calscot

When I was in Dublin, I didn't see many Celtic fans, mostly Man U and Liverpool. I even watched the OF game in a pub and was pretty much the only person giving it full attention. I had no problem cheering out loud for all 5 Rangers goals.

I think you're looking too far for perfection. I see them doing what I think is miraculous stuff all the time, bringing down difficult balls to sit perfectly, shooting with massive power on target from 30 yards, smacking in a goal from a low, hard, lateral pass (these always seem to hit my standing foot while I swipe at midair) and much, much more. I wish I could even do a fraction of it. I can't even seem to kick the ball 80 yards never mind bend round a player and have it accurately land at another player's feet. How MacGregor can kick a ball from box to box I'll never know.

Pressure has a lot to do with it. There were far fewer mistakes against East Stirling, where even a shadow team showed that they are far, far better than your average good player who can get a game for a professional team.

PS I don't and never will support an English team.

Why shouldn't we struggle to dominate Falkirk? They are one of the most attractive football sides I've seen the SPL for a long time. I know he wasn't playing but Krul looks like an excellent goalkeeper and I've been impressed with the likes of Cregg, Arfield, Moutinho, Higdon and the irrepressible Latapy. I've watched a bit of EPL football and normally, as with most games where I don't have a vested interest, it often seems as boring as any league in the world with some especially turgid games around. Arsenal and Man U may buck that trend but they are a cut above with teams costing hundreds of millions of pounds. So what makes watching an EPL team better than watching Falkirk? I haven't seen the Falkirk game but if they were playing as good football as I've seen them play then I'm sure the game must have had some merit. Perhaps the complaint is not about having good football on display, but instead, that we don't trounce every team, every week...?

Frankie, I'm not offended, I just think we're our own worst enemy. I'm surprised you're totally comfortable with the full history of Rangers. I for one can see much wrong doing, and as I recognise this I want us to change for the better. Some of the changes have already come about but there are those who would like to dwell on the distasteful side of things, those that turn a blind eye and some of the drum banging we do encourages the old bad ways. Both Rangers and Celtic are guilty of sectarianism which has helped continue a schism in our society, and I think both clubs have to atone for that. Trying to brush it under the carpet, pretend it didn't happen or re-justifying it with modern day spin just doesn't help in my opinion.

Maybe it's time to question some of our own motives. Belligerence never really solves anything. I really doubt that anyone needs to bring their political or religious beliefs to a football match. You have to question the motives of anyone who does. It makes you wonder what football is really all about - besides sport and tribalism.

Where does that leave Rangers supporters who are for a Scottish republic? Who chose to have these links and why should we have to subscribe to them? Like I've said, emphasising some of these not football links definitely panders to the extremes of our support, and people who have never heard of it or understand also get drawn in to the more insidious side of things. These people are always looking for something to be for and against so why give them something so politically sensitive?

There's nothing wrong with the flags themselves, but you have question the REAL reasoning behind them. When you have a certain reputation then no-one believes your motives anymore. Your argument is so easy to knock down. Are you tolerant of IRA flags or even innocent Irish tricolours? To be "actually all inclusive" we should drop the BJK and welcome pedophiles with open arms. My trouble is that most of the defence of our songs and flags while technically valid, the reality is a surfeit of horse-shit. Yes, the Sash could be considered an innocent song, but when you have people singing it, whose fathers weren't in the OO, then what is it all about? You have people proclaiming their unionism and then voting SNP and supporting any team against England. You have people proud to be a prod, who never set foot in a Church except for the usual weddings etc, and then show their protestant work ethic by holding down a business while claiming incapacity benefit. These prods are such good Christians that they spit on, vocally abuse or even attack people due to their different form of Christianity or just the football team they support. People spout stuff about King Billy and the B. of the Boyne while dengrating the Pope, even though the latter backed Billy to win and the former was all for religious tolerance - especially Protestants against Catholics. I will never be for "actually all inclusive" as I am not that naive. I'm against terrorists, murderers, child abusers etc. However, we can express some tolerance at football matches by not displaying anything divisive or that can be interpreted as such. Once we have a long time reputation for being happy clappy, tree huggers then maybe we can start to show some preferences. However, you really have to question people's need and motives to do this at a football match, when it rarely manifests itself elsewhere.

I think those who think our performances in the last 12 have been abysmal have very short memories. Maybe they only remember the last game. However, at the start of the good 12 game run we played excellent football for about 6 games before Christmas, but we haven't recaptured that after the stuttering restart of the year. Why so negative about what is patently untrue? I also think that some people have short memories about the last two seasons when we'd have lost or drawn many of these games. Do you really expect WS to turn us into Barcelona (who were actually very boring and turgid against us) overnight? We had plenty of ground out results in the 9IAR era - and it always seemed to be when I managed to get to a game. You would think that we'd want to walk before we can run, so let's talk style in our 4IAR season. The real question is whether we have looked like we are struggling to win, whether we look overwhelmed by other teams and just end up lucky. I don't think this is the case and most of our narrow wins have been accompanied by many close chances, shots against the woodwork or great saves. However, some of our recent play has lacked the fluency you'd expect in midfield and the defence has looked shakier. Walter should take these as warning signs and attack the issues head on. In the meantime, we have to realise that if this us playing badly, just remember the last two seasons which makes what we are doing now look like total football.

PS Doesn't this sanctimonious type of thinking just pander to the real bigots and pseudo bigots at the club? I still don't understand why we can't think more about tolerance and inclusiveness instead of banging out the same old polarised allegiances. You really have to wonder why the spirit of our club is continually bastardised as a vehicle for surreptitious religious and political agendas, especially when most of the time the perpetrators are not really living their own propaganda. I'm sure we'd be derided for supporting Green Peace or singing Hippy songs, so why not just stick to excellence in football and good sportsmanship, while promoting inclusiveness for all?

I would say this sentence alone condemns the flag. Considering our contentious history, the fact we have flags that have ulterior motives rather than anything to do with Rangers, means that it's not surprising they are interpreted as malignant. Sorry, but your quote sounds like the sheep's clothing for whatever wolf that is being covered up.

Maybe I've fallen for the lack of ambition but it seems to me that the likes of Cousin, Darcheville and Naismith should still be our kind of targets. We paid 3M for the three of them then sold one for 3M meaning the other two were effectively free. That's the kind of thing we should be doing all the time. Even Celtic's main striker and goal threat cost peanuts, and we could have had him first... I don't think England is good value for players and the only good thing about shopping there is if it doesn't work out you might be able to send him back and still get most of your money back. We also need to make a proper assessment of Lennon, as we seem to have made a mistake with McCormack which was predicted by many when we let him go. Murray Park is definitely starting to bear fruit.

Didn't Arsenal sell Kanu for 22M then brought in Viera, Henry etc with cash to spare and won the league? All clubs sell when the price is right. Fans are quick to forget the pound shop spending of 2 years ago. We spent more in the summer than we could afford or expect - we can't be as blazy with money as some short memories think.

PS 1. Maybe, but very hard to prove and is balanced by the fact we can spend more in the summer. 2. Irrelevant 3. Irrelevant 4. Rip off but irrelevant 5. Wrong. The next 9M we spend will effectively be from the Hutton sale.

It still doesn't add up, if we're to pay off the revolving credit next month it either comes from the profit/loss account or the 9m extra-ordrinary item. Therefore there is no doubt that we are �£9M better off. Money is a fluid thing and the fact we have 9M more means that we have 9M more to spend whether now or in the future. This is so obvious to me that I don't think I can explain it more simply. If you have a 9k credit card bill that you must pay next month and you win 9k on the lottery, if you spend all the 9k of the lottery on the bill, you are still 9k better off. The 9M WILL be spend on players whether you like it or not. How can we NOT be better off month to month after a 9M windfall that has paid a debt??? Put it another way: supposing you pocket money is �£2 but you owe your best mate �£1. You were going to pay your friend his money back out of your pocket money and spend the rest (�£1) on Panini football stickers. However, the boy next door offers you pound for a spare Panani Hutton sticker you have that he needs to complete his Spurs team page. So you can now give that to your friend to repay your debt. Now, although you gave your friend the actual pound coin from the boy next door, and theoretically cannot spend ANY of that pound on stickers as you no longer have it, you STILL have �£2 to spend on stickers instead of �£1. Get it?

Sorry, the last line just doesn't make logical sense. If the 9M HAS to be paid then getting a 9M windfall still gives you 9M more to spend than you would have had. Unless SDM pays a dividend or takes the money out in another way, Rangers are definitely �£9M richer than they were. Money doesn't just disappear. For example if I won some money and paid off my mortgage with it, I would have nothing left to spend. However I would have say a grand more in my pocket every month thereafter. This ruins any credibility in your post and I also don't like you basing whether we win the league on one player. If we don't win the league you have a ready made excuse and reason to whinge and say how right your were (and maybe that'll somehow make you happier). But if we win, will you be eating humble pie? I think not, you'll be celebrating like the rest of us and probably still be going on about "what if" with Hutton in the probable event of being knocked out of the UEFA cup at some stage. Laudrup stayed and we lost the league, WS stayed and we lost the league etc, etc, etc. The logic just does not follow. The mismanagement was spending more than we earned, now your complaining when we don't... Like I said before, people need to make their minds up, and if you're going to slag of the board, at least do it for real reasons rather than just making up some perversely negative fantasy about losing the league that we're on top of by 4 points. I would rather we lost the league this year but used the transfer windfall to build a consistently high quality squad which will be successful for years to come than cut off our noses to spite our face of some weird faux offence at a skewed interpretation of a player's treatment by the club. It's not long ago that many fans were talking about Hutton as a bit of an arsehole and now they are say, "poor wee lad" when he's offered a golden handshake and triple his wages?

Shouldn't matter too much to players in the SPL...

I think we have to see our own signings as Dailly, Alexander, Stevie Smith, Webster and Buffel. That's five internationalists... Hopefully Smith can get back to his best and in the team soon.

I see you point and can't add much to it, so will leave it there.

Seems strange to have an empty Wednesday in the fixture list with the amount of games we have to fit in. I'm disappointed Hibs turned down the opportunity to play as I'm unsure about how many players they have actually playing a competitive international game, and I can't imagine it is very many if any. The other reason is a Scotland team get together, which to me sounds a bit of a low priority at the moment. It frustrating that two of the games were postponed for reasons which turned out to be fruitless, and I still don't quite get the logic of the OF game being moved. Perhaps we could have played St Mirren instead. The cup replay has added to our woes and am I the only one that dislikes the tempting of fate for the UEFA Cup result, with the replay firstly scheduled for the next round? Seems to me that there is a greater need for a winter break in February than just the common sense of the break itself. There may have been one or two less postponed games for a start and it would allow space in February to catch up on a couple of games postponed from the previous two winter months. And then it could give time for the perennial new Ibrox pitch to bed in. It all seems a bit crazy but with no summer competition to look forward to, there seems plenty of time in May and June to finish the season.

I think it's a classic 50/50 encounter. We really need to take a lead to Athens and hopefully a clean sheet.

If I knew that 100,000 fans were going to put in �£120 then I would definitely do it too. That would make 12M and at least a 20% stake. If we did that for 5 years we could own the club. However, all these �£50k investments just seem like a drop in the ocean and hard to get motivated for.

We were hard to break down for the first quarter of the season, but lately it's been all to easy and we were exposed for that against Stuttgart and Lyon as well as some of the wee teams in the SPL. We're leaking goals these days and our defence is on average no better statistically than Celtic's much maligned back four.

You have a good point Gribz but in the heat of competitive football, when someone looks so out of their depth in what is a much maligned league in England, there just seems no hope for them. Faye reminds me of that player Souness signed as he had a phonecall to recommend the player from someone claiming to be George Weah. The guy was subbed on and then subbed off ten minutes later. Faye has been hooked at half time twice out of two starts, that is such a heinous crime in football, that I find it hard to see how he'll get another chance, bar a huge injury crisis. When you're that bad, you've completely blown it.