Gaffer

I think it's fair to say that I'm one of the more optimistic members of the forum, but even I can't see how we will qualify for the group stages. The odds are stacked so heavily against us, even if PC builds a decent team. I think I'd just settle for getting a couple of European nights back at Ibrox. Those are the nights I miss the most and it'll feel as if we are on our way back. Having said that, there's nothing quite like the sound of the Champions League music playing at the start of the match. It's then that you know you're back in the big league. That's a couple of years off though. ;-)

I'm going to try to sort out my diary just so I can do that BH. You've got me intrigued. ;-)

I also think this was a great tackle. The only reason a two footed tackle is considered a red card is because the player cannot retain control if he has two feet off the ground. If a player is out of control, it is deemded as reckless, if not dangerous play. The key to the challenge we are talking about here is control, and it would appear that the Celtic player is in control and able to withdraw his foot/leg if required. I bet it hurt Miller when he was tackled, but that's just tough. A tackle has to be proportionate and controlled. For me, it was both and therefore not a foul, never mind worthy of any card.

That would be interesting but a massive risk. What happens when that Chinese businessman becomes bored? If Abramovic decided he wanted out of Chelsea, they'd be finished. Maybe it would be worth the risk just to ride high for a few years, but what legacy would we leave our kids? I have to say though, if that was on the table it would certainly have me thinking about it, providing their motives were clear and as long as it was a 'donation' to the club. I'd hate to think it was someone out to fleece supporters or other suppliers of the club. After MA, those types of deals are a non starter for me, no matter how much money they had.

To rbr/BH, I keep reading these suggestions but I've got no idea who these likely replacements are. Do they have the millions ready to throw into the club? Do they have a better plan that the existing shareholders? I continue to be suspicious of these stories and can only think that they are 'leaked' to destabilise the club further. I do get rather suspicious of your motives in this regard but that's just perhaps I don't know you. If others didn't know you, I'd be thinking you're a daily record journo in disguise. ;-) As for loggerheads in the boardroom, that's where the arguments and debates should take place. The board room is the place to thrash around ideas and argue what routes are the best to achieve the overall objective. A board need only agree on the goal. A board that agrees on everything else is disfunctional. Once again, if someone is leaking confidential board room discussions and outcomes, it is that person who should be the focus of any criticism. I have absolutely no respect for anyone who mouths off about team/board affairs to the outside world and I'd want them out before anyone else. This cowardly behaviour is pathetic and needs to stop. The sooner we have these people weeded from our club and boardroom, the sooner we will progress. As I asked at the start, please can you tell us who these multi millionaire supporters are that plan to replace DK? If they exist and have a plan, I'm sure all supporters would be right behind them, DK included.

I think you're right BH. It's not realistic, but it was more to demonstrate what level of commitment it would take from the fans to get us that level of Investment. I'm hopeful that there is a model that can work for us though.

And if he departed, who comes in with money? Does DK just leave the soft loans in a company he no longer has any say in? I think the support is largely behind DK and I don't know of any friends and family that have anything but admiration for what he's done for us. I think he's made some really bad decisions along the way, but I think they've been made with decent motives. As I've said before, I don't know the guy, and I have no idea if he's genuine or not, but he seems to be. Until I suspect his motives have changed, he will get my support, but that same thing applies to any supporter who is willing to step in to save our club. As for the 30m, I'm sure this has been discussed to death, but he very quickly explained that after a couple of months in the role. I'd questions his senses if he put 30m of his own money into the club without shares or some alternative leverage. Why should someone who only owns a minority share use his money to benefit MA and others? That would only encourage these other parasites to hold on, and none of us want that. We need to get rid of these people and then turn the soft loans into equity. Surely that makes sense to any sane person!?! I really don't understand some of the animosity aimed at him. I really don't understand why the one person that saved the club is being targeted in such a manner. We've a right and obligation to scrutinise anyone in our club, but it's way over the top when it comes to DK in my opinion and I'm actually embarrassed by it if the truth be known. He put his money where his mouth was and that's more than the majority of fans did. Thanks DK, but please sort out these court cases because it does you no favours, and certainly damages the reputation of the club.

Football is big business, but the clubs are not the big businesses. In fact most clubs in the world could barely be classed as medium sized companies. The only businesses that really make the money from football are the sponsors and TV companies. If you're trying to make money from football, investing in clubs is the last place you'd place your bets. At the time of writing I think I'm right in saying that there isn't a single club in the world where there is a return on investment from the club. There are deals where strip manufacturers or other sponsors will make money indirectly from money going into the club but this would not be possible in Scotland, given the limited market for our game. It's for this reason that I really want fan ownership. If fans paid up to 30 pounds per month (a huge if) we would have the 20m a year to spend on players. That money would not be expected to return a profit other than league titles and cup wins. I just hope the fan scheme takes off, because we need it to. For me, that's our best bet.

I'm afraid it is much more complex than rocket science. If it was simple, most clubs would be doing it, but they're not. Very few clubs will get a return on investment, and certainly not in Scotland. If 20m was spent, there's no chance of getting 20m in increased value in return. That's why I've said it has to be supporters that are happy to spend money in acknowledgement that it will not return anything financially but will give us the satisfaction we crave. I just don't know too many supporters that can come in with the willingness or ability to spend millions. Until anyone can give me a better horse to back, I'm hoping DK and the rest of the board continue to rebuild the club prudently.

This word "investment" seems to be used so much that I now don't know what we mean by it. "Investment" to me means putting something in and then getting something more in return. So, who in their right mind thinks that putting 20m into players or anything else for that matter is likely to result in a return? There is no return on football like that and certainly not in Scotland so what we really mean is who is willing to throw money into Rangers, knowing they will NEVER get a return? The only people willing to put money in without expectation of a return are the supporters of the club. If anyone other than a supporter is "investing", I'm instantly deeply suspicious. DK is a supporter and yet I wouldn't expect him to throw money into a club when the financial structure has yet to be resolved. It's for that reason that soft loans will continue for the foreseeable future. No doubt at some point in the future, those soft loans become shares in the club, but it won't be classed as an investment because there will still never be a return on that value. Unless anyone can tell me otherwise, there's no prospect of tens of millions being thrown away on playing staff any time soon. To me, any talk of that is nonsense and certainly mismanages the expectations of the support.

Please excuse my ignorance on these things, but how does it help us if DK goes? This is a genuine question from someone who does not have the contacts and insight that some on here appear to have. I honestly don't know what DK has done wrong but I'd really like to know. Please put the regular supporters like me in the picture. I think that's important after what's gone on in the past. Cheers

I feel like I've walked into the twilight zone tonight. I can honestly say I've tried to read between the lines regarding what BH and others are saying about investment rumours but I can't work it out. All I can tell is that we have people who have lost the plot when talking about MA. We were almost dead and buried as a club. We have a future now (as far as I can see) and unfortunately that future has some tough years ahead as we try to rebuild. We've had a tough season because for one reason or another our recruitment last summer was poorly managed. Because of this we've had to rely on a championship team to get us to the top of the premier league. We all hoped that we'd be closer to Celtic but we didn't really expect to do well against them did we? The games on Sunday and today showed that we have a big job ahead but are things so bad that we're talking about dancing with the devil again? My club is too precious to risk placing it in the hands of anyone other than supporters. Am I missing something here because I just don't get it. We were aiming for second place this season. We didn't achieve that and it's really disappointing. The board were put in a terrible position after the antics of MW and co, and put PC in charge. He can't work miracles overnight, especially with these players so he needs time. And if anyone thinks we are spending 20m on players in the summer, you're clearly smoking something because that's not going to happen. Furthermore, there's no one that will 'invest' that type of money because there's no return on it. For us to return to the top without jeopardising the financial future of the club, it will take a long time. If you're not prepared for that then you're in for years of disappointment. I'm gutted that this has happened to our club and wish it was different, but it's not. We are where we are and need to get through it. I'm hoping we can have some successes along the way, but I'm also expecting some further setbacks as we had this week. In the meantime, can we please not lose all sense of perspective and reality. It's tough enough as it is without my support network on here losing its mind.

BH, I like reading your posts but I'm assuming you've been drowning your sorrows with something stronger than alcohol to have come out with this. Are you serious? Would you really welcome MA back? MA has no place at our club no matter how much money he threw at it.

I don't think it would matter who our manager was at the moment. There's nothing anyone can do about installing the character some of the players need to have a future at Ibrox. So far the recruitment has been poor. I hope you'll agree that he at least deserves a transfer window to bring in his own players. Also, it's easy to get carried away after that today (especially following on from the display on Sunday), but it's only a handful of those players that are not up to it. However, it's then got such a detrimental effect on the whole team.

Having watched those players capitulate to Celtic, your response is to focus on the manager??? Unbelievable! He has shown the passion and desire to win and although he may not turn out to be a success, he deserves some time. The focus of any disappointment has to be on the players. We need mentally strong players and although many of them clearly have technical skills and talent, they are not strong enough in the mind to be Rangers players. Once again, 3 or 4 players (who can't be replaced at the moment) are ruining it for the whole team. Bring on the transfer window. We have one enormous job to do in recruiting.

PC should make every effort to identify the leak and get rid of him, regardless of who they are. The schedule is not determined by PC. The schedule is dictated by the Europa league qualifiers and if any player has a problem with that, they should go to a team without the prospect of European football, which is the majority of clubs. The players will receive no sympathy from me or from the majority of fans. Of course I completely understand their desire to have an extended break, but they can have all the holidays they want at another club. At Rangers, the players have to be committed. If winning is not their focus, they can go elsewhere. I'm also glad that PC is tough on the press. They want it all their own way and he's quite right in telling them that he will respect them if they treat him with respect too. He has been very open with them and given them much more detail on football matters than they'd get from anyone else. Indeed, he probably gives them too much, and for many of them, they just don't even know enough about football to appreciate what he's telling them. He has warned them about asking repeatedly for comments on in-house matters. The press in this country comprises some of the most uneducated halfwits around and an intelligent man like PC must wonder why he even bothers engaging in a sensible explanation of football and tactics. On that basis, he should spend a little less effort on trying to educate the people from the media and spend a little more time demonstrating to some of the players what it means to be a Ranger. He's not long into the club, but already he knows more about what this club means to the fans than many of the players. His attitude towards desire, passion, commitment and WINNING is absolutely spot on. It's a pity that some of our players don't have that. We will no doubt find out who they are (if we didn't already know) because I'd imagine they'll be the ones shown the door in the summer. However, if PC finds out that they were the source of the leaks too, I hope he shows them the window instead.

I understand why you say this about the high pressure, or lack of, but I think it's just a small number of players ruining this for the team. I don't know what he can do about it though and he'll have to stick with one or two of them even into next season, unless he is a magician when it comes to convincing other teams to take these players from us. We have been desperate for a leader at the back (Hill, but younger) but the focus for me has to be on the front line. If we only make one signing this summer it has to be a centre forward or striker. We do actually create more than enough chances to win these games and we just don't take them. These aren't difficult chances to convert and with a specialist we could be scoring freely. It's why I'm optimistic, providing we get the right player in. These players are expensive, even for a young prospect, but it's absolutely essential we address this as the priority. I'm assuming this is one of the targets we are at advanced stages in negotiations with, and I'd expect we will hear some positive news about this as we approach the end of the season. If we get this right we always have the chance of outscoring the opposition and winning games. The other positions are important, but not as critical.

I think that's a really interesting approach to apply it in football and one I'd be supportive of, at least as a trial. I can just imagine players deliberately trying to flick the ball onto a defender's hands to earn a penalty. It would certainly add more to the anticipation and excitement as players get inside the box. It would also lead to more goal scoring opportunities because a defender's natural balance and mobility would be hampered if they had to hide their arms at all times. I like it!

I thought our tactic of hitting them on the break was a sensible one to go with, however even if the players disagreed they should have committed to it 100%. PC is in charge and they should be sticking to the plan. His job is to decide the plan, and their job is to execute it. I didn't think it was anything like that though, and it looked like a case of 3 or 4 players were unable to stand up to the physically and mentally stronger Celtic team. We didn't start well at all (again) and that is an attitude issue. In my opinion, we have some very technical players from back to front, however their mental attitude is in question too often for me. To be a Ranger you need the right attitude above all else and sadly we have a small number of players (3 or 4) that don't turn up when it counts. It then reflects badly on the whole team. The problem PC has is that he can't do much about it until next season. The good news for us is that the Celtic team is poor and the majority of their possession was in safe parts of the pitch. They had few chances, and although our tactics are partly to thank for that, their lack of quality is also to blame. I hope they continue to think they are world beaters because they're in for a rude awakening when we eventually get our act together. A striker has to be top of our list in the summer. We don't have one. Miller's work rate is first class but his concentration and touch is lacking too often. Waghorn has plenty of skill and a great work rate too, but he lacks composure. Garner is too lightweight to play the target man role, and too slow to run the channels. It's going to be the toughest transfer window, and the most crucial. I hope the business for most of our targets is nearing completion because we need to hit the ground running.

I've got the strongest level of battle fever I've had for years. I can't work out why, but it's an awesome feeling and I sense the same in most other bears.. If the team is up for this even half as much as the fans are, we will do well today.

Don't get TB started on his opinion of Miller. ;-)

What a shock and so very very sad. It reminds us all of our own mortality and puts some of our other issues into perspective. Terribly sad news and I feel so sorry for his family. :-(

I agree he's probably been our best player, but Foderingham must be close too. Miller's workrate is better than anyone in the league and he shows no signs of losing fitness with age. Miller seems to be able to step up his game against tougher opposition and I think that's my problem with him. He obviously has another gear but it's rarely used. It's not that he works any less against weaker opposition, but he certainly doesn't appear to concentrate the same. I'd like us to sign someone who can score goals more consistently and if we do, I can't see where he fits in to the team, meaning that he would be an impact sub if anything. I don't think that'll satisfy him in his final years so he may be off.

I must admit I didn't think it was a straight red card, although it should have been a booking. He did retaliate for the earlier niggle and that much was clear, however it was the reaction of their players that got him sent off. It's irrelevant anyway as I really want him to play at the weekend. It's so much sweeter to win when he's in the team.

Thanks BH, and I may have misunderstood the consequences. I've read many so called damning articles on what DK is doing but none of them seem that material or relevant to me so if there's anything you can tell me I'd appreciate it.