historical significance, as it was the name of a companion of the Prophet Muhammad: Anas ibn Malik was known for his loyalty and service to the Prophet ... Annass is just a different form of writing it. And yes, I noted the joke.

A game tailor-made for Wright.

A pension deal too.

In the running for an Ajay left-back on loan ...

One of the better Turkish journos: Rangers and Galatasaray continue negotiations for Rıdvan Yılmaz, but there is no agreement or a new official offer made by Galatasaray yet. Rıdvan will start the Hibernian match tonight in the first 11.

Meanwhile, on the transfer front, the BBC Scotland relies on "Rangers Review" for information ... Nordsjaelland midfielder Mohamed Diomande is expected to arrive in Scotland on Wednesday to finalise his move to Rangers after a £4.5m fee was agreed and the 22-year-old will sign a long term contract at Ibrox. (Rangers Review) La Gazzeto dello Sport though ... Roma in negotiations to seal Borna Barisic transfer as Rangers news emerges Roma are now in open negotiations to sign Rangers defender Borna Barisic before the end of the January transfer window, according to Gazzetta Dello Sport. The Italian newspaper has reported in its print edition [24 January, pg 23] that the Croatian is on the radar of the club, who have recently parted ways with Jose Mourinho. Ridvan doesn't want to go to Verona, which doesn't mean Galatasary is off the table ... again via Turkish reporters. Imagine that we lose two left-backs at once ... albeit both for money.

No surprise there really. Some of the Turks' rumour-mongers are worse than ours.

Just in ... we are willing (?) to pay Euro 5.3m for Diomande (I think not, he'S 11 months left on his contract) ... and we are interested in Luke Young (left-back) of Leiceister ...

Another no-name Turkish journo pushes news about a foreign left-back's move which may or may not trigger the move of Ridvan to a Turkish club that a Turkish newspaper falsely claimed was forced upon Rangers by said Ridvan who seemingly knew not much about it. (I know that English speakers like their short sentences ... )

Let's hope we pull another couple of transfers like Diomande out of the hat, with no-one knows anything in advance about it.

Highlights ...

These are the games for the likes of Jack and Wright, yet, they get only a few mins. Very little from Cantwell today (not his weather). As I said pre-KO, we should have started the game with one more attacker, they hardly crossed the halfway line in the first half. We essentially stopped playing after the penalty, nothing unusual, yet Clement will probably be seething (and rightly so). Dire conditions, into the next round, off to the grog.

Yeah, his usual fare ... not much more.

Ha! Someone noticed that. 😎 That was one-way traffic all along, the goals were bound to come. Should have been more, I would assume the third will kill it and Dumbarton might run out of steam at some point. But it's the cup ... Nice weather at the foot of the "Fortress of the Britons".

Time to check the record books and the days when we hammered the likes of Dumbarton by the half-dozen or even dozen with the likes of McCoist and Hateley leading the line, Laudrup et al ...

It's been said yesterday that Shankland handed in a sick-note. Whether it is "mysterious" or "tactical" or just plain fact, who knows. In the meantime, reports have emerged that Ridvan "wanting away" as described in that Turkish newspaper (i.e. seemingly of the same standard as the Scottish Sun) were at best assumption and at worst a straight lie. At the end of the day, we shall see. Regarding Shankland, the modus operandi of years gone by was to put a pre-contract in front of him and thus force the opposition's hand. He's not a freebie this summer, so that does not work. The silence on our side of this "saga" - and I mean every official, unofficial and ITK source - is far too quiet to make me think that this is actually a goer.