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JohnMc

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  1. JohnMc
    By the time I get to Phoenix, she'll be rising And she'll find the note I left hangin' on her door And she'll laugh when she reads the parts that says "I'm leavin'" 'Cause I've left that girl so many times before I'm always thankful for a Glen Campbell earworm but that's pretty much all I'm pleased about with this story. Let's assume the story is true. Firstly what does an American banker with no connection to Scotland or apparent interest in football even want with our club? Secondly does he understand that we aren't a 'franchise' to be changed at the whim of an owner? Thirdly what does he want with our club and lastly just what does he want with our club??!! This talk of a gazillionaire seems to have got some people very excited, will we never learn? These people should be nowhere near our club, we're not a 'franchise' and we're definitely not a money making opportunity. Plus the Phoenix Suns are rubbish. No thanks.
  2. JohnMc
    This is an interesting point. A section of the Rangers support are merciless towards young players, look at the abuse that's thrown at Aird currently. Heaven forbid we might try and support the lad, you know, encourage him, help him. Fuck no, we abuse him, tell him he's shite, shouldn't be in the team and is a wage thief. That's part of the problem, a large section of our support won't allow a player to develop, to make mistakes or show inconsistency something all young players do. That vocal section expect every Rangers player to be fully formed, the finished article. Ironically they are often the same section who abuse the manager and the club for not producing young players. The SFA and the clubs should all agree to have a certain percentage of the their squad as 'home-reared', overnight it would force clubs to focus on it properly. That being said there is nothing stopping a club doing it unilaterally. But heaven help the young player who has a poor game in front of the Govan.
  3. JohnMc
    I think you might be confusing poor tactics and motivation with fitness here. Our full-time professionals are 'fitter' than part-time players, to state otherwise is simply nonsense. You might have seen them given the run-a-round by part-timers in the last few seasons but that was nothing to do with fitness. As for running as you are aware there are two real types of running. The first is sprinting, simply speed over 10, 20, 30 yards and so on. You can work with sprint coaches, have your gait analysed and adjusted, work with weights and improve your speed but that'll never be able to compensate for natural athleticism and ability. Some people are simply born 'faster' than others, their body shape, weight to muscle ratio, leg length means they are simply faster sprinters and there's nothing you can do about that. Sure, if someone chooses to put on a lot of weight or gets an injury they'll slow down, but that won't make someone else faster. The other type of running is distance, involves stamina and strength. Good sprinters often aren't as good at this type of running, it requires different strengths, lung capacity is more important for instance. It is also an area that can be worked at and improved, and is the main area all professional footballers work on. It's the core of all fitness, the ability to 'run for 90 minutes' is a cliche but it's what all professional footballers aim for. Some are better at it than others; injuries, age and core strength all make a difference but pretty much all are operating at a very high level. Distance runners are usually slightly built, carrying as little excess weight as possible, that's not possible for pro footballers, upper body strength is important, they are muscular because of the contact nature of football. Professional, contact, team sports work on core fitness in pre-season. Huge amounts of running and other endurance work is done then to build up the body to a peak level of fitness. This is then 'topped up' during the season, this is standard and universally recognised way of 'training' and it would more concerning if Rangers weren't following that. Most improvements in 'fitness' during the season are entirely psychological. The infamous 'murder hill' of Jock Wallace was a perfect example of that psychology, the players believed it made them fitter than everyone else, whether it did or not wasn't actually important.
  4. JohnMc
    Guys like Miller, Boyd and Daly will be in demand, for any low to mid-ranking SPFL side they could make the difference between staying up or going down. If they offered to take them on half their current salary and we paid the other half I can't see us turning that down. Likewise Black and Moshni will find clubs without difficulty, they'd get what we're paying them in the third tier in England. We didn't recall all those boys out on loan because we want to bolster the reserve side.
  5. JohnMc
    It seems clear that every first team player who has only six months left on their contract will be told to find another club this month, every other player is available for transfer and those left at the end of the month will make up the first team squad. That's our current strategy, whilst some seem to welcome this madness I for one would rather we got promoted and that the best way of doing that is by getting the best out of our better players, not freeing them and playing the reserves or those no other club wants. On top of that they'll be managed by someone who himself doesn't think he can do the job far less want it, his assistant was warned not manage East Fife for health reasons and they are being assisted by a player who has never coached before. Curious recipe for success.
  6. JohnMc
    With respect that's not true. The level of fitness and conditioning for full-time professional footballers is exceptional, ours are no different. Whether one person is faster than another is the luck of nature, but in terms of core fitness you are incorrect. I'm reminded of all those supporters who accused Charlie Adam of being 'fat', it was patently ridiculous, but plenty still said it.
  7. JohnMc
    I'm not sure I agree, at no point does Faure suggest anyone saw McCoist as anything other than the 'boss', he was simply showing the difference between the two cultures and McCoist's ability to relate with players and his accessibility for the payers. It was only one example, more telling for me was McCoist losing it with Miller and that being the first time Faure had seen McCoist really lose it. There's a lot of uninformed talk from supporters of all clubs about what they think football training should be like. For most it's a cross between a military bootcamp and an intensive medical facility. Professional sport and football in particular has evolved to this point, players are fitter than they have ever been, they've access to dieticians, specialist fitness coaches, medical facilities and so forth. They are monitored, checked and assessed all the time, these guys are exceptionally fit. At that level though, the little gains to be made are psychological, both in terms of an individual' belief and state-of-mind but also of the team spirit, that 'band-of-brothers' ideal that all teams strive for. Making training 'fun' or at least enjoyable is part of the psychology, you've 20 odd players, only 11 of who can start a match, so you've more pissed off players in danger of becoming disillusioned and disruptive at any one time than you have satisfied ones. That needs addressed and part of that process is making training enjoyable. We might not like that, we might expect our players to be hyper-professional droid-like beings but that's simply not the reality of a typical footballer. Faure has barely started this season and could have used this interview to slate the club, the management who are clearly overlooking his playing genius and his colleagues who aren't as good as him in his own mind after all that's happened plenty of times before. He didn't, he complimented the club, his colleagues, the management and the support. He did this against a background of the most disruptive possible period in the club's history. No one thinks McCoist was a tactical genius, but he understood the importance of team spirit, of togetherness and he clearly managed to foster that during a very difficult period. Credit where credit is due.
  8. JohnMc
    Oh I agree we'll spend another season in the Championship, if not starting again at the bottom, I can't see promotion and selling MacLeod only underlines that. I also agree the money will vanish like every other penny the club's taken in the last few years. So I accept it isn't good business in terms of improving the side, it's the opposite of that. £1 million isn't a pittance though. It might be small change to some clubs but none of them are in Scotland, it still represents good business, considering our desperation and poor governance I'm amazed we didn't end up giving Brentford money frankly. McCabe only played 7 games for us, he left far too soon, everyone could see that but him and his agent, and Wilson simply joined the wrong club. But guys like Burke, Adam, Hutton and McCormick have had decent careers in England, McLeod has at least the potential they had.
  9. JohnMc
    I'm not sure what point you're making, Falkirk are in the same division as us and Norwich are in the same division as Brentford. McGrandless had played more first team games than MacLeod has. As such it seems to be the going rate for promising midfielders in our division. Also how can you argue that he's not a good enough player for the league he's joining whilst complaining that we didn't get enough for him?
  10. JohnMc
    If we're being realistic then £1 million for a 20 year old who has yet to play in the Scottish top flight and had a serious heart condition earlier this year is good business. Scott Arfield left Falkirk for £600,000, Johnny Russell for £750,000 and Ryan Gauld £1,500,000 plus add ons that might take it to £3 mill, so £1 mill seems pretty good, assuming that is what we'll get. I disagree with those who question MacLoed's ability, he might be playing at a lowly level but he's clearly got enough to take him to another level if he can stay clear of injuries. He's acquitted himself well when he played against SPL sides and he wasn't chosen for the last Scotland squad because Strachan and his coaches wanted to do us a favour. In an ideal world we'd have kept MacLoed, built a team around him and sold him in 3 years time or made him captain and gone on to become a club legend. But we've not lived in an ideal world for a long time. Good luck to him, he brought joy where there was otherwise only pain.
  11. JohnMc
    Ah, fuck. Turns out their fans are nice too. Bloody hell.
  12. JohnMc
    It's an odd thread this one. Maybe he thinks them singing it will attract even more Cavalier behaviour...
  13. JohnMc
    The world of football messageboards is a bizarre place at times. When I woke up this morning I'd never have predicted I'd get into an argument with someone over the relative merits of Brentford FC, a club I've given close to no thought too in my entire life. Let me go back a few posts and try again. Brentford. Bloody hell. Three words to boil the blood of Brentford fans everywhere and bring the wrath of FA chairman and celebrity Brentford fan (when he's not supporting Man Utd) Greg Dyke down on anyone who dares scorn the inevitable rise to the very pinnacle of the sport that Brentford are on. See I'm old enough to remember being depressed when a Rangers captain left us to join Watford, and Watford were actually a good team then. It's probably arrogance actually, why shouldn't one of the brightest prospects in the sport in Scotland be linked with a deeply unfashionable and noticeably un-honoured club like Brentford who play in front of crowds that Hearts would complain about. They're having a good season after all and seem to be stable. The English Championship is a decent level and salaries will far exceed anything we're likely to pay to anyone who isn't a board appointee in the near future. But then the other side of me says; Brentford, fuckin Brentford! Are you joking, fuckin Brentford for Lewis fuckin MacLoed!! The one vestige of hope, the only thing to put pride in my heart while all around people are trying to induce cardiac arrest. Fuckin Brentford. Where are Sporting Lisbon, Nantes, PSV, Liverpool, Sunderland, fuckin hell even Leeds, someone, anyone where I can say, fair enough, at least he's gone somewhere with potential? Brentford, bloody hell. They are better than us, on and off the park just now. Interestingly they were bought by their fans a few years ago. Fixed as a club, run prudently and imaginatively and are now reaping the rewards. But still, Brentford, bloody hell. So yeah, I get it, they're riding high in Rupert Murdoch's self styled fifth richest league in the world, they might just make it into the intergalactic Premiership next season and be fellated and patronised in equal measure by the Neville brothers and MacLoed can buy himself a baby Bentley or white Range Rover. Brentford, bloody hell. Still, at least it wasn't Bournemouth he was linked too. Bloody hell.
  14. JohnMc
    Jeezo Rangeristis, are you Greg Dyke or something? They are very clearly just having a good season, with those crowds, whether 7,000 or 10,000 they can realistically go no further. That doesn't mean they aren't well run, that doesn't mean they aren't a proper club or they don't play good football. It just means they are punching above their weight and that's unlikely to be maintained. They've not played in the English top flight for a very long time, do you think that's changing sometime soon?
  15. JohnMc
    Macleod's emergence has been the one thing the management team have got right. He might well continue to develop under their tutelage. Brentford are far healthier than us, that was the point of my original post. Attendance figures are important because they allow us to see were realistically Brentford are likely to go. With those crowds it's unlikely they'll go much further, and if by chance they did it wouldn't be for long. Again, I mean no disrespect to Brentford, but they shouldn't be able to attract our best p[layers.
  16. JohnMc
    No, they're a fairly ordinary club who are currently punching well above their weight, congratulations and good luck to them for that. But they average less than 7,000 at their home matches despite their best season since the second world war. We, on the other hand, were a fantastic club who should be able to allow the player to make the necessary improvements to his game.
  17. JohnMc
    Brentford. Bloody hell.
  18. JohnMc
    Nice post D'art. I'm struck by this line though "these are the standards we were raised with and safeguarding them together" and I find myself wondering how true this now is. I wonder if the real legacy of David Murray is a supplicant support. Nobody under 38 will really remember the pre-Murray era, to them a club like Rangers is run by a larger than life plutocrat who uses his private jet to impress possible signings and who runs the club with their own rod of iron, or steel in his case. We became so used to his apparent benevolent dictatorship many were simply 'raised with that standard' and struggle to function without it. The delight that many in our support showed for Craig Whyte initially underlines this. Too many simply welcomed his apparent wealth without questioning his suitability. We're seeing the same with Ashley, he's a billionaire I hear cried, as if that's the only criteria that matters. Unfortunately, for many, it is. What I don't know is how to change that.
  19. JohnMc
    This is staggering if true. It's telling that my first instinct is that it is true.
  20. JohnMc
    Nah, I disagree. They've got x-boxes and peadophiles in Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium and they manage to produce footballers with a modicum of talent fairly often. Societal changes are to blame. The schools being a huge one as RPB explained, but also the enormous and savage social changes that took place in central Scotland in the 70s and 80s played a massive part. Mining, steel and shipbuilding areas had genuine communities and these communities had all sorts of activities available often to a high standard. My father was born into a small mining village in the mid-forties, it consisted of only three miners terraces (rows) yet it had three friendly societies, a quoiting club, an ambulance corps, a juvenile football club, a Junior football side, a brass band, a dramatic society, and a phonetics class as well as an active trade union. That was replicated all across Scotland, it simply isn't anymore. Konterman wasn't the best import we ever made but he was an interesting guy off the park. He set up home in Drymen when he signed for us and was astonished to discover their was no kids football club in the town. He'd come from a similar sized village in Holland where all the kids joined the local side when they were 6 or 7.
  21. JohnMc
    Whilst I was failing to persuade six year olds to go back to bed you were penning post of the year. Hat tipped. I loved Durrant. He appeared at a time when we simply weren't very good and his emergence was like the first shoots poking through in late winter foretelling better times ahead. Players like Hugh Burns, Cammy Fraser, Bobby Williamson and Kenny Black were the staple heroes then, fully committed, physical players without an inch of guile between them. Davie Cooper had more or less gone on strike over our poverty of player and Bobby Russell couldn't hold down a regular place. When Durrant appeared as a teenager with Kempes like flowing locks on a fourteen year old's body you feared for him. But he was special. You read stories about George Best breaking into the Man U team as a teenager. The club had a 'tradition' of playing training matches on a car park where the experienced pros would physically intimidate the youth players in an effort to 'make or break' them. Those that could live with the literal kicking they took were deemed strong enough both mentally and physically to go on, those it broke were discarded. Apparently the entire first team defence decided that Best needed 'sorted', his dribbling, feints and tricks were not on, humiliating season professionals couldn't be allowed. But for a fortnight they literally were unable to kick him, try as they might, he was simply to fast and to skilful. It's no exaggeration to compare him to Durrant. Durrant ghosted past players, his position and timing of his runs was uncanny but what was most impressive was his ability to play in a 'mans' game whilst looking like a child. He must have experienced unbelievable intimidation, particularly at first. If he can pass that on alone he's worth keeping on at the club. My favourite Durrant moment wasn't a goal, it came in the League Cup Final against Celtic, a game in which he scored and was fouled for the winning penalty. Yet for me his finest moment came in his own box, deep in the second half, Celtic were attacking and attacking, our defence half cleared the ball and it fell to Durrant, he was facing our goal about 15 yards out, every other players first reaction would have been to blooter the ball out of the park, Durrant performed a 'Cryuff turn' wrong footed the entire Celtic team and most of the Rangers one, turning frantic defending into attack in a matter of seconds. I've probably only seen half a dozen players in my lifetime who'd have had the ability and thought process to have performed that in the heat of an old firm cup final.
  22. JohnMc
    Ken Bates, whilst Chelsea owner, bought a controlling stake in Partick Thistle in the 80s. His plan was to use Thistle as a feeder club for Chelsea, in the end other than Thistle getting a very young Billy Dodds on loan for a season little came of it other than virtual bankruptcy down Maryhill way. ENIC had a decent shareholding in us at one time whilst also owning large stakes in Sparta Prague, AEK Athens and of course Spurs. They apparently thought money could be made from TV rights. If Ashley doesn't want to own two clubs then what was yesterday's charade all about and what is Llambias doing in our director's box? I've yet to hear of anyone who wanted to own more than one club simply because they supported them and wanted to see them both do well.
  23. JohnMc
    What possible reason could someone have for wanting to own two football clubs?
  24. JohnMc
    It's posted, it depressed me writing it, I expect it'll do the same to any poor sod who reads it, apologies for that.
  25. JohnMc
    Where do I post it Zappa? I don't have access to the writers section since I created a new log-in, will I post it in here or just open a new thread with it? I'll have it ready on Christmas Eve.
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