JohnMc

Without a permanent manager January is surely going to pass us by? By all means extend the contracts of promising young players but beyond that can we really approach players at other clubs, indeed can we even offer new contracts to out of contract players at Rangers like Wilson? McArthur is an attractive signing, I'd consider approaching him, offering our highest salary and appointing him captain, but he's not going to sign without knowing who the manager is. Indeed would Moult, or Walker either? What happens if we bring in a manager who just doesn't fancy them? It's another consequence of our inability to appoint a manager. I'm far from convinced a Director of Football signing players without a manager is going to end well.

You know, before we slate McInnes too much, it's worth just assessing why a Rangers supporter and ex-player, someone who wants to move back to the Central belt for family reasons, would turn us down to remain at Aberdeen on a lower wage and with far less prospect of success. Let that sink in. This isn't about McInnes and any lack of ambition, it's about the continued state of our club and the ineptitude of some of the people running it. For some of us it's feelin g a lot like 1983 all over again.

Yeah, sorry, put me in the 'who the hell signed that statement off' camp. If it was possible to make this whole debacle any more ridiculous someone Rangers managed it with a statement written in the tone of a 14 year old just knocked back at a school dance. No wonder McInnes doesn't fancy it.

Sammy Lee was just appointed assistant at Everton. John Robertson was assistant manager of Celtic. Kenny McDowall was 1st team coach of Celtic. George Graham at Spurs Brian Clough at Leeds Any ex-Gers at Aberdeen Any ex-Aberdeen at Rangers That Christie player on loan at Aberdeen from Celtic. Footballers don't think like you and I. To them it's a job, pure and simple. I don't know very much about Tony Docherty but any reservations I have over him working for us are to do with concern over his ability (and his managerial partners).

Those two pics above of the free kick last season and the free kick this season remove any doubt and demonstrate exactly why we won this season but not last; black socks! Oh yes, forget about tactics, fight and desire, it's all down to the socks and Murty knows it. The last two matches have been brilliant, I've really enjoyed them. Fight, desire, team spirit, backs to the wall defending at times and no shortage of superb football too. I wish we could play Aberdeen every week.

The Caxinha answer is a strange one. A simple 'we thought he was the right man, but it didn't work out, that happens in football' would have killed that question and been a truthful answer. Everyone knows the search for our next manager is taking far too long, I'm not sure what anyone expected to learn on that front today. In the end there are guys on our board who have invested a significant amount of money into the club, money there is a real risk they might not get back. I can understand why they're being cautious over this appointment. They're only human, I'm not sure how much the Pedro appointment has cost the club but it'll be a fairly big sum. They'll be very reluctant to lose that kind of money again. That nervousness will inevitably lead to caution and time being taken. It's not ideal as a fan but I can understand it from their perspective.

I thought we saw some genuine tactical insight from Murty last night, and find the criticism of Miller puzzling. Murty must have studied how Aberdeen play and realised that their centre-backs are actually quite good at defending when facing the ball. They're big, strong defenders and will win most balls knocked up to forwards with their back to goal. So Miller was instructed to drag them out of position, take them out of their comfort zone and create space for others to exploit; and for once we did that superbly. Holt, Pena, Windass, Tav and John found space last night and made the most of it, but Miller was instrumental in that. It wasn't just headless chicken stuff from him it was considered and thoughtful, pulling defenders out of position, knowing he'd play no part in the move. It was a genuine team performance with controlled aggression, energy and a little bit of long overdue good fortune. We didn't have a failure last night, let's enjoy that today.

Jack Ross currently at St Mirren. How excited do you feel now!!!

Aberdeen approached Partick Thistle in the summer for permission to approach Archibald when they were sure McInnes was going to Sunderland. Whether he'd still be first choice is anyone's guess.

You know there is a manager we could almost certainly get if we wanted him. He's taken his current side from marooned at the foot of the table and relegation favourites to clear at the top of the table in less than 12 months, he's done that with around the fourth largest wage bill in the league. He's also served his time as a youth coach and assistant manager before stepping into the first team role. He'd a journeyman-like playing career in lower divisions in England and Scotland with some time in the top flight up here so knows the leagues and the players. On top of that he's got a Honours Degree in Economics, wrote a weekly column for the BBC not-ghosted and was chairman of the Players Union. I've never heard his name mentioned in relation to us and I expect most would be horrified at him even being thought of.

Pena was clearly a gamble. Every report on him from Mexico suggested he has ability but has lost his way in recent years. I'm not sure a club like Rangers is the place for someone to find their way again. You can't have more than a couple of poor games before a decent percentage of the support will be on your back, plus the scrutiny Rangers players face day in day out is difficult for some players to adjust too. Add in the obvious cultural differences to everyday life and the odds are against Pena making it with us. It's difficult to judge him though, none of us have seen enough, but Murty sees him everyday and clearly hasn't fancied him so far. Perhaps he'll score the winner tomorrow night and become an instant cult hero, stranger things have happened.

We have some idea, it's not hard to get the ball-park. It might be a wee bit more but it's not significantly more and indeed it might be a lot less.

There are shades of 1983 about this. This year we weren't able to attract our first choice Director of Football, our incumbent being at best second choice for the job. Back in 83, before directors of football were invented, we searched for our eighth manager following the end of legend John Grieg's reign. Our board's first choice was ex-player and Govan boy Alex Ferguson who was doing amazing things with Aberdeen. The Aberdeen board responded by making Ferguson the best paid manager in Scotland and he signed a new contract at Aberdeen. We then turned to Jim McLean, brother of former player and assistant manager Tommy, McLean had transformed Dundee Utd into title winners and European contenders. McLean was interviewed but ultimately chose to stay with Utd, again securing an improved contract in the process. Finally we turned to Motherwell manager Jock Wallace. Wallace had previously enjoyed great success with Rangers before leaving mysteriously after winning the title. Again, the reason for that is always assumed to be money, or lack of it. Wallace joined Rangers second time round as probably the third, maybe even the fourth, best paid manager in Scotland. That reign wasn't a success. This time round I reckon we'd be able to significantly improve the annual salary of any other Scottish domestic manager outside of Rodgers. If we can't then there is literally no chance of us over-turning Celtic in the foreseeable future. That's the pool we're fishing in, the £600,000 a year and under market. What does that buy you? Well Gordon Strachan was on around £500,000 a year at Scotland, Michael O'Neill is on something similar at Northern Ireland. So to attract him for example you'd need to seriously improve his salary. As a comparison his near namesake and ex-Celtic manager Martin is on double that managing the ROI. From England we can forget about attracting anyone from the top league or even someone recently out of work like De Boer or Keoman. Although fired they will still be getting paid their salary, and taking a new job will see that end, so we'd need to match what they were on and we simply can't afford that. Keoman was on £2 million a year at Everton it's reported, De Boer probably half that at Crystal Palace. Whatever happens expect to be disappointed, we are not in a position to attract a top manager. That doesn't mean we can't get the right man for the job, but it will require some genius and incredible foresight to achieve it. Perhaps someone who is a current number 2 somewhere, or managing at a lower level who someone somewhere has seen something in. Souness was a huge call to make manager. No managerial experience, never played in Scotland before, not even any coaching experience before. But what a call he turned out to be. So, it's not impossible, there's someone out there who can galvanise and transform us. So it doesn't surprise me this is taking a long time, what's annoying is they didn't start looking long before they did.

I'm not trying to be funny when I say I don't think Billy Davies is in good health. I'd be very surprised if anyone in football is seriously considering him for any jobs currently.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news Bill but police-officers and serving soldiers already can vote. Why would you want to deny them a vote? Illegal immigrants? The certified insane? Really, could you build any more strawmen? It used to be the law that woman couldn't vote, were they not being disenfranchised Bill? Or was that a denial of democracy too? Those pesky suffragettes wanting a say in the country they live in. If you want to make the argument that Gonzo's wife shouldn't be allowed a say in who governs the country then go right ahead. But don't fall back on semantics to cover whatever political or social views you hold.

Why, Irish citizens don't have too? Neither do Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Bangladeshis or Pakistanis. Yet a Dane who has lived here for 20 years, who has a full time job and a wife and 3 kids all born here can't. Anyway, we're rapidly going off topic. My original point stands, over 10 million people in the UK aren't allowed to vote in General Elections, and millions more are completely unengaged by current politics. That's not right in any democracy.

I mention it because these people are literally disenfranchised and you seem so hung up on the literal meaning of words that you'd dismiss 7 million other people who are excluded from voting. That's us at 10 million people who live in the UK who can't vote, but still, nothing to see here, move on. The fact 'EU nationals' (apologies, for using shorthand instead of typing out the names of every country in the EU) can vote in local elections in the UK only further underlines their literal disenfranchisement in general elections.

C'mon, Stevie Clark played for St Mirren and Scotland is actually Scottish, Tommy Wright was an assistant at St Johnstone before getting the job, likewise Steve Robinson was assistant manager at Motherwell under Baraclough. Rodgers I'll give you.

Or Turkish going by his name. There's a big Greek population in Australia though. Aren't Australia one of the strongest nations in Asian football? Has he really done remarkable things? Japan, S. Korea and Australia are the perennial qualifiers from Asia, no? Since Oz joined the Asian FA they've not failed to qualify for the World Cup. I'd never heard of the guy before today.

Okay, how about the 3 Million EU nationals living, working and paying taxes in the UK who aren't allowed to vote in UK General Elections? Do they fit your narrow dictionary definition okay? I'd ask you to read again about the million or so people who dropped off the electoral register in 2015, most without realising they had. There might not be Jim Crow laws in place but there's a tacit acceptance that many of those people might not have voted as the government of the time wanted.

Gaffer speaks for me on this thread. That's very sad news.

I disagree. In terms of those who are literally disenfranchised the Electoral Commission put that number around 7 million people, nearly 15% of the population eligible to vote. There are various reasons for this, some people clearly don't care and choose not to register, but there are other reasons too. A change in the law in 2015 meant households could no longer register people to vote, individuals had to do it themselves. This led to a large drop in registered voters. You've also got a significant number of people who have defaulted on debt, child support, credit card bills, council tax that type of thing who 'disappear' for a number of years. These people are still part of society but often working in the black economy or not working at all. I personally know a number of guys who have gone through bad divorces and almost dropped off the edge of society. They aren't registered to vote, they don't pay taxes, they no longer contribute to their communities. Then you have the people who are figuratively disenfranchised. There are millions of people around the UK who simply choose not to vote. There are constituencies in this country where almost half of the residents don't bother voting. These are always some of the poorest and most deprived areas in the country. It can be no coincidence that a significant percentage of the poorest and most socially excluded people are not engaged with mainstream politics. I mean it's ironic, but it can't be a coincidence. For local elections the figures are even worse.

It is indeed just your opinion. For a start there is no 'us'. We're not homogenous, we come from a myriad of backgrounds, beliefs and experiences. Wearing a Rangers scarf only tells you what football team I support. It gives you no insight into my religious, political, social or cultural beliefs. Frankie ran a poll on here at the time of the referendum and, surprise surprise, it showed 'us' to be largely inline with the rest of the country when it came to voting intentions. There are reasons why politics in the West of Scotland seems to have such a Roman Catholic dominance, and they are worth exploring and understanding. It's also worth exploring why so many working class people have become disenfranchised by politics and never vote.

All youngsters at Man Utd are described as so, it's a journalistic law dating back to the time of Busby!

The Polis are an unusual organisation. I've known coppers with the sickest sense of humour, where literally nothing was out of bounds to joke about. When challenged they'd explain it was their way of dealing with what they saw and dealt with on a regular basis. I don't know the person involved but I see she heads up the Human Trafficking division; can you imagine what she must see and hear about on a weekly basis? Just try and imagine what kind of individuals she must have to deal with. If that doesn't harden you and change your tolerance of what's acceptable to joke about and what isn't then I don't know what will. I suspect this is a personal thing. The person who made the complaint might dislike her, be envious of her success or have a problem with a woman giving orders, who can tell. But 'common-sense' left the police force a while ago and senior police in particular should be aware of who they can speak openly in front of and who they can't. It's a shame, none of this has the slightest bearing on her ability to do her job after all.