JohnMc

It's not rank rotten, but it's not as good as 3 or 4 seasons ago, thats without doubt. Better Rangers sides than this one have been thumped at Parkhead. A star studded Rangers side who beat Celtic 5-1 in season 2000/01 lost 6-2 and 3-0 to them that season as well. I understand supporter's are angry and disappointed after a home defeat where we were second best all over the pitch, but surely some perspective is required? We are a club and a team going through transition. Only two players remain from the Europa League final run, one of them is a back up centre half and the other our much maligned right back and captain. That's huge change in a short time. For comparison the Celtic squad for that season contains 10 players who are still regular starters for them this season. We can pinpoint moments where things might have turned out differently. The huge one is failing to beat Malmo in Champion's League qualifying in 2021. Had we secured that money the squad could have been strengthened further, perhaps Gerrard wouldn't have been tempted away and our ability to match Celtic financially would have given a huge boost. Had we sold Morelos when he was one of the most exciting strikers in Europe, had we sold Kent when he was ripping holes in Bundesliga club defences for fun, had we sold Tav when he was one of the most effective attacking full backs in the Europa League... Decisions were made and we did none of those things. Our recruitment has suffered because of that. We're now a club that looks for potential talent in leagues or clubs a rung below us financially or in the reserves of clubs a rung or two above. We're not able to buy players in their prime now, not really good ones at least. We're a stepping stone for players hoping to make it to England or another league where the pay is much higher. Diomande, Jefte, Bajrami, Igamane and ever Barron will be hoping to develop and move within a couple of seasons. Guys like Cerny, Bajrami, Cortes, Nsiala we're the required 'step back' to move forward again. I'd say Propper is our only summer signing for who signing for a club like us is the final destination rather than than a stop on the way. That's a big change from under Gerrard and even from under Beale, who was indulged to an extent that we signed Danilo (over £5 million), Dessers (over £3 million), Lammers (£3.5 million) and even Cifuentes at £1.2 million. We must all surely realise that kind of spending on that type of player isn't going to happen again? I think it's going to be a rough season. We'll take some beatings at times, maybe even domestically. But I think we'll give some out too. Some of our signings look shrewd. Diomande, Jefte and Bajrami have ben early successes I'd say, Barron has shown enough to suggest he can become an important player and the fleeting glances of Cortes and Kasanwirjo suggest similar. Time is rarely given to Rangers managers and already some feel time is up for Clement. Yet time is what we need to give someone, Clement or whoever. This season still has some twists and turns ahead but if we're to build something we'll need to show patience and support. Again, not something we've always been good at. The only way we can compete financially, even with Celtic far less Lyon, is to develop players and sell them for a profit. That requires buying ones that aren't the finished article and trying to make them better. That's what we're doing this season and I don't see what other choice we have. I don't think it's Clement's fault that our squad isn't as good as it was 25 months ago, he can only play the hand he's been dealt. I've seen enough in some games to feel he does know what he's doing, but that it will take time and luck for that to to be fulfilled.

Obviously a lot of quite young supporters on here, like Compo, who might not realise that this is the third time Lyon have beaten us, fairly easily, at home. For us old timers this is something we've seen before, sometimes a European side turns up at Ibrox and is simply quicker, stronger and more skilful over the 90 minutes. Unless you're about 12 years old then this isn't the worst Rangers team you've seen. Last night, as against Celtic and as against Dynamo Kiev, our biggest problem remains our inability to convert our chances. Our team simply doesn't have enough goals in it. Lawrence is contributing now, Dessers will score some, but the rest of our team simply aren't. The goals have dried up from Tav, our centre halves aren't much of a threat from set pieces and our other midfield and attacking players simply don't score often enough. Lyon had goals right across their forward line. I don't think there is much we can do about that. We have the squad we have until January at least. Unless someone suddenly emerges that's going to be an ongoing problem. I suspect even if Cerny or Tav had scored early on. and they both should have, we might still have lost, but goals change games, they lift the crowd and force the opposition to change how they play. So who knows. This is a Rangers side in transition. Diomande, Bajrami and of course Butland looked decent last night, others found the pace, power and skill of Lyon to much. Anyone who thinks changing manager, again, in the autumn is he answer is very wrong, in my opinion.

Yes, but he's a bit of an invisible man.

I've no idea the veracity of any of these claims, but picking a public fight with the council's planning department sounds like a perfect example of winning a battle but losing the war. Having a good working relationship with the council, no matter how difficult that might be at times, is definitely in the club's interests. Anyway, we're back at Ibrox again, in the grand scheme of things the delay was annoying but temporary. Hopefully the board can address some of the other issues facing us now.

I feel it's the inevitable direction of travel and will only be exacerbated by the new Champion's League money creating further unbalance in domestic leagues. Celtic will earn more money this season from the Champion's League than the combined turnover of half the clubs in the SPFL. That's not sustainable and it's happening in leagues across the continent now. We've seen it in pretty much every other professional sport, how long it will take to happen in football is the question.

Ironically they are furthest along in the planning stage of this. There's already a 'Balkans' basketball league featuring teams from Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Bosnia and, strangely, Dubai. Basketball is very popular in those countries, it's not the quasi-American happy clapper thing we have. Clubs like Red Star, Partizan and Hadjuk Split have basketball teams and their Ultras attend the matches. Despite the obvious regional tensions it seems to function well and at a high standard. The football clubs in those countries have spoken about trying to replicate this type of set up. Basically trying to recreate the league they had when it was all Yugoslavia. What stage it's at just now I don't know, it had some momentum before covid but I've not heard much about it recently.

I think UEFA might be more open to leagues amalgamating now as long as they remain under UEFA's auspices. If the Scots, Dutch, Belgians, Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Austrians, Portuguese, Serbs, Bosnians and Croats all came together and said we want to change our domestic league set ups it would be difficult for UEFA to ignore a block that size. UEFA got a fright when the Super League thing was launched and they've made concessions to the big clubs and big leagues now to keep them onside. I can't see why UEFA would object to a Scandinavian League being created, for example, that still had promotion and relegation from the various countries involved. The creation of 'new' domestic leagues that might challenge the dominance of the EPL and La Liga might actually be welcomed by UEFA. The various domestic associations would need to be in full agreement too, that might be an issue.

Hah, yeah fair point. Officially then.

Hearts are a great example of a well funded, well run football club. Why investment from someone with no feel or care for the club is being welcomed is beyond me. There's a bigger question regarding what kind of club we want. It seems some would welcome us becoming part of a larger 'football organisation', owned by an American hedge fund or Arab state investment arm. Rangers would simply become a stepping stone club, somewhere to 'park assets' in the hope one day they'll be good enough to play for Wolves or Al-Ittihad. Fuck that. If that's the future for Rangers I'm not sure I want any part of it. I'd argue we were a decent centre forward away from winning the league last season. Certainly the margins were small. This season we've started poorly, but it's early days. Of course panic has set in, that's what we do as a support, but the season is long and it's got twists and turns to come. It's far too early to judge anything yet. On the B team in the Lowland League, the standard is simply not good enough. The idea was interesting, but the reality is different. We've 3 young players starting regularly for us currently. One played 59 games for Aberdeen, one 96 games in the Danish top flight and one 31 games in the Cypriot top flight. That's the level we need our B team players at if they've got any chance of progressing to our first team. We'd be far better off finding clubs we can loan our younger prospects out too. Or even do deals where they literally join a club with a guaranteed buy-back in place. Young players make mistakes, lose concentration and can be dominated by experienced players. All this talk of a player trading model overlooks the fact that a sizeable percentage of our support will rise with fury at a series of misplaced passes far less a run of games where someone is trying to play their way back into form.

There's a guy called Ally MacKay, he's the 'General Manager and Chief Soccer Officer' at DC United in the MLS. He's Scottish and a Rangers fan, but he's been in America for a good while now. Whatever we think of the standard of football there is a professionalism to the running of American sport that we could learn from. I've no idea if the club are aware of him, I've no idea if he'd be interested in 'moving home', but I'm surprised I've not seen his name mentioned by anyone in the media or connected to the club.

I don't know for certain. Whatever issues he has that's three managers in a row who don't trust him, despite his obvious talent. He's still at the club so I assume he'll make the Europa League bench just because of circumstance. He's not making our first team unless there's a raft of injuries, so expect him to start in about 3 weeks time! It's so frustrating, he has genuine ability, he could have a wonderful career, but clearly something is missing mentally.

It's a strange squad so we have to assume that McCausland, Leon King, Lowry, Bailey Rice, Robbie Fraser, Zac Lovelace, Adam Devine and Cole McKinnon make the B list?

You're all wrong, it's 1979, that strip is recognised by FIFA as the greatest Scottish Cup Winning strip, Michel Platini told me that himself. Technically we sort of won the 1879 final too, well, we drew the final then complained about the refereeing, (plus ca change) and the SFA awarded the cup to Vale of Leven. So the Tims used to wear stripes, who knew!

It was made famous by being used in a commercial for Tennents Lager in the early 1990s, while being sung by a guy from Bridgeton, prior to that it was hardly known outside of folk clubs. But yeah, it's a cracking tune.

As a support we've had plenty of recent experience of tankings, unfortunately. So accepting a season like you describe isn't something fans want, but they will accept it. Recently we accepted it with Gerrard. It took two seasons to build a title winning side, but we could all see the progress and development, so it was accepted. I think you could be correct about this season. I don't think there's any chance we'll sign players who are on the type of salaries quoted, our wage bill is coming down no matter what. Whether Clement is the alchemist required to create a team greater than the sum of its parts is still up for debate, but the board seem to think he is and I'd be very surprised if we change course this season. I don't think we're deliberately 'tanking' but I do think we're deliberately reducing our wage bill and so the type of player we're signing. If, say, Cantwell or Hagi leave, they'll be replaced but by someone on significantly less money. Time will tell how that will work out. Having players on lower salaries also makes them easier to sell, part of the difficulty in moving on the two mentioned above is the salaries they enjoy. In reality neither have shown enough to suggest they're worth them, and so convincing another club to pay it is a problem. Likewise Davies, no one else is paying him that on current fitness and form. It could be a difficult season. Our squad isn't currently strong enough to compete on 4 fronts. But football is a strange sport at times and events might just intervene and make life for our neighbours across the city harder than it currently is.