calscot

Soon as I read the Euros bit, without knowing anything I thought, "Northern Ireland player"...

Maybe he would, but that's just a pure opinion, not fact. You take shit racehorse and severely handicap them, they will probably go slower. The problem here for your opinions is that the handicapped, slow horse pretty much kept up with your thoroughbred... That may be the case, or just your opinion, but it doesn't change the fact he was in second place. Maybe that's unacceptable, but that doesn't make Warburton look very good as he'd have obviously struggled against Hearts - especially when you add on the severe handicaps. Like I say, if he's so bad, why do you shy away from the facts?

I'm sorry, you're just too ignorant about Rangers for me to bother to debate with.

What rewriting of history - do you actually follow Rangers? Either you don't or you don't pay attention to the inconvenient truth of real world when it comes to the club. Strange, strange stuff. Facts: McCoist resigned, we didn't get rid of him. McCoist was comfortable in second place and his win rate was not much worse than last season. The fact he wasn't good enough for Rangers should be enough without stooping to demonising him. Like I said, it's weird how people have to fictionalise stuff to put down someone they declare is useless... Surely you must have some REAL grievances against him? But as I've repeatedly said, people can't help themselves with the memes these days, with Celtic it's #rangersbad with here its #allybad and you there is no way to rationalise with those that follow them.

I think it's amazing that so many Rangers fans don't understand the negative impact of the previous board, especially under the influence of Ashley. Totally amazing.

He resigned while in second place. You have to wonder that if a manager is so bad, why people have to make things up to put him down. Hibs were no better last season. I would say the biggest reason for finishing third was the complete meltdown after McCoist left due to the terrible situation at the club and an untried interim manager who didn't actually want the job.

While I agree that it's important, there is also the long view and so playing our strongest team every week, no matter the competition, is probably counter productive. With this many games we need a bit of squad rotation - and there's also all the gelling as a team and introducing new players, blooding youths, and keeping everyone motivated. So it's it's a tough task to balance all that.

The ironic thing is that the change in rules means that they kind of need the OF to finish 1st and 2nd every season which is something they ideally don't want in a sporting sense... They are so busy trying to get one over on Rangers that they are continually self harming.

It will hopefully sort itself out next season in the event that we finish in the top two.

PS He's also a great wee players with a load of winners medals already.

Slightly off the topic of the OP, sorry, but thought this was a good place to say that I'm about to give some money to my nephew who has just turned 9, and whose father is a tim so has been to a bunch of Celtic games and all the indoctrination, including from his Catholic school, to buy a Kilmarnock kit as that's now the team he's chosen to support! I didn't care whether he chose Rangers, I just really didn't want him joining those nutters. So good on him, proud of his independent character. Haven't spent my money with such relish for a while.

I think that people need to realise that while the league is more important and the LC is maybe becoming a sideshow, if Warburton doesn't qualify for the knockout stages, the flack from the fans won't be pretty...

McCoist didn't have one single season where he had a positive transfer spend, Warburton has 100% in that department. Warburton didn't have to face Hearts who had a much better season than us under MW. I think it's fair to expect that MWs results would probably have been somewhat poorer under the machinations of the old board and with a fan boycott. You're also forgetting that Ally didn't fail for promotion and in fact was on track to do so via second place and the playoffs, before his resignation despite the problems. So the likelihood of Warburton finishing second would have been high but his record against Hibs, especially in the most important single game of the season, shows that him winning promotion from the play-offs was not a fait accompli.

I think it's also even more stretching it to say Warburton would have won it last season considering the pretty amazing form of Hearts - without even factoring in the points in 5 and 6. No matter how bad McCoist was, he was second to a very strong Hearts, in a time of turmoil, the evidence suggests that MW would not have improved on that metric even with an infinitely better board and unequivocal support from the fans. It's also stretching it to deny Ally winning it last season had he still been around - albeit probably more closely and with a lot less style. The football side might be in a much better place and has a better future, and much nicer to watch, but the actual improvement of results under Warburton is pretty marginal compared to McCoist.

I would imagine it was already on the agenda due UEFA rules although hopefully it's something that they personally agree needs addressing.

By the looks of it we need a lot more defenders to balance the squad - about 3 or 4 with possibly a couple being youngsters to develop or promoted from the academy. So about two experienced players - a centre and full back. We have plenty of forwards but I think we still need another experienced number 9. I think that would make a 30 man squad of: 3 Gk 10 DF 9 MF 8 FW With younger, less established players making up: 1 3 4 3 Of course some of the midfielders and forwards are kind of either of these categories depending on how you look at it and where they are asked to play on the day. It's not the most awe inspiring squad but very interesting for where we are in the scheme of things now.

Seems those who are overly concerned with average age are going to be disappointed with the transfers so far. For me, I've always thought there should be a balance between youth, experience and those in between. I'm believing that MW thinks similarly and the irony is that signing 30 somethings is less of a threat to developing our youngsters than signing teenage loan players. If you have a strategy of playing 2 or 3 older players as well as 2 or 3 youngsters, with the rest in between, then the older signings are pretty much competing with each other for those few places. The young loanees are competing with the limited opportunities for our U20 players and tend to take precedence over them due to the very nature of them - to attract top youngsters from top clubs they need to get plenty of game time. That's the way it went last season and the result was probably by far the worse season in modern times for first team game time for our U20 prospects. Personally, I don't think under 40 is particularly old, you just have to look at the likes of Jens Voigt who retired about 42 from a very fitness related sport (cycling), and set the hour record just before his 43rd birthday. Then there's Contador, who won the Giro last year at 32 and is still a contender for the TdF at 33. Roger Federer is 3rd in the world at 34 and will be 35 in a couple of months. Bernard Hopkins defended a WBO title at age 49... I think to play at a reasonably high level as an older player there are certain criteria you need to meet: 1. Taking care of yourself. This is a must and means a professional and expert attention to diet and training while avoiding too much drink (and drugs) etc as well as debilitating illnesses. 2. Genetics The better start you have here the better chance of playing later in life, there must be genes that mean you are slower to age and decline in phyical ability as well as avoiding congenital diseases and complications. 3. Avoiding injury I think one of the biggest aspects of ageing before your late 40's is the accumulation of bad or repeated injuries. These restrict flexibility, muscle growth and recovery from knocks and muscle tears. They also add in pain with extreme exercise that restricts training. New injuries also tend to take longer to heal and have more complications. 4. Intelligence I think the best older players are the ones who use their heads as much as their physical ability, reading games, and opposition players, a deep understanding of tactics, all contribute to raising your game to another level that isn't diminished by age, we keep on learning so it only adds to it. 5. Motivation Players need to relish new challenges and avoid becoming jaded and bored with the non-stop training and game after game where they need to be fully focused and give 100% every time. This also means still having that despite perhaps dropping down a level or two from where they have peaked which can be hard to take. There's also the short term contracts where they have to move to a new city and remake their life which can be difficult when it's an age where many just want to settle down. There's probably loads of other factors but that's the main ones that come readily to my mind. The main thing is to choose the players that fit all those attributes - David Weir is an obvious example - the likes of Maniero, obviously had absolutely no motivation no matter how much of the rest he had in spades.

I don't seem to have a problem with those words: they are already in use, rather than him making them up, and are a result of specialisation where certain words start to be used to be very specific about what someone in the field is talking about, so that a fellow professional can immediately assimilate what they are on about. I think those words are pretty easily understood by the layman also. The only problem grammatically is some of the superfluous hyphenation but, as he's being quoted from the spoken word, that's hardly his fault. For me the words are very appropriate to describe fitness. Close season may be more specific to football than off season but the latter is more related to sports science.

I don't know the ins and outs of this but I can think of a few reasons for doing it. The main one being that I doubt the constitution of C1872 allow the taking of money accruing it in some bank account. It's probably not fulfilling the mission statement and possibly creates a temptation for fraudulent use of the money, say like Father Ted, with the "just resting in my account before I moved it on." It could be that they believe share price is undervalued at the moment and set to rise and so more shares for the money. It also hoovers up available shares that could be tempting for charlatans or speculators and removes them from disinterested parties. The money doesn't go to the club but without a mechanism for that, I don't see how they can just sit on their hands.

They're one hour ahead... Might be a long way away, but Cape town is only about 18 degrees east and with 360 degrees and 24 hours it's 15 degrees for every hour (neglecting the odd hour or half hour for cultural, political and commercial influences). Might be a joke but it's a really common mistake...

""They've got two great players for nothing so the least they can do is pay up properly". Surely if we got them for nothing there is nothing to pay? Astoundingly silly statement.

I'm pretty sure the fixture complaints arise from yet another deliberate snub to Rangers by the SPFL Celtic cabal. Once again they are cutting off their own nose to spite their face and devaluing the competition. I wouldn't be surprised if we were seeded 12th as the newly promoted team with all the will from Celtic not to treat us as special. That will throw more fixture anomalies into the mix when we qualify for the top 6 at the split. Due to those anomalies there is every chance we could have 3 away games against Celtic. I don't think it's a random selection that made sure we have 2 before the split. It has all the signs of a stitch up - all veiled by the guise of sporting integrity - Celtic style.

You just can't admit when you're obviously wrong, can you? Slicing, dicing, twisting things, including irrelevances (loan players), stating supposition as fact, ignoring stuff that disagrees with you. Maybe one day... It just shows that your dislike of someone really stops you seeing any sense... I await the time you show some balance and consistency. My main point is that when the facts are overwhelmingly against you, maybe it's time to hold back the snarky comments about former club employees.

As usual, not defending McCoist at all per se, but when people really twist reality it's time to debunk. If we attack the Celtic minded for it, we shouldn't be doing it ourselves. The stats show that more academy players were picked per match by McCoist than Warburton - and he didn't exactly get McKay from the U20's, and McCoist played him more at a younger age, so being generous. I'm not sure if you will to count all these but feel free to exclude players if you give a good reason. I've removed MacGregor as he was pretty established... I haven't counted McCoist's half season as that would mean more than a quick cut and paste to a spreadsheet but I also think 3 out of 3 and half seasons give reasonable representation. The first figure is the number of starts and the second is total appearances in competitive games for the season - taken from Wikipedia to give the provenance. Feel free to check. 2011-2012 [TABLE=width: 192] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]John Fleck[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]1[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Jordan McMillan[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]1[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]3[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Jamie Ness[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]3[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Gregg Wylde[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]15[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]25[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Ross Perry[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]8[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]13[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Thomas Kind Bendiksen[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]1[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]3[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Andrew Little[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]6[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]11[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Kane Hemmings[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64][/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Andrew Mitchell[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]1[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Rhys McCabe[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]8[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]9[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Barrie McKay[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64][/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD=align: right]44[/TD] [TD=align: right]82[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] 2012-2013 [TABLE=width: 192] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Darren Cole[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]1[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl69, width: 64]Chris Hegarty[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]28[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]29[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Ross Perry[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]21[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]23[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Luca Gasparotto[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]1[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Lewis Macleod[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]31[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]31[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Kyle Hutton[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]30[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]33[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Robbie Crawford[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]9[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]27[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Tom Walsh[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]0[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Andy Murdoch[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]0[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Andrew Mitchell[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]4[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]7[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Fraser Aird[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]11[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]22[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Barrie McKay[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]20[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]41[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl69, width: 64]Danny Stoney[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64][/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]3[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Andrew Little[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]34[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]36[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Kal Naismith[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]5[/TD] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64, align: right]24[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl68, width: 64]Kane Hemmings[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]2[/TD] [TD=class: xl67, width: 64, align: right]5[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD=align: right]197[/TD] [TD=align: right]291[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] 2013-2014 [TABLE=width: 192] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Scott Gallacher[/TD] [TD=width: 64, align: right]6[/TD] [TD=width: 64, align: right]6[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Luca Gasparotto[/TD] [TD=align: right]0[/TD] [TD=align: right]0[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Chris Hegarty[/TD] [TD=align: right]2[/TD] [TD=align: right]2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64]Kyle McAusland[/TD] [TD=align: right]4[/TD] [TD=align: right]7[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Ross Perry[/TD] [TD=align: right]0[/TD] [TD=align: right]0[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Fraser Aird[/TD] [TD=align: right]27[/TD] [TD=align: right]37[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Robbie Crawford[/TD] [TD=align: right]10[/TD] [TD=align: right]25[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Kyle Hutton[/TD] [TD=align: right]5[/TD] [TD=align: right]13[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Lewis Macleod[/TD] [TD=align: right]22[/TD] [TD=align: right]24[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Andrew Mitchell[/TD] [TD=align: right]1[/TD] [TD=align: right]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Andy Murdoch[/TD] [TD=align: right]0[/TD] [TD=align: right]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Charlie Telfer[/TD] [TD=align: right]0[/TD] [TD=align: right]1[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Calum Gallagher[/TD] [TD=align: right]2[/TD] [TD=align: right]6[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Andrew Little[/TD] [TD=align: right]17[/TD] [TD=align: right]29[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD=align: right]96[/TD] [TD=align: right]152[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] 2015-2016 [TABLE=width: 192] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Fraser Aird[/TD] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64, align: right]1[/TD] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64, align: right]4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Liam Burt[/TD] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64, align: right]0[/TD] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64, align: right]2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Barrie McKay[/TD] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64, align: right]44[/TD] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64, align: right]47[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Ryan Hardie[/TD] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64, align: right]0[/TD] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64, align: right]4[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: xl65, width: 64]Tom Walsh[/TD] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64, align: right]2[/TD] [TD=class: xl66, width: 64, align: right]2[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD=align: right]47[/TD] [TD=align: right]59[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] It's not been a good year for the academy under Warburton but maybe we didn't have good enough players due to Sinclair, I don't know, but it's just wrong to say we play more from there now. BTW I know there are a couple who will just give stupid, snidy comments, I'm looking for intelligent debate only, otherwise, with respect, please ignore.

I'm not sure past value for money comes into it when it comes to offering a new contract - we could offer him what we think he's worth... Unless he has better offers elsewhere.