JohnMc

I was critical of Caixinha last season and remain sceptical about his ability. I can't get excited or depressed at his signings as out with Jack and Alves I've never heard or seen any of them play. Signing the Aberdeen captain on a free is a good bit of business, he must have something about him in the dressing room in terms of leadership and responsibility too. Alves has great experience and has spent almost his entire career at a pretty high level, on paper he's a step up in quality and arguably our best signing since the day's of Walter Smith. I remain nervous about integrating 'Latin' players into Scottish football, not only is it a big culture shock on the pitch but culturally and linguistically off it too. The young Columbian has already spent time in Finland so Scotland shouldn't be too much of a shock, the rest we'll just have to hope find their feet quickly. It's hardly impossible, Ceuller, Amaruso, Gattuso, Arteta have all fitted in quickly and well so no reason these new guys can't either. All that being said it is exciting when a new season starts, seeing new players for the first time and the slate from last season wiped clean always brings a new hope. I'm not sure we can take much from Thursday's match either positively or negatively. The proof will come in August and September.

I feel sorry for Halliday. He lost form last season but he was hardly the only one, I do wonder how he'd perform with better defence behind him and a better attack in front of him. I still think he's a better player than he gets credit for. Hey ho.

Is St Joseph's a primary school or a secondary school? I'd fancy us in both legs if they're a primary.

There are clubs in the next round I've heard of, that doesn't auger well.

Good luck Joe. I wish him all the best, it didn't work out, no hard feelings.

Is Walker better than McKay? I don't think so. Wouldn't it be better to give the half million we're reported to have offered Hearts for Walker to McKay and ensure he stays at the club?

The goalie signing is a puzzler. What do we need another 18 year old keeper for? With Fod, Alnwick and Kelly this new lad is already fourth choice at best. And what's one of our players doing joining them?!! Fuxake, what's the world coming too.

This Walker saga feels a bit like Scott Allen a couple of seasons ago. Either Cathro has been told Hearts won't sell him less than £1 million or he's making a very big stick for his own back. Hearts can't afford to keep an unhappy player for 12 months and then lose him for nothing. They'll sell him in this window but selling him to us will be unpopular with their support and for that reasons I don't think they will. I could see him at Sunderland or MK Dons next season because I don't think we can, or should, spend £1 million on him.

Forrester has had 'attitude' problems his entire career, in my opinion it comes from having too much too young. Forrester was a child star, capped for England at under 16 and under 17 he was highly gifted and expected by everyone who saw him to become a star. Watford bought him as a 10 year old from his local side Northampton, Aston Villa then paid a quarter of a million for him when he was only 16. Yet his career since then is littered with failed chances and contracts being run down, it's the only reason Rangers were able to sign him. Warburton clearly felt he could be the manager to finally get the best out of him, Pedro thinks differently. For me Forrester is the type of player who infuriates supporters. He is clearly gifted but his attitude and his application simply don't match his skill and so he doesn't make it into the first team often enough. You see wee glimpses of what he could be, then he vanishes for four weeks. There are lots of players who hate training and could be described as 'poor' trainers, but they're easy to manage, they're diligent in other areas and bring more to the team. Forrester is simply not as good as he thinks he is and without the hard work never will be.

There was an interesting interview with Harry Kane in the Times a few weeks back. Kane, who is a similar height and build to Hardie, was sent out on loan by Spurs and did okay but never set the heather on fire. Spurs wanted to send him out again but he refused and told them he wanted to stay and fight for a place in the Spurs side. Half way through that season he got his chance and the rest is history. Now I'm not for one minute suggesting Hardie is the next Harry Kane but he is someone who has consistently scored goals wherever he's played. That's a great strength. Like a few others I've never been that impressed with his overall game on the occasions I've seen him but he clearly has enormous self-belief and knows where the goals are. He's a big skinny lad, but as he gets older he'll start to grow into himself and become physically stronger, adding another dimension to his game. I'd be really disappointed if Hardie didn't get a chance at Rangers. You'd start to question the point of our youth system if someone who has consistently scored goals at every level he's played at isn't given a chance in our first team.

There was no Welsh league when Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham joined but there is one now and was when Merthyr joined. Precedent set. I obviously agree that Rangers aren't on the same level of club but we'd have been joining the same level of league and that was the issue. I actually do think the English would have backed us if it came to it. The clubs at that level would have backed us, the leagues would have backed us, there's a lot of votes in those regional and county leagues in the FA. As for the SFA, we'd just been thrown out of our league and the company that owned us had gone into liquidation, had we pushed it and applied for England and they'd said 'no' we could have challenged that under restraint of trade or threatened to resign. In the end the SFA might not have liked it, indeed they might have said 'no' and forced us out of football for 12 months but a phoenix club could have played for one season in England and then merged with 'Rangers' the following year. We didn't try, we didn't play hard ball with them, we don't know what kind of stomach for a fight they had. Remember Lawwell and his cabal might have fancied us setting a precedent of going to play in England,.

Maybe. We didn't try so it's all moot, but had we tried, with all the 'new club' bullshit going on, and with us having been thrown out of the SPL I think we'd have got into England. Had we been denied we could have challenged it legally and would have won, I think (I'm not a real lawyer, don't take legal advice from me on other matters). You already have Welsh sides in England, and not just the big well known ones either, Merthyr Town, a Welsh side, joined the Western League, part of the English pyramid for example just five years ago. Closer to home Tweedmouth Rangers joined the East of Scotland league just last season after playing in the Northumberland League, they are based in England. Likewise Gretna and Annan both played in Cumbria for years. So there's precedent before you look to Ireland, and further afield where there are countless clubs playing in leagues outside of their country. The SFA might not have liked it but I can't see how they could stop it if we'd forced the issue. Remember this was the level we'd have been looking to join.

Has there ever been a good player emerged from Finish football? Maybe this boy will be the exception. What's the story with Ryan Hardie, is he being released or has he got a chance at the club following a couple of seasons out on loan? He scored 9 goals in the season just passed playing for two of the poorest sides in league and scored twice for Scotland under 21s earlier this week. We're getting excited about a 20 year old from Finish football, but is that a very different standard from Scottish football?

Rugby in Scotland, Ireland and Wales simply by-passed the existing clubs and created new regional sides, these sides are owned by the governing bodies, so it would be like the SFA creating sides and running them. At one time winning the Glasgow Cup was seen as a measure of success. Indeed there was also the Glasgow Merchant's Charity Cup too, something we took seriously for over half a century. But in time these faded in importance and national leagues and cups grew in importance. We're now seeing national cups start to mean less. The League Cup has already started to lose some of it's value and, in time, the Scottish cup will go the same way, it's already happened in England. Like you I wish things didn't change, but the they do. Queens Park and Vale of Leven were once 2 of the greatest club sides in Europe, they're not today. Ajax were once the finest side in the world, today they're little more than a feeder club for Bayern, Barca and PSG. History teaches us that if we don't move with the times they'll leave us behind.

Five years ago, when everyone in Scottish football was trying to kill us, we should have applied to join the Northern Premier League, the semi-pro, level 8 and bottom of the ladder, and begin our journey up the English pyramid. Frankly the standard wouldn't have been that different from Division 3 where we found ourselves and we'd be around League 1 or 2 now just a couple of steps away from the top flight down south. That league is as good as the one we're in, our support would have stuck by as, the interest and potential for sponsorship would be at least the same if not more so and, as an added benefit we wouldn't have been spending any money with clubs who literally tried to kill us. Plus we'd have earned our way through the leagues, not been parachuted in, something that will be very unpopular if it ever happens. Our club playing in England, with all the media exposure that comes with that, would have secured our place in the game and garnered us thousands of fans for years to come. I'd still be in favour of trying it today.

This is yet another strange story among the many, many peculiar happenings around our club in recent years. Who did King give "£20,000" too? Did he give it to the Celtic fan? If he did then some serious questions need to be asked about why he did that. If he gave it to Craig Whyte well the same applies. In case any further evidence was required about the nature of some of 'their' support the 'hacker' is 48 years old, an age where most people have significantly more important things to worry about than the goings on at a football club they don't support. There are times you despair for the country.

I have to agree with this. Pete, I don't recall ever having a problem with anything you've ever written on here, but I was surprised when I read your first post in this thread. Of all the victims Brazil is one of the few who has spoken publicly about it in the past. If he doesn't want to again we should respect that.

He's certainly an interesting signing and brings a lot of experience, something a centre half can't have enough of for me. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to beatify him just yet but he's got a great record and whilst he's in the twilight of his career he's dropping down a level from Serie A so he should still be able to perform at a good level in our league. My only word of caution is the intense season he's had, playing during the Euros last summer then a full season followed by the Confederations Cup means he really could do with a break. Whilst it won't suit us we should give him a month off when that comp is over, let him recharge, we've a long season ahead and it would be better not to lose him to fatigue related injuries during the season. We're pretty certain to lose him to suspensions as it is.

Look there are all sorts of reasons a manager can 'fail' at a club, reasons I've no insight into. He could have had his best players sold from under him, finance issues, dysfunctional boards or just bad luck. I can only see what the record books show and they show an, at best, ordinary series of results. Derek McInnes, often named as the 'obvious' overlooked replacement for Warburton has a similarly ordinary CV, winning promotion with St Johnstone he then steered them to 8th place two seasons in a row before moving to Bristol City and getting them relegated. Since Tommy Wright took over St Johnstone have finished 6th then 4th for three seasons in a row, with one of the smallest playing budgets in the league. Even Thistle manager, Alan Archibald, has a comparable record to McInnes (prior to Aberdeen) with winning Thistle promotion and then a 10th, an 8th, a 9th and a 6th place finish. I didn't hear many suggest either of those two for our manager's position. I get why many say 'give him a chance' and of course we've no option but to do that. He's the manager and he must be allowed to bring in the players he wants. The fact I'm not convinced about his ability and I'm nervous about bringing in players who might struggle to settle in our city and culture not to mention style of football is just messageboard chat. I genuinely hope I'm wrong, I just worry we've employed the Portuguese Bobby Williamson.

It's too early to say. Some of our performances have been truly awful, the spirit has looked low and energy levels too. The players didn't look like they knew what they were meant to be doing. Whether that'll change when he has some of 'his' players in place I guess we'll just have to see. I'd have liked to see Barrie McKay play a greater role under Pedro, he's our most creative player and a far better player than current form. It's unfair to judge the young players he introduced yet, I'd no real problem with him giving them a game. I expected Pedro to make us harder to beat, tighten us up defensively, be less swashbuckling than Warburton, and make the most of the players he inherited whether he intended to keep them or move them on. That's what Murty did. To me, by no means a tactical expert, it didn't look like the players understood what he wanted them to do. That's a concern because he isn't going to be able to sign 11 new players so managing the bulk of what we've got is important.

Yeah, quite possibly, he speaks really well whenever I've heard him interviewed and interacts well with supporters too.

I don't know any players PC has signed before, his CV is so obscure I doubt many of us have heard of most of the players he's managed. I can only go by what I watched this season under him at Rangers and his past managerial record before joining us. At Uniao Liera they finished 9th the season before he took over, finished 10th the season he was in charge and he was sacked with them bottom of the league the following season. At Nacional they finished 6th the season before PC, then under PC came 7th, he was then sacked the following season with them 14th in a 16 team league. Then to Santos Laguna in Mexico. They finished 4th and qualified for the local Champion's League the season before PC joined. As I explained in the other thread the Mexican league is a confusing bugger with 2 leagues per season. So his Santos Laguna side finished 6th, 2nd, 4th, 9th and finally 8th under his management. So he had one decent season with a 2nd and 4th place finish, qualifying his side for the play-offs, he lost both in the semis. His 9th place was outside the play-off places. His 8th place was the last play-off place, his Santos side then won the play-off. This is the 'league' it's claimed he won in Mexico. He was then sacked the following season after a couple of months with his side 3rd bottom. In Qatar Al-Gharafa finished 7th before he joined, then 9th in his first full season in charge and 5th last season. There is nothing in his past that allows me to believe he can spot a player or improve a player, frankly how he keeps getting employed as a manager is a credit to his agent. So in summary, I've no idea who he's got wrong in the past but he's clearly got quite a few wrong judging by three of his previous four sides firing him. I've no idea why so many of our support have so much faith in someone with such an ordinary CV.

Of course it's a bigger risk than signing Ali Crawford. To join Rangers Ali Crawford wouldn't need to move house far less move continent. The only questions regarding signing someone like Ali Crawford are 1. is he could enough? and 2. is worth what he would cost? Other than that he'd be playing in a league he's familiar with against teams he knows well. Signing anyone from the Mexican league adds considerably more complications. You've got the same ability and cost questions plus you've a whole raft of social, cultural and personal issues to address too. There was a really interesting interview with Roy Keane shortly after he retired. He was speaking about Juan Sebastian Veron and how excited Keane had been when Man Utd signed him. Keane felt his signing was the thing Utd needed to push on and dominate in England and Europe. He played against Veron and knew how good he was. Veron had 73 caps for Argentina, was South American player of the year twice and had won leagues in both Argentina and Italy, Man U broke the British transfer record to sign him. Veron simply didn't settle and Keane was furious with him for it. Keane admitted he'd tear strips off him because he wasn't delivering what Keane knew he could. Keane had no time for his excuses. Veron was living in a hotel in Manchester, his family stayed in Italy initially and he was living alone. He spoke English but not well, he struggled to follow the 'banter' in the dressing room and became isolated from the rest of the team. Keane would say to him that he was a professional and very well paid and so it shouldn't matter if he was living in a youth hostel it shouldn't affect his performance on the park, he'd a job to do and he should get on with it. Before his first season was finished Veron would take any excuse to go back to Italy to visit his family or to go to Argentina for international matches, much to the annoyance of Ferguson and Keane who wanted him to put Man Utd first. Keane was speaking about this shortly after retiring. He'd just spent less than six months at Celtic. He lived in a hotel whilst playing up here, travelling back to his family and home in Manchester after Saturday games and returning on a Monday evening with his manager's permission to miss Monday training. But the point was he couldn't settle. He was only 3 hours drive away but staying in a hotel full time unsettled him, he hadn't realised how much he relied on his wife and family for stability and allowing him to focus on football and only football. His thoughts turned to Veron and how he'd reacted to him being 'unsettled'. He said he'd never understood that before and how it can affect a footballer. Now Pena isn't Veron, every person is different and reacts differently to changes and set backs. But, the list of Spanish speaking South, Central and indeed North American players succeeding in Scotland is a small one indeed. There are reasons for this that aren't all football related. I simply don't know if Pena is a good enough player or can adapt and thrive in Scotland, and, let's be honest, neither do you or any of the other posters on here. So it comes down to faith in the manager. You have it, I don't.

Be fair Trublu it was a pretty stupid and insulting question to ask, whoever you were asking it of. If you think there are posters on here who don't want Rangers signing RCs then I don't think you've been paying much attention to what people post. I can't remember the last time any Rangers fan I've met expressed that opinion. Indeed even when we signed Mo Jo most of the guys I knew who were unhappy were unhappy at signing an ex-Celtic playing, Celtic supporting, convicted ned, they'd have accepted Maradona without grumble. Being concerned that a Mexican, with very little English and no experience of British football, might struggle to adapt and flourish in Scotland isn't being racist, bigoted or short-sighted, it strikes me as a fair concern. It's a big cultural and footballing adjustment, but it's not impossible, he might go native like Nacho Novo, and become a legend, who knows.

Okay, I'm not being condescending but do you know much about the Mexican domestic league? Caixinha didn't 'win the league' in Mexico as we would understand it. Mexican domestic football is a confusing array of split leagues and convoluted knock-out tournaments. In his first season managing Santos Laguna in Mexico they finished second in the 'first' league of the season. The top 8 sides then qualify for a knock-out tournament to decide the Champions, Santos Laguna lost in the 'semis'. In the 'second' league of season 2013/14 Santos Laguna finished 4th and again qualified for the knock-out part of the league where once again they lost in the 'semis'. In season 2014/15 Santos Laguna finished 9th in the 'first' league of the season and so didn't qualify for the knock-out tournament. In the 'second' league Santos finished 8th on goal difference (a goal difference of +3 over 17 matches) they qualified for the knock-out tournament which they surprisingly won. That's the 'league' he won. In actual fact they finished in 8th place on aggregate but get to call themselves Champions because they won one of the knockout competitions. He resigned a month into the following season with Santos Laguna bottom of the league. But please be clear Santos Laguna at no time under PC won more games or accumulated more points than the rest of the Mexican club sides. His time in Portugal is really nothing to boast about and his period in Qatar saw his side finish 9th in a 14 team league and then 5th last season. So I'm sorry but 'sketchy' is a fair word to describe his managerial record to date. I agree about young players, they'll either sink or swim and will be the better for playing some first team games. I disagree entirely about a manager not being able to change a player's mental strength. For me that's one of the core attributes a manager should have. Again I disagree, a lot can be achieved in a week. Celtic have been better than us in every match this season but in our last visit to Parkhead we at least competed with them and earned a credible draw. The side knew how to play that formation and those tactics already, that was what PC should have spent the week drilling them in. We have the players we have, those are the ones he needs to coach. See again I don't think PC has actually had that much stick. The team has and certain players have but criticism of PC hasn't been over-the-top. Yes he's not been here long but in that time I've yet to see anything that's made me think he's the man to take us forward. We've won a couple of matches we shouldn't have and were the better side when we beat Aberdeen at Pittodrie, but Aberdeen learned from that match and were far better than us in the return at Ibrox. Time will tell which of us is correct on this (and I genuinely hope it's you).