JohnMc

Forrester is a loan player and he's been excellent, improvement from him in every match. You need competition for places and both Oduwa and Zelalem provided that. Oduwa put pressure on McKay and Zelalem put pressure on Halliday, it might not be coincidence that both have been very consistent this season. How they'd have been had there been no one to step into their role is unknown. It was no coincidence that Mark Hately had one of his best seasons at Rangers when we signed Duncan Ferguson for example. I doubt either Oduwa or Zelalem will be in the Spurs or Arsenal first team next season but they've experienced first team football now and all that goes along with it, so they are better players now than when they first arrived. Young players need first team football, Warburton understands that. I'd expect to see Liam Burt out on loan next season for example but Hardie and Thomson back in our squad.

Excellent stuff Frankie, well done.

BBC Radio 5 commentator Alan Green was banned by Alex Ferguson for years. Ferguson refused to be interviewed by him and wouldn't answer any questions he asked at news conferences. From 2004 to 2011 Alex Ferguson refused to speak to anyone at the BBC at all, he wouldn't do pre or post match interviews despite being contractually obliged too. Eventually the Director General of the BBC intervened and an agreement was reached with him. But for 7 years he would have nothing to do with them. They still covered pretty much every Man Utd match at home, away and abroad during that period. The arrogance of BBC Scotland knows no bounds at times.

I know what you mean about the Club Deck Craig, lad next to me was really nice but the fella sat next to him... I really enjoyed last night's match, three good goals, the first was a superb header from a move straight off the training ground. I agree about O'Halleron, our whole right hand side was weak until Mckay switched there late in the second half. McKay is a hugely important player to us now, he's involved in so many of our attacks. We were talking last night how he was released as a 16 year old by Kilmarnock and looked like he was going to be released by us this time last year. You wonder how many other players are lost to the sport. But as Craig says you still hear supporters who aren't convinced by him, it's bizarre. Appreciating what McKay does is my new litmus test for seeing whether someone actually understands football or not. And Dundee Utd lost last night too.

I can understand where DJ is coming from to an extent. Not so much with Wallace, Andrew Robertson is a good left back, playing at a higher level than we are and currently first choice. However how John McGinn can get a call up before O'Halleron, Holt and McKay is an utter mystery. To be honest I don't think any player from the Scottish second flight should be getting into our full international side, ours players included. Shinnie at Aberdeen is a surprise omission as are Arfield and Rhodes. The lad Tierney might become a great player but he should be in the under 21s just now. How Whittaker, Mulgrew and Hutton are in that squad is a mystery.

Come, come rbr, there was at least one poster on here who had written them off as not being good enough and bemoaning our manager for not signing players from Germany and Spain. One thing that Warburton has reminded us is that under the right manager, and in the right side, any player can excel. I'll be entirely honest and admit the career of Ali Crawford has completely passed me by, however I'd never heard of Tavernier, Kiernan or Waghorn this time last year either. You know I can remember when we were once linked with a youngish Falkirk centre half, a lot of fans weren't keen on the idea of signing players from Falkirk, we signed players from much bigger clubs. His name was Davie Weir, he did alright in then end.

Erm, who is he?

I can remember Celtic getting the Broomloan, the West enclosure and some of the Main Stand. For all Calscot makes some valid points I'm not for banning away fans. Going to Parkhead is a right of passage for Rangers supporters. Yeah a trip to Tynecastle or Pittodrie or Easter Road will see you in the minority and faced with hostility but it's nothing like what you face at Parkhead. For many of our away trips there can be as many of us there as the home support. That's never the case at Parkhead. Being in the away end at Parkhead is what tests your mettle as a bluenose. For a start there's the journey to Parkhead, wherever you're travelling from you pass pubs and bus stops and cars and vans filled with 'them'. There seems to be an awful lot of them around. The thing I always remember about Parkhead though was when they scored. That might seem an odd memory but it's always remained with me. See, when you were in the Rangers end you couldn't really hear their support. Sure you could see them, tens of thousands of them, but as we were all singing that's what you could hear. And we sang all game, from when we first arrived until we were half way down London Road on the way home. The only time we stopped was when they scored. In the old Parkhead, when we got the covered end behind the goal, it was the strangest sensation. You'd be watching them attack at the other end of the ground, I couldn't always make out what was happening all that clearly but suddenly three sides of the ground would be jumping up and down and their players would be wheeling off in celebration; but there was no noise. Our singing would stop to be replaced with audible groans and curses and then a couple of seconds later this wall of noise would hit you, it was primeval. It would last about 20 seconds or so before someone would start one of our songs, a defiant one usually, and we'd go back to not hearing them. But see when that wall of noise hit you realised you were far, far from home. Winning is always great but winning there is especially good, there's no point in pretending otherwise. Likewise losing hurts a little more too. That's part of being a Rangers supporter, I wouldn't want to see that taken away from us. That feral, aggressive, threatening experience is part of football in Glasgow, it's part of who we are.

I couldn't agree more, it's petty, unprofessional and unfair. On their website they have the highlights of the match along with commentary so it's not like they aren't sending anyone to the game. I can just about understand the department wanting to support and protect McLaughlin, even if I believe he is in the wrong and someone at the BBC should be big enough to see that. But What they are actually doing is disgraceful, for a publicly funded organisation.

Double post.

I'm not really sure what we're talking about anymore Calscot. Most, again please I say most, not all, people choose the football team they support as children, way before they've any real grasp on religion or national identity or politics. And most (that word again) people as children are heavily influenced by family members and their peer group. So if your father or uncle or older brother support Rangers you are more likely to support them yourself. Likewise if all your friends at school support a particular team you might be influenced in that direction too. Now you could replace football with Star Wars or Minecraft or Scottish country dancing its still the same people influencing you as an 7 year old. Children are influenced by family and friends, it's not a new concept. Some aren't. .

I suspected that myself BH.

I've changed your quote slightly Rab, it pretty much still works though. The big question is why?

You'd need to ask Mr Yousaf his reasons, I don't know them. I just know they aren't the reasons most of us choose our team. As a matter of interest BH, had your grandfather taken you to see Celtic v Third Lanark and they'd won would you be a Celtic supporter today?

Okay, in that case you'll have no problem pointing them out. Firstly it's apostrophe after the s, c'mon man read the thread! :-) I didn't say "no one". In my experience the exceptions are people who have lived on both islands but I've met some who haven't but seem to understand. Whether you consider yourself or not Barca isn't important, because you are whether you like it or not. You are culturally, linguistically, socially and ethnically identical to me and the average person living in Dundalk, Ballymena or Coatbridge. Read my first post again Barca, obviously that venue wasn't chosen at random. What has it got to do with us though?

"Most" Calscot, most. No all.

Eh? Denigrate and belittle? When did I do that? I don't, most people in this part of the world have very little understanding of Irish history. There are exceptions but not many. People who sing rebel songs in pubs of a Saturday tend to be pretty ignorant in my experience. I'm not sure if you're lionising the Billy Boys here Barca or comparing them to the IRA, or both. Also, I don't have an "opposite culture" whatever the fuck that is, Martian perhaps? I'm culturally, linguistically, socially and ethnically identical to the Irish and those or Irish origin. So are you. You're conflating an awful lot of things Barca. It was a photo-op in a pub, it had nothing t do with Rangers. Dress that up anyway you want, it doesn't change it though.

Hah, yeah feel free to correct my spelling and grammar, my comprehensive education was often lacking! :-) My point on his choice of club to support was because I doubt he's following his grandfather and father's side or it through peer pressure at school, which is usually the case for most of us. He's chosen Celtic for 'other' reasons.

There’s a number of issues here. Firstly to describe the Old Govan Arms as an “IRA Pub” is stretching. It’s a Celtic pub for sure and has been for decades but it’s a jump to describe it as an “IRA pub”. I imagine a number of its regulars might be sympathetic to Irish republicanism and I’m sure it’s not unheard of to hear songs that could be described as ‘rebel songs’ at times too. But does that make it an “IRA pub”? I think there’s a big difference between singing songs they associate with football and actively supporting ethnic cleansing and systematic, cold-blooded murder of people with who you disagree politically and organised gangsterism. As for why was Humza Yousaf there I’d have thought the reason was fairly self-explanatory; he’s a politician. He’s standing locally against a well known and well established incumbent. On top of that he’s a posh, privately educated, Muslim man trying to get elected in one of the poorest, most deprived constituencies in the country. So let’s be honest his advisors have recognised a number of voters will struggle to relate to him. So photo ops in pubs will be engineered. The fact that it’s a well known ‘Celtic pub’ probably won’t do him too much harm with the previously Labour voting electorate he’s trying to swing. Now does this have anything at all to do with the RST? Well I’d say no, but I’m not a member. The fact a Celtic supporter’s club is based there and that said club has members who are best described as bams doesn’t really have a lot to do with ‘us’, does it? Rangers supporters tend not to vote along religious or ethnic lines. I‘m kind of proud of that. Despite being popularly represented to the contrary we’re a broad church politically and this should be recognised by the RST too. I don’t live in that constituency so I’ve no say in that particular battle. But I don’t live far from it and come the election I’ll see which party I feel best fits with what I believe, I’ll then look at who is standing locally for them and make my decision based on that. Photo-ops in pubs will play very little part in that, I imagine the good people of Glasgow Pollok will do similar. It's also worth thinking on why someone ambitious politically and educated at Hutcheson's Grammar should choose to publicly support Celtic. Lastly the thorny issue of Irish republicanism. I think many of ‘us’ struggle to view Irish independence in the same way we might view Indian or Jamaican or Kenyan independence movements far less the American one. There will be a number of reasons for this. I’m not sure how much those singing ‘rebel’ songs in Glasgow pubs really know or understand about Irish republicanism or the specific events they sing about. I’m not sure it really matters now either. The centenary of the Easter Rising is literally weeks away and this is a big event in Ireland. Likewise the centenary of the Somme is this summer. Two huge events in the history of the island of Ireland that still reverberate to this day. A proper understanding of those events would do none of us in the West of Scotland any harm.

Professional footballers, like all professional sportsmen and women, consist of two quite separate ingredients; talent and mentality. Now we have to assume that if a young player has been signed by Rangers then he has the talent. If he doesn’t then no amount of training or loaning will fix that. So we’re left with mentality. This takes in a lot of areas such as the drive to succeed, how you take on advice, lifestyle choices and how you apply yourself in training. What also falls into this is mental strength and understanding the demands of professional football. That’s very hard to learn unless you actually play professional football. It’s taught almost by osmosis, it’s very much on-the-job learning. Professional football is actually quite rough. By that I mean if you are not mentally strong you won’t make it. Young players are often deliberately subjected to verbal abuse and behaviour that would constitute bullying in most other workplaces in an attempt to ‘toughen them up’. If a player can be intimidated then word gets round very quickly and you can be sure that player will be intimidated in every match they play from then on. Career over. It’s one thing a slightly built tricky winger being able to ignore another lad of about the same age, it’s quite another to be able to ignore a 32 year old, or at least handle him. You can’t learn that in youth games and you can’t really learn that in training. You learn that on a wet February afternoon at Bayview in front of 500 people who are all cheering the thug and urging him to stick you in the stand. In that environment players also learn how to stay focussed, where to stand at corners, when to cross and when to pass and all the other vital things professionals know that most supporters barely even notice. You don’t go to college to become a player, at least not in this country, so they need to learn their trade from journeymen. It’s an apprenticeship and the best place to learn that trade is on the field in a real match. I’m against us being able to field ‘2nd teams’ in the lower leagues. For one it devalues those leagues, we should have more respect having been in them ourselves recently. Secondly it won’t be real. Our players won’t be playing alongside men for who that win bonus could make a massive difference to their salary. Men who won't miss them if they fuck up, who’ll encourage them if they see their head go down and who’ll stick up for them on the park when someone is having a go. That’s how they’ll learn. I really like what Warburton is doing. All our young players should spend time out on loan in the lower leagues. It’ll teach them the game and remind them of what they’ve got. Obviously some young players can make the jump to 1st team, but they are outliers, most won’t without some help.

Where does it say you can't have political advertising in football grounds? The club will have charged a lot for the behind the goals advertising spaces and having them covered up for probably their biggest crowd and TV audience of the season is going to cause a problem for them. I don't know what the lad did or if he deserved to be arrested but let's not conflate what the banner said with where it was displayed, they are different things. There's not a ground in the country you won't be told to remove a banner if it's covering paid for advertising.

So this all comes down to the definition of the word 'legend' and its recent appropriation to mean 'very good'. That isn't what the word 'legend' means though. A legend is a myth or a fairy story, that's not the the right definition here either though. More appropriately 'legend' also means famous or notorious, and by that definition Miller is the closest in our side to being a 'legend'. For a start has any other player ever signed for Rangers 3 times? That alone surely affords him 'legend' status and a place in trivia questions for years to come. Likewise in 50 years time when our grandchildren are looking at the quaintly named players from the turn of the 21st century the name 'Kenny Miller' will spring out at them. Not only did he sign for Rangers 3 times but he played for Celtic too, really? He is also the oldest ever Rangers player to score a hat-trick for the club, another one for the future trivia buffs to baffle their friends with. He also played fairly successfully in England, scoring memorably at Old Trafford, as well as being the main point of attack for his country for a number of seasons and someone who signed off by scoring a cracker at Wembley in the oldest international fixture in the world. Miller has 68 full caps and captained his country, that alone will see him revered in the future as legendary. He's also played abroad during a time that Scots players have rarely ventured further English League 1 Miller has played in both Turkey and the MSL in North America, plus his time at Cardiff City makes him one of the few players to have played for clubs in three UK countries. Surely though our grandchildren will look at his return to our club whilst we languished in turmoil during the dark days of Ashley/Easdale and co as his greatest move? Not only did choose to return whilst we were at our lowest ebb, he survived the putsch taking place off the field, and the one on it too. It's clear Warburton rates him both for his on-pitch contribution but also for his influence off it. Miller has been signed by 3 different Rangers managers and played for five plus two caretaker managers, has any other Rangers player ever done that? Is Kenny Miller one of the best players to don the light blue jersey? No, far from it. Has he achieved legendary status (and he's not finished with Rangers yet) during his career? I'd argue yes, he's probably the best known and, at times, most notorious Scottish player of his generation. He's created records and he's made big contributions. I've no doubt history will judge Miller as legendary.

Sixteen years, bloody hell. Well done Frankie and all involved. Some of your writers are excellent, but you, and your team, create the environment that enables them to contribute in the first place. If the forum wasn't as well monitored as it is you wouldn't attract the good writers in the first place. A big well done and more importantly a big thank you to everyone who makes Gersnet happen.

Not that it matters but theres an ex-squaddie, a corner-shop-keeper, a student, a publican, a printer and a guy who started off as an apprentice fitter in a shipyard. As 'boards' go it's a broader selection than most I've seen.