calscot

Don't remember JRod ever coming good. Just better than he was before and now. He's too old to be a promising youngster.

There is no comparison with Ferguson and Man Utd. They had won bugger all for 20 years and so Fergie had to completely change the face of the club and you could see that they were improving season by season. We won the league just over a year ago and had a bad season last year. Now we're getting worse. Just what is Le Guen taking his time to do? We're playing with most of last year's squad and have the same points as Kilmarnock, Aberdeen and ICT despite them have miniscule budgets and managers of far less repute - and on far lower wages. PLG may get it right in the long run, but there is no mitigation for his failure so far. He has to admit, at least to himself, that he is currently on the wrong road and a swift hand brake turn is in order.

I would say that it's not the transfer fee that defines the value of a player, it's his wage. Graveson was a Bosman but it doesn't mean he's cheaper than Novo. Our wage bill is about 27M, Dundee Utd's would be lucky to top 2M.

PS Buffel is on the top of my list to leave especailly as we might actually get some dosh for him, although I doubt we'd get over half as much as we paid for him. Sebo has also shown that he doesn't fit into a Rangers team and at a club this big you can't take your time.

But can we afford him? Must be at least 2M if not 3. I'd rather have MacGregor than Letizi though. He's pretty much already gone. There's no coming back now bar injuries to the other two keepers. The wages will come in very handy. We can't aford two new right backs so I'd keep Hutton as a back up. As for Bardsley, if we're going to be a feeder club then it should only be for genuine class players - Bardsley is not that at all - not at the moment anyway. My jury is out on him but he never does enough to say "look at me, I'm worth a starting place." In the reserves, maybe. Has shown very little so far and is a pale imitation of Burke so far. Not good enough all round game to be started. Possibly worth a place on the bench especially if Burke is injured. Looks mediocre in the reserves but could be a reasonable squad player on a very low wage. On his last legs. Fantastic player but shouldn't start a game unless he's feeling really sprightly. Agree with super sub role. Couldn't agree more. Spot on. Papac and Svensson should play in the reserves until they improve. JRod can go. We need two new first choice defenders who can command the box, on the floor and in the air. All three defenders have shown that they are not up to the job at the moment and are the weakest part of the team. I still find it strange that so few of our first team squad who aren't playing, get a game in the reserves.

Makes you wonder why we didn't sign Webster. Not the greatest player but far better than any central defender we have, he would have cost a few hundred grand and been on a reasonably modest wage. You really have to start to wonder at Le Guen's ability to spot a player. He had six months of uninterrupted football watching to come up with a list of transfers and has failed us badly. He didn't fancy the likes of Webster, Whittaker, Brown, Thomson and Riordan which would be fair enough if actually brought players in that were better and good enough to actually get in the team. I don't think I've much patience left for the present squad bar some of the home grown players. I've probably said this all before but I can't help going through the squad again... Letizi was never good enough and came with a dodgy reputation. Klos is now in the same position as Duncan Ferguson was for Scotland, he was harshly treated but has punished himself and the fans more than his employers and it's now hard to empathise. Svensson and Papac are second string at best and both need a lot of nurturing by top class older centre half. They should be more like 4th and 5th choices. Rodriguez looked like he might be able to play but after a year and a half has shown that he can't. Hutton and Bardsley are young and not consistent enough to be first picks. Smith is the one shining light in defence. Burke is another exciting player but need to go on a body building course. Sionko is another that needs time which is not available at club like Rangers. Fergie is now ready and willing but can't carry a whole team. Clement shows promise but is young, fragile and needs to get himself fit. Hemdani is no better than a good squad player who is consistently not bad. Rae is one of those that obviously does not show enough in training to get a decent shot at the first team. Bardsley is a promising kid who isn't yet first team material, we'll never get him permanently anyway. Adam is another promising player but too young to make an impact week in, week out. Buffel is a waste of a jersey and should be the first on the transfer list come January. How he gets a game before Boyd is unfathomable. Prso, a truly great player who's body is shot and should not be playing more than about 30 minutes a game. I won't be sorry to see him go as I'm sorry now because he's already virtually left. Novo is a player who when he's on his game can be fantastic without actually being able to finish consistently - and that really let's us down. A fourth rate player when his confidence is low. Boyd is a great finisher but can't hold the ball up and lay is off, which is half his role in the 4-2-3-1 system. Needs to play in a 4-4-2 with a big Hateley type target man, but could also do with improving his all-round game.

Eck was in the job for over four years, the only thing keeping our patience is PLG's reputation and the feeling he may get it right given time, however that patience is rapidly running out and is hanging by a thread. I do feel we have to give him to the end of the season to turn it round, if nothing else than to give him one more chance in the transfer market.

We did bring in two but both of them are not up to the job. Makes you reminisce over players such as Andrews and Berg...

Agree, he's been our best propect since Ian Durrant.

Yep but it still looks like a bad decision no matter who made it. I don't see how he could have done worse than Eck with 3rd place and going out all cups. At least he would know what kind of players he needed to come in.

Watched a bit of the reserve game against St Mirren at lunchtime. Ashikodi and Carcary were again standouts with Stanger also looking good on the way to bagging himself a brace. Ashikodi also scored two and has now tallied up 6 goals in 4 games. Maybe he's worth a shout on the bench? Carcary seemed involved in all the attacks. The defence emualted the first team by being a bit shaky and Klos doesn't look interested at all. He also looks a bit on the heavy side. I think the defence consisted of Lowing, Gilmour, Ponroy and Donald. N'Daiye and Furman also featured. You've got to wonder why the likes of Svensson, Bardsley, Rodriguez, Sionko, Sebo and Rae weren't given a run out to keep them match fit and increase their sharpness...

Not noticeably or significantly anyway.

From what I've seen Bardsley doesn't seem any better than Hutton or Lowing.

We lost the game from two parts of the team - the strikeforce and the central defence. When it comes to consistently clinical finishers, would you rate Prso, Buffel and Novo in that catagory? I wouldn't. We put on three forwards, none of which are reknowned for knowing the way to the back of the net. I really respect Le Guen, but you really have to wonder where his great footballing brain is when he picks a forward line like that. Boyd has glaringly obvious faults that really showed themselves on Thursday night, but in our present squad he's obviously the only one who can finish efficiently. Then Le Guen says, "We lack efficiency in front of goal." It's really hard to tell if he's got a grip on things and he's definitely under the most pressure he's ever been in his life. Then there's the defence, it was obvious we needed a couple of no nonsense centre backs that can boss the box and Le Guen brought in two that just can't do that and has been shuffling the back ever since. We lost two goals to headers from set pieces where our markers were a striker and an attacking midfielder... Where is our defence? Richard Gough seems to see it so why can't Le Guen. Can we bring this Rangers Legend in as a defensive coach? Oh aye, and bring super Ally in as the striking coach. Another disappointment was the midfield (yes the problem is the defence, the midfield and the attack...ffs!), Fergie tried hard but he didn't have the support he had on Thursday and that was because Clement just wasn't the same player. The easiest conclusion is that he's not quite fit enough yet to play two games in a row in such a short space of time. He should have been subbed for Svensson and Hemdani put back there as although he's a lesser a player, he's more than fit enough to have done a far better job against a bunch of relegation favourites. To me it looks like, PLG is adopting a Vogts type siege mentallity and instead of going back to basics and doing the obvious, he's making strange decisions and pigheadedly refusing to explain them. He seems to be doing things to prove that he's his own man, rather than what will bring results. I said for Eck that a man who does things in a strange way and gets results is hailed as a genius, a man who is unorthodox and fails looks like a complete fool. This applied to Le Guen too. Until we see any method in his madness we are going to doubt him more and more. The question that looms in my mind is, that if George Burley can spend a couple of million on a bunch of unknown players to add to a mediocre squad and win something like 10 out of his first 11 games, why can't the apparent best young manager in Europe do the same? In fact he's struggling to do half as well. I still think, Le Guen is not dealing with the pressure and is too busy protecting his ego to look at the problems objectively and find simple solutions to our problems.

It's got to be said that if we'd beaten Livorno and Maccabi under DA it would hardly have been heralded as great wins. They would be expected wins and DA would have delivered the goods. I don't want to get into a debate about how much managers' had to spend, my point is that our expectations are rock bottom if we're celebrating "great" wins against very mediocre opposition, no matter how hard they made it for Liverpool.

This is a very good point. The league was lost already so he would have had to aim for second place and have time to make a few mistakes and sort them out in the summer.

And you probably look like Kryton trying to do the facial expression for "ambivalence".

So you're a cross between Stalin and Hitler...? Nice sounding chappie!

But average tenure of a football manager is now 2 years...

Very liberal and democratic of you...

............MacGregor NewRB NewCB Papac Smith ............Clement ............Ferguson NewLM Burke .........NewCF Boyd Letizi, Psro, Novo, Sebo, Sionko, Svensson and Hemdani on the bench. Hutton, Adam, Murray in reserve. Get rid of Klos, Ricksen, Buffel, Rodriguez, Bardsley, Martin and Rae to make room for the 4 new players.

You've got to wonder if he really does have a bad attitude or is it a reaction to his treatment by Rangers and most probably Martin Bain. His greatest sins seem to be signing the decent contract that was put before him, getting injured and finally refusing to leave with a pay off after being a fantastic servant to the club for many years. Numan didn't like his treatment either.

I can't see a problem with a celtic flag being waved. To be wound up by something like that is as pathetic as the guy trying to do the winding up. We have rivals, they have flags that can be waved, get over it.

He's definitely playing on Sunday

Walter Smith could have been not far behind if only he wasn't just a one hit wonder in Europe... I'm convinced it was the 3-5-2 formation that made us mince in Europe as it was 4-4-2 that took us to our great run in 92 and 4-4-2 that brought us some great results under Advocaat.