stewarty

4 minutes ago, CammyF said:

Maybe they settle for VAR aa long as its the likes of Hartson, Sutton and Tom Boyd who are doing the "reviewing"..... 😀

I think you’re onto something, my dear Watson!

7 minutes ago, CammyF said:

I hope not, but all this noise in media and from Celtic isn't for nothing. 

I get it.  We’re so used to things going against us, seemingly against all sense.  But on this, it would essentially be going against the whole footballing world which has embraced VAR for all its imperfections.  It’s not going back in the box in my view 

18 minutes ago, CammyF said:

As we've seen on many occasions Celtic tend to get what they want (early call of league, Cinch deal, no investigation into running of the game). If they want rid of VAR, they'll find a way to get rid of VAR. 

I don’t think it’s as simple as that.  Much as they have the biggest influence, they can’t control all the votes and even they have to pick their battles. 
 

I think the sky deal is a good example of that.  Essentially the tail wagging the OF dogs, and there was nothing we could do to stop it.   
 

 

Rangers 3 -1 Celtic 

fgs Morelos 

Rangers 3-0 

morelos fgs

Arfield, easily.  Much for Beale to work on.

 

 

Ross County 0 - 3 Rangers

FGS Tav

8 minutes ago, craig said:

I am hoping this will change with Beale having us play more narrow, meaning the "wide" players are more central with more opportunity for attempts at goal.

Yep, that seems to be what he is trying to do in order to get Kent more involved.   Early days but there are signs it is starting to work

Before this the only thing a Hawick man’s  accurately predicted is that it’s “aye been”.

Well done @Gonzo79!

Abersheep 1-3 Rangers

FGS Morelos 

1 minute ago, Bill said:

I've no doubt you're right. Gio's main job was to lift the squad and instil self-believe but his talent seemed to lie in sucking the motivation out of everyone. I think Gio is a really decent bloke who harbours genuine feeling for the club but found himself in the wrong job at the wrong time. Perhaps with fewer injuries and more stability in the squad things might have turned out differently but as it was he had to go and I hope he understands that. As far as I'm concerned he's one of us and will always be welcome back at Ibrox. I wish him well.

Sadly he was a manager that lost out at crucial moments.  And latterly he was plagued by bad luck with injuries.  A less technical but better man-manager may have been able to bridge the gap but that’s merely speculation.  I have a better feeling about MB though.  He’s Uber technical but able to relate much more to his players.  

9 hours ago, Bill said:

Neither of Hibs goals we exactly wonder strikes and both should have been prevented by the players we had on the park … why they froze like deer in headlights is concerning but the way they shook it off after ht was also impressive and I suspect was as much to do with certain senior players as anything the manager said. 

Yep.  The manager said himself it was down to the players and he only provides the template.  
 

However, I’d wager we would not have seen that response if the game was 5-6 weeks ago. 

Croatia 1-2 Morocco

Argentina 1-0 France (joker)

You could see when they were moving the ball the way Beale has been drilling that we were able to cut through Hibs and looked dangerous.  Dominant second half but defensive lapses first half were a concern.  Let’s hope Goldson is ready to play soon. 

Rangers 4 - 2 Hibs

 

FGS Kent

@CammyF

 

I love the passion and you make a lot of really good points, but you're in danger of being blinkered and ignoring valid counter-arguments to the point where you end with an angry list of grievances, some of which are valid but alot can be argued against...

 

Time for some devil's advocate replies...  

 

11 hours ago, CammyF said:

Not communicating, treating us like customers, promising to fix issues and not following through (ticketing, customer service), mixed messages (over money available for transfers), telling us we have no money in the bank 24hrs after UEFA deposited (IIRC) £13M into our bank account.

They are communicating, just not as well as they could.  We are customers, just a particular breed of really passionate ones that pore over the minutiae of every single decision whether good or bad.   They are attempting to fix issues over customer service (they've hired a new Customer Service Manager)and are planning a new solution for ticketing - Bisgrove himself has done the rounds with fan media (communicating no less!) where they explained in rough terms what the plan is, but from memory he also explained that this is just one of several other costs they are balancing.  It comes down to priorities.  

 

11 hours ago, CammyF said:

Releasing car-crash interviews when the heat was turned up regarding their continued silence. Originally releasing said interviews behind RTV pay-wall. Then disappearing back into their bunkers. 

This was a mis-step at worst.  Its been massively overplayed.  They have had the AGM a few weeks later where they've discussed the accounts in detail and offered themselves up for engagement on any topic.  Its not their fault that some of the issues we want to know more about didn't come up in the Q&A.  And some of the stuff that we want to know about, they will be restricted in what they can say if its commercially sensitive or legally priviliged.

 

11 hours ago, CammyF said:

Releasing Champions League tickets at the top end of the price band, insinuating the MyGers is a money making scheme and loyalty is based on ££££ spent with club.

The UCL packages sold out.  MyGers is nothing less than the majority of big clubs do themselves.  There are aspects of it that I don't like about it either, but if we don't do it, we are putting ourselves further behind competitors in terms of being able to generate revenue.

 

I remember having discussions on message boards and with friends about the complete lack of commercialisation of the fans and how we were missing out on lots of opportunities to generate revenue.  We now have fan zones, a new venue next to the ground about to open up, a museum, bigger club shop.  We are finally getting to the point where we are just about caught up.  We were way behind for a number of years.

 

I get that commoditising supporters feels wrong, and I think they'll need to re-think the UCL packages slightly, but overall I think the club are on the right track commercially.

 

11 hours ago, CammyF said:

Continually reducing the RSC away allocations making it impossible for supporters clubs to run buses to away games and forcing some clubs to fold. 

This one is tricky as we are limited by what other clubs are doing on this.  We also need to balance the MyGers offering by making sure this is a route that supporters have to getting to away games.  I'm not close enough to these issues though as I'm not an RSC member.

 

11 hours ago, CammyF said:

Refusing to speak to fan groups regarding safe standing.

Thats just not true.   There have been many discussions over the years, its just that the club has other priorities.

 

11 hours ago, CammyF said:

Spilling costs of NEH and the sale or non-sale of Albion Carpark.

Are the Board to blame for inflation?

 

11 hours ago, CammyF said:

The cock-up with friendly in Australia v them and the court case surrounding this. Who authorised it to begin with? 

Personally I didn't have a major issue with the game if it helped generate much needed revenue.  But there was a groundswell of opinion against it and they played funny buggers with regards to various aspects that we are counter-suing over...

 

I suspect that had we won the league or the EL, we would have been baws oot in Sydney and Celtic would have been the ones to withdraw. 

 

11 hours ago, CammyF said:

Practically ignoring our 150 anniversary where UBs and Hamburg did more than Rangers. 

Getting into some hyperbole here.  https://www.rangers.co.uk/Article/150th-anniversary-celebrations/38GTGEBz2s5Buct4GraBAW#:~:text=March 2022 is a focal,well as the Blue Sky

 

11 hours ago, CammyF said:

Directors, employees and ambassadors leaving under a cloak of secrecy.

There was no secrecy regarding senior people leaving - we had press releases for David Graham and Barry Scott, and the latter was announced to LSE and recorded on Companies House.

 

Ambassadors? I'll give you that one but we have lots of club legends who do that kind of work from time to time... its neither a secret nor something I'm overly worried.  

Croatia 1-1 Argentina (JOKER)

 

France 2-0 Morocco

 

Good to hear a manager open to playing two up front.  Was like sorcery compared to Gio.  Also interesting comments about the fitness required to press with the intensity he wants.  

Early days but clear signs of improvement and a team playing to a system they are buying into.  Promising start 

46 minutes ago, buster. said:

This generation of fans have been used to throwing money at such problems and to hell with the loss making and debt. We have had the years of equity funded constructive losses, we can't/don't want to do that anymore, at least not to the same extent.

 

Over the City had major problems post 55, but had a serious amount of money to throw at it.

 

 

 

Do you disagree with the strategy of equity funded constructive losses...? (investments in players and club infrastructure as its otherwise known)

Just now, buster. said:

For the fans......but it is off the pitch that is the root problem.

 

Break everything down and it is about us and them, both on and off the pitch.

We have been playing catch-up for a decade and after getting quite high up on the snakes and ladders board, we fell down a long ladder after 55.

 

 

Exactly...and who has the whip hand on and off the pitch? Hence why issues are being amplified.

 

 

2 minutes ago, buster. said:

Forgeting individuals, squad management has been awful and yes, a lot of it is to do with trying to squeeze value and of what amount to outside bets.

 

No-one really seems to want to take responsibility.

Will things change? Will Beale and his team make an ongoing difference ?

We have to hope so but as you partly allude to, the elephant in the room is Finance.....and how we lag behind the other side of the city in revenue generation.

 

 

I note what Forlan has said about the medical department and you wonder what is going on. We know there have been changes made post Gerrard&Co. Is it subject to a financial squeeze / poor recruitment ?

 

Couldn't believe we seem to be offering Morelos another deal.

Wilson mentioned that we'd received only one bid for Alfredo (and one for Ryan Kent). Was it the Chinese or French bid ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd need to go back and check.  But like I say, there are clearly issues that need to be addressed.  I've seen enough that the board know what they are (there's plenty of evidence), it's now over to th to continue to work and improve things.  And of course, some results and performances would help massively. 

1 minute ago, buster. said:

Bit like Maggie Thatcher going to the House of Commons to take the flack for the Westland affair (slight exaggeration!!!) I was a younger man listening to the radio live coverage and Kinnock made a complete arse of it. I was shouting at the radio for him to wake the fcuk up 😁

 

I think the board are looking for the new first team management to take the heat off them with an upturn in results. However, some of the underlying issues will soon return, if/when results hit a sticky patch.

 

 

 

 

 

It's always mostly about on the pitch.  

 

To torture an analogy, and reversing Boycott's principle of adding 2 wickets to a batting team's score to get a true idea of how good it looks...I reckon if you take two wickets off the board's run tally, it wouldn't look too bad.

 

 

1 hour ago, buster. said:

John Bennet brought the subject up in the interview to RTV.

David Graham was then moved on.

Various things went Pete Tong and they clammed up.

Nothing was mentioned about it in the AGM.

I don't know who has taken on the remit David Graham had.

 

 

Arguably having nobody in that role has been an improvement.   
 

if you look at the agm as piece of communication, after the mandatory elements were undertaken, they both managed the rest very well (strong financials, plans for upgrades to disabled facilities), and then got lucky that more awkward questions didn’t arise from the q&a… but overall I think it can be viewed as a success.   Add to that, neatly bodying c1872 over the share issue resolutions

 

The stuff on Wilson also feels like its getting over-egged.   Yes there are clearly squad management situations that need to be addressed but we also need to remember that we are working within a limited budget, players aren't compelled to simply comply with what we want of them, no matter what we think the appeal of playing for us is or should be. 

 

It was said in the Q&A that for Morelos and Kent particularly, that essentially we have done all we can to try and persuade them to sign a new deal.  That being the case, if the players run down their contracts there isn't an awful lot we can do other than try and move them on.  This has coincided with injuries and down turn in form at key moments.  Like with injuries, circumstances have kicked us hard in the last year or so, and Wilson has to accept some criticism, particularly where we have taken some gambles that haven't paid off, I just find the vitriol a bit silly.

 

Unfortunately, with our resource constraints, we are always taking some form of calculated gamble.