Juancornetto

Let's be honest, the only question the VB1690 want to ask is "Is Mark Dingwall involved?"

Some pertinent questions in there but it reads like a bit of a critique, offering very little in terms of reconciliation or support.

Ally doesn't need anyone to discredit him, he does that all by himself.

Harsh! but fair.

I really hope so mate. I'm trying hard not to imagine a front 3 of Commons, Griffiths and Snodgrass up against Jig, Mohsni and Foster!

Two Livingstone rejects and a fat League One reject, big Bilel would have them in his pocket....

Snodgrass is on Sky today desperate to go to Celtic, he would be a sensational signing for them.

He's very well thought of in the BPL, I'd be amazed if he didn't get picked up by a Leicester or a Burnley type team with big wages on offer so yeah you're right he'd be as close to a fabled blue chip signing as they could get.

Lets's not forget that Celtic are not the same team/club that they were when we departed the scene, they've downsized their squad and the quality of player has diminished in no small way. They're butting up against the glass ceiling of Scottish football and it's lack of investment and low profile which makes even overpaid journeymen think twice about coming here.

Another season on their own and cruising to the title won't do anything to help that and who knows who'll be in charge by then. Lennon won't hang about for another season of mediocrity and scrutiny. This season was a failure.

We can compete with them the first season but it'll take an overhaul of the squad and some innovative thinking in terms of scouting and signings.

Fearsome bear population in Fraserburgh

I hope you will be "on it" the next time big fella!

Like a car bonnet :-)

Good time had by all I think. Thanks to BH for his vorshprung durch urganization and to all the guys (and gal) for a pleasant afternoon.

After remaining totally sober for the day and driving home I set about making up for lost time in the pub and got home to microwaved paella at 3am! It was so good I even decided to paint my kitchen floor with it.

PS thanks to Bluebear for the piccies, although I couldn't recognise that big fat guy in the black jumper, who invited him/

with holding ST money could cripple the club for years to come if it causes admin2

I'd say we're as close to crippled as it's possible to get without collapsing now, wouldn't you?

Chaps, it's been a hectic day with one thing and another so I've not had a chance to do a match preview. I'm battering one out now, should be up 8pm (ish)

The cretin above's comments put paid to the assertion that "hun" is used to describe Rangers fans.

A good read. The only thing is the Man Utd players have only just come in the door and will be there for 4 matches before a world class manager takes over. Whether he keeps any of the ex players on his coaching staff is yet to be seen.

 

Any of the players mentioned above would be a decent shout to have a role at Ibrox but they would be playing under possibly the worst tactical manager we've ever seen so I don't know how they could fit in.

I've since learned that Trevor Steven is a talent scout and so he would be slot right in because it's something we badly need and in my scenario McCoist would be stepping aside to let McCall take the helm but of course that is sadly less likely.

You would need to have been living on the moon for the past few weeks to have escaped the media frenzy surrounding David Moyes and his ill-fated tenure as the boss of Manchester United and the repeated references to Manchester United’s “Class of ‘02” who are, one by one, starting to appear back at Old Trafford like the prodigal sons of an empire gearing up to face an impending crisis.

Ryan Giggs has already been installed as Interim Player Manager and one of his first actions has been to bring in Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt to assist him in addition to Phil Neville who has kept his job on the coaching staff following the departures of Steve Round and Jimmy Lumsden. Phil’s brother, Gary is the next frame to make an emotional return to Old Trafford in some capacity and that leaves only David Beckham to be approached (if he hasn’t already) to take up a role.

All this activity got me thinking about our very own “Class of ‘92” and how they might fit in to the relative roles at our club, both on and off the field and what each of them would bring, should the opportunity present itself for them to return. We already have two prominent members of the Rangers Class of ’92 at Ibrox of course, in the shape of Ally McCoist and Ian Durrant and so I’ve picked four other members of that famous team who were within one game of the inaugural Champions League Final and who swept aside a strong Celtic and Aberdeen to claim a fifth domestic treble in the same season. I’ll leave it up to you nice folks to debate whether my choices are appropriate and whether the addition of these men would rescue McCoist and Durrant from a potentially similar fate to that of Moyes after being recommended for the job by their predecessors.

First on the list is Stuart McCall.

Making 54 appearances in the ‘92/93 season and chipping in with six goals Stuart was a stalwart in the team and I would compare his role in the team to that of Nicky Butt at United. Voted into the Hall Of Fame in 2008 (presented with his award by one Alistair McCoist) he is held in high esteem by Rangers fans and given the magnitude of his contribution to the season in question and throughout the proceeding glory years of Nine In A Row I doubt that there are many out there who would disagree with his inclusion here. The big question about him for me would be, in which capacity?

He has been a relative success at Motherwell as head coach and can be rightly proud of his achievements there, operating with a limited budget and a much lower wage bill than his compatriot McCoist has at his disposal. For me, and given that this is (at the moment at least) a fantastical concept I’d put him straight into the role currently held by his friend McCoist, moving Durrant into the position currently held by Kenny MacDowall and making McCoist the assistant manager.

Next up is Richard Gough.

Eagle eyed readers will have noticed that I reserved the right to include off field positions for my Class Of ’92 and of the potential members of that team, I cannot see any better suited to boardroom leadership than Gough. He is of course currently Dave King’s spirit guide and is likely to play a big part in any future boardroom machinations, should King triumph in any meaningful way.

He was a leader on the pitch and his role in ’92 cannot be underestimated. As the teams lined up in the tunnel before the Leeds United game at Ibrox it is said that he put the fear of God into the likes of Cantona and Strachan with his roaring, booming encouragement of his colleagues and that he took great pleasure in embracing Gary McCallister and making it clear that he expected his countryman to “do his duty as a Scotsman” much to McCallister’s and his team mates bemusement. To continue with the theme of comparing our heroes with their United equivalents, I’d put Gough in as our Gary Neville.

The Light Blue equivalent of Gary’s brother Phil would be my third (and possibly most controversial?) choice David Robertson.

A classy and attack minded full back, Robertson would bring some much needed tutelage to the likes of Smith, Peralta and Foster and would undoubtedly jump at the chance to return to the club he enjoyed so much success with. He was an ever present in the team who swept all asunder on the way to a treble and was for me, the most under rated player of that era. I have absolutely no idea what he’s doing now and if he has any qualities that would put him in the frame for anything more than just a defensive coach but given our current inadequacies I’d welcome him in our little thought experiment.

Choosing the last of the quartet was a difficult task and I’ve put myself through much inner turmoil by passing over the likes of Mark Hately, Andy Goram, Ian Ferguson and John Brown. My rationale is as follows: If McCall is our Nicky Butt, Gough is our Gary Neville, Robertson is the other Neville and McCoist and Durrant are Beckham and Giggs then this only leaves Paul Scholes without a Rangers equivalent.

Trevor Steven is as close as we ever had (in the same era)to the media shy midfield maestro and he is the final member of my own personal Class Of ’92.

Signed from Everton to the amazement of his England peers, Steven chose to renew his partnership with Gary Stevens and buy into the European dream sold to him by Graeme Souness. His signing was over shadowed by the arrival of a certain Maurice Johnston and I think had he been signed at any other time, a much bigger deal would have been made of his acquisition. Steven was a cultured, right sided midfielder and was capable of unpicking even the best of defences with pin point passing and crosses which put many of McCoist and Hately’s goals on a plate. His form at Rangers earned him a place in England’s World Cup squad in 1990 ahead of the likes of David Rocastle and along-side John Barnes, Glen Hoddle and Chris Waddle. Added to that, he left to ply his trade in Europe for Marseille and returned for a second term arguably a better player just in time to guide us to that fateful tie with Bernard Tapie’s corruption tainted side.

I realise that I have left out some fantastic footballers and indeed virtuous men here but I’ve chosen players based mostly on their abilities as footballers, abilities that made them a pleasure to watch something that cannot be said about the current Rangers side and I feel that each of these would be fitting appointments to take us forward onto the Championship and the inevitable meetings with our oldest of foes.

Will it happen? Of course not, not in such a wholesale manner but we already have two of the six and who knows, maybe Gough and McCall would be realistic targets for a revitalised and bullish Rangers post ****? We can as always but dream.

I'm seriously worried about getting out of that league next season with Ally in the hotseat. His demeanor and general tone lately tells me that he's also seriously worried about it and that worries me even more!

Worried loyal.

How is this any kind of new information? "Make a move in the next 7 days...."

Hold the front page.

Another one talking to fans like idiots. Who is he kidding!

Judging by the chatter this morning, he's gauged the average intellect level pretty accurately.

I'm sure you'll be fulsome in your praise for them when they say. "David Murray come on down!!!!!!!!!!!"

That's the third different mention I've came across of Murray returning to Ibrox.

Spill.

So call me cynical but I was under the impression the whole 'footballers tweeting/instagramming/facebooking at Nandos' was a PR thing they were being paid to do. In fact I'm almost positive it is.

 

That aside I'm not sure why Calscot is getting so much stick, as franchise chain restaurants go Nandos isn't too bad. We supporters make too much about the players diets, the players weight, strength, speed, body mass, heart rate and red blood count are checked regularly. Any deviation or deterioration is noticed and can be dealt with.

Whilst slating Nando's in favour of more "gourmet" food, Calscot then went onto educate us poor nutrition morons about the values of eating chicken and low fat/low carb sauce.

Personally I don't eat at Nando's because they support the gruesome practice of "halal" slaughter but I can see the attraction otherwise. The point myself and others were making though wasn't necessarily specific to Nando's but that Cal Gallagher looked a bit on the beefy side. If it was commented that he should "lay off the pies" would we now be dissecting the nutritional merits of Greggs?

What's wrong with Nandos food? (Not that I would choose to go there as I prefer something more gourmet when I eat out.) It's about as healthy as you get for an athlete if you discard the skin and swap the chips for a salad - or even just limit the number of chips and still have a salad.

 

The chicken is low carb, low fat and high protein, and the sauce is low carb and fat too. I'd say it's one of the best places to eat out for keeping slim if you're on a tight budget.

Are you deliberately being obtuse and patronising or am I missing something here?

I'll join the taxi gang please.

I hear the kit-man's executive PA and part time bus driver is well chuffed with his £60k so there's that and........

Nope it's gone.

More from Twitter.....

I'll have the Stranraer game please. I've rushed the last couple and they've been pretty insipid so let's see if I can finish on a high.

when you are good, Mr Steel, you are very, very good indeed.

A beguiling mix of Hugh Macilveney, Ed Mcbain and Owen Jones.

High praise indeed, apart from the Owen Jones part (detestable little gauche windbag)