Davie P

I have always enjoyed the difference of opinion which is allowed on Gersnet provided it doesn't become personal or abusive. The quality of the comments is superb and to attempt to provide awards for any single entry, would be a herculean task for the adjudicator! On the subject of quality writers, what's happened to Andy Steele? Always enjoyed his musings.

I think that we saw the conflict with the (unfit) players coming to us on loan from Newcastle, and the Rangers 'board' at that time just rolling over and paying whatever wages/loan fees were demanded by the Newcastle 'board'. Replace the word 'board' with MA and this would perhaps explain why this rule is needed. Almost as ridiculous as 'Scottish' Pete and 'Celtic' Pete!

Have the votes been counted and what was the outcome?

About time we got a decision in our favour. Has everyone forgotten that we are the "establishment" club. Where are all those freemasons when you need them?

These are the simple facts you won’t find on any Philco blogs as they churn out the desperate guesswork of a man with 3 names, 2 jackets, 1 shirt and zero clue. Classic, this guy is a legend!

Presume that you mean Wallace instead of Wilson at left back, Craig?

The only positive that I can take from this is that our finances must be in much better shape than I thought. Obviously, I don't know the terms of his current contract, and whether there was any reduction negotiated for the extension, but personally, I would have preferred that we took Kenny's expense and put this towards a younger, quality striker. MW clearly knows that Kenny is not going to win us the SPL title so he is there to mentor the youngsters, and have the odd cameo or emergency appearance but that does mean that we will still require another forward, therefore we must have the money to do so.

In this particular instance, Ashley is dragging the SFA into court to attempt to overturn their decision of passing King as a F&P individual. Won't cost King (or Rangers) a penny at this time.

It reminds me of the old fable of the scorpion asking the frog for a ride to the other side of the river bank. The frog thinks, if he stings me, I'll die but he drowns, so he surely wouldn't do that. Unfortunately, as they are half way across, the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, and as the frog is dying asks the scorpion why he did that, knowing that they will both die. The scorpion answers, I cant help myself, it is my nature! Scottish football seems intent to drag down our club to the detriment of the wellbeing of the league! Irrespective of whether BDO appeal or not, the SPFL should be coming out and stating that no other club has been penalised in the manner that Rangers has and that no further action will be taken. Unfortunately, scorpions remain scorpions and will follow their nature.

It reminds me of the old fable of the scorpion asking the frog for a ride to the other side of the river bank. The frog thinks, if he stings me, I'll die but he drowns, so he surely wouldn't do that. Unfortunately, as they are half way across, the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, and as the frog is dying asks the scorpion why he did that, knowing that they will both die. The scorpion answers, I cant help myself, it is my nature! Scottish football seems intent to drag down our club to the detriment of the wellbeing of the league! Irrespective of whether BDO appeal or not, the SPFL should be coming out and stating that no other club has been penalised in the manner that Rangers has and that no further action will be taken. Unfortunately, scorpions remain scorpions and will follow their nature.

We didn't half spew serious money on some real no marks! Capucho, Vanoli, Ostenstad and Bernard for example. What were we thinking!

I would imagine that this spells the end of King's suggestion of the possibility of merging Oldco and Newco?

IMO, unless we have an injury crisis, Bell will never play for the club again. Under MW and DW where the keeper has to have reasonable distribution skills, I would place Bell well behind Kelly. If you look back at this forum last season, he was regularly criticised for staying on his goal line and for leaving his defence (!) to clear any crosses. He was (and presumably still is) a good shot stopper, but I would have no confidence in him fitting into the style with which we currently play. From my point of view, Bell's calamity against Motherwell was the worst goalkeeping mistake I have ever seen a Rangers keeper make, and I have seen plenty over the years!

Who is the # 7? Goods skills and looks confident on the ball.

While being thoroughly entertained in the early weeks by the above two points in particular, it was also a worry that we would not be able to maintain that level of intensity over the course of a season, especially with a small squad. For the same reasons as our opponents visibly tired late in games by our above tactics, it seems as though our front 6 no longer have the same energy as in the early weeks. We still look a lot fitter than our opponents, rightly so given the resources, but the intensity has most certainly dropped. I think that MW is well aware of this, if you have a look at his team selections, the keeper and the back 4 have played in virtually every match, whereas the midfield and attack (other than Halliday and Waghorn) have been rotated or substituted on a regular basis. Other than those two, I cant think of too many others who have played the full 90 minutes on a regular basis. Personally, I believe that this is the danger of having a thin squad and can only hope that by the time we reach the heavy pitches, suspensions and injuries, that we have been able to bring in a couple of players in the Jan window or even free agents, such as Eustace or Assulin prior to that.

Although we would like all of our players to be pacey, I think that the holding midfielder role is one of the few positions where positional sense and experience is equally as important. Matic of Chelsea is probably viewed as one of the best players in that position and you would not consider him to be particularly quick. Same for Busquets at Barca. Obviously I am not comparing Eustace to either of those players, but I think it does demonstrate that speed is not the only prerequisite to carry out the role effectively.

To be fair, the only criticism of the team to date has been regarding the performance of the centre backs (other than the keeper in the first couple of games). Many observers' have put this down to the attacking style of play and the fact that we do not really have a defensive midfielder protecting the defenders. Andy Halliday has been great, but this has largely been when he is going forward. I don't think that the defensive role is one that really suits him. Let's see what Eustace can bring to the team. It would mean that Holt would possibly fall out of the first 11, with Halliday moving to the left to accommodate Eustace. We have been fortunate with injuries so far, so additional competition/cover in midfield can only be a good thing, surely? On a side note, it would be interesting to see how Andy Murdoch develops under Eustace's influence when he returns from leave. Murdoch is probably the only squad member who naturally gravitates towards that position. Whether he is ultimately good enough for Rangers in the Premier league, is a question for the future.

I think that they should be looking at a shareholders alliance as opposed to an amalgamation. The objectives of the RST and RF are very different (ignoring egos and all the rest of the politics) and a great deal of time and energy will be spent without an agreement being ultimately obtained (IMHO of course). Would be much easier to agree to vote together as a bloc.

I think Mark Warburton/Davie Weir will initially have a good idea of the level of players that we will require to purchase in the next two or three transfer windows (mostly English Championship?) and it would only be after that time that the scouting system will really become more relevant. However, given the financial state that Scottish football finds itself in now and for the foreseeable future, the development of our own youngsters has to be paramount. The reality is that every Scottish club (including ourselves) is going to be developing players with a view to selling the diamonds (Lewis Macleod) that so rarely burst onto the scene. In our case, we may be able to hold onto those players a little longer, but if an EPL team comes along with a decent offer, then it would always need to be considered just to balance the books. Celtic have champions league income (even fleetingly!) and yet still have to sell their best players to England.

Why shouldn't Craig be there? He was one of the few who saw through Chuckles from an early date and actually did something about it. Hopefully the need for SOS is coming to an end and we can all take on the mantle of being vigilant regarding the custodians of our club. Although I do believe that we have the correct people in place now, we should always hold them to the highest standards and never again, allow these to drop.

Brilliantly written Frankie, beautifully encapsulated what so many of us think and believe. Re 26th of foot's comments, I think we would all love to see the SFA show some contrition and apologise to Rangers, but I wont be holding my breathe!

How is the gate receipts shared in the Challenge Cup? Genuine question.

The difference being, MW has probably brought in all of the new players on the same wages that Jig and Black would have been earning last season! Well done Stubbs, you just wrote Mr Warburton's team talk for the match on Sunday. Perhaps he would like to send Rangers a bill seeing as how he is now doing our manager's job for him!

Ross McCrorie is an absolute beast. Wouldn't surprise me if he was the top scorer in the U20's. Bright future ahead of the boy, captain of the U20's at 17.