Gaffer

I remember Alex Ferguson selling Jaap Stam because he had the fewest tackles and the fewest headers won of any defender in the league. The stats team saw it as a clear sign that he was deteriorating so they cashed in on him. It was only later as the data analysis team evolved (and after he had left the club) that they realised that his marking and positioning was excellent and therefore did not need to tackle or head the ball as often. This is exactly the same for me with Helander. Helander is our best defender and we miss him. He man marks better than any of the others and knows when to get tight or when to drop off. It's therefore dangerous to look at individual stats as a means of assessing a player.

I don't know him/her and the only time he/she came on to post anything was when there was a vote. At least that was my perception so I didn't vote for them. @BEARGER informed me that the statements were on the website so I'll be alive to that in future. Cheers.

I didn't vote for anyone because I didn't see anything from any of the candidates that suggested why I should lend them my support. Did I miss something?

In any normal dispute of this kind, each side will use the courts to dilute the contents of contracts until both sides get to the stage where they settle. I feel that we are at that stage now and both sides are likely to settle if there's a sensible first offer to work with. I'll be really surprised if this is still ongoing after the end of this year. If it is, I'd expect the shareholders to be asking serious questions of their respective boards because it's a complete waste of money. Maybe our board can invite the SD reps up for a game of golf, afterall its a great place to do deals. Maybe a wee visit from the US president can help sweeten the deal. Maybe that is what Farage was doing over there. ?

It'll be interesting to see how all of these partships affect our bottom line. I'm just glad to see our commercial department performing. Obviously we need to sort out the SD situation (which I expect to happen in the next 6-9 months), and then we should be generating decent non ticket income. And if they hopefully sort out the food situation at Ibrox, I'll be happy to start giving them more matchday income too. I've perhaps subconsciously steered this onto my big bug bear about going to games. I always have to get something to eat and drink before going to Ibrox. The food is not even as nice as disgusting there.

Only @Bluedell got the correct answer to this question. There is only one correct answer and that is number 9. The others are good, but that's the greatest one.

5-0 Hagi

Maybe we can get his help to sort out the referees and press in this country. He's certainly got the cahonas to do it.

Once again Celtic have seized the initiative and now control the narrative in the press. Despite evidence that their fans were racially abusing Morelos, they've now managed to get Sky to make a public apology which then implies it didn't happen. At the same time Griffiths is in the press saying that these silly charges are ruining football. This is from the man who stamped on a player and didn't actually get a charge for it. The brass neck of that organisation is incredible, but it's working. We can say what we want about how they go about their business. It may be despicable, underhand and bordering on corrupt, but they're getting away with it. It is making a big difference to the points in this championship and yet still our club remains silent. I am beyond sick and tired of the refereeing performances. I think we all are. I always defended the club's approach of a combination of dignified silence and behind closed doors challenges. ITS NOT WORKING! In fact, the referees are now not only above reproach but they now appear to be flaunting it. Some of the treatment of our players is disgusting and yet there's nothing we seem willing to do about it. These last few games have pushed a patient man to the point of despair. Openly criticising referees and challenging this in the press cannot do us any more harm than we are already experiencing, so I wish we'd start it now. This board really is not performing and I'm sick of it. It seems we have madmen in charge, afterall they do say that madness is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result. Nothing is changing for the better, in fact I think it's getting much worse.

Again, it's amazing how differently we all saw it. I thought everyone would go for Hagi. Barisic was excellent, but Hagi grabbed the game by the throat and that's the sort of performance that heralds the beginning of a new era. What a player he is.

I realised last night what Rangers have been working on during the winter break. We've changed our shape in the final third. Previously, when Kent or Aribo picked the ball up, we relied on Tav or Barisic overlapping to allow the slipped pass to them or Kent/Aribo cutting inside. That was once effective, but Kent in particular is being closed down by two players while another covers his runs he did when he dribbled past them. This meant Kent only had the pass to Barisic, and it was similar on the other side. I suppose that's why we saw such an increase in the number of crosses from Barisic before the break. Now what we appear to be doing is asking the two midfielders (on either side of Davis) to move into those inside channels. I think this is a good idea and will help to break down teams that constantly sit in against us (like Hibs, Aberdeen, etc), but it's such a big change to the system that I wonder if it would have been better down during the summer when we have more of an opportunity to play games and embed it. It seems we gambled on introducing it and the gamble didn't pay off. The big problem we had in the Hearts game particularly is that their midfield outran us and outmuscled us, meaning that our two midfielders (Kamara and Arfield) were unable to cover the ground they needed to. I can't see this approach working against Celtic either, but it should be effective against most other teams. On reflection I'm thinking that this is why we have slowed down in the transition. It's almost like we deliberately slow it down to allow Aribo and Arfield (as it was last night) the time to make those runs forward. As I said, it's a nice idea but it's going to have two consequences for us. Firstly, our style is affected a lot by it and isn't nearly as fluid or as exciting to watch. Secondly, all it takes is a hard working and rough team like Hearts, Livi or Killie and we will struggle to command the midfield like we need to. I will pay closer attention to this over the next few games to see if we can become more flexible and effective with it. Obviously the management team believe this will be a risk worth taking, but they would have hoped that we'd get through the first few games after the break while we practised it. I guess it's unfortunate timing that Hearts changed manager and their style. It's also unfortunate timing that Jack and Tav got injured too. Sometimes in football, the difference between winning and losing is so marginal. Anyway, I love the tactical side of the game and I thought I'd share what I'm seeing. And while I'm on the subject of what I'm seeing, I've never seen a player like Hagi before. I've never seen a player who uses both feet so interchangeably. Can anyone else think of another like him? I can't.

Players like Kamara and Katic should be dropped but as we've seen in the past, that's not how the manager deals with them. He tends to play them as a means of getting through their bad patch. That's what he did with Kent, Tav, Goldson, Arfield, etc. The only player he did drop was Barisic as a result of poor performances so we will see. In some respects we can't afford to drop Kamara because their is not a stronger replacement. I am with @PoohBear on this though. I do get a sense (maybe hope rather than anything concrete) that we are turning the corner now and Im expecting a big performance tonight. If we don't need get it, it won't matter anyway because then the league is dead anyway. At some point however this management team will have to reflect on what is happening during our winter breaks. Something is clearly breaking the rhythm for us and not other teams and we need to fix that for future campaigns. As for tonight, let's go!

I'll be really surprised if too many people respond to this. It's such a shame, but this board is losing the goodwill of the fans because it refuses to take us seriously. We want action against those that seek to damage our club and no more false promises (about statements) or dignified silence.

As I've said previously, I think we'd all be a little more patient with the club if we actually felt they were doing something about it. However there's no evidence at all that they're doing anything other than bending over to be shafted time and time again. I was furious after that game, and although I was disappointed at the result, but it was the gross injustice of the refereeing that got to me. The facts are clear so why don't we just state facts in a club statement? Equally, we allow that moronic creatures Stewart, Hartson, Sutton, and all the others to make stuff up about our club and every time all we get is a 'dignified' silence. It's not good enough. Our directors are failing our club, our players, it's management team, and the fans. Get the finger out or just get out. We need people with political savvy or balls to make changes. At the moment this board appears to have neither. I'm so annoyed as you can tell, but others like me who have only ever praised the board are now dissenting too.

5-0 Hagi

I'm now raging. The ref books our player for making the point that Cosgrove hasn't been booked. This is terrible.

That's now 8 fouls from Cosgrove. Imagine that's Morelos!!!!

I didn't recognise our style of play in the first 30 minutes. The ball spent more time in the air in that first half than it ha s all season. Why do we allow ourselves to get dragged into the match that Aberdeen, Hearts, etc want us to play? Please Rangers play our own style and we will blow this mob away. If we continue to play their way we will find trouble, especially because they're allowed to foul us constantly without consequence. These bloody referees are useless and don't help the Scottish game develop technically. Cosgrove, Ojo and Consadi e should all be on yellows. Shocking!!!

I'll make my prediction for the following game right now ..... 5-0 HAGI. I can't believe I get to put that name down as OUR first goal scorer in the next game. Never thought I'd see the day. For me, the only thing that will top that is if Kaka has a son who plays for us next.

If he is anything like his dad, let's get him on our free kicks ???

He got my vote. Defoe scored one and made one, but overall I thought Ojo looked the most dangerous in the team, and I really enjoyed watching him last night.

1-0 Kent (I think my usual prediction is jinxing the team so I'll try something different)

I agree @JohnMc. Having lived in Glasgow for 20+ years I really thought the animosity extended as far as verbal assaults in the main, with an occasional punch thrown now and again. To think that this has now extended to ........., well I dare not even use the terms in my head, this is truly a milestone. I'm really hoping this is an idiot either trying to steal the car or maybe placing a tracker on it so they could follow his movements (which although sinister, is better than the alternatives).

I'm so surprised that after that defeat we are focussing so much 'blame' on our most creative player, the one who scored our goal in tha game, and one of the few who worked his socks off (despite having one of his poorer games). Our problem is that we don't have enough Ryan Kents in the team!!!

5-0 Kent