JohnMc

I don't think so, if we go down that road then the clubs with the biggest support will always receive the most money rather than the clubs with the best football teams. Clubs with a bigger support already have a built in advantage as they'll get higher gate receipts, sponsorship, shirt sales etc but prize money should always be dependent on league position. It's frustrating for our support when our matches are moved to accommodate TV, however that's how the league works and what was signed up too. If we don't like it we should lobby our club and the SPFL to change it.

You're allowed to say whatever you desire SBS, I'm not the law around here. I've never heard of either of them so I'll make no judgements yet. I agree that 25 goals in 148 games doesn't suggest he's prolific however I guess I'd need more context before making my mind up. How many of those matches he actually started, was he in a struggling side, did he have a partner or was he playing one up, without that kind of information it's difficult to judge him. Someone who knew him described him as 'bustling' to me and I'm not sure it was meant as a compliment. I'll give him 15 minutes in our jersey before writing him off as a dud...

I don't know if it's real but I can explain it. The 'Total' column under TV Audience is the total number of viewers who took in a match featuring Rangers on TV last season. The Average column I assume is the average each match attracted assuming Rangers featured 21 times. The 'Share' column is baffling me to be honest but I think it means we appeared in 43% of all televised matches, but I could be wrong. The Prize Pot has two columns, this is allocated on the basis of where a side finished in the league with top of the SPL getting the most and then a sliding scale all the way down to Montrose at the bottom of whatever the bottom division is called this season. So because we finished third in our league we get 1.6% of the prize pot that's £288,000. I imagine the graph is attempting to show the discrepancy between audience and income, although I disagree those two figures should equate. We are where we are and so the prizemoney we get should be less than clubs finishing higher than us.

Aye, but he's still really small...

We finished third last season whilst enveloped in chaos, under three managers, two of whom had clearly chucked it. We sold our best player in January and didn't replace him and a large number of the squad knew they weren't getting a new contract and no matter what people say that affects how they train and play. On top of that there was clearly no team spirit and Hearts were clearly the best side in the league by some way. None of the players that have been released are a huge loss, yes we've lost some experience and competition for places but is there really anyone of them you could say we'll really miss this season? What I think that means is if some stability and team spirit can be injected along with a game plan then the squad is certainly capable of gain promotion as it stands. St Mirren won't be as strong as Hearts were although I think they've made a shrewd choice of manager, Hibs have cut their squad and QOTS and Falkirk won't be any stronger than last season. The squad as it stands should be strong enough to win the league, it won't be easy but it's certainly achievable.

The obvious answer is their London sub-editor looked up 'Scottish Police' in their image bank and found that one and has no idea where it is. There's no connection between 'us' and the story. dB you have some of the most eclectic reading tastes, a Guardian opinion piece on Scottish legal reform? I'm sure they talk of nothing else on the Kurfurstendamn!

C'mon LucyBlue get with the programme. It's all McCulloch's fault, he chose his own salary, he picked the side and chose where he should play, he didn't leave when liquidation happened the bastard, he didn't spend enough time as a 12 year old working on his touch and he shouldn't have aged. When you think about it he's like the love child of Peter Grant and that mental blogger in Ireland. Well you'd think he was when you read how some Rangers supporters speak about him. I hope we give a contract just to watch some of the deranged loons on here combust.

I'm sounding very negative about this and I don't mean to be. I'm all for trying that and anything that builds bridges between players and supporters is ultimately in the player's interest. It's a cultural thing though so it can be addressed. Our recent American players dealt with the media in a professional way. Some of them had been bitten by the media on a personal and professional level but they understood that it's part of the 'job' and so made themselves available, turned up on time and stayed until it was over. It sounds basic but it's unusual. For a variety of reasons players don't want to give up their 'free time' and convincing them it's in their interests or job description is difficult. The ex-players thing is interesting, for some it's a way to make a living or supplement it at least and for others it's a way to stay involved with the sport. I wonder if the next generation of ex-players who made so much money playing they don't need to supplement their income will be as interested in doing it. With Warburton's background not being in professional football and with Weir having come through the American college system it'll be interesting to see if they view this differently to previous managers.

It's an interesting piece, however working with players can be very hit and miss. Most are at best reluctant and some downright hostile to media interviews, even to the club's own internal media that can almost be guaranteed to portray them in the best light. It's part of the job and players are contractually obliged to do it but it can be like getting blood from a stone at times. Most players aren't charismatic, they aren't great raconteurs or very self aware. Many are very self centred (it's professional sport, it's a highly competitive and brutal industry, that's not always a bad trait), many are poorly educated, young and have been indulged from an early age because of their natural talent. In recent history a fairly high profile international player, one the club paid a reasonable transfer fee for and who is/was a boyhood supporter of the club actually sneaked out of a fire escape at Murray Park whilst the in-house media were setting up to interview him leaving them bewildered and pissed off and leaving a gap in their broadcast schedules. This isn't an isolated incident, management and agents will defend this type of behaviour because they too see it as an inconvenience rather than an integral part of the job. I get where the person at FF is coming from but you have to factor in that these people are fitba players and work from there. The club website could better and it's output could be better but that takes resources and money, something that wasn't made available in recent times.

I'm losing the will to live. Barcelona currently have two ex-Liverpool players in their first choice 11 and Real have two ex-Spurs and an ex-Man U, I mean it's patent nonsense to assert "foreign teams have no interest in English football", it's utter drivel. What we have is a very limited number of clubs who can afford to compete with English clubs, an entirely different thing from having "no interest". I've no idea what point you're trying to make about QPR other than they are badly run and badly managed. Let's call a truce, you tell me and everyone else on here what leagues are better than the English ones and where our new manager should be signing players from and we'll call it quits. I'm sure the answer will be both enlightening and amusing, what more could we ask of a Friday afternoon.

Once more into the breach... Lies, damned lies and statistics. English sides don't take the Europa League seriously, neither do Italian ones for that matter. Why? Because the money on offer is considerably less than they'd get for finishing just one place higher in their own leagues. They might take the odd game seriously but not the tournament. That's why UEFA introduced the carrot of Champion's League qualification for the winner because they know it's not taken seriously by some of the big leagues. I don't understand how anyone can claim the contrary. The Champion's League is different, they definitely take that seriously. Are the top English sides as good as the two top Spanish or Bayern currently? No, it's clear to say. Does that mean the English league system isn't the strongest in Europe? No, it doesn't. There's maybe an argument to say La Liga is as strong, although I don't believe it is, but no other league in Europe is. I was "demeaning" Brentford? Ah, bless, the poor wee lambs, did I hurt their feelings do you think? Seriously, there's not a fuck big enough I couldn't give just now. I'm not sure remembering John McLelland wins you anything at Top Trumps, maybe most likely to need viagra or hair replacement surgery if they're categories. As you seem to struggle with anything that's not totally literal I'll try again; I've nothing against Brentford or Watford, but neither club should be able to sign our best player. Both did and both periods are low water marks in our history. Does that make me arrogant, hell yeah, but it doesn't make me wrong.

I don't see it as tough, we get to play all our most likely competitors for top spot at home first, surely giving us an advantage and the opportunity to build up a lead early on. October's the nasty one where we play Falkirk, QOTS, St Mirren and Hibs in succession, the latter two away from home.

Hey, you used the words, don't complain if people read them and judge you on them. You want them to judge you other things then use different words. Footballers are overpaid, full stop. The better ones tend to be even more overpaid. England currently pays more than anywhere else so that's when most of the good ones gravitate too. This isn't hard SBS, it's pure economics and has been how the game has worked since it went professional. You factor in social and cultural issues and your argument makes even less sense. Started about 3 or 4 years ago but it continues apace... "However, financially troubled clubs in the second rank like Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Sevilla have been forced to cash in on their prize assets, who are increasingly seeking a new challenge and better wages away from Spain. I don't have Sky Sports and I take anything said by Rupert Murdoch at arm's length. I'm old school print union, Wapping and Kinning Park, old, old habits die hard. Anyway, no one is disagreeing that Bayern, Real and Barca have been the best club sides over the last few seasons. That doesn't automatically right off the English league system though. Below Bayern the German league is fairly weak, below Spain's big two it's a sea of financial catastrophe and Italian football is in the doldrums, no one is quite sure how Juventus made the champion's League final, but they so easily romped Serie A this year we can be sure there's no depth there either. You claim the standard in England is extremely mediocre, compared to what? Certainly not compared to any other league in Europe it isn't, the top six or seven in England are easily stronger than the equivalent in Spain or Germany. Ten was a nice round number but any period of time you pick will be arbitrary. It doesn't change the fact a wider spread of English sides have reached the Champion's League final then any other country. That's because it's a good league and has strength on depth. I know, me and my pesky facts. Tell me about all those German and Spanish players again... When we start looking to buy English international players you might have a point. Whilst we're in the market for Wigan reserve players you can keep your strawmen. He'd play in the North Pole if they offered him more money. You seem to be struggling to grasp this very basic tenet of football.

I did, see above. No, the stats prove that English sides don't take the tournament seriously. We can keep doing this if you want but if you seriously believe the Portuguese league has more depth than the English one then any credibility you might have becomes difficult to take seriously. You keep doing that, good luck with your argument! Nope, I was slagging off Rangers, try reading it again. It was heartbreaking a club like Brentford could buy our best player, but that's on us not them. I'm old enough to remember when Watford bought our club captain, I felt the same way about that. Just as well we didn't have messageboards then or you could have misunderstood that too...

With respect what do those Europa League stats prove? Are we saying that the Dutch, Swiss and Portuguese leagues are as good as the English one? Really? Do your Champion's League stats again for the last decade. I think most people would accept that Spanish football is of a very high standard, I certainly would. This isn't about saying Spanish football is poorer than English football or German football, it's about not criticising our new manager for looking at the English league for his first signing. If he signed some guy we'd never heard of from a second tier Spanish side he might be just as good a player as this Keirnan lad. But he's going to take time to adjust to Scottish football and, more challenging, to living in Glasgow, a very different culture on many levels to what he's been raised in and used too. That's not to say he couldn't do it, just that it's more of a risk than buying an English (or Irish, whatever he is) player. Looking at one of the nations with the strongest league in the world, with who we are identical in almost every way culturally is the most sensible thing any new manager could do. If that manager also happens to know these leagues well because he's spent his entire working life in them too, well I'm sorry but it's a no brainer.

You said "there's a complete lack of English players and coaches abroad", those are your words not mine. If you want to change your sweeping and incorrect statement to 'in the big leagues' then fine, but you should have said that first time round. Even then money is still the deciding factor, if the English leagues suddenly run out of money you'll see English players move abroad. That's what happened with Spanish players after the economic crash. Prior to that Spanish players stayed in Spain because they could, the salaries were as good if not better than anywhere else. Now they aren't they move abroad. Go figure. You seem to be struggling to differentiate between an English person and the football leagues based in England. The EPL is as strong as any league in the world, I don't see how anyone can deny that. It contains many of the finest footballers on the planet and some of the best club sides. As such the levels below the top level tend to be stronger than similar divisions elsewhere. Your Champion's League statement doesn't stand up to scrutiny either. In the last ten years English clubs have won the trophy 3 times and been runners up 5 times, only Spain has more winners in that time (five) and runners up once. You can have the Europa Cup, as you probably know most English sides don't take it too seriously, more fool them. Actually the current Bayern squad has 11 Germans in a squad of 25 and the Barcelona squad has only 9 Spanish players out of the 25. Not my idea of "full" it has to be said. The current Man United squad contains 34 players. 15 are English and two more Northern Irish, so British. That's a higher ratio of 'home' players than either Barca or Bayern. I agree that the top four in England sign players who are better than the rest, whether they are English, Spanish of Martian, they can afford pretty much who they want and so buy that way. Indeed it goes deeper than the top four. That doesn't make the English leagues poor or English players sub standard though. It's pure economics, that's all. Fair enough, I'd never heard of him until this week and thought I'd read he was Irish.

It's down to money, pure and simple. During the 1980s, when English football was in a financial slump (relatively speaking) Serie A had lots of English players; Gascoigne, Platt, Ince, Wilkins, Hately, Paul Elliot, Blizzard, Rideout, Cowans and Trevor Francis not to mention Souness, Joe Jordan and Liam Brady who all came from English football. They don't just now because even the top Italian sides struggle to compete with middling EPL clubs on salary. The richest leagues tend to have the best players, wherever they are from. The richest clubs recruit the best players wherever they are from, see above. Why isn't everyone in the Barca team Spanish? Because they can afford to sign the best players, not just the best Spanish players. Why isn't everyone in the Bayern side German, they're world champions after all? It's the same in England. Spanish football is relatively impoverished outside of two or arguably three sides so they tend to lose their good players too. This isn't about signing 'Englishmen' but looking at the English leagues for players (this Kiernan isn't English I understand).

Someone (SBS I think) said "there's a reason there's a complete lack of English players and coaches abroad" as some kind of fact. It's not, there are scores of English players and coaches 'abroad' in all sorts of leagues. The main reason for this misapprehension is the lack of English players at top English sides. It's worth remembering the governing factor in almost everything in professional football; money. If an English player can live in England and play in the Championship and earn more than he would at an La Liga side outside of their 'big two' then that's what they do. The reason Lampard and Gerrard are now plying their trade in America (that's abroad btw) is because of the money on offer. I'm no fan of the EPL or its greed is good mantra, if the money dried up tomorrow you'd suddenly see English players and coaches appearing in leagues where the salaries were higher. The standard of player in England is as high as anywhere in the world and we are culturally and linguistically identical, any manager who didn't look there first for players should be severely questioned.

This isn't 'news' he talked about it in the excellent Hunter Davis biography on him a few years ago. I remember when Lennon was being threatened by 'terrorists' how little was made of the Gascoigne incident. He was also arrested for rape when he played for us, something else I don't remember being reported. He was cleared and it was apparently all nonsense but I was surprised it wasn't reported.

Whatever McLaughlin's many, many faults he certainly didn't pick the photo used, that's someone else's job not his. They probably read the piece and decided that was the most appropriate image based on the article. We all know where McLaughlin gets his stories from, so his slant shouldn't surprise anyone.

People like you baffle me. This isn't hard, if you don't like it don't listen to it, it's not compulsory. Stuart McCall and Terry Butcher were both regulars on Five Live when both were out of management, and Smith regularly pops up, usually speaking about us. Forsyth is as pro-Rangers as Nevin is pro-Celtic. The only skew on Five Live is toward England, both their top league and their FA. Believe me I didn't mistake your post for a thesis.

This ignores Radio Five using Roddy Forsyth, Gordon Smith, Stuart McCall and Terry Butcher too. Sutton had a high profile in England, winning the league with Blackburn, playing for Chelsea, Norwich and his country he was once the most expensive player in the country. I hate him but you need to go some to suggest he's a nobody. I've no real issue with D'art's piece, but the quote above is one-eyed in the extreme. Although this comes up often when the football stops it's worth trying to understand why some people who culturally or socially shouldn't be obviously 'anti-Rangers' often are. PS What does 'anti-LO' mean?

This story is behind a paywall so I can only read the first paragraph. If true it certainly suggests a wider net than has been previously suspected is being cast. The fact Grant has put his name to it suggests he certainly thinks it has substance.

He sounds like a modern Charles Reep. That's not meant as a compliment. Whilst what's happening at Brentford is interesting I think ultimately it's anathema to my views on football.

The TV companies and the sponsors, that's who. We're not the only country who has seen a drop in standard in our domestic game. Belgian clubs used to contest European finals, as did Swedish clubs and Scottish clubs. You can't conceive of that happening currently yet Manchester wasn't that long ago. If you include at least two Scottish clubs you add a half a million viewers to the TV audience at a stroke and open up marketing and sponsorship opportunities to another 5 million people. I think it's inevitable that Europe will end up with something like seven major leagues; The Spanish, English, Italian and German leagues can stand alone, they are big enough countries, the French league too probably, then you'll have a couple of other leagues, probably a Western European league we'd be in and an Eastern one including Russia, Greece, Ukraine, Romania, Israel and Turkey and few others. I'm not saying I'm happy about it but it's a natural progression.