RANGERRAB

Europe brings us in much needed revenue which we can’t get domestically Like it or not European football is imperative

There is BAD racism and there is GOOD racism. There is BAD sectarianism and there is GOOD sectarianism. Just depends who you are and which way the political wind is blowing unfortunately.

Davie mackinnon was only at Rangers 1982-86 IIRC. John Greig signed him but after he left in 1983 Jock Wallace returned. After Souness took over in 1986 MacKinnon was released. His time at Rangers was one of the least successful periods in the history of Rangers. Be an interesting read & I wonder if he’ll shed any light on anything that went on during his time at Rangers

I beg to differ. Defensively, Yilmaz is too small and easily brushed aside

Easily our best league performance of the season. We seemed up for it from kick off & deservedly went in 2-0 in front at HT with a team selection which set out to attack particularly in wide areas. At the end I thought 4-0 flattered Hibs. It’s early days, but I saw a lot of good signs from today’s game. Amazing what a change of manager can sometimes do. Let’s hope it’s sustainable

Next season is the last year on his Brighton contract AFAIK

Increase in tempo & hopefully a bit more movement up front. Forwards need to start making runs & making themselves available & not waiting for the ball to drop at their feet in front of the goal

Am I right in saying we’ve got our old chum Don Robertson refereeing tomorrow?

The first couple of changes/improvements I’d like to see from Philippe Clement are:- 1) stop needlessly giving away possession under no pressure particularly in forward areas 2) a vast improvement in set pieces i.e. better corner kicks & free kicks which actually clear the first defender or dont go miles over the bar or wide of the goal

His biggest challenge ahead is to start beating Celtic regularly again. Like Gerrard did. Do that and he’ll be fine

He’s certainly the calibre of manager we were hoping for. We must get behind him & give him the support he needs in bringing us much needed success & stability. It will be interesting to see who is in his backroom staff because this was one area I felt both GvB and MB didn’t get quite right

FA’s effectively borrow club players for their international teams. And the clubs & players have little choice but to comply. Clubs are the players employers. Where else would you find a situation where an employer would be told they had to hand over their employees to a third party for something and have little or no say in the matter? Same goes for other sports too I suppose

No they don’t but I think it’s important if we have a DoF he can work with the manager. That didn’t seem to be the case with GvB & Wilson. There would be, of course,be other candidates for DoF

The most important things for the board is to get someone who really wants the job, has the right background and experience & has convinced them that they have an immediate plan to try & improve performances and results from the squad they’d inherit. I must admit now leaning towards Muscat and either Craig Moore or Neil McCann as DoF is we’re bringing back that role.

Do these ‘spent on stadium’ figures cover the complete redevelopment? £28.8m ?

Im no great lover of the Scotland team and it’s support but I thought they were hard done by getting that goal chopped off last night Once again VAR the culprit. It was brought in to reduce wrong decisions but seems more and more to be creating wrong decisions

Was their fourth share issue not in 2005 which raised £15m to build lennoxtown?

Are the figures £ in 000’s ?

IIRC the two end stands were built by the now defunct Barr Construction & the North Stand overhanging the cemetery by Miller. Yes I’d heard that £40m figure too which was a lot of money for a club which had not long survived bankruptcy All sorts of rumours at the time of using cheapest materials, cutting corners, safety breaches etc. Crucially no one really seemed willing to question how it got planning permission especially after the old Celtic board said it couldn’t be redeveloped & were looking at alternative sites. Ultimately though it gave them a stadium with a 60k capacity but with a life expectancy of how long? And it gave them a stadium with a 10k greater capacity than ibrox or hampden. Then the bunnet began parroting phrases used by the Rangers board in the 1970’s about not needing hampden which had also got redeveloped but with national lottery funding, something which would come into play years later in 2020 when Mr Haughey would emerge as a hampden supporter as the SFA threatened to move games away from hampden. But to where? A rugby stadium in Edinburgh? Why not 60k Celtic Park? Maybe we’ll find this out soon enough. Their bigger stadium had the potential to get them more revenue through the gates than ours so our Mr Murray starting looking at other sources of revenue & whatever else that would unfortunately ultimately lead us to 2012. I still do believe alarm bells must have been going off in the Rangers boardroom about where Celtic’s funding was coming from back then.

After the bunnet got the club they then got planning permission to redevelop the Stade de Gadde which the old Celtic board said they wouldn’t get. Funded from where/ by whom? They were upping the stakes and we had to do likewise. It led us to 2012

Celtic Park got redeveloped mid 90’s. It was completed and used for the 1998 SC final which we lost to hearts. How much did it cost & who funded it? £40m was quoted which sounds ultra cheap to me. And they never raised any like that in share issues IIRC. The mass spending you mentioned was only in the advocaat era until McLeish took over late 2001. McLeish spent much less

Of course they were skint. I always remember around 1999 Alan McDonald their chief exec resigned & he slaughtered McCann for leaving them short of cash. Where did all the funding come from for the stadium & giving O’Neil 5 years transfer money up front?

I always thought it was the BoS were Rangers bankers under Murray? Anyway my point is ‘they’ were up to all sorts around 2000 which led Rangers(Murray) into taking rash decisions which ultimately led to 2012. As you rightly say GCC were undoubtedly helping them & we were mostly oblivious or uninterested. The stadium was the best example. Their old board clearly said it couldn’t be redeveloped. Along came the bunnett & GCC granted permission. And where did the funding come from? Ultra soft coop banned loans? Don’t think their 3 share issues got them that much.

The point I was making wasn’t about the land around Celtic Park. It was about the involvement of the co-op bank & GCC. I think Murray fully realised what was going on. Our support didn’t.

I always thought Murray was spooked when he saw what was going on over the east end during this period. I’d suggest most of our supporters were blissfully unaware. Co-op bank we’re their new bankers & funders brought in by Celtic-supporting SLAB politicians who also facilitated dubious planning permission for the stadium rebuild including a 20000 seater stand fitted into a 43 yard space between the far side touchline & cemetry wall as Brian Wilson likes to boast (others more qualified might suggest otherwise) Murray was starting to look for alternative funding but was getting reckless