JohnMc

The directors and those behind the scenes will have a much more informed opinion on this than us. We see results and performances. They'll see everything, the work being done on the training pitch, the attitude and demeanour of the players, the contact with other staff, the general mood about the place, the changes he's made, the promises being kept and the targets being reached plus there are always things going on that fans never hear about that will affect the squad and the manager. Has Pedro settled, has his wife, his staff and their families? What about the players, who is carrying an injury, struggling to train, not adapting to the culture, sulking at not getting a game, building up huge gambling debts and so on. Ally McCoist gets stick from some supporters now, but I recall a friend of mine who works for Rangers talking about McCoist when we first went into Administration. The time he took with the 'staff', the trouble he went too for them, the understanding he showed for people on normal salaries facing real hardship if they lost their jobs. Most of them would have done anything for Ally after that and he'd their total respect. The point I'm making is those ultimately responsible for hiring and firing Pedro will see the big picture, which might look much better, or much worse, than the one we see.

Within 30 minutes of arriving in Brisbane I was offered a job just because I was Scottish. The guy offering it was from Blairgowrie, and he'd two lassies from Oban and another from Kirkintilloch already working with him. I got a couple of jobs when I lived in Australia because I was Scottish, we're just as cliquey as everyone else.

I agree with you that Northern European players usually find the UK an easier cultural adjustment than Latin players. That being said Kanchelskis recent autobiography claimed there was a big split in our dressing room between the Dutch and non-Dutch players during his time at Rangers. Every dressing room has cliques, when things aren't going well these become more noticeable. It's inevitable that the Portuguese players will gravitate to each other; shared language, culture and 'strangers in a strange land' experiences will bring them together. The Spanish speakers will inevitably do the same. But then so will the young guys and in some dressing rooms the black players are a clique too. You see this in all work places and football clubs are no different. This is easy fixed, we just need to start winning.

I'd be more alarmed if there wasn't unrest in the dressing room after our start to the season. That's not meant as a criticism of Pedro. The players, the coaches and the manager should all be angry after Saturday and several other of our performances and finger pointing, some home truths and frank exchanges can sometimes be the best way to sort these things out. I'm also think this is a deliberate leak, let the fans know everyone is unhappy about what's going on, it doesn't really reflect badly on PC. I always thought Kenny Miller was our 'vice' captain, hence why he took the armband when he came on. In the grand scheme of things I don't think it really mattered who was the captain on Saturday, no one was acting like one.

In mitigation for Alves he really didn't have a break during the summer or a pre-season because of the Confederation's Cup and that will take a toll on any player especially one at the latter end of his career. Players who don't have a 'pre-season' often pick up little strains and can struggle for fitness later in the season. It's a concern I have for Moreloss too. He joined us straight from a summer season in Finland, I think that's one of the reasons he started the league flying but at the same time fatigue might be an issue for him in a few months time. It's something I imagine the management team are aware but he's currently un-droppable so I doubt he'll be getting a rest anytime soon. Does he play for the Columbian national side? Trips to South America during the season can be energy sapping too. As for 'where we're at' I think we're at the roughly the same place we were this time last season. I think tactically you can now see what the side is trying to do, something that I couldn't discern when PC took over, and the players understand their roles now. I don't think we bought particularly well over the summer, based on how much we spent, although I also accept it's too early judge. For the money we spent I think we could have bought more players of a similar if not better standard than we did. Our squad is shallow, as we saw on Saturday if we lose a couple of players we're throwing untried teenagers in and if Moreloss gets injured we're very short of goal scorers. I disagree about speed, we were a faster side last season, McKay, Waghorn and Holt were all quicker and only Moreloss brings real speed to the side. When our first choice defence is fit we're stronger there, middle of the park too, but wide areas are weaker and we've fewer options up front albeit our first choice centre-forward is better than anything we've had since Jelavic. We don't play as attractive a style of football this season for a similar return results wise. It might surprise some of you to know that I'm not convinced our manager, or this team, is capable of winning the league, this season or in a couple of season's time, and we'd be better off facing that now. I understand why others feel differently though. We've had an easier start to the league this season than last season but a similar set of results. I don't think Pedro is good at motivating players and the side lacks fight and character. Despite the new faces we still look leaderless on the field and that's a concern.

Yes, I think you're right. For what it's worth I also think PC was pretty canny after the match having a go at Brown and highlighting the elbow. That's diverted attention away from the players and their shortcomings and onto him and Celtic. Text book management to be fair.

Yip, I have, he's a fairly average referee on a good day, but he's got no preference for Celtic I can assure you of that. There's that great gif of Kevin Thomson tackling Robbie Keane then throwing him to the ground when he tries to get up that still does the rounds. Where were our midfielders doing that yesterday? Sometimes you need to be sly and sometimes you need to be overt when it comes to the physical side of the game. We were neither yesterday. Every side that comes to Ibrox should be intimidated, Celtic weren't. That's not because of the ref, that's because of the players. It actually surprises me, without playing up national stereotypes I did expect the Latin players to have a bit more about them, sly digs, off the ball stuff, disrupting the tempo of a match that kind of thing.

For me the biggest indictment and the gravest criticism I can make is not one supporter I know is surprised we lost and many are relieved it was only by two. That's where we are as a support and a club currently. When Walter Smith took over in 2007 we'd just been put out of the Scottish Cup, there was instability and schisms in the squad and we were already out of the title race by January. In the next two transfer windows Smith signed veterans Davie Weir, Ugo Ehiogu, Christian Dailly and Roy Carroll on free transfers to bolster the defence, Steven Davis and Amdy Faye on loan and Darcheville on a free. We spent money on Lee McCulloch from Wigan. He then took the best players from Hibs (Kevin Thomson and Stephen Whittaker), St Mirren (Broadfoot), Kilmarnock (Naismith) and Falkirk (Alan Gow) to complement the signings of Daniel Cousin, Demarcus Beasley and Carlos Cueller. In total, over two transfer windows we spent about £10 million, recouping around £3 million through the sales of Clement, Svensson and Sionko with a further £9 million with the sale of Hutton in the next transfer window. Without calculating wages Smith spent approximately a net £7 million in his first two transfer windows. His strategy of signing the best young players in Scotland, combined with experienced players entering the end of their careers supplemented with a handful of good value foreign players should have been the blueprint for us to follow. If reports are too be believed we spent over £8 million in the transfer window just closed. Now it seems we did try and buy Walker from Hearts, there were stories of us being after McLean from Aberdeen and we did sign Jack of course. But no Moult, no Ali Crawford, no Jason Cummings, no Liam Lindsay? Whether you think these players are good or not isn't the point I'm debating, by buying that type of player we not only weaken the opposition but we bring in players who don't need time to settle, acclimatise or understand Scottish football. There are players at other Scottish sides good enough to improve this current Rangers side. Now I can accept that the Rangers Caixhino inherited were in worse shape than the squad Smith did, I can also accept that Celtic were further ahead of us than Strachan's Celtic were, although they were double winners and were playing, and competing, in the Champion's League at the time too. But our expectations are currently so low we're excusing not only poor performances, players and poor tactics but, frankly, bizarre signings and a suspect strategy. Are we really better than last season? If we are it's not by much and I'm not convinced we are. Does anyone still think signing Pena and Herrera was smarter than signing say Walker and Moult? So, please, don't mistake this for an anti Pedro rant. It's not. I don't want him to 'fail' to be proved right, that's ludicrous. Literally nothing would make me happier than for him to succeed. I've been criticised on here for being too negative, too knee-jerk and for not giving this current Rangers side time. But those who criticise me, and Pete and the others who are disillusioned with what we see, ask yourself this; where is the fight, where is the heart and where is the desire in this side? We might well be too negative but I don't understand how, after 7 matches, four of them at home, with a record of 3 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats, everyone isn't starting to wonder if this is going to work. For all we can complain about the ref yesterday (for the record Craig Thompson is an ex-BB officer and St Mirren season ticket holder from Paisley, he's no Celtic patsy), about missed chances and ifs and maybes, not even the most one-eyed among us can seriously doubt that Celtic played within themselves and were coasting for the last half hour with their minds already looking ahead to the Champion's League match in mid-week. We should have been kicking Celtic off the park yesterday, everyone of their players should have known they were going to miss the next couple of matches if our players had anything to do with it. They should have been scared yesterday. They weren't. I know there will be calls for more time and too early to judge, and I understand why. But understand why some of us don't believe more time will make any difference. That's not because we have unreasonable expectations or a personal dislike for Pedro.

Hah, good point! If only we'd just given PLG more time we wouldn't be having these conversations now...

"Argumentative for the sake of it" See I've analysed and posted about Pedro's record before joining Rangers, I've watched his matches in charge, both this season and last, I've seen how his sides react to set-backs and changes during matches and I've looked at his man-management of players he's inherited and bought and I've looked at the results and performances of his Rangers sides. I find him lacking in every single one, I can't see what strengths he has and what he's bringing to the club. I'm sorry Gaffer but it isn't trolling and it certainly isn't being argumentative for the sake of it to point these out. You have faith in Pedro, I don't. That's not because I have a beef with you or Rab or dB or any of the posters who have faith that Pedro will come good, I don't, I just think you are wrong on this particular point. I mean it's an important point and one fundamental to the well being of our club but it's not personal. As I've got older I've become more sceptical of 'faith' without some evidence to back it up. I'm struggling to see any evidence that Pedro is the man to rebuild our side into Champions again, this year or next. For the record, because you don't know me, PC is the first Rangers manager I've ever publicly called for to be dismissed. My online posting record is, I imagine, available for all to read. I backed Ally when almost everyone had turned on him, I backed Warburton up to the point he was dismissed, I even backed PLG when many had turned on him, including the players. I don't publicly slate Rangers managers for the sake of it or because I'm getting my kicks out of trolling you. I only do it when I absolutely believe we've made a mistake. I don't have faith, I see very few signs that we're any better than last season, we're weak physically and mentally, we lack skill, we've very little depth, we seem to have given up on blooding and playing young players and we're tactically being out-thought on too many occasions. That's my view based on what I see with my own eyes. It's not trolling to point out the absurdity of some of the excuses people make for our defeats. It's not trolling to question why we should have faith when there is literally no evidence to back it up. We need a manager who can build a side that is greater than the sum of its parts. Who can build a side that can grind out results, that can sustain a challenge all season probably not playing the most attractive or expansive football but one that'll win. At no point in his past has Pedro managed a side that did that and nothing I've seen from his time at Rangers so far suggests he can do that with us. The harsh reality is Celtic have better players, a better squad and more money to strengthen it than we do. We can't go toe-to-toe with them so we need to find a different way to win. That's just my view and it's not trolling to express it. No manager can be expected to win the league without his own players, apparently. Except that's what Alex McLeish did when he joined us, he won the league in his first full season in charge and no one his heralding him as some sort of managerial genius. When Walter Smith returned to Rangers the following season we won the the League Cup, the Scottish Cup and reached the UEFA Cup Final, almost certainly costing us the league in the process. I'm not requesting either of those two back, I'm pointing out that expecting more from a Rangers manager in a short space of time is not unreasonable or without precedent. I hope Pedro proves me wrong, I hope he makes me eat my words. But it's not trolling to fail to see whatever it is you see in him.

C'mon Pete, get with it, losing 5-1 to Celtic last season wasn't Pedro's fault, that was Warburton and the board's fault, and getting put out of Europe to Progres wasn't Pedro's fault, that's UEFA's fault and no one can really be expected to beat semi-professional journeymen in June after all and losing to Hibs wasn't Pedro's fault that was all the ref's fault and dropping points at home to Hearts well no one can be expected to beat a rudderless, managerless, mess of a Hearts side at home at this stage of the season, c'mon the side needs time to gel and drawing at Firhill against 10 men, well that's your fault for all the negative posts and thoughts you make, the players can sense them and it puts them off you know. If we lose next week that'll probably be your fault too, or maybe mine, but definitely not Pedro's, he's doing a smashing a job.

You're confident? What are you confident about, that we'll win or that we won't lose by another record margin?

Apologies in advance for scaring the younger generation away from the club by not pretending Pena is Messi. That pretty much was our first choice 11 that started on Friday, possibly Kranjcar might have started instead of Windass but that apart that's our current first choice side. Here are my concerns currently. There's a lack of guile in the side. Morelos, Windass and Dorans can beat a man or produce a bit of magic, but no one else can. Candeias can get a cross in but he's not going to dribble past a full back so teams can double up on him and his threat is negated. Kranjcar can produce something but I've still got concerns over his fitness. There's a lack of fight. Both mentally and physically. There's no point moaning about refs, we need to deal with the hand we've currently got. Teams see us as a side that can be intimidated physically and I think they might be right. Until we can not only match that but, when required, put down a 'don't mess' marker on the pitch, we're going to see more sides try this. I'm concerned about fitness levels. We start matches at a great tempo but you can almost set your watch at us slacking off at around 20 minutes and our second half performances, Dundee aside, always see the opposition side on top for large spells. This, I assume, isn't tactical, so is it fitness or concentration? Whatever it is it's going to contribute to more dropped points throughout the season. Strength in depth. Our bench is weak. For example where are goals going to come from if Morelos misses a few games? Miller will contribute some but he looks like he needs a break currently and Herrera doesn't look like a 20 goals a season player. We've cover in centre midfield but not wide. Lose either Candeias or Windass and we're playing inexperienced teenagers or a more experienced player out of position. At full back Declan John, on one appearance, didn't look like a significant improvement on Hodson, he might prove to be better than Wallace and Tav given time, but his career to date doesn't suggest that. We're not lucky. It's a great intangible but every side needs it and we don't seem to have it. We're not getting any 'good' luck, the deflection off Alves could have gone anywhere, and there's been a number of things that have gone against us in the last 6 months that could have been different. Morelos looks better every week, his strength and power are a joy to watch and he's got a real eye for goal. He got some rough treatment against Thistle and he'll get more in the coming weeks, it'll be interesting to see how his temperament holds up, he looks like he can handle himself, but he's young and inexperienced and hopefully someone at the club is working with him on that. Scottish defenders now know him and how he plays, they'll be probing him for weaknesses as he's our player to watch. For all that Thistle are, I think, a better side than Ross County or Dundee. They've got a decent manager and an experienced side with goals in it. Them being in the top six again this season wouldn't be a big surprise to me despite their start. Last point on Friday night. Some of our support are going to get the club into trouble again with some of their songs. Particularly if we do start to improve on the park expect the focus for many to switch to our behaviour off it and with the Billy Boys and particularly When I Was Young getting a regular airing now it is only a matter of time before those who hate us make hay with it. It's beyond stupid and if anyone has any influence over those who lead the singing a quiet word will save us a lot of grief and scrutiny in the future.

With a lot of sexism it's largely down to the gender of the person making the comment and why the person is being criticised. There's an assumption, perhaps wrongly, that poster colinstein is male, as such making any reference to her gender is noticeable and unnecessary. In end what gender she is makes no difference to her ability to do her job, either well or badly, so making reference to it in an insult carries isn't relevant. We can over analyse these things and in the end any person working in the public eye will need to grow a thick skin pretty quickly. But it is noticeable that a lot of the insults thrown Kuenssberg's way are gender specific. That aside she must be the least Glaswegian sounding Glaswegian of all time. She makes Sheena Easton sound like Mary Doll. Edit - Oh, and great post by 26th Of Foot.

I'm looking forward to this, my first away match for a while and my first visit to Firhill for a very long time. The last time I watched a match there it was a Rugby League international between Scotland and New Zealand Maori. I used to go to Firhill often as a boy, I was raised in the north east of the city and had a lot of Thistle supporting mates growing up so the short trip to Maryhill was one I made frequently when I was still at school. Ironically Thistle got themselves in some financial bother in the early to mid 80s. They were in serious danger of going out of business, shortly after it became public knowledge a crowd of us from school when to several home matches in a row to give them some money, despite most of us being bluenoses and not having much money, we didn't want to see our friend's club go under and, of course, we were all football fans too. If only I'd known then what I know now. Great preview Pete, thanks. I agree that Thistle's league position is misleading, this will be more of a test than last weekend.

That Hibs statement is great, I laughed out loud when I read it. Lawwell is clearly posturing, Chris McLaughlin and a number of others have so bought into the Ranges Tax Case/Sevco are evil/SFA conspiracy narrative, frankly because it already fits their world view, they're genuinely struggling to accept that the majority of sane people are tired of this. They'll never tire of it, it's why they get up in the morning. This compliance officer thing for the granting of a licence to play European football will surely become their Alamo. They're too invested in all this, they need some sort of 'result' so I expect to see huge pressure being applied to create something punitive or damning for Rangers. The club should continue building bridges with other clubs, in the end we'll never satisfy those twisted through hatred, but most people aren't like that. They can see this for what it is and they don't want any part of it. For once the club's silence was perfect.

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.