calscot

So why is my "possibility" so ludicrous? Especially as it seems to be one that fits your question... But hey, you're implying you think 100% that Celtic went to the SPL and said, "Hi SPL, we've got some injuries that could affect our result against Rangers, and so want to use Phil's death as an excuse to postpone the game. Is that ok? ...Yes?...Excellent!" Seems to me that when someone is 100% certain about something they have no evidence or real knowledge for; who dismisses all other possibilities; and not only that, expects everyone to bow to their "certain knowledge", then I can see that they could do with a few drugs or something... BTW I was not even stating my opinion, I was only indexing a possibility... On reflection, I still don't see how it was such a stretch and I do think it merited more of a debate than just scoffing... I think that's what Barry was getting at too.

I don't feel sorry for any players. I'm only interested in the fortunes of Rangers FC. If players don't get a dream career at the best football club in the world, why should I care? They will move on and be wanted elsewhere. Hemdani, Buffel and Gow have been told to find new clubs: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football-news/scottish-football/spl-football/rangers-fc/2008/05/29/rangers-offload-flop-forward-filip-sebo-for-1m-as-lafferty-admits-gers-interest-86908-20433057/ Rangers offload flop forward Filip Sebo for �£1m as Lafferty admits Gers interest May 29 2008 Exclusive by Keith Jackson and Anthony Haggerty RANGERS last night took their earnings for the season to �£30million - by finalising a deal to flog flop Filip Sebo. The Ibrox club banked a �£20m jackpot from their European campaign and raked in �£9m from the January sale of Alan Hutton to Spurs. And Sebo's �£1m sale to French minnows Valenciennes, which should be confirmed in the next 24 hours, will mean manager Walter Smith has brought home a staggering cash total from his first full season back at the helm. Now it remains to be seen how much of that money Smith will be allowed to spend this summer as he plots for phase three of the latest Ibrox revolution. And last night one of his summer targets, Kyle Lafferty issued a and come-and-get-me plea to the Rangers boss. Smith lodged a bid of around �£1.8m with Burnley for the Northern Ireland star - but will drop out of the race if his price continues to rise. Lifelong Rangers fan Lafferty is unhappy under boss Owen Coyle and last night declared he can't wait to get out of Turf Moor. Record Sport revealed on Tuesday the player was back on the radars of the Ibrox club and rivals Celtic, who tried and failed to land him in January. A formal bid from Rangers chief executive Martin Bain landed on Coyle's desk in the past week but was thrown out along with an offer of �£3.5m from Wolves. Rangers will not be willing to pay as much for a player who has yet to prove himself at the highest level. Celtic, who had an offer of �£2.5m plus striker Derek Riordan turned down, are believed to be watching but have yet to re-affirm their interest. Lafferty signed a four-year deal with Burnley in 2006. The striker has hit five goals in 15 games for his country but bagged only five in 37 Championship games last season. Lafferty said: "I've given my all to Burnley but don't feel wanted. No player is going to stay where he is not happy. "I understand Rangers and Wolves want me and I'd be thrilled to move to either. "Celtic are also interested but I don't think that's ever going to materialise. "I was happy under Steve Cotterill at Burnley but things have changed and I don't feel the same way. "If I had been given the opportunity to leave in the last two transfer windows I would have but those bids were turned down." Lafferty revealed he would love the chance to emulate countryman Steven Davis' exploits at Ibrox. Lafferty said: "It would be a dream to follow in Steven's footsteps but it's an honour to be linked with Celtic also." Meanwhile, Brahim Hemdani, Alan Gow and Thomas Buffel have been told to find new clubs.

One possible alternative I've thought of is that, perhaps they didn't want an Old Firm game and all its controversy to overshadow Phil's memory. If it had been another game it probably would not have been called off. However, once you have requested your rivals postpone a game for whatever reason, it seems to me to be highly unsporting to then pressure your league to force your rivals to play so many games in such a short period. To me it's akin to Rangers kicking the ball out for a Celtic player on the ground and then Celtic go on the attack from the throw-in instead of throwing it back. Where Celtic fans have been very poor is that they have shown no empathy at all for the situation. All OF firm fans should put themselves in the other sides shoes before jumping on a bandwagon. Surely Celtic fans would have preferred a league extension had it been them? If so, they have shown how little sporting integrity they have. Celtic and their fans can basically never again complain about fixture congestion or request an extension to the season without looking like cheats. They can only show they are not cheats by being completely consistent when the odds are stacked against them instead of Rangers. However they have already shown their lack of integrity by complaining that they had the harder START to the season!

I think Cuellar is worth more to us than 10M. The 20M was to show we'd sell him if there was a silly money offer. The question is, how much is SDM's idea of silly money? For me I wouldn't consider anything less than about 14M. He's probably already earned us about 10M in one season with the UEFA run.

Looks like it's unnecessary for Rangers; however, it could be detrimental to us as I think such a rule will only inflate transfer fees for the best home grown players, which are already pretty steep. Besides, anything that is detrimental to England's national team must be a good thing...

Tell that to Celtic where Scott Brown is in limbo. However, Scott MacDonald gets a game every week...

The thing we've got to remember that in today's financial climate we are a selling club and every player has his price. However, we've been cash strapped for a while and we could build a better team if we had proper money to spend. It doesn't always go but look what Arsenal did when they sold Anelka for about 22M and brought in Suker and Henry for about half that. I hope we don't sell Cuellar but if we get offered, say 20M, can we afford to turn it down?

Good, experienced and probably relatively cheap squad player. He wasn't getting regular football at his previous club so can't expect it here and obviously doesn't. At his age, he probably would prefer to win some medals as a squad player playing about 15 games a season rather than winning nothing with some relegation bound Championship team while knackering himself every week. When you're younger you want to play, when you get older, you want to retire with some trinkets when you don't have many.

Carlos must be on peanuts compared to the company he's in for that team...

I wasn't meaning to suggest any fraud or financial irregularities. I was just very uncomfortable that a lack of information creates a sense that the reasons for resignation are not routine and hints at some kind of antagonism in the board. My opinion is that as the RST are now in charge of people's money - and want to have a say at the club, they definitely need to be transparent in these kind of events so that people can judge the situation for themselves. Otherwise we can only speculate and we tend to do that negatively - to me it conjures up images of infighting. If it's people that have worked hard and no longer have the time - then hey, just tell us straight. I just don't like secrecy involved about boardroom maneuvers when money is involved. It doesn't mean there is any fraud at all, but when people hide stuff, it doesn't make you feel very trusting of them either. You wonder at what might be hidden. Anyway, Frankie has said he will announce something soon and that is good enough for me. I was acting on the premise that there wouldn't be an announcement at all. I realise that those in the trust have worked really hard but they are in a position of responsibility which brings a certain gravity to how you act. I don't believe in "no smoke without fire" but I do believe that if there is smoke you, need make sure there is no fire. Like I said, Frankie will make an announcement and that changes everything.

Fair enough, I don't want Kenny either but it seems like he's coming and so we have to get on with it - it would be a strange reason for not supporting Rangers. Glad it was a joke...

My attitude for anyone who without good reason wants to leave Rangers in any capicity be it player, manager or supporter - is goodbye, you won't be missed.

It seems to me that you can only win the league by being in contention and even then luck and events can conspire against you. We've been in contention only three times in the last seven years and two of those times we've had the luck and circumstances to hand the league to us. This year it went the other way. We cannot expect to regain a dominance like the 9IAR years, Celtic have really sorted themselves out - and after a bit of self destruction, so do we. Firstly we have to challenge and we cannot really expect more from a manager. If we challenge every year we should win a fair share of league titles. Walter has achieved this and I don't know how he can be considered a failure for losing the league on the last day in incredibly difficult circumstances. If it wasn't for the UEFA run we'd have one the league, I have no doubt. It happened to Celtic and they played less games and did not win anything. I think we'd all swap the run for the league but at the time the UEFA became our most desirable competition. We have a manager who challenges well in all competitions and has done so consistently in the short time since his return. The squad is in it's infancy and I can only foresee improvement when we add some quality signings in the summer. Walter has shown he's learned a lot from his time away from Rangers, but like all managers he is still learning and I think he'll have new found wisdom from the experience of this season. Celtic to me, despite out playing us for a season and a half, have carried a lot of luck over the last few years and I'm sure that cannot continue. Their team has stumbled to the championship this season, and Gordon will definitely have to try a different tack next season and somehow improve the way his team play and increase consistency. We've recently have had two managers that have not come up to scratch when it comes to challenging but they've been disproportionately defended by many. Walter came within a couple of wins and a few goals from a quadruple and I think he is conversely attracting a very disproportionate level of criticism. It seems obvious to me that he's on the right road but needs time to round off a few rough edges. Lets give him the time and support to do so.

If there is nothing untoward then a reason should be given as an amicable resignation cannot be that personal. The implication is that something is rotten in the state of RST and without knowing what it is, how can members make an informed decision about it. I'm very worried about this as it is making fans' trusts look basically a bit dodgy. It's an organisation that is collecting fans' money and has a long term goal of running the club. If it can't show some transparency when there are mass resignations then "trust" is the first thing that will disappear from members and fans. Murry is constantly accused of "smoke and mirrors", so it's a shame that the RST is no more up front in it's dealings with fans. Without an explanation, the trust cannot be trusted. I for one will not be renewing my membership and I'm having a huge sigh of relief that I never got round to investing money in the share scheme. If there was a mass resignation at a bank that held my savings and no explanation, I'd be moving my money pronto. People can keep things as private and personal as they like but it only damages the integrity of the RST.

The thing is that if you're playing 4-5-1, then doesn't the "1" have to be able to score? For Scotland McFadden was our successful "1", not Miller. The folly of such an unpopular signing is that there will be HUGE pressure on him to perform - has he the character to cope? I'm not sure he did at Celtic and the badge kissing smacks of desperation to get fans on his side.

They may be average but they're as good as the Celtic squad and quite a few teams in Europe. I think most are pretty decent players and have shown that this season, but we need a few more that are a cut above and able to do something special, and replace a couple that are not quite good enough. We've got the best squad we've had since Advocaat and have outperformed his teams in Europe but we do need a few quality signings.

If we're going to replace Bazza we can do far better than Buffel. If we're going to replace Cousin, we can do far better than Boyd. KB has had quite a few games lately and has been mediocre at best even though he's scored a couple. He could have done better in the last few games especially, and what really annoyed me was that every time he lost the ball he stopped and did nothing to regain it - quite a few times he left a half chance go begging because he'd switched of. He even claims for a (non) penalty when he could have gone for the rebound... I was on the fence with Boyd but I'm now going against him. I'll be glad to see Buffel go as soon as possible and his wage freed up for someone decent.

PS We actually lost the league in a situation where we'd just played the UEFA cup final on the Wednesday then had three games - Saturday, Monday, Thursday while Celtic had one on the Thursday after having 11 days off. If we'd had time to recover and three weeks to play the games, do you not think we'd have won all three and the league? Even the teams we played had plenty of rest bar St Mirren whom we beat and Aberdeen and Motherwell are no pushovers. It's scandalous. The UEFA final too, was played after we'd played Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday whereas Zenit had only played on the Thursday and had 13 days off. We were pretty much knobbled on both counts. You can say all you like about pros etc, but it's hard to compete against fellow pro's who have had plenty of rest and proper training and of course it's far easer to focus on one game every 10 days rather than 4.

There is a Chinese saying: the man who chases many ducks catches none. That's kinda happened to us except we've been good enough to catch one and maybe two. We were incredibly successful this year until the fixture list became too much. Just because you are pipped at the post twice by fresher competitors who have had a rest, does not mean you are a failure.

You're Cuellar bit is off. He was scouted because we sent Ewan Chester over to watch Osasuna before the tie. He reported Cuellar was great in the air, very good on the deck, excellent in the tackle and can play a bit. He noted he found it strange that he didn't always get a game and was surprised a bigger club hadn't signed him by then. He was spot on!

Maybe we should have asked for a postponement of the Aberdeen game as we were distraught - after all more of our players and backroom staff had worked with Burns than their counterparts at Celtic had with O'Donell. Walter Smith worked with him at Scotland, Ally McCoist was a close friend and about 10 of our Scottish internationalists must have worked with him. Not serious, but I think a valid point.

So 200 out of 400 Chelsea fans riot in Fulham Broadway after losing he CL final and hardly a peep in the press? Must be much worse when 200 out of 200,000 riot.

PS Whisper it but, I'd like to sell Ferguson but it will never happen. We need a better player than he's been for the last couple of years as our main play-maker. I think Walter has been pretty good with his system and selections most of the time but he does his selection on the premise that Ferguson is much better and more creative player than he shows on the park. It's where we really lack creativity and he's started leaving a big hole and weakness in midfield where he used to boss it. He can still do it, but just nowhere often enough. We should use half our budget to get a top quality replacement, in a 4-2-3-1 his position is the fulcrum.

It's easier to say who should go than who we should bring in. Out: Weir - unless he can play another season. He's getting a bit old and slow and I think while he's still a very good player we'd be better getting a younger player to forge a long term partnership with Cuellar. I'd maybe want keep him on as a squad player and get him on the coaching staff. Hemdani - no longer seems interested and his form reflects that. Seems to want a move and so should be granted to free up a sizable wage for a more consistent and motivated performer. Faye - loan ends. To obvious to debate. Davis - excellent start but faded badly and I think that contributed greatly to our poor end to the season. Looked very ordinary by the end. Cousin - bad attitude, get rid. Boyd - just hasn't worked out for him at Rangers, scores goals but when he doesn't it's like playing with 10 men. Gow - obviously Smith doesn't rate him so should resume his career elsewhere. Buffel - let him go on a free. Not a Rangers player by many metrics. Burke - will have to stay due to injury but get him fit and move him on in January. I said we shouldn't have let him go when he demanded to much pay and I now feel I was right.

I think the SPL needs to re-organise itself to create the space for teams to be successful domestically and in Europe and also allow for postponements for bad weather, Scotland get-togethers and deaths of former players. For a start, the League cup needs to be finished by November. Not only does that ease fixture congestion in the new year, it distinguishes the two cups - for one they don't overlap and so become ambiguous and secondly one rewards early season cup form while the other rewards late season cup form. That would have saved Rangers two games after Christmas. Secondly, any team still in Europe should be exempt from replays in the Scottish cup and those games should just go to extra time and penalties - just like the league cup. Replays are an anachronism anyway. That would have saved Rangers two more games - maybe more if we went out but that would be up to our players and just the way the cookie crumbles. Thirdly, it seems to me that we play too many games in the second half of the season when this seems like the most likely time that games are postponed. We should have two more Wednesday fixtures before Christmas to allow for postponements afterwards. That would have saved Rangers two more games. Fourthly, the league should start three weeks earlier and the players given them back in a winter break in Jan/Feb when the weather is usually shit. I'm sure players would love it and how many times have we said, Someone-inho won't sign as they wouldn't fancy a cold Feb night at Love Street etc? Wouldn't we get more fans attending SPL games in late July and early August than a cold, wet winter's day. Sure it may still be wet in July but it's going to be a heck of a lot warmer. It would also allow teams to play better in Euro qualifying rounds due to the season having started - works for Russia. That would have saved Rangers another 3 games after Xmas. So Rangers could have had up to NINE less games to play after Xmax. Now I'm not just saying this for Rangers benefit, it equally applies to Celtic and all other SPL clubs. All clubs would benefit with the ones successful in Europe benefiting the most - which again benefits all clubs indirectly.