JohnMc

Hah, either that or 'fools seldom differ'! Rousseau, don't be surprised if Pena is quite keen on a return to Mexico. Whatever his goal to game ration is he's struggled to find a regular starting place, we've struggled to understand and adapt to his 'game' and with Pedro gone his chief supporter has gone. Murty has used him, and used him well at times, but this might be a mutual thing rather than us simply looking to offload him. Pena's biggest problem is one of expectation. The fee paid for him and the stories that followed him created the impression that he was going to be a big, big player. That's not his fault of course. On balance moving him on seems like the wisest course to me.

Think I'd ask for a chunck of it now just in case our Pedro isn't in the job come the summer.

I know nothing about Goss, but as he's clearly not getting another contract at QPR this is a 6 month trial he's on. If he's in and Nemane is out then it's cost neutral and probably worth a punt. I think I'd have preferred if we'd tried to sign the St Mirren youngster that looks like he's joining Celtic though.

To be fair he could get sacked at Falkirk before the season ends the way they're playing. Jimmy Nicholl won't get too many more opportunities to work at Rangers, no way would he turn that down. He's in his early 60s, still plenty of miles left in the clock.

He's not a holding midfielder but that was where he was asked to play before. Playing front of McCrorie in a similar role to Holt is much better suited to him I think. But I agree he's not a 'front of the diamond' or whatever that advanced midfield/deep attacking position is called this week. We're stretched in midfield and we'll pick up more suspensions and injuries as the season goes on, having him back even as cover, like you say, isn't a bad thing.

Well it maybe more Craig but that doesn't mean it's not ironic. I don't buy into this idea that the press can somehow convince English sides that a player is worth a lot more than he is. Dembele will have been well known to English sides before he joined Celtic and they'll have kept an eye on him since. Likewise I suspect more than a few will be aware of Morelos too. In the end it won't be the Sun's headline writers that decide what a struggling EPL side will pay for him. The Dembele for £18million line is a tabloid staple. It gives them a few days of headlines and if it happens they get a few weeks of 'how will Celtic spend their millions' and if it doesn't they get a few weeks of further speculation or how Dembele is unsettled/wants away/wants to stay/Celtic are asking too much for him... take your pick.

I don't understand the hostility to Halliday, he did really well for us in his first season and then struggled last season. The same can be levelled at Holt, Danny Wilson and Tavernier all of who have found a bit of form recently. The club was in turmoil for at least half of last season and when Pedro joined he clearly didn't fancy him, any player would struggle to find their best form with that going on. With Dorrans out for a few months, Kranjcar looking like a bench player at best and Jack now also injured an experienced midfielder sounds like a decent addition to the squad. Halliday offer more if played in an advanced midfield position with McCrorie sitting. He's not a natural deep midfielder.

So it is just the hyperbole then, mainly the use of the word 'diddy'? Reading that I don't think he is writing an abusive article about Morelos, rather he's having a go at the Rangers support for celebrating a draw. It's ironic that Morelos draws more attention to himself by his misses rather than Dembele who contributed very little and didn't get into the position to miss, I agree with you there. Look Leckie is a poor writer but I'm not sure the gist for what he's trying to say is inaccurate. But I take the point you're making (I think) about Morelos being an easier target for abuse than a couple of media favourites.

I endorse this statement.

Okay, aside from the Tabloid hyperbole Leckie deploys and his overplayed 'neutral' standpoint what are we disagreeing with in the article? Morelos worked really hard all match but lets be honest here if Kenny Miller had missed the chances Morelos did there would be a 20 page thread of rage on here towards him. Morelos gets a lot of plaudits from us because he's young and works really hard. But this goes back to other thread where we spoke about valuing endeavour over finesse. The two headers should have been buried but more annoying for me was his decision making on a couple of occasions. There's that great gif doing the rounds where he nutmegs Brown, it's a lovely bit of skill and particularly enjoyable when carried out on one of Scottish footballs untouchables. But from that Morelos broke into the box, created a chance and then chose to shoot for the near post. It was a real waste, he should have looked for a player arriving in the box or gone for the far post. It was poor decision making. He'd a similar opportunity in the 1st half, where he won possession off one of their invincible defenders and chose to shoot weakly wide at the front post instead of trying to win a penalty by rounding the alarmed clod-hopper he'd just dispossessed. I agree that he's young and should get better. I also agree that any criticism has to be tempered when viewed in the context of him being the top goalscorer in the league in his first season while playing for a side that's inconsistent and while still learning the language and settling into the place. I also think it's to our credit we applauded the wee man and acknowledged the work he put in. I think this is what Leckie misses, most Rangers supporters wanted to see the side compete, make it difficult for Celtic, not roll over and get our tummies tickled like in previous matches. As such we enjoyed and celebrated the fact the side showed some spirit and some fight. We could have won, Morelos didn't do the ultimate job he's paid for, but he did enough for us to go into the New Year with hope. But he can't keep missing chances like that against Celtic. I really like Morelos, a genuine find for the club and a player with enormous potential, but not one above criticism, however poorly written.

Not sounding good. There was clearly a reason why Liverpool let him go, it's a great pity for him.

I know nothing about that boy and I've no idea if he's going to be any good, but picking up out-of-contract youth internationals for next to nothing, providing them with an opportunity for 1st team football and the chance to rebuild their career doesn't sound like the worst idea. It looks like he's not good enough for Arsenal's 1st team, that doesn't mean he's not good enough for ours. As a strategy it's got some merits. If we can get a couple of seasons out of him and then sell him to a Championship side for a couple of million it's not the worst business plan.

I don't care what anyone says I enjoyed that performance today. Yip Kranjcar was slow and struggled to meet the pace but every other player fought, harried and looked like they cared and that'll do for me. At this stage I'll accept players showing passion and working hard, if we can get that the rest can be worked on. Credit to Murty he got his tactics right. We created chances and we matched them all over the pitch and few other Scottish sides have managed that in recent years. Special mention for McCrorie, he's 19 years old and a centre half and was the best midfielder on the park today. Happy New Year everyone, I might have had a glass or two already today.

I think we have to assume that the board mean it when they say Murty has the job for the rest of the season, no matter what happens. On that basis, as an inexperienced manager he needs an experienced no 2. Johanson has been fulfilling that job recently but he's even less experienced than Murty so bringing in a 60 something year old with bags of experience and a connection to the club actually makes a lot of sense to me. Murty will need to distance himself from the players. The move from youth coach to 1st team changes the dynamic he has, particularly with experienced players. For the youths like Bates, MacCrorie and Barjonas they are used to him being a 'boss' but for the rest their relationship is different. Nichol is now the buffer between them, and that's a shrewd move I think. John Grieg failed as manager because his relationship with his players changed and this wasn't managed properly. Plus I like Jimmy Nichol, as Germinal observes above he's a connection to better times gone by. Plus it'll be good to have a Proddy in the dressing room again for a change...

I've said this before but I genuinely don't think Billy Davies is in good health.

Gary Monk, why? He's never done anything to suggest he's a decent manager. Middlesborough were doing okay, but they've a big budget and should have been doing better than they were. Added to that most 'boro fans weren't happy with how the side was playing. Lastly their chairman and owner usually backs his managers. His time at Leeds was a failure, again with a big budget, and he only got the Swansea job because they needed a caretaker.

It's an interesting point you make. When Chris Waddle signed for Marseille in 1989, one of the biggest transfer fees in history at the time, he spoke about how what was expected of him was so different from what Spurs and Newcastle had demanded. He was told not to track back or chase down defenders. He was to wait by the half way line and be ready to explode into life when Marseille broke. Marseille won the league 3 times and reached the European Cup Final (losing to the best side I've ever seen, Red Star). So I suppose they knew what they were doing. Any player not willing to run all the time, to track back and tackle will get a hard time from the Rangers support, actually pretty much every Scottish side's support. We value endeavour over ability.

Pena is the kind you need to build a team around and I'm not sure we've got the players to do that just now. He needs hard working, hard running, ball winning players to allow him to find space, drop off and run late. Take Jack out of our side and we don't have anyone else like that. Holt works hard but he's more of a creative player, Windass and Candieas are more attacking types too. That just leaves McCrorie and it's a lot of responsibility to put on a young player. So when Jack, and Dorrans to a lesser extent, aren't available Pena becomes a player it's difficult to accommodate. I can't see him and Kranjcar in the same side as things stand either and I expect Niko will start against Celtic particularly if Jack is out.

Hardie out of contract at the end of the season? Every time I've seen Hardie play he looks like he can score goals. He doesn't look like he can do much else but scoring goals is a fairly valuable commodity on its own. How he hasn't had a proper run in our side, 6 or 7 games on from the start, to see if he can do it at first team level is beyond me. So now he can sign a pre-contract with someone else in five days time. I suppose Murty must know him better than most and if he's not starting him then clearly the feeling at the club is he's not ready or not good enough. Neither reflects well on us. A 6'2" natural goalscorer, how'd we mess that up?

Absolutely no problem. I thought as you'd done the 'Well one no one was doing the Tims. I'm happy for you to do it. You better be lucky now!! :-)

No problem Pete, I misunderstood his post.

Is no one doing the Celtic match? If not I'm happy to give it a go.

The continual overlooking of Kranjcar is strange. If he's done then don't put him on the bench, if he's not then play him. I wouldn't have played Pena today, not his surface and without Jack's industry he'd have been a complete passenger in my opinion. I think Murty changed it because Kilmarnock are decent out wide and our diamond is narrow and would have given them too much space. Still, what he did do didn't work either. You also have to ask when Hardie will get a run.

I'll hold any criticism of Murty today. Our starting 11 today had an average age of 23, our most experienced player today was Candeias at 29. That's a big part of the problem, the lack of depth in our squad is very noticeable when five first choice players are missing. But Pena, Herrara or Kranjcar could have at least brought some experience to the side because it was clearly lacking. Our midfield contained two people you could say are midfielders; Candeias and Holt, and even then you could say Candeias is really a forward. None of them are leaders or people who'll stamp their authority on the match. To be fair only Kranjcar from the bench could have brought that. We can only speculate as to why he isn't getting a game. I guess he could have played Cardoso instead of Bates or Wilson but thay're much of a muchness to me, perhaps and Kranjcar instead of Hodson letting John go back to full back. But beyond that who is else is he going to play? Herrara shouldn't start in front of Morelos and he can't play the position that Windass was asked too. Pena is a luxury player, he's got a deft touch at times but his work-rate and awareness seem to be lacking. Barjonas is only 18, he's not the answer, yet. Jack will be back soon and I hope Alves and maybe Wallace. They'll make a difference to the side. But that squad needs strengthened and soon because Murty has no chance as it stands.

Hamilton and St Johnstone.