calscot

I wish they would explain it properly instead of giving a load of long, boring documents and expecting you to work it out. When you don't really know what to look for it's a total tldr.

If that's not fraud then the law needs changed to include it. I can't see how we can allow that to be legal - not just for Rangers but for any business.

I think there could be a difference between the Rangers fan and the cleric. The latter was preaching to his own congregation and did not know it would be made public, he also didn't do it to incite anyone or even wind anyone up. I don't think any of that applies to the former.

While I agree with all your post, I think this part needs a bit of discussion. I agree in this when you splash money on players like a machine gun, but with a sniper paradigm, I think you have to take the gamble on a few marquee signings over a few years, when the budget allows and the right guy becomes available. Most successful sides have a few star players that lift the side to a greater level, who turn defeats into draws, draws into wins and wins into showcases. They all need the piece de resistance, the cherry on top, the icing on the cake. The ones we need most are those that can consistently make a hole in a very packed defence and create a couple of goals. Sometimes these players are home grown and sometimes they are inexpensive discoveries, but more often than not, they take a lot of cash. Even Advocaat felt his star studded side needed enhanced by a £10m world class striker but he showed the danger of getting it wrong by squandering 20% more than the budget on a flop. However, nothing risked, nothing gained; we just have to do the homework thoroughly, resist panic buying, and then just cross our fingers. It also gives the fans something to get excited about and get the chequebook out for the season ticket renewal. I think Warburton is starting to feel the same, judging by some of his recent comments.

If the reports are correct then it seems dB was spot on with his valuation. However, I hope the fees are hyped up a bit as it seems to me a bit much for players we could get for £60k at the end of the season - unless they can hit the ground running and contribute towards winning the title. I think £250k would be a more comfortable fee for me. But at least it shows the board's willingness to get the cheque book out and back the manager, albeit fairly modestly, but more importantly, seemingly judiciously. While I'm buying into this type of sourcing, I can't help but feel that coming from that level, these kind of players will need some kind of acclimatisation and mentoring before possibly making an impact. Don't know if I'd be confident of them going straight into the team - unless they've been setting EL2 alight.

WRT signings without an impressive CV, I'm buying into what we're doing. Our finances are a bit up shit creek (not least due to the TV money in England), especially due to Ashley, the weird TV money distribution, and lack of European money, to succeed to compete with Celtic we really have to shop for bargains rather than matching their spending. That requires us to find players with no CV – as long as they are relatively young, as an older player obviously has had his chances to show potential. A bonus aspect of it is that if one of them doesn’t work out, then it’s not too expensive to rectify. And we should be able to sell (or release) them back to League 2 easily enough. Which kind of reflects Souness’ thinking when he signed top English players – he knew he could always get money back on them – whereas expensive up and coming players from Scottish teams had no-one in Scotland who could afford to buy them and no-one in England would be interested. I think we still need to buy the odd older player with pedigree as I’ve never thought you can just put out a team of youngsters as their naivety can be exploited by savvy, more experienced players. They need older, well seasoned players to steer them through, and stop them from making getting drawn in to gamesmanship or making emotional mistakes. It’s where the likes of Kenny Miller can fit in, or I suppose Weir himself is a better example. Again in our position we can get a couple of these guys for pretty cheap in terms of fee, but expensive on wages if they are coming nearer to the end of a career in say the EP. With a couple of top class, young loanees, our measly budget can after that be used for two or three “marquee” signings – which will be the biggest risk and need the most research. Therefore, most of our recruitment will be pretty underwhelming on paper and we’ll probably have to get used to it.

Thinking about needing a CB, the popular wish list also includes a central mid and a centre forward. That suggests we need a whole new "spine" of the team with perhaps the exception of the goalie. That makes me wonder if some of the stuff about "having no spine" has been misinterpretted by Warburton as more having no backbone ie no strength of character - which he found, "disrespectful".

While not yet convinced by any of our centre backs, despite the attacking way we play we've conceded the same number of goals as Hibs and Falkirk while scoring more than an extra goal a game - which is between 67 and 72 percent more. I think while it doesn't suggest they are top of the SP quality, it shows they are definitely enough quality for this season and probably good enough for most SP teams. Remember our style of play does not flatter our CBs unless they are of top class. Hibs and Falkirk must be playing a far more defensively orthodox game and yet are conceding the same number of goals - although I recognise it could be argued that Falkirk have the best defence due to having played one more game. While it's hard to argue that both rival teams have been a bit lucky, their goals for and against stats make their points totals look flattering - you'd really expect two goals a game to have that many points. I still think that our massively superior goal difference suggests we're better than the points suggest. So while our CBs can look out of sorts, I think it's hard to compare them to other defenders who have far more protection in front of them and sit a lot deeper. However, I agree that I wouldn't be confident in their current ability against stronger sides than we're facing. They need to show improvement and like most others on here, I fancy a new signing in that area.

That's because the latter is real news; in Scotland we have a very "yellow" version of the press.

I think there's just about enough stats now to dispell any notion that Hibs are a better team. As said 2/3 losses plus 3 points behind plus a shit load of goals behind says that with more time to build a team then strengthen a year later, they're definitely a bit behind. The goals part, and the number of 1-0 wins, suggests Hibs have ridden their luck a tad, while our points total is a bit more deterministic and the gap between the sides is therefore probably a bit wider than the table suggests. I expect their luck to even out a bit, which with narrow wins could easily turn into draws or narrow losses, while our resurgence in form could mean that a bit of bad luck turns a big win into a narrow one. I predict we've had our main slump of the season, Hibs' own is in the post. I still think we'll have some off days and maybe a mini-slump but not enough to drop many points, and can foresee a double figure gap by the end of the season, after Hibs run out of steam. Stubbs's attempt at mind games which seem to have had the total opposite of his desired effect, also suggests he still has a lot to learn.

He may have found unsavourary stuff - but I was under the impression that the ban was very hard to find due to something similar to the statute of limitations, as it's relevancy period had expired. Seems to me that to even think to look for it you probably had to have some previous knowledge of it... Edit: See FS post 38...

I think one of the differences between both clubs cutting the away allocation is that only Celtic are in danger of losing money. The way I feel about them now, that's as good a reason as any to go down that road.

Songs can be like chinese whispers and I'm sure I've heard Londonderry Boys as well as Glasgow Derry Boys.

You have to factor in the law of diminishing returns. The core support who are committed to going every second week are back, how many more who are not of that ilk will convert? How many lapsed season ticket holders are there left to be tempted back? One thing we had at the peak of season ticket sales, when Ibrox was 97% full is that part of the reason people kept so loyal is that they were scared to lose their seat. I'm not sure when we can get back to that considering that we are now minnows compared to the likes of Man City and even small fry financially compared to the likes of Crystal Palace. We've already had our peak before the two crashes and everything from now on is just parochial glory, and once we conquer Celtic, there won't be much to look forward to except the same yearly spat.

I thought someone would bring that up and I agree, while they are not very relevant, they are harmless. I peronally prefer songs to be about Rangers or in some way related and not interested in the likes of Penny Arcade, but I'm not actually bothered if those that aren't don't affect the reputation of the club. I'm not sure I agree with your comparisons, the French don't sing about killing any particular creed, just generically those that try to attack them, or enslave them in some way. GstQ only has two offical verses and they don't discriminate either (in case you're referring to that 6th verse about General Wade) - and pathetically few British people know more than the first verse out of the two (more pathetically so those that don't know the second verse but call themselves "loyalists"). If they do then can you say whom they are discriminating against? Trouble with TBB is that while the F word has somehow been subverted, it makes us look like we want to bring violence to a certain group for no apparent reason other than hatred. It might be misunderstood but the way a load of "prods" have used the F word, we can have little substantial argument. However, change a few words and stop anyone from singing the old ones and we're good to go. We brought it upon ourselves and while the way it came about is poor for singling us out and ignoring others, we're playing the victim card while being guilty as charged. I'm not sure that is true either. There has been plenty of violence and while it has generally been no worse than some other local rivalries, it's the religious and supposed race side of it that makes it more distasteful, especially as that can make it spill into other aspects of life where people suffer without attending a football match - on both sides. There is a lot of hatred out there, we have suffered from it, would it have been that bad had we not sung such songs? We keep pointing to other clubs in other countries not being treated as such - so what makes us different? Are we just victims or are we complicit? That I agree wholeheartedly with - and it's a lot easier to do if we are seen to be condemning our own as well as everyone else and subsequently embracing change.

If that's true then what's the problem with changing the words to have Rangers in it - especially if that stops harm to the club? How can anything that harms the club and yet is still done out of beligerence be "all about the 'Gers"? That just doesn't make sense and it is obviously about another agenda. It always seems to me to be about people trying cringingly too much to be big and hard and tough and bad and naughty... And they're not clever enough to stop an think, what do I really want to achieve here? Some people say it's about a really rousing song, so if you don't believe in the old lyrics, what is really stopping us changing a few words to be more Rangers relevant so the club doesn't get tarred with the sectarian brush?

I'd say that's the kind of thinking that caused us so much problems over the last decade - people refuse to adapt and modernise and we are seen as a dinosaur that needs to be castrated. The strange thing about your view is that the song you want to sing doesn't seem to be about Rangers - the Brig'ton Billy Boys were a violent razor gang. I always wonder some why Rangers fans would rather not sing about Rangers but instead sing about stuff that damages the image of the club and brings harm to it. It really is an attitude we need to change.

I think financial sense starts with making sure of promotion this year. As he's already shown, you can build a team pretty quickly given the resources and buying cleverly. I'm not sure if this building a team over time has much evidence as usually new managers start out well and then get worse after a few years. If they don't start well they don't get the chance to improve. Arsenal bought into building a team for the future which never seemed to have arrived and although they are top of the league now, it's only 2 points ahead of a brand new Leicester team with a fraction of the resources. For me it's about building a successful squad quickly and then the skill is maintaining it otherwise it will always get worse - a bit like a classic car, you are always replacing bits and doing repairs. I also think that there is the point that recruitment will be easier once playing in the SP is guaranteed, and there is no harm in trying guys for six months if they are willing instead of panic buying some players who are doomed to failure while overpaying them on lengthy contracts and eventually paying them off. As for finishing in the top half of the table, that is very modest compared to our ambitions and I think challenging for at least second place is plausible and achievable. You only have to look at Hearts and not only do I think we already have a better squad and manager than they, I know we will outspend them in the summer once promotion is won. Looking at their position, I have some confidence that we should be able to compete with Celtic if the board provide a war chest and Warburton uses it well - although I do think Celtic are keeping a lot of powder dry for this summer too.

How about: We're up to our ears in Timmy lies No surrender till we die For we are the Rangers Billy boys That has an anti Celtic sentiment allied with no surrender, it's hard to be offended by it in a sectarian or racist way while hardly being soft, it rhymes better, it's true instead of being bullshit, and it turns it into a Rangers song instead of a razor gang song.

I think MW has done well enough to receive an easy ride from the fans. A defeat here would turn that on it's head. I think there is enough optimism to gloss over the possibility but things will change dramatically if we're not top of the league at the end of the year.

In life we don't know which way it can go - we know they'll be well up for it but as always that can mean they play out their skins or it makes them nervious and under pressure, which can mean their bottle crashes. Or something in between. At the moment, the same goes for us. This is one of those games the players can't NOT be up for as it's obviously important - but then so was the last one as we lost our points advantage. Our players got off to a flier, played good football and got the fans excited. That took the massive pressure that playing for Rangers can bring, off their shoulders for a bit. Now it's starting to bear down and some of them will be really feeling it properly for the first time. We have to hope that they can cope with it and deliver the required result. I think the most disapointing thing of the two games that we lost is that we dominated the games and had more chances and really that should have been enough to gain a draw both times. That would have put us four points ahead still which is a big difference. We don't seem to have that ability we used to have of at least grinding out the draw when a win is just not on the cards.

I'm wondering if Oduwa is suffering from a lack of confidence at the moment. His form slumped and he's made mistakes and for a guy who seems to thrive on people appreciating him, he has instead, palpable moments of opposition fans mocking him and our own fans frustrated at him. I think his rainbow flick could have been a bit of a turning point - while no-one should publically have complained about it, it WAS disrespectful to players here - although complaining about it was incredibly cringeworthy. The disrespect was that he thought the defender were so naive he could beat them with something like that and make them look like fools. The answer for them was not to complain but instead to take the ball from him every time which would make HIM look like a naive fool. Then after a few times, instead of complaining they should have been saying, he can do that all day if he likes, I'll take the ball every time, thank you very much... However, since then, he's not done many tricks that have worked. Players who don't want to be humiliated are giving him closer attention - and going in harder and sometimes illegally and dangerously so. For the opposition, there is a trade-off and I think in this instance it is at the expense of giving other players more space which Oduwa should be able to take advantage of with a quick ball - but then lots of quick, simple balls don't make you look like you're playing particularly well or very creative.

I don't know about calculated but it's definitely a choice. You choose what is most important to you even if it's subconcious. When you raise the importance you put more energy and focus in and try harder than usual - although it doesn't always work as you can try too hard, overwork things or the nerves just get to you. You don't? So you don't think people look at the calendar at school or college or uni and decide to get up more for exam day - or even the week before exam day, compared to other days? Same with deadlines at work or important presentations. Maybe the difference you think not every day seems equal whereas each game has the same number of points, but that's not even true. If you have 100 days to work or study then each day has soemthing equal to offer, given the effort. It's just psychology that makes us work harder nearer the deadline. The thing is we don't tend to have exams every week for nine months, but if you have a weekly assignment I'm sure you'll favour the ones you see as more imprortant. The bit I agree with is in that not everyone is organised enough to even look at the calendar, they choose in a more ad hoc way on the go. I don't think players look at the calendar to see when they are playing Rangers, but when it's the next game, the adrenilin goes up, and everything to do with their performance becomes more important than normal. I agree with that, but the point is that you can choose to channel the same energy if you are conscious enough and organised - we have the power to do that, which is probably what seperates successful people from less successful ones and what all the how to be successful books are about.

I don't see how your English examples are relevant because they are categorically NOT in the relegation zone. I'm talking about teams that are in or around the relegation zone who totally raise their games agaisnt the biggest club and then play badly and lose against their fellow relegation rivals. Which of your teams does that describe? I'm not even saying it would definitely help (it's just a theory) but I think it's something worth thinking about. Your argument of relegation clubs coming to us also don't provide good examples. How many clubs that play out of their skins against us and lose, then the next week lose again to the team they are on similar points with on the edge of the relegation zone? It's a six pointer they perhaps could have won if they treated the games the other way around, but they used all their energy and focus on us and still lose, and suffer from that and then lose again - and who knows how long the hangover lasts (if there definitely is one). I'm not even saying they shouldn't try against us but if they lift their game serveral levels and don't get a result, you have to wonder what effect that has on their next 1 to 3 games. Sometimes you've got to think outside the box - but you don't have to subscribe to that thinking.

Maybe, but it's not manifesting itself on the pitch.