Danny

Agreed, but I don't think Webster is one of the better ones. I find him distinctly average.

The first half was tolerable, though in truth I slept through most of it, and the second was just agony, which was ok because I took a large dump at the start which took up 10 minutes of my precious time. That was some bad football viewing, even the penalty shoot out was dire beyond comprehension. 2 teams content with playing 10 men behind the ball - utterly feart were both of losing - left no room for enterprising football. Let's just be glad it's over.

The move has gone through now and Hartson is officially a Championship player with West Brom. I'm actually quite glad to see the back of him - he was always a thorn in our side and a pretty good goalscorer for them. Their star striker now is Magic who had a quite dismal world cup. Plus Kenny Miller. Wow, what depth.

Sorry to rain on your parade lass, but your 'totty' ain't starting

I certainly wouldn't take him because he is Scottish. I am patriotic and of course I'd love to see 11 Scots out there for Rangers, but it's a fact of life that Scottish players are a long way off the best in the world. We already have arguably the best one in Ferguson, but it is important we bring in the best players we can regardless of where they come from. Yes, if the best players happen to be Scottish, great, but it should not be a pre-requisite imo.

Possibly the most entertaining game of the WC so far, but for all the wrong reasons. It was played in a bad spirit, with a cheating and violent mentality which exploded in the second half, and although the ref was card happy from the off, he didn't give too many yellows I disagreed with. The Dutch simulation from Kuyt, Robben and Van Persie was verging on scandalous - they deserved to go out with such dishonest play. Portugal were simply a better team but as the game disintegrated, it turned into a bit of a farce and tempers got the better of both teams with some outrageous confrontations which the ref couldn't control, and neither could anyone else. The commentary was especially amusing, and although I consider Tyldesley a twat, he's a very funny twat. Overall, comical and entertaining game, with the huge downside being that Deco will be out of the Engerland game and the likelihood is that Ronaldo will be too. But even a half strength Portugal should be able to beat England.

Boab's distribution was practically European class. Before he emerged, our freekicks were hopeless, but then he started taking them and suddenly it was like receiving free kicks from Beckham. They were that accurate. His passing and vision is honestly very, very good.

Another poor show from England. How they are continuing to win every game is beyond me. Ecuador matched them every step of the way and the overall game's standard was pretty low as a result. This scraping by is going to get England found out sooner or later, and I think the Netherlands or Portugal are the sides to find them out.

Ditto, and ditto. I would take Pressley before Webster. Pressley's a leader and reads the game well. Webster and he partner well but Webster on his own doesn't seem anything to write home about to me.

Thanks for the kind words guys. In reply to Pete, I think one of the many benefits of PLG is he's the best of both worlds. Knows the game inside out and possesses plenty of tactical nous, plus is a total stickler for fitness. He's the manager our club's been crying out for since the degeneration of the DA era.

Maxi's goal was an absolute peach but is it better than the Cambiasso effort? Either way, cracking game and very open indeed. Argie were expected to walk it but Mexico more than matched them every step of the way and indeed started the game at blistering pace. That's probably the battling win Argie needed to have in order to show they can win such matches and are capable of winning the whole thing. And, did I mention, Maxi's goal was stupendously good. My description would be: He received a cross field long ball at the opposite corner of the penalty area, chested it up into the air, let it drop and smashed it on the volley into the far corner of the goal. It was breath taking, truly outstanding.

I don't, and never have rated Webster. He might be alright for hearts, but he is not Rangers class imo and I'm quite happy with Svensson and Rod as defenders. I do concede though we need more of them. If Webster was signed purely as a squad player, maybe, but never a first teamer in my book.

Well I have to say I'm a lot more excited about the season coming than I've been for quite some time. It was a crushing blow to lose out on Champions League, but fair play to Hearts, they were better than us and deserve their place, and I hope they do well in the name of Scotland. Here's hoping our starting off in the Uefa Cup, with what will conceivably be a rebuilt team, will blood the side in and give PLG the chance to find his feet without the immediate pressure of the CL. Don't get me wrong, I'd choose the CL every time but end of the day we're not in it so we have to make the best of what we do have. In PLG we have one of Europe's brightest and most coveted managers, whose stock has never been higher. Getting him was one of the biggest signings in our history and he is the man to take us forward, no doubt about that. Our obvious priority has to be taking the Championship out of Celtic's hands, but they're doing rebuilding too, getting in some decent if not outstanding (IMO) players like the Scotland boys and this Sno chap and Jarosik. On the other hand we've brought in a promising Swedish defender to replace Soti, a Czech winger whose performance in Germany in the little time he got was certainly positive, and Letizi who has 4 caps for France apparently. Both the OF are failing to explode in the transfer market so far, settling instead for subtle enhancements and replacements so far rather than major acquisitions. Maybe it's presumptious to say this season could be a battle between the managers rather than the squads, because while both sets of fans could be reasonably pleased with what their managers have brought in, we're not talk about earth shattering signings here. And in that light I think PLG is probably more rated than Strachan. However, Strachan now knows the Scottish game and PLG is a novice even though he's studiously prepared. I would like to think it's a given that we'll take the SPL back in light of the changes. Let's face it, no Rangers fan expects anything less; I know I don't, but that's not to say Celtic will roll over and die. They won't. As for the Uefa Cup, well it looks rather strong this year for once, with some genuinely big sides in there rather than Zenit and Middlesbrough from last year. How well we do is dependent on how much PLG hits the ground running, but he is capable of taking us very far indeed. I have never had more faith in a manager than I do in him, and trust him with the team implictly. I'm still amazed we got him. As for the actual team, well some of the dead wood has been shafted and that remains an ongoing process; PL has gone, Soti's gone - both players I rated quite highly, very highly in Soti's case, but I'm content with Svensson as his replacement. We have bought in fairly shrewdly so far imo, and it's good that the spine of the team seems to be so solid; Svensson (Hopefully he settles quickly, former captain of Gothenburg and part of the Swedish WC squad, can't be bad - then again - look at Du Wei for Celtic...) and Rod (Showed just how good he is when he returned from injury during the second half of the season) at the back, Ferguson (Recovered from all the injuries which plagued him last season and imo the best player in Scotland when on his game), and Prso up front. It's hard to analyse the lot without sounding totally biased and vaguely incoherent, but I will say there are now 3 sides in the SPL capable of winning it and that's not been the case for a very long time. It should be a good season, and I fully expect us to win the SPL back and make another real mark in Europe like last season.

I was close but decided against clicking on it out of sheer laziness.

As Jonathan Pearce said, that performance from Germany and that from Sweden puts England's show against Sweden in context. Sweden were absolutely abysmal today, embarrassingly awful, and Germany are starting to really cohese. As for the penalty, well I think Mr 'King of Kings' embellished it a bit, but it was a foul, and I'd have done the same in his position, his side being 2-0 down in such an important game. However, his spot kick was awful and he almost looked like he didn't care afterwards. I think this Germany side have a real chance in the tournament, they're definitely clicking now. Only downside for me was not seeing Svensson come on, but then he's only got one cap. He's one for the future for his country, it's not quite his time yet. Though it may soon be now...

There's nothing on SSN about it at the moment.

They were pretty average in the first half, but they put on a show in the second. Their passing and movement was starting to reflect the Brazil of old and while they're not the finished article just yet, they could well be before the final.

Second half masterclass from Brazil makes me glad I didn't have the choice of the Croatia game. A number of very good goals indeed and they're slowly finding their feet now. Even Ronaldo is starting to look up for it. He's now the second top all time WC scorer. Ever.

What I mean is the Uefa Cup final is next May, right? Don't you think it would be presumptuous and arrogant of any of our players who were maybe unfortunately injured in the preceding time to go on record as expecting a medal from the final? Doesn't that show a lack of respect to the other teams competing in the competition? I believe it's ok for the fans to expect and to make such demands, but the players should be a little bit more careful about what they say.

WS tried to sign Ronaldo for £20M and later Ronaldo went on record as saying if it had been DA, he'd have joined.

So you don't think the rest of the Uefa Cup contenders would consider one of our players expecting his medal in May to be a bit arrogant? The fans are allowed to expect, but the players have to be more responsible. I like Owen a lot, but I disagree with what he's saying here and the sentiments he's trying to propagate.

Utterly gutted, can't believe how badly this world cup's worked out for the Czechs. Losing Koller was bad enough, then it all went horribly wrong against Ghana and today they just didn't seem at the races. Disappointing stuff, really disappointing.

Good that Baros is playing - he's my favourite player. But he might miss Koller. Pity Sionko doesn't start. Cheers Gazza.

Wow, this thread has truly spawned some intelligent debate, none of which I have time to fully read before the Czech game, so I will return a little later and get my teeth into what you guys are saying. Really like how the thread's looking though.

Safe to say I'll be throwing all my weight behind the Czechs. Still incredibly disappointed at Saturday's result, today is a chance to make up for it, but they will miss Koller again. Also Uljfalusi is banned I believe. It would be nice if Sionko starts.