JohnMc

Under difference circumstances I'd have agreed with you but having watched the management of our club procrastinate, dither and blunder over the last 12 months I'm not sure you're correct about that. I do think there's no desire to sign him though, rightly or wrongly. I think it would have leaked if we were interested or pursuing him.

At 31 I doubt Naismith is past it, and even if he's lost a yard of pace Naismith's game wasn't based on speed and power. With Pena gone and Kranjcar struggling we need some guile. Naismith offers that and can play as a second striker very effectively. Indeed a busy, explosive type player like Morelos would do well paired with Naismith. Players like Tav, John, Holt and Windass would love playing with Naismith, he sees runs, he finds space and he creates openings for players like them. He also brings experience, our starting 11 against Celtic was one of the youngest and least experienced I've seen Rangers field. We need some experience in our side. I've no idea if the Hearts story has any truth in it, but he clearly wants to come 'home' and I can't think of any good reasons why Rangers wouldn't facilitate that.

Wasn't Sinclair closer to the 'Strachan philosophy', and one a number of English sides subscribe too as well? Strachan's point, after the last Scotland qualifier, about us not producing players who were as a big as other countries was mocked by most people afterwards. It also seems more amusing coming from someone of his stature who enjoyed relative success as a player. This is something he's spoken about before. But he's not alone in believing the top class player not only has to be technically great but also physically 'big'. It might surprise some to know that Arsene Wenger believes in this too. Have a look at his successful sides and they'd barely a player under 5'11" in them. The recent Barcelona side has turned this on it's head. The triumvirate of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta proving that ability always trumps physicality. Ironically McCrorie, at 6'1", would be Sinclair's perfect player.

That really is disgraceful. Copyright is funny, if the guy has permission from the photographer to use the images he's probably in the clear, but those featured can still request he removes their image from any publicly available material. But where would he have got an image of someone who was just a supporter, not a player or director? And who gave him that permission?

You are making progress Grasshopper.

I wonder if he asked, and received, permission from John Brown, Ally McCoist, Andy Goram, Paul Murray, El Hadji Diouf, Dave King, Alastair Johnston and Stuart McCall, among others, to use their image on the poster? I mean this is a grubby, money making exercise, it would be so sad if he hadn't permission and was forced to remove all copies of it and compensate those whose image he used without prior approval. Hope nobody tells Andy Goram or Bomber about this...

This. There's confusion over the winter break. Some pundits laughably think it's to do with avoiding bad weather and have a moan when it snows or freezes in February. It's nothing to do with weather and all to do with giving the players a break. It's meant to allow players who have been playing with injuries to get them addressed, either through an op or through rest. As supporters we're often critical of players commitment without realising that most players play with ongoing injuries. Either playing through the pain barrier which can lead to their performances being compromised or with pain killers which can lead to injuries getting worse. Hopefully these are nothing too serious and both can get over them within a couple of weeks.

How come it didn't work out with Thomson coaching at Hibs? That seems the most obvious fit for him. Vignal is the intriguing one for me. He's hardly part of an 'old boys' club, having only played one season for us, on loan, a good while ago. He apparently lives in France again too. Isn't this all the work of Craig Mulholland rather than the Director of Football?

It strikes me that we're seeing the Walter Smith guide to rebuilding Rangers. Get a core of experienced, better Scottish players, from down south or rival SPFL sides, add some other British players in as well and then supplement with exciting continentals and emerging youngsters. In his 1st transfer window, the January one, he signed Weir, Ehiogu and Kevin Thomson. Then in the summer he signed Naismith, Broadfoot, Cuellar, Dailly, Whittaker, Steven Davis, McCulloch, Beasley, Darchville and Cousin. They strengthened a squad already containing Ferguson, Boyd, McGregor, Hutton, Hemdani, Papac, Novo and Adam. We don't have the money to do exactly the same thing but guys like Murphy, Docherty, Jones, Kenny McLean and Kevin McDonald along with possibly Naismith, help achieve a similar thing. Supplement that with a couple of wily French players coming to the end of their careers and I'll expect us to make the Europa League final next season. PS, whilst I'm in fantasy mode I also want to see us make a move for Steven Davis again. He's got 18 months left on his contract. Contact him now regarding a summer move, offer the captaincy and a future coaching role at Rangers. He's 33 now so he's probably not got another big move left, but I suspect he'll not be short of suiters if Southampton don't offer him a new deal. Davis is the type of player who can play until for another 3 or 4 years easily.

The little 'x' is visible now, thanks for that.

Good stuff on the site change guys, a lot of work and co-ordination went into it, well done. One question, there's a yellow rectangle with a message in it from Frankie on my screen and I can't get rid of it. I understand Frankie really wants people to submit content but I probably don't need the constant reminder!! I'm guessing this is one of the 'stickies' I've seen mentioned. How do I minimise it? I can't see any way of making it disappear. I'm on Chrome on a MacBook.

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...