Oleg_Mcnoleg

"they've been in a good few days now and the pies are still a disgrace. If they're any sort of Rangers fans, they should know the pies are an outrage. I want something done about the pies or I'm out".

We need a root and branch overhaul and that'll take time. In the meantime, i'm relieved to be moaning about the team rather than fearing for the future of the club. But it does seem as if some people want McCall to fail to prove a point. His task isn't to build something for the future but to try and get a tune out of a deeply disfunctional squad for the remainder of the season. He's not an appointment that suggests a bright new dawn but we've been so utterly excremental, a modest improvement will do to be going on with. The moment at which we become a the centrefold for The Blizzard readers to splash over is likely to take more than a fortnight.

You're right. We should be playing one of our numerous mobile, quick thinking, great finishing strikers instead. McCulloch's usually been good for a goal and, given the state of the rest of them, would be an option up front from the bench for the rest of the season. As for the 'nice guy' stuff, that's just conjecture.

I often agree with you but equally often am left wondering whether you a) don't watch much football as it gets in the way of reading back issues of The Blizzard or b) whether it's just that your admirable concern with improving technique, coaching, etc which means you dismiss anything that looks suspiciously uncontinental as prehistoric and pay attention to the youth teams of the German third tier where some 22 year old coaching whizz has the kids playing blindfolded or some such. With the exception of his desperation tactics last season, Allardyce has generally tried to play decent football. West Ham have often been great to watch this season. His Bolton side were terrific entertainment. To dismiss a team built around Youri Djorkaeff as prehistoric or long-ball is clearly arsewad. He's been one of the most tech-savie managers in the EPL and has made far more use of stats in coaching, recruitment and strategy than most. But he's an overweight northerner who played for Bolton, Notts County and Sunderland in the days of moustaches and muddy pitches so he must be a footballing grunt.

If they stay up, Allardyce would be an obvious choice. Think he's unfairly maligned as a football throwback but it's clear he's far too overtly northern for the Hammers who are going to need any and all the metropolitan 'glamour' they can lay their hands on if they're going to sell enough tickets to make the OIympic Stadium work for them. They'll surely be casting around for a tanned, sharp-suited Mediterranean manager next? As for Sunderland, they've always been an enigma. Passionate support who turn up in big numbers, decent stadium (though with a shite name), good pedigree which you'd think they could turn into a decent 'brand' yet they've nearly always been deeply average at best. Who's actually done well as a manager there?

This 'mea culpa' stuff is only worth anything if it translates into changes in attitude and an improvement in performances. Talk is cheap.

Medication or I.T.?

I said earlier in the thread that a lot of resignations are not an admission of wrong-doing so much as an attempt to draw a line under things and return to focusing on the important stuff. Journalists, on the other hand, are like dogs and were clearly not going to leave this alone. Partly that's because it was Rangers, partly because it was him and he's spent hours a day making them look stupid on social media, and partly because it's there and that's what they do.

It saddens me to say it but what possible reason is there for re-signing him? Even if he rolls back the years and put's in consistently excellent performances for the last few games, what does that say about his attitude for the previous three quarters of a season. With the possible exception of Bell, in an ideal world we wouldn't re-sign anyone. We may have to but I'd rather not.

A little perspective seems to be being lost over this. I was very happy he was appointed: he's been a tireless and articulate campaigner against a bent boardroom. i think he would have been a decent fans' rep on the board. He is, as far as I'm concerned, a good thing. But he's spent the last few years noising up the entire Scottish footballing media via Twitter. Regardless of the source of the story, it's no surprise at all that the journalists who've been getting pish-taking, insulting tweets from him umpteen times a day have run with it. It's an absolute fucking gift for them. I'm sorry for him and I understand the frustration of those who know him but the importance of the whole business in the future of the club seems to be getting overstated.

A shame. I thought at the time the tweet was a bit daft and not typical of him. I don't think it was a resigning matter but neither do I think it's worth the continued distraction. Very dignified statement.

nice to be back to arguing about football stuff, isn't?

Let's see how he does before writing him off. We need a manager right now and can look again in the summer. If he's excelled, then he's in with a shout, if not then we can explore alternative.

Not necessarily my first choice, but it's a pretty reasonable holding job and nobody's in any doubt about his passion for the club. If he's not a success, he won't clearly won't be kept on. But clearly something needed to be done pronto

Poor yin's been put out of his misery. He's had an expression on coupon like his dog's just died ever since he's taken over from Ally.

I remember CG tweeting that that it was a bit close to the bone and not particularly intelligent., even if directed at a despicable arsehole like Anjem Choudhary. He's certainly being stitched up but in this case has made fairly easy for them. It's not a resignation matter, IMHO, but that may not be enough to save him. Plenty of public resignations happen not because of the rights and wrongs of the situation but because it's a distraction. I hope that's not the case here.

they are also a substantial shareholder.

Is CG appointed in his RST capacity or just for being a twitter warrior on the side fo the good guys?

In the process of sorting out the shambles that's been left, it makes sense to have somebody who has some idea what the feckers have been up to for the last few years.

Without wishing to turn in this into a 'get BH' thread, I'm completely incredulous that anyone could have thought L&L were a good thing for the club. It's a triumph of hope, bordering on delusion, over reality.

I guess if somebody wanted to deliberately misinterpret what was said, I could be said to have played into their hands. The old/new club distinction is a non-argument and simply not worth engaging with. Nobody's interested outside a small bunch of pathetically obsessed. That they clearly hate us much as ever which rather undermines their point.

Long-term it's a complete non-starter. Short-term, we're paying him anyway and it's a step up from McDowell. If the new broom has to wait until the summer then so be it. The season's pretty much a write-off anyway: true to form, they couldn't even rouse themselves for a proper performance on Sunday. Notice that Cagliari look like replacing Zola with Zeman anytime now. Zola had previously replaced Zeman.

'Old' as in pre-crisis, former glories. Hope you're not insinuating that I'm an interloper from the grey-and-green side.

Look forward to reading it. Nobody's happy with the performances or results. Nobody's happy with the quality with the players in the squad. But how in god's name can anyone expect these to be sorted over a weekend when the new board are still trying to ascertain the full horror of the state the club's been left in. Maybe it's just me: in the run-up to the Green takeover, I honestly thought we were looking at starting over with an FC Rangers, groundsharing with Queens Park or some such. If King and T3B hadn't acted, I could only see us carrying on as a pale shadow of our old club, with no support, a flogged off training ground and a rented stadium. Now, I can actually see a future for us. Given our near death experience, a wee bit of patience doesn't seem unreasonable. I'd add that if folk are getting jumpy now, how are they going to cope when they realise that an emphasis on youth doesn't mean winning everything with a team barely old enough to shave. It means patience, set-backs, defeats and disappointing seasons. Are we grown up enough to cope?

Right enough. Thought FF was getting silly but we seem to be following suit.