calscot

How much have we spent? I make it a net 2M. Makes Eck's parting shot look a bit silly when he rued that his replacement would have proper money to spend after his run in the CL. It's not much, yet the team is transformed. The personnel isn't that much different with 4 of Eck's signings with starting berths as well as a few of the youths he brought through to the team. I couldn't believe how we played last year with a team that looked good on paper and who were earning decent wages. And we seemed to get worse with every game. We were tearing our hair out about not being able to string a few passes together and now some complain that after some great football and a plethora of chances, we just can't quite find the back of the net often enough. People were defending Eck after four years when it was obvious he was past his sell by date, let's keep off PLG's back while he's fresh and his brand of football quite tasty - if not quite as satisfying as we'd like. It takes time to find the right ingredients and make them into a gourmet main course, let's not moan at the chef when we've only tasted his light appetiser.

If you dominate the game and create chances, I'd say it's acceptable. We've been doing it every season for a hundred years. We've had one season when we won every game and that's it. More lauded Rangers teams have lost to some lower half teams and still won the league at a canter. What is unacceptable is being outplayed and beaten convincingly by a smaller club, or going ten games without a win while looking like we don't have a clue. There is a difference between having a few hiccoughs and being genuinely sick.

I agree especially with the same old "hasn't adapted to Scottish football excuse." This excuse was weirdly trotted out again after the Zenit debacle. Why do you need to adapt to Scottish football when you're playing for a french manager in a multinational team against another team of foreigners who are mostly Russian? Why didn't AEK need to adapt to give Hearts a trouncing? And that goes for pretty much any European club that comes to play the non OF teams in Scotland. The likes of Webster would at least give us an insurance option for a small premium.

Too true. And I think the telling thing is that we have instantly taken to these youngsters while the likes of Fanfan and Bernard have been universally slated while ironically having long contracts of around 17 grand a week. Mladenovic cost us money to buy him, money for him to do bugger all and then more money to get him to leave. The best case scenario is that the likes of Martin does well here, falls in love with Rangers, Man U sign some left midfield Italian superstar and sell us Martin for a couple of mil.

I'm still not too worried yet. I've seen plenty of piss poor games under Smith, Advocaat and Eck and we've only had one of those out of five this season. We're playing good football, creating a barrel load of chances and are still unbeaten. We were the better team in all the games we've played and certainly didn't get the rub of the green. Our new manager has only just started and things are definitely looking promising. We need a few more players but have to get rid of a load of dead wood first and that seems to be the biggest problem, so we may not see the complete jigsaw until January or next summer. Rodriguez and Svensson may have even formed a partnership before then. What crisis? There is no crisis, and this time it's true. We're only one point behind the leader and have already outclassed Hearts. Le Guen asked for a couple of months for his team to gel and I for one think we should give him his wish. If we were playing rubbish every game, then I'd be a lot more nervous, but it's the best football we've played for years. A bit of better finishing and defending set pieces with a small slice of luck and we'll be back at the top of the league in no time, especially after we play the Tims off the park.

PS It's slightly easier to get to Copenhagen from it's own airport though, as it's got an excellent train service which takes about 10 minutes.

I went on the train from Malmo to Copenhagen over the Oresund Bridge a couple of months after it opened and it takes about half an hour from station to station. No passport control whatsoever. So pretty feasable to fly there if it's cheaper than Copenhagen. I think people should check their geography before slagging off someone elses...

No 1992 was the inaugural season for the CL. You see this is the problem when people start making up new records when a name and format change is made. It's basically still the European cup or should we forget about 30 years or so of football history. Have Liverpool won it 5 times or only once? Does that mean Celtic have not won it at all? Does it mean that we'll forget about the great teams that got to the semi final? The cup we've won doesn't exist anymore, does that mean it didn't count? It's the same with the revamped SPL, do we just forget about the old records? Let's not consign pre-CL revamp achievements to the bin. We and other clubs in Scotland have done major things in Europe in the past, let's not throw away our heritage.

From what I've read of the tackle, it seems it was very late, very rash and he wasn't pulling any punches. It's not the kind of tackle you expect in a meaningless friendly - not least from a player still registered at your club. Basically it was wholly unnecessary and the way he kicked his way around the park afterwards including leading with his elbow against Ponroy, shows there was something wrong in the head with this weird dutchman. He obviously had something to prove and all he did prove is that he's a complete arsehole and will never be accepted back into the fold now. I hope he never darkens the Ibrox doorstep again.

I agree, you haven't backed up your statements - just repeated the ones I've already countered... and pretty ambiguously too! But you're convoluted final statement just shows you how these contrived "records" are just silly in the extreme and are only useful to people who want to exagerate the significance of something fairly ordinary. The two main culprits in this case are DM and Eck who want us to believe that last season was actually a good one. PS I'm sure you would be on my side if a Tim was arguing that Celtic were the first Scottish team to blah, blah, blah, in the complex special case of blah, blah, blah, when Rangers had done it before without the stupid special case. PPS I fully expect us to be the first Scottish team to qualify from the group stages of the UEFA cup but I hope we won't be bragging about it...

All you've both done is put a colon just before a capital d to give the big grin smiley. : + D =

Burkie does seem a bit fragile or very unlucky or both, as every time he looks like he's going to have an extended run, he gets injured or ill. I just hope it's not stunting his development as he could be a legend for Rangers and Scotland.

To be honest, I'd like all Scottish teams to get a few results to add to our coefficient. Celtic and Hearts going straight out does us no favours at all.

This couldn't happen due to teams from the same country being seperated.

Sorry but he is 100% incorrect, as are you. The CL has been revamped quite a few times, the second group stage being dropped 3 season's ago and subtle qualification changes this time. So which format exactly are we talking about? Either it's the Champions League or not the Champions League. As far as I know, in 1992 it was called the Champions League, as was last season. That makes it a no brainer with not much room for silly semantic arguments. It's like saying we don't have 51 championships because they were not all the same format. The whole "first at a different format" thing is totally farcical. But anyway, why do you and Murray want to twist things to make us look like a less successful club than we really are? Why should 1992 be forgotten and shoved under the carpet just because the format changes every couple of years? Why as a Rangers fan would you do that? I can see why Murray is doing it - to make last season look like some kind of record breaking one, rather than the disaster it was. It's an excuse, a pathetic one at that - since it is completely false, and nothing else. Therefore it needs pointing out.

His statement is also incorrect where he said, "becoming the the first Scottish side ever to make the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League." That's untrue as we were already the first Scottish side to do this and in fact did it in the first proper year of the CL in 1992, and in addition, got to the last 8. We were also the first BRITISH team to do this. And of course first equal European team. You would think he'd know the history of his own club, especially when he was chairman/owner at the time...

You mean "Les fans demand better"

Don't think we can afford him and if he's playing well for us he could get into the Man U team next year.

I can't see how causing the opposition to make a string of great saves, three shots saved off the line, one off the bar and having countless near misses, can be construed as struggling... What was the stats? 17 shots on goal? Dundee Utd rode their luck, while we didn't have any. A few players could also do with practicing their finishing. That's why we didn't win against the Arabs.

Bugger I'll be in Scotland till Tuesday...

You don't build a new team with a new system by chopping and changing all the time. You have to give the players a chance. However after three games there may be one or two changes to freshen things up. I think Prso and Adam may be rested and Boyd and Burke (or even Martin) given the nod.

Totally agree. You could see our wingers being sqeezed by the lack of width. It didn't help that we didn't seem to have a central midfielder who could carve an opening - cue Barry. The likes of Sionko, Adam, Burke and Martin will thrive in the open spaces of Ibrox. The fact that Hearts won't have 10 men behind the ball will also allow the team to play.

It was a dire performance right enough but that happens under any manager. I respect him for sticking with the same team which created dozens of chances in the first two games. It shows the players loyalty and keeps their motivation up. The two substitutions on the hour were to me the perfect one's as Sionko wasn't quite as effective as he has been and Prso looks tired and jaded. Adam was also a bit out of sorts and the introduction of Martin created a noticeable boost. There have been many great Rangers teams who have struggled to break down 11 men behind the ball on a narrow pitch and this team did no better. I blame it on lack of inspiration and creativity on the players part which eventually resulted in them repeatedly punting up aimless long balls which the Dunfermline players dealt with very easily. I find it hard to believe that they were following any of Le Guen's tactical instructions and it shows how insulting people can be about Scottish footballers when the main long ball culprits were 4 Frenchmen and a Swede. I was screaming for Hemdani to give the ball to Burke when he was open and aware but he'd boot the ball up to a Dunfermline defender instead. I thought we should have been playing the ball to our wingers especially Martin and Burke as they looked dangerous but they hardly received the ball. It's a tight pitch for the wide men but it still seemed to be where our best attacks came from. Unfortunately, our crossing was woeful and Smith and Adam had a bad day for this very important skill. One thing that Le Guen seems to have drummed into the fullbacks is to feed the wingers and then overlap on the outside. Hutton and especially Smith did this regularly but it's the wingers that need to learn to use them and when they do, use proper timing rather than when it's too late and they are stuck in a corner. Letizi had a terrible game which has perhaps shown us the weaknesses he's infamous for but he'll probably settle in a bit and become more consistent. But perhaps Klos will actually get a chance when he's fit. Our central defenders are still struggling especially against make weight strikers whom they should be able to shackle with ease but our two holding midfielders don't seam to be protecting them enough. I think our full backs are doing ok but perhaps posted missing after joining in the attacks. One place we really need to improve is our counter attacks. The fifers threw so many players forward with some of their attacks that when we got the ball it looked easy to run out on the break and get behind most of them but we either gave the ball away cheaply or passed it around until the opposition had recovered. I expect Le Guen to now wield the axe and can see Boyd and Burke starting the next game for Prso and Adam with the Ginger swapping wings with Sionko. Prso needs a rest and could be a good sub late in the game and we really need goals at the moment so we should have our best finisher on the pitch. The defence will probably stay the same as we have no-one to bring in at the moment.

Didn't even know he played for the Patriots... and don't they call it quarterback instead of captain?

http://football.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-6003756,00.html This guy is a great manager and although his team stumbled against us in the Champions League, he took them to the league and cup double in Portugal. I'm sure one of the bigger European clubs will pick him up. I was disappointed we didn't go for him when he quit Alkmaar just over a year ago, and looking at what he did for Porto he could have done a good job for us. He would probably have enjoyed the stability that a manager of Rangers receives. However I'm now immensely happy with PLG as our manager and I'm pretty sure he's not a man to quit as easily. He should see out his three years at least.