calscot

MacGregor Hutton Lowintg Smith Burke Fleck Adam Lennon MacLean

PS I've a feeling Thomson and Webster are going to feel like two new signings.

No danger of coming a cropper with the new UEFA 8 player regulations then...

I thought that was Darcheville and he definitely looks older than 25... In fact I would say he looks older than me!

However I think it's less fraught, if they don't accept our offer, we don't get him, simple. There is nothing else the board can do, they just can't offer more than 4.5M. So if we don't get him there are no regrets. Do you think he'd settle in quickly enough for the CL qualifiers. No other Frenchman seems to settle in quickly - including a management team... Boli, Guivarche, Rodriguez, Hemdani, N'Gessan, Namouchi, Le Guen, Letizi, Clement, N'Daiye, Stanger, Ponroy etc all seem to have struggled at least at the start. Only Charbonier is the memorable exception.

I agree with you. Although it's great fun to sign 12 or more players a year and seems like we're not doing anything if we only sign a few, the problem is that we NEED 12 new players every year. Basically we've been "rebuilding the squad" almost every year since Walter left. I'd love to go back to the days where we had a settled squad and signed three quality players and a couple of promising youngsters every year. Although the trouble with that era is that we had an excellent first team but a poor backup squad. With our injury jinx we struggled to reach any great heights despite being completely dominant domestically. It's summed up with the example of Laudrup and Clelland playing together most of the time, sublime and ridiculous. Porrini came in just a bit too late for Walter.

Sounds like he could be the player Lovenkrands never was for us...

This is a funny one as, instead of Rangers playing hard ball, like with Kilmarnock, this is a case of genuinely offering the limit that we can afford...

But it looks like Milan no longer see anything in him to let him go for a 7M loss...

The purse strings have just been opened, ever so slightly... Will this be the start of a deluge...

Double post, seem to have a lot of trouble posting these days...

The funny thing about Alan MacGregor is that he doesn't look in a totally inferiour class to Goram et al. Since Walter retruned he also has a good clean sheet and goals against record. He might not be as good but just how many extra goals are we shipping due him not being able to lace Goram's boots? I think a goal scoring midfielder and more prolific second striker would ultimately be better for our goal difference than bringing in a 5M 'keeper.

Argh, I didn't put anything in the item line...

PS Wouldn't it be funny if we spend more than Celtic after the way their fans are behaving, as well as their board. If Murray had any guts left he'd do it even if just to get it up them. Rangers need a statement of intent to make people take notice that we are serious again.

That lot look like they'll cost about 11M...

Craig, I'm sure your shit hot, but like the fastest draw in the west, someone faster eventually comes along. The fact is unless any of us are genuinely world class at our jobs, there are better people out there. In football it can be more apparent. There's plenty of players out there that are better than we have. We know it, so I'm sure they know it. But in any case it's natural for people to dislike high turnover of staff, especially with people passing through who think they are the next Pele and using the club as a stepping stone. I would guess most like a settled team. There's plenty of high performing top class players that have been unhappy about the purchase of a new flavour of the month for their position. They may do, but are they going pipe up with, "Oi Boydy, you're just not quite good enough, we really need the gaffer to bring a proper striker who isn't so lazy and does more than pop up and score the odd goal..."? I just can't see it. My Sunday league team want to do better but some are not completely happy about a few new players who are pretty good that are joining the team next season. I really think it's the use of the word, "stinks" that you are finding hard to swallow. I'm sure I actually said, "stinks a bit", which was meant to mean, it smells fishy or a bit like horse manure. OK we agree on that score, but maybe I'm naive in thinking most would be reluctant to slag off their team mates, even if they don't like them. I would expect that most would "welcome" new players, but they would be a tad disrespectful to their team, management and board, to be disgruntled that not enough have come in yet. Especially when the transfer window has plenty of opening time. It also smacks of blaming everyone but themselves. The last time any player loudly voiced those type of opinions, he was rightly out on his ear in double quick time and lost all kudos with the fans - that was Craig Moore. I see your points Craig but I've a tiny bit of faith that the players might be a bit more tactful than to start these rumours - maybe I'm not cynical enough. But to me it doesn't take the players much professionalism, just a bit of street wisdom...

Craig, the impression I got, possibly false, from the posts, was that Rangers players were concerned about the lack of activity and were discussing those concerns openly. I thought that smelled a bit fishy due to the reasons I've given. We have a mediocre squad, I don't think many of them deep down want high class competition for their places. Would you ever be concerned that your company wasn't trying hard enough to head-hunt far better staff to do the same job as you and your colleagues?

Players may want to win things but they want to play and don't want better players than them coming in for their positions, it's human nature. Many a player has left a winning team to a team that wins less trophies when he's not getting a game - as long as he gets the same or better wage... Also I don't think they would complain too loudly about other positions as it's insulting to their team-mates many of whom will be good friends. I'm sure they wouldn't want to do that and it would be hard to live down in the dressing room. So while they may secretly want to be guaranteed to play in a better team where they are the best in their position, I find it hard to believe they are loudly discussing it for the above reasons. ...Unless it's banter of course. The one exception could be Barry as he's a bit up his own arse so he probably can't imagine there is a better player than he and he doesn't seem to mind insulting other players. So sorry, but I totally disagree.

From what Walter Smith has been saying I can't believe there will be no new signings. They may not be spectacular or expensive but I reckon there will be plenty of activity and at least 4 more players coming in. DM will not want to make a fool of Smith who is nobody's mug. You don't invite your best mate back as manager from doing well in the Scotland and then give him peanuts. However 4-5M is probably the budget rather than the 10M quoted. There's a lot of juggling to be done with that sort of modest resources. The players' rumour really stinks a bit. Yes, Alan MacGregor is upset that we haven't signed a top class keeper for the number 1 shirt, and Alan Hutton is crossing his fingers for a fantastic new right back to compete with. Boyd is really livid that we're not signing another couple of big name strikers that score a barrel-load as well as being a good team player. Adam will be really disgusted at the lack of experienced international competition on the left and Ehiogu is dying for an expensive, flash Spanish centre back to come in. Stevie Smith and Papac feel there is not enough cover at left back and Ian Murray is disappointed in the lack of new utility players. Barry Ferguson was looking forward to a world class midfielder with great leadership skills and international captain's experience and Hemdani just knows we need a new holding midfielder. Svensson thinks we're a bit thin at centre back and Sionko, Novo and Burke, like the rest of us, think the right wing is a bit weak. Sebo is upset that our strike force is just not of a high enough quality and Buffel is dying for the boot when we bring a skillful player who uses his gifts for 90 minutes every week. Yes the players are really upset we haven't gone out and signed a whole new team that are twice as good as they are...

Murray has had the adulation of the fans at times and revelled in it, but unless he changes direction soon, he could be leaving Ibrox as one of the most detested men in Scottish football. Does he and his ego really want that? Someone should warn him that that could be the case... What kind of legacy does he want to leave and what does he want to be remembered for?

To be honest I think we shouldn't let paper story mongering get to us and instead wait till the new season before judging ours and Celtic's performances in the transfer market. Most of the stuff is non-stories and that's due to us wanting to know everything NOW. Martin O'Neil used to do everything at the last minute meaning Celtic have been put through this mill in the past, so I think we should be able to cope. I'm not taking any story very seriously until a deal is done and dusted. And in fact I'm finding it all more boring than worrying. I think in the past we didn't have access to so many news sources as at best you used to buy one paper, and that probably made us more patient, and we were reading less speculation - usually only from one or two reporters. Newsnow and gersnet have raised our appetite for information, but we need to stop swallowing the junk food that we're being offered.

I agree with you Brindy, Boyd looks at his worst when he is up on his own with no service. When service is good he gets at leat two goals. Every time he gets slagged off for not doing anything to help the team, he seems to create a goal for someone else - like for O'Connor against Austria. Boyd also played better with a decent partner, with Prso bringing the best out of him. If you give Boyd a decent partner and a creative midfield that provide him with chances he will improve immeasurably - and start breaking goal-scoring records.

He had plenty of poor games through the middle in the SPL. He uses his pace to get behind the defence and if there is a 10 man defence in the box, how does that work? It sometimes worked in Europe as we were playing on the break on many occasions, same with Celtic games.

NO!!!! Why would he want to anyway?

At least Sionko was free... and still a waste of money.