Rousseau

You are right in saying that signing players to sell on is a major part of it - well, it's key - but a player trading model is only judged successful when those players are sold. Buying just laying the groundwork, so to speak. I think you're being a tad pessimistic - that's usually my role here...

The average age of my team posted yesterday was 23, but you dismissed it as "the stuff of nightmares", that it "[w]ouldn't be fair on King" (a youngster), and that it would "work out badly". Hmm...

Wasn't there just an interview from Bennett saying the trading model has only been in operation for less than 6-months?

Possibly. But I think we're in the mix, financially - outside the top teams (Brugge and the big three in the Netherlands) in those leagues. And, we have the added bonus of having a better pathway into England.

Possibly. I don't want dinosaurs like Warnock - that's a huge 'NO', for me - but younger guys is fine, as long as they have an ability to implement a certain style. Salzburg can appoint youngster after youngster (Marco Rose, Jesse Marsch, Thomas Jaissle all come through their academy) because they are able to implement a certain style. We should also be able to attract managers from smaller leagues, like Knutsen - unless his status is higher now after their European exploits. I know our finances are limited, but they're still higher than many clubs.

Adi Hutter is still without a job. Pedro Martins' move to Hull fell through, after recently leaving Olympiacos (he won a lot with them). Bielsa is still without a job. Villas-boas is without a club. Joachim Low... Ok - some of these are (highly) unlikely, but with just a quick search I can find several exciting names. Your Ferguson's and Thomson's should really be nowhere near our manager position.

Kjetil Knutsen is the obvious target. I would expect Ross WIlson to have a permanent shortlist that is continuously updated.

Motherwell 0 - 1 Rangers FGS Colak

Motherwell vs Rangers

An article from the time of GvB's appointment: WITH Giovanni van Bronckhorst confirmed as the new Rangers manager, excitement is through the roof amongst the Ibrox faithful following the return of their idol. The Dutchman enjoyed success as a manager at Feyenoord where he won the Eredivisie in 2017, the first time the title returned to Rotterdam in 18 years. He also claimed two Dutch Cups and two Dutch Super Cups during his four-year stint at De Kuip before an unsuccessful Covid-interrupted spell in China. We talked to Johan Brinkel from the popular Feyenoord supporters podcast Kein Geloel for an in-depth insight into what a Giovanni van Bronckhorst Rangers team may look like and what he will bring to Ibrox. His Feyenoord legacy “He’s regarded as a well-mannered and a good coach, we really like him. He’s such a nice guy and we’re hoping he’ll do well at Ibrox. “The results were very good at Feyenoord, we won the league for the first time in 18 years in 2017, he’s won the KNVB Cup twice, won the Super Cup twice so looking at just trophy-wise he was our most successful coach ever. "If you look at the football, that’s the big negative side. It was very predictable, not always as fun as we’d hoped. "He’s quite conservative as a coach but I think he’s good at managing guys, he doesn’t mind benching a big star if it’s necessary for the team.” Taking over and seeking help from a former Rangers boss “It’s quite funny because the year before he was appointed to be the head coach, he was assistant for two years before that under Ronald Koeman. We all thought the other assistant was going to be the head coach but Feyenoord decided van Bronckhorst was going to be the man so it was a big surprise when he was appointed. "When he took over, in the first part of the season he did really well. I think we were top of the league and we were thinking we could go for the title but after the winter break we collapsed so badly". "We lost seven times in a row which was a record for Feyenoord, we never did that before. “Dick Advocaat was called in to help Giovanni because our board thought that maybe van Bronckhorst was inexperienced and that he needs some help from a seasoned coach who knows how to do it when you lose so many games. “I think that helped him as at the end of the season in 2016 he won most of the matches and basically he went from that moment forward. “We got a new striker, Nicolai Jorgensen from Denmark, we got a new goalie because our first choice goalie was injured and basically everything clicked. “I still don’t think we had the best team in Holland that season but of all the players we had, around 14/15 players who all played, they outperformed on their regular skill. “Guys that were decent became excellent so we had an excellent season in which from the first day till the last day, we were top of the table and of course Gio is part of that.” Style of play "He was our coach for four years, in those four years I only remember that he played a different system once. “That was in the Champions League when we were facing Manchester City that he decided to play five defenders instead of four but it didn’t help because we lost 4-0. "I don’t recall any other games that he was playing a different system. He really likes to play a 4-3-3. "When we talk about van Bronckhorst we always say ‘The Horseshoe’ because what he always did, that irritated fans so badly, was the left-back played it to the centre back, the centre back played it to the other centre back and the centre back played it to the right back and then the other way around so it was quite predictable. “Teams figured out if you basically stopped our midfielders from being part of the game, Feyenoord doesn’t know what to do. Even though we had better teams from 2017 onwards, we didn’t become champions anymore, we didn’t play a role in the championship whatsoever. We won the cup in 2018 but the best season was the 2016-17 season when we became champions. “We sold a couple of guys and the guys we got in weren’t that good so the money we spent was not well spent. They basically stopped developing and got worse so he never replicated that fantastic magic season in 2017.” On leaving Feyenoord “I think most of the fans were quite happy when he left. “Four years in football is a long time so we do like the fact that he wasn’t fired, he left through the front door. “Everybody said, ‘Ok, we respect you, so let’s finish this together’, even though, especially in his last season the football was terrible and the performances weren’t good.

I thought I'd ask. You gave the impression that you'd watched a lot of him.

What kind of mistakes?

Ah. Well, that's that...

What specifically didn't you like about him?

I only mentioned a Mayo recall because it sounds like we're down to 2 fit CBs.

That backline is makeshift, certainly. I don't think it would be too bad against the diddy teams. Against better teams we'd need more of an aggressive press to carry them.

The dream (with a new manager): McCrorie Sands - Mayo - King Lundstram Tavernier - Lowry - Tillman - Yilmaz Morelos - Colak We could replace Tillman with Kamara/Jack for a bit of control; there could be 1 striker with 2 inside forwards (Matondo / Sakala / Kent); Tillman could play up front in a floating, false-9 role like Havertz. There are exciting options, but GvB is too conservative - which is ironic, because we can't defend...

I was just going to post that: GvB will drop Lundstram back...

It's not 'either/or'. It should be 'And'. I want King to play because I think he's good enough, albeit young and flawed. If a team can't carry a few mistakes from a youngster, the team is sh*te.

Might be time to recall Mayo. A King - Mayo - Sands back three would excite me... (No subs, though.)

I blame the coach for that. If a player has clear instructions on what he's supposed to do on the ball, he'll do it. If you leave it to an off-the-cuff decision, in the moment, that's what happens.

Agreed...

That's a different argument. You stated Kjetil would have a bigger transfer budget at Bodo/Glimt that with us. That's patently untrue. We did spend £12m, which is not insignificant. I don't think we should be going much over that, to be honest, even if they want to. I can't deny investment is important, but it's more important to use what you have effectively. Bodo'Glimt did pump them just last season.

Oh, come one. Even at our most skint, we spend a couple of million in the summer. Bodo/Glimt have not spent over 700k in one window in at least the last 4 season, and I suspect they've never spent millions. Greigsy does know the club...