JohnMc

I find it hard to get excited about this. From my cynical stand point I think Lawwell is making noise for effect, he must already know he doesn't have support of the other teams in Scotland, and that the SFA don't intend to create another investigation. In which case this is all about playing to the gallery, that fairly large section of his club's own support so warped by hatred. This way he keeps the unhinged sevcopaths onboard while nothing actually happens. It's a dangerous game and one I'd hoped the people at the top of our game might be above playing, but I shouldn't be that surprised they aren't. Ironically I'd love to know how the SFA and the SPFL are going to ensure nothing like what happened to Rangers can ever happen again. We should all be demanding lessons are learned and rules are put in place, but I remain sceptical clubs will ever agree to that.

This thread has taken an unexpected turn. Regarding Davies, he did an interview with the BBC recently that is gathering dust in a filing cabinet as it's deemed not broadcastable. Even BBC Scotland have certain standards when it comes to slander. I'm no expert but Davies displays a number of traits associated with illness, I hope he's okay and perhaps seeks professional help. As for bull fighting as someone who attended the San Fermin festival in Pamplona a few years ago I'm not really in a position to criticise anyone's support for bull fighting. I'm not sure bull fighting is significantly more cruel than fishing to be honest, albeit cows are relatively more sentient than mackerel or trout.

Getting a fucken grip of yourself. McCoist is our club's record overall scorer, our top league scorer, our top league cup scorer and our top European scorer and has represented our club more times than any other human being except two. He's in our hall of fame, he's in the Scottish football hall of fame and he's in the the Scottish sport hall of fame. He represented his country 69 times and scored 19 goals. Whatever his shortcomings as a manager he helped hold our club together during some very difficult times. It's harder to think of someone more fitting of the term 'legend'. But hey, you turn the other way in the street if you want.

So is everyone just lining up to have a kick at Ally for daring to speak the truth or do you actually disagree with what he said? Because if anyone doesn't think Celtic are light years ahead of us, both on and off the park, I'd be very surprised.

I don't think he's far better, he might be a bit better but we'll see. I think Halliday came in for a lot of stick last season because he didn't hide. I'd like to see him in a side with a proper defence behind him and a ball playing midfielder alongside him and that didn't happen last season. Very few of our players looked good last season, it doesn't mean they were bad players though. It's difficult to compare players, I accept that. Our 433 under Warburton doesn't lend itself to exact comparison to this season. But of the players we've brought in I think McKay is the better wide midfielder/winger/wide forward than anyone else currently at the club. O'Halloran was being played wide and even for St Johnstone likes to cut in from wide areas. Whether we play 442, 4411 or 433 we're weaker on the flanks this season.

So is the consensus that we've got a stronger squad now the 'window' is closed than at the end of last season? There's been no change at keeper. In defence I think most people see Alves as a better player then we've had for a few years at centre-half. I'm not sure about Cardoso yet, time will tell. We've also added Declan John as much needed full back cover. A lot was expected of him as a young player but his career has gone backwards, since breaking into the Cardiff side as a teenager. He spent some of last season at the dizzy depths of Chesterfield, a name to send shudders through bluenoses of a certain vintage. We lost Kiernan who I actually thought was okay and just needed to be in a side who bothered to actually defend. We've also lost Crooks although I wasn't sure if he even was a defender. On balance our defence has better depth and a stronger first choice back four. Midfield is harder to judge I think. The big buy was Pena but no one can judge him yet as we've barely seen him. Early reports are concerning but a period of adjustment and settling into life here was inevitable. But so far he's not strengthened the side, but he might yet. Personally I'm not convinced Jack is better than Halliday and having a better defence behind him should help whoever plays as a deep lying centre midfielder. Dorrans is better than Halliday I think and if Rossiter can stay fit our central midfield is stronger. Our wide areas are definitely weaker. McKay, O'Hallaron and Forrester are away from the club as is Dodoo who could play wide as well. Replaced by Cadieas, Dalcio and Nemane, none of the three of them are better than McKay. Dalcio has struggled to get into the side and Nemane is a young player who might not see much 1st team football this season. Putting Windass or Krancjar out wide is not the answer. For me our midfield remains unbalanced and I'm not sure we're stronger here overall. Upfront is the hardest to judge for me. Young Morelos has started really well and if he can keep that up he'll have been an amazing bit of business. But he's a young player and inevitably he'll have a drop in form at some point. I'm also a little concerned that he's had no 'pre-season' having joined us half way through the Finnish season, next May is a long time to play without a break. Herrera is a more straightforward target man, whether he's better than Garner time will tell. Garner struggled due to the type of football we played, he'd be much better suited to our current style ironically. Other than that we've lost Dodoo who was enigmatic and O'halleron who struggled last season yet has turned into Gerd Muller now he's back at St Johnstone. Again we're relying on Kenny Miller too much, hopefully young Hardie might make a breakthrough this season. We've lost Waghorn who always worked hard but didn't score enough for me, again someone who'd benefit playing alongside someone like Morelos. Our forward options are small, a couple of injuries and you wonder where the goals are coming from. I'm not yet convinced we're stronger up front. Overall, a stronger defence and central midfield, but weaker in wide areas and shallow upfront. If I'm being honest I think we're still a long way behind Celtic and I think Aberdeen have a stronger first choice 11.

I heard that about Halliday as well. It's a strange thing to say publicly and it's very naive. MOH has started the season very well, if we're still struggling to score in a months time and MOH is still knocking them in for St Johnstone PC simply piles pressure on himself. A far more diplomatic response would have been my advice. MOH will have friends in the current Rangers squad, they won't like to read their manager slaughtering their mate. I say this as I'm reading a book just now by a former player who talks about the respect Alex Ferguson had from all his players and it was largely because he never spoke to the media about them, everything stayed in the dressing room.

Hang about Craig, "Rangers fans know", what the hell does that mean? And if anything underlines his feeling of not being appreciated it's some of the bullshit that's been written about him since he left. McKay was the most skilful and creative player, and the most saleable asset, we had, yet he was offered a new contract that was less than other players in the squad. Go figure. I've some insight into Barrie McKay and I can tell you his first choice was to remain at Rangers, but he knew his worth and he knew what others at the club were getting paid. There's a strain of Scottish football supporter who thinks if a player doesn't make hard tackles, win headers and chase lost causes he's not trying. Bizarre. I know we're not supposed to criticise the almighty Pedro, what with that wonderful pedigree he's got, his amazing start to management at Rangers and his inspired summer buys. Still, with all those really good wide players the club has just now I'm sure Pedro knows best.

According to McKay himself his first choice was to stay at Rangers.

Can't wait to read that.

Advocaat followed up our 6-2 loss at Parkhead (to a Celtic side with a brand new manager) with a 5-1 defeat of Celtic at Ibrox when we next played them. If Pedro's side do that he'll have my full backing. I've avoided any criticism of PC since the league campaign started, I aired my concerns over him very clearly before that. We're 3 games in, a win, a loss and a draw is fairly inauspicious start but I'm willing to wait and see what the coming weeks bring. He's managed us in 13 league matches and we've won 7. In Jock Wallace's last season in charge of Rangers we won 6 of our first 13 league matches, but in his 14th we beat Celtic 3-0 at home. He was still fired that season despite everything he'd done for us as a manager before that. In the end if the board really believe in Pedro they'll need to give him 18 months, in that time he'll need to win at least one domestic cup and show clear signs of on pitch improvement to be given longer. I don't think a side can be built in a few months. Wallace got a couple of seasons to build his side. I'd cut my losses as I think his appointment was a mistake but if those closer to the club, who see him at work everyday and can see what he's doing first hand think differently then that's all that matters.

Does Pedro have final say on players signed for development squads? I assume he has final say on first team squad players but beyond that? His job title is 'manager' but I'm not sure if his duties are solely around the first team and whilst I'm sure he takes a big interest in development and age group squads perhaps he's only responsible for the first team squad.

Is he English? At 19 he'll need patience from our support, 19 year old wingers tend to be inconsistent. We need a wide player and if Walker is joining in January or next summer then it makes sense. Be interesting to see what he's like.

It's simple, we just need to win the league, we've done it 54 times before, we can do it.

So that's where Kyle Hutton is these days. Surely at some point Hardie needs to get a run in the 1st team? He's either good enough or he's not but there's only one way to tell, but he keeps scoring goals at whatever level he's playing so far. Related to this competition I was watching some of these interviews Si Ferry has being doing. He's just done with Kris Boyd and it's actually pretty good. Boyd speaks surprisingly well and clearly fancies a career in broadcasting in the future. One thing Boyd spoke about that I though was interesting was the demise of reserve team football in Scotland. In Boyd's opinion this was a huge loss and he credited being able to play with, and against, adult professionals in reserve football as one of the things that allowed him to progress as a young player. He felt quite strongly that only by playing in competitive matches with seasoned professionals can young players learn and develop. It was interesting as I've not heard many players express this recently. It's a decent interview apart from that. He speaks about coming through at Kilmarnock and signing for Rangers, then the PLG time and Walter returning.

Does anyone think Doncaster and co would have met them without seeking permission or guidance from Celtic first? So either Celtic want the supporter's group to keep the issue live and in the public realm but at arm's length from the club, or else the club want nothing to do with it and asked Doncaster and co to meet with their idiot wing in the hope of bringing the issue to a close. Whatever the reason it does read like as far as the SPFL are concerned the matter is closed, reluctantly or not. I expect the SFA can expect petitions and emails a plenty.

Three Colin? Four I think you mean.

It would be interesting, but probably impossible, to define a 'legend'. By most measures Barry ferguson is a club legend, yet I'd wager quite a few would be unhappy to describe him as that. Is Mo Johnston a legend? What about Gazza or Brian Laudrup? (Did you know Brian Laudrup was actually Austrian by birth? I didn't know that until very recently). You have to have done something exceptional to achieve legend status.

I remember being very excited when we bought Iain Ferguson from Dundee, he was seen as a real talent back then. He was a frustrating player, he'd real ability but it just didn't work out at Ibrox. He stood in front of me in the queue for the Odeon in Renfield St once, he was much smaller than I expected but that didn't seem to matter to the absolute stunner on his arm. Embarrassing to describe him as a legend in the context of Rangers but Dundee Utd and Motherwell fans might.

I worry that 'safe standing' is an oxymoron. Safe standing requires the club, the police and the local council to do their jobs, professionally, diligently and consistently. I have no faith in two if those organisations and some doubts on the third. Read the Hillsborough Report, the Leppings Lane was 'safe' as long as it was properly policed, it wasn't. You don't have to look far at Ibrox to see the consequences of what can happen when football supporters are at best taken for granted and at worst viewed as no better than cattle. I've heard the arguments, I know it works in Germany, but we're not living in Germany.

The BBC hold the rights to show Scottish football highlights on terrestrial TV. There is an agreement that other terrestrial broadcasters can use limited or newsworthy footage for minimum cost for news broadcasts only. It maybe that STV simply don't have footage of the goals. That of course doesn't explain why the BBC would choose to show the 'goal', they might claim context but I think we all know their sympathies lie with Lennon in this incident. To be fair to the Record the photo of Lennon doing the 'get it up you' gesture is pretty big, I've not seen the Sun, but you can hardly accuse the Record of hiding the image.

I'm confused by this, what's the issue here? Our press conferences are filmed and broadcast online, is that right? In the past we've had the image of the manager/player/whoever is 'giving' the conference on the screen while some disembodied voice from behind asks a question. So now, instead, we get to see the person asking the question, so what's the problem here? Seriously, is this about not wanting their image to be broadcast? Do they believe there's something sinister behind this and it's done to out them off asking 'difficult' questions? I'd have thought a fair number of supporters would welcome difficult questions being asked. Anyone able to throw some light on the issue?

Just me that feels Lennon didn't actually do anything 'wrong' then? The 'get it up you' arm gesture could be construed as an issue and as has been mentioned Halliday was sent off for an identical gesture and I remember watching David Healy being sent off for doing the same thing when playing for Northern Ireland once. He should probably get some sort of punishment from the SPFL for it, but, if I'm honest, I don't think Halliday should have been sent off for it and I don't think Lennon should get into bother for it. As for the cupping of his ears gesture, c'mon, are we really going to take offence at that? 50,000 of us call him for everything, we should be able to take a bit back. A football match is not a place for shrinking violets or the easily offended. I've said and done things at matches I look back on later with embarrassment, but you get caught up in it all, some slack needs given both ways I think. Lennon makes some strange choices and I think most of us, if we'd experienced assaults and what have you, would be a bit more cautious and circumspect in our future behaviour, he clearly feels differently. But this feels petty to me. The best response to Lennon is to beat his teams every time we play them, he can cup his ears all he likes then.

I decided a few weeks ago I wasn't going to criticise Caixinha anymore, I'd made my views clear enough after Progres and I'd let results either vindicate him or whatever. I'll say this though, Hibs played in Lennon's image. They got under our skin, they antagonised our players and our crowd, we stopped concentrating on the match and started concentrating on him. They put us out of our stride, we lost our discipline and more importantly our game plan. They goaded us and we reacted. Lennon used to do that exact same thing as a player, very effectively. We were fluid and in control at the start but Hibs had started to adapt and counter-act us before the sending off. They then made the extra man count and we weren't able to adapt to the change in the game. A couple of people have said that player-for-player we were better, maybe, but as a team Hibs were, they showed more 'savvy' and more nous than us. They knew exactly when to mix it up, when to get physical and when to play football. I also thought they played as a team, they had a togetherness and a plan they executed well. The ref had a huge bearing on the match, sending off Jack and not one of theirs was a decision only he can explain. Whether Jack was verbally aggressive too, or the ref was simply incompetent we can only speculate at. However, we had every right to feel aggrieved at the sending off, it should have galvanised our team, we should have worked even harder, but it didn't, it hurt us and we didn't recover. I've seen better Rangers sides than this one lose to Hibs before. Hibs are in good form and playing well and circumstances, luck even, was in their favour yesterday. But I've seen Rangers sides find a determination and a will-to-win-against-the-odds when reduced to ten men before that we didn't have yesterday. It might be a cliche but in football playing ten men is often harder. It wasn't yesterday. I think a Walter Smith Rangers team wouldn't have lost yesterday when down to ten men. It might be it takes a bit longer than a few weeks to build true team spirit and to understand how Scottish football really works for some of our players. The sooner they get up to speed the better though.

Oh that's good, that's very good! I mean that's got to be the next article we publish, I'd be happy to contribute some time to it if anyone wants. I wonder how Jim Spence manages his freelance work, or Cosgrove for that matter.