Danny

Walter is only as good as the resources he has at his disposal. None of us would deny the man's faults, but only the likes of Mourinho and Hiddink are close to flawless. Only 2 and half years ago we beat Lyon, Stuttgart, drew with Barce-friggin'-lona, beat Fiorentina, Werder Bremen, Panathinaikos, and Sporting. Back then we had a significantly stronger squad which had the likes of Hutton, Cuellar, Ferguson and Cousin in it, plus an on-form Beasley. Walter achieved all that, which peaked with a visit to Manchester - a side which nonetheless punched way above its weight thanks to what Walter managed to get out of them. We'd have won the league too but for the fixture backlog. Nowadays we've lost a lot of the players of the calibre of these guys, and while he brought some players in in summer 2008, we're a weaker squad and team - so how do you expect 'progress' when the tools he has are inferior to the ones he had in May 2008? It's all very very easy to lay the blame at Walter's door and point out 'negative' tactics, but to have 'positive' ones requires a much better and more composed calibre of player than we can currently boast. I don't trust any of our midfield to take the ball, dribble, weave, and pick out a creative pass/dictate a game - not even Davis, as good as he is. That's what Ferguson could do, and is doing again in Birmingham. But we don't have that now. We have to operate within our means, and the fact we've won two leagues in a row under these circumstances should see praise for Smith, not criticism. If we get new ownership, new money, and real security for the future then my expectations for 'progress' (whatever that is) will increase and I'd very much hope for the last 16 of the CL as well as the league. But the way we are currently, the SPL alone is as good as it gets and I hope we don't get slaughtered in the CL, though we probably will.

Erm, trying very hard to keep a well paid job? He's been a Times hack for at least a decade, but only in the last half year has he started doing this kind of thing. Stop defending him - or do you think Spiers is fine too and is just trying to 'make money'?

That would be absolutely news to me. If that is true I retract what I said above, to a degree, but I still stand by my belief he's supposed to be a bluenose.

I've not read much of it, if any, either tbh.

But Darrell King is not a tim. In my opinion he's gone from a credible journo with the Times with more than a penchant for all things Rangers, to a gutter hack, corrupted by Radio Clyde and his own desire for the 'latest scoop' even if it means selling out. Shame, he was one of the good ones not so long ago.

Good stuff.

You don't like Lafferty, and I no longer like Boyd. This is not an argument based on facts, but one totally based on opinion on both our sides. We will agree to disagree as I don't believe discussion would aid this at all.

Well, I'll say this - at least you didn't say 'Laugherty'. Otherwise, it's just more of the same stuff from you - negative, critical, and depressing.

I quoted from King's article posted by Frankie

"Since then, there has been little information from the Ellis camp despite numerous attempts to ask for a comment." Yet our very own Northants Ger or whatever he's called phones the guy directly and supposedly gets an exclusive scoop not once but twice?

The SPL is absolutely miles behind the Championship, which is easily the biggest of all the European second divisions. It also competes and supercedes quite a few premier leagues as well, our own included. The SPL is somewhere between League 3 and 1.

Yes. We do not want Lyon winning the CL. Their elimination is paramount.

You were either gutted or happy when he scored the goal which won us the league. So you're either a strange breed of supporter whose agenda is more important than the club, or you're a hypocrite. Regardless, I think it's a shambles to insult our players in ways tims are supposed to.

My biggest concern is a supposed bluenose hack is spreading this stuff. I understand he announced right after we won the league on Clyde 1 that he had terrible news regarding our finances. If one of our supposed own is attacking us in this, as Frankie put it, 'sensationalist' way, words fail me.

Some of the comments have bordered on depressing. Some folk have seen nothing better than to slag off the manager, the style of football, our future, and Kyle Lafferty. I mean did we just win the league or lose the bloody thing?

This post is simply the best.

That would be the OF game. And what you doing praising our players, shouldn't you be wallowing in self pity over how dire we are and how the future is bleak?

Almost exactly what I said - he struggled with pressure and was unable to express himself - in my case it was the pressure of Boyd's return. Hopefully now he can play with a bit less pressure and be 'freer' to excel without thinking the world's out to get him if he sclaffs a shot.

Hope you're aiming that at Gazza too. 'Laugherty' is as much a personal insult as 'fanny' is.

He's not the only one who's slagged off Kyle in this way. I find it astonishing in this day and age that fans are happy to outright denigrate players they dislike of the football team they support, no matter what that player has or hasn't done. As an aside, personally, I don't, and never did, see much to laugh at regarding Lafferty anyway. Don't see anything funny about a player who struggled to get to grips with playing for us after we shelled out millions for him. The only people who could find something like that 'funny' would be our opponents.

I thought he'd said 'second' is nothing, not Celtic. But cheers for the translation

Kyle's a hero

Charlie Adam was poor for us. He's been great for Blackpool. Ferguson ended up being terrible for us, but has been great for Birmingham. Arteta flattered to deceive for us a lot, but ended up being the most important player at Everton. Sometimes, guys, it just doesn't work for a player in particular circumstances and the change is needed. It doesn't mean you made a mistake letting him go, just that it wasn't happening at Rangers. Hindsight is a beautiful thing and all the guys happy for Adam to go are now saying 500k was madness. Even though that's what all of us fans actually valued him at when he played for us.

And the performance tbh. Gets my vote.

I do think he needs to work on his goal celebrations...