pete

A group of really rich Rangers supporters who can work together for the club would be my choice with ordinary supporters also having more of a pull. I am not really happy at the east block interest.

Surely there are thousands of football rivalries without the Protestant-Catholic connection. Rangers can survive without religion, for those who seem to think it can't. Just ask all those so called supporters who threw their scarfs away when we signed Mo Johnston.

I wonder if there is a hidden agenda here.:admin:

Prefer the Arab option but we would probably get linked to Al-Qaeda in the press.

On Sunday at 13.30 together with 18 colleagues from my work, we left on a Dortmund supporters bus from Gronau just over the Dutch-German Border for the +-90 minute Journey to Dortmund. After driving for just five minutes we made our first stop. We were stopped outside a licensed grocers where crate after crate after crate of beer were loaded on to the bus. A few bottles of soft drink and some cool-boxes with rolls and schnitzel and meatballs were also loaded. Straight away crates of beer were being passed down the line and almost after every 8 rows of seats a crate blocked the passage. A paper was handed out with with information of times of the coming games and ticket availability and price. Also on the paper was the drink and food list. 1 euro for a bottle of beer, cheap as chips, and we had already paid for a few crates in the price of our ticket. The room between the seats of the bus was minimal and after trying all ways to put my knees i decided to stand in the passage. God knows how people can go on long journeys on these buses. We raced down the motorway with the rain throwing it down and bottle after bottle and crate after crate of beer seemed to come and go. Thankfully we had two piss-stops planned for the journey and they were welcome indeed. After the beer started to take effect the songs started to come and the excitement for the game started to mount. Funnily enough after a few Dortmund anthems it was clear that more of their songs were about their hatred of Schalke, other than over Dortmund.(Seemed familiar.) One of Their songs was the German version of Blue and White *****. I refused to join in with that one of course. Arriving at the Stadium we got off the bus and had to join a long queue where at the end we were searched for any weapons. On entering the catacomb of the stadium we were confronted with a flight of stairs and more stairs and more stairs. My thighs were starting to burn when we at last reached the level where we could enter the playing area. Of course we had to get a couple of beers in first. 5 euro's for a half-litre with 1.50 deposit return on the plastic jug.(3.50 for the beer). Stupid bloody system as they wouldn't fill up the jug you had. You had to pay 5 euro's for beer and jug every time and hunt for a check-point to get your money back. On entering the playing area to look for our seat we were confronted by yet another massive and very steep climb. again the old thighs were starting to burn before we found our seat. The view was good but if i went any higher my fear of heights may have kicked in, and we were not near the top yet. As for the game itself i can say there were two beautiful goals in a 1-1 draw, both very similar, in that they were both shots cracking off the under-side of the bar. Hanover played a more relaxed passing game and Dortmund were a bit hectic with easy ball loss. But the only other excitement that the fans had was when it was flashed up on the screen that Schalke were losing 2-1(ended 2-2 in the last minute). The second half was total crap. I even reverted to talking about work with a colleague. The stadium for me was a massive big block of cold grey Cement with stairs stairs and more stairs. A bit like climbing the old Gorbal flats. The seating area did look impressive with 84.000 seats but it is very steep. Sorry but their rivals Schalke's Stadium impressed me a lot more but i will admit i was stone cold sober when i was there. It took us ages to get back out of Dortmund making the journey back a long haul. Unfortunately the speed of the beer didn't seem to slow down and i have been paying for it for two days now. I 'll never drink again! Well at least not to the weekend. The Dortmund supporters treated us great and i had a fantastic time and hopefully will repeat it in the future. I promised Photo's of the stadium but unfortunately my camera Ckufed up and i am waiting to get some from a colleague(he phoned in sick for two days) When i get some i will post them.

I was at the Shalke v Rangers game. Stadium and Complex are incredible. Somewhere on here are the photo's.

Agree with you all. If you have no major news to fill your newspaper fill it with shite

Add McGregor to that lot as i am pretty sure that will now happen. i would hope for 5mill+

I am going through to watch this game on Sunday. We are going with about 15 guy's from my work. I will miss the rangers game which is a bummer but hopefully i will be a great experience richer. As for the price. I paid 31 euro's including the ticket and the bus. The guy that arranged it apologised that he had charged us too much and has arranged for two crates of beer on the bus with the extra money. German football does seem to be still at a family price. I will post some photo's on Sunday night if sober enough.

I totally agree that this is now his team and i mentioned before that things are looking a lot brighter since Mendes has transformed the team. I also said one player can't make a team but one player can make a big difference in joining a team together. If you measure WS against PLG then it still doesn't make him a good manager it just makes him better or worse than PLG. Walter Smith should be judged on what he produces on and off the park at Rangers. This season is still far too early to make judgement. Last season while being a reasonably high point for lifting two trophy's and a superb Euro run was for the football connoisseur a nightmare. The fact that our CB and Goalkeeper fought for player of the year underlines that fact. If we keep playing this football and can at least fight to the end as last year i will funnily enough feel better about the team than i did last year. The excitement and sensations of last season will be hard to duplicate.

Getting Automatic entry to the CL on a yearly basis is never going to happen in it's current form. It would be great for us if it did but not good for football in general. That being the fact then the years that we don't get automatic entry,it is imperative that our team is ready and fighting from round 1. Taking a gamble on playing so called weaker teams with a severely weakened team should not even be an option. Now that McCulloch has moved back to Centre-back means we had six centre-backs in the team(unfair i know but McCulluch played like a CB even then:) ) The whole engine room was, and was known to all to be extremely weak. Except WS seemingly. I know buying Davis earlier was not a guarantee but at least he was a real midfield player and that is what we needed. Firstly i don't think Paul le Guen is a ruler to measure the success of Walter Smith. I don't want to bring up the whole PLG argument again but i am still not sure he could not have turned the club round. Walter Smith has spent about 30million(I believe) to get us where we are. PLG spent or was allowed to spend about 4 million. PLG lost the dressing room because he dared to take a stand against Fergie and his cronies and it is a bit funny how it was when Fergie came back into the team that things went pear-shaped. When will i give Walter his credit? When he builds his own team that plays entertaining football and can win things, mainly the league.

Sorry Cal but you have lost me. My original argument was that Walter should have strengthened to win the Kaunus game. I never said getting to the final wasn't a great thing for Rangers. But you have to take each game independently. Was it a good thing getting to the final then the answer is yes. could we have done better with a more positive coach,then i also believe Yes. I still think we could have done more in the CL if Walter hadn't shit himself into a 4-5---------1. whether or not the UEFA run was a better prize is another argument. I personally think you should go into every game to win and a manager should prepare the team to be as strong as possible. So losing in a cup to defend the league is not something that i would do. It was obvious to everyone at 10 in a row that the team was needing revamped but Walter never saw it or didn't want to see it. Now he has fallen to the same mistake again. He sits in the stand to get a better perspective but what he seems to see things most supporters don't see,thinking his team is doing well. Personally i think it is the other way about. He doesn't see what most supporters see. In how bad we were at the beginning of the season. By the way German amateur teams only start training about the same time as us,so they weren't well into their season. Off to work!

Rasperry!!!

Although i will always support Scotland and will do everything to try and get the game on the telly, i am afraid i find International weekends a pain in the ass. Why can't we play internationals on a Wednesday night like the old days and leave a Saturday for the Gers.

Originally Posted by calscot Look at Spurs. Riding high last year,bottom of the league this year. Yesterdays successes are no guarantee for tomorrows battles. As i said in another thread, you can have a Rolls Royce sitting outside that looks great, but if there is no engine in it, it won't move. Look at the difference Mendes alone has made to our team. One man can't make a team but he can be the keystone that holds the bridge together. Three player can make a hell of a lot of difference in my eyes. Quite easy to predict when your calling the shots. Is it not more of a managers job to motivate the players rather than keep telling everyone it will be difficult because we're jaded. Could it not be these negative thoughts that brought in his negative tactics that resulted in our negative results. All fits in with the Walter Smith's negativity theory. Surely if something is eminently winnable and you lose then it wasn't eminently winnable but eminently loseable. Just like the Kanaus game according to you and Walter it was eminently winnable but we lost which made it eminently loseable. Surely a good manager should know that a game that is eminently winnable is just as easy to be eminently loseable and therefore my argument stands. Confused? So am I!

Wallter Smith made them all.:devil:

I am sure Charlie will be pleased he has been called an Athlete.

Sorry Guy's you will have to wait until tonight for an answer. Work beckons.

Just giving my opinion on what he has done up until this season and up until now he is the nearly man I have sex nearly every night. Monday i nearly had it. Tuesday i nearly had it.etc. Last season he steadied the ship but this year he sunk our Euro hopes. Over this season it looks good at this moment, but as you say we will need to wait for the hindsight before we can make any conclusions.

Craig nearly winning the league means we lost it. The CL\UEFA run is a debate in itself was it unlucky good management or lucky bad management? This season is still too early to make any judgement although i agree the football has improved immensely. We have at least gotten a bit of hope back though.

I remember a picture on here of the muppets wearing Celtic tops. It would be great to get a huge banner made up with that picture, unfurl it from the Govan stand and then the whole crowd singing the muppet song.

Come on Cal. Tired! Give us a break they had more than 4 weeks holiday. Should a manager not take into consideration that the other team may be further with their fitness and maybe give them more respect. I don't know where all the confidence came from about beating Kaunus but it certainly wasn't shared with me. I obviously can't predict results but i am sure i stated a few times just how bad we were on the German tour and was certainly not bubbling with confidence no matter who we got. A Bloom'n German amateur team dominated us for more than half the game You can keep making excuses but in my eyes it was total mismanagement from top to bottom. A bad workmen always blames his tools.

Totally agree Dell, Craig is confusing me with his insistence that it is hindsight. It was posted on here so often we needed a central-midfielder and was almost always the first position mentioned by most. Personally i saw it against Schalke at least i had confirmed what i already knew. There was just totally no football in that team. That was not just my idea but also my mates who was with me and he is totally unbiased.

I can tell you in Dutch if it is any good. De Hungersnood is over, Ga toch naar huis.

How About: Wee McDonald canny score. E i e i o Kenny Miller has scored more. And you let him go. With a header here a volley there. Left big Artur clutching air Wee McDonald canny score e i e i o