JFK-1

Well to balance their delusion out just a shade their forums seem to be confident that we will easily progress through QR1 then their concern after that is in their view at least we have an "easy" home tie in the second leg of QR2 before meeting them on the Sunday for the opening league fixture while they have a much tougher nut in Burnley. Just a few weeks ago the line among all delusional haters of every flavour was still the now standard 'they're skint' and if Gerrard had any transfer budget at all it would be minimal. That old line becomes difficult to maintain even for the delusional when £5 million goes on the central defence alone. Then with more additions of a price and quality way beyond their means coming in it's now gravitating back to other fantasies about King and takeover panels and tax bills etc.Plus of course Gerrard knows absolutely nothing about managing a football team and will be a total failure. Come the January window we will be skint again and receivership forthcoming any day. I could write their scripts for them months ahead.

Two years sounds like maybe testing him perhaps on a relatively low wage for a year or so to make sure he’s fit with the promise of a raise and an extended contract if he works out.

How long has he signed for?

Gary McAllister believes 'remorseful' Jon Flanagan deserves a second chance as he closes in on becoming Steven Gerrard's seventh summer signing at Rangers. The 25-year-old, a former team-mate of Gerrard's at Liverpool, underwent a medical on Wednesday and is expected to join up with the Ibrox side's training camp in Spain. Flanagan is a free agent after being released by Liverpool, but the signing would provoke debate given his off-field issues. In January, the full-back was given a 12-month community order after admitting assaulting his girlfriend. Rangers assistant manager McAllister insists there can be no excuses for Flanagan's actions, but that he should be allowed the opportunity of rehabilitation. 'I feel that,' said McAllister. 'It was unacceptable, most definitely. I have a little bit of an in because I worked at Liverpool, but it was unacceptable and a really poor decision that he made in that episode. 'But he deserves a second chance. He showed remorse, he put his hand up and has taken his punishment. He wants to get on with his life and his football life.' Flanagan's development at Anfield was hampered by serious knee injuries that led to two operations. He made 51 Liverpool appearances in total after his debut in 2011 and has spent time on loan at Burnley and Bolton Wanderers in the last two seasons. Flanagan also earned an England cap with a substitute appearance in a 2014 friendly against Ecuador. 'The club is in talks,' confirmed McAllister. 'We are in the medical stages at the moment and that is going to be in-depth because Jon Flanagan has had problems in the past with parts of his body. 'It is deep and thorough and that is where it's at. I haven't worked with him directly but I know him from my time at Liverpool. He's tough, unassuming, he is an old school full-back that can play either side. 'He can play in a back four, a back five or a back three, so he is versatile, but the big thing is that we know him, we know his character and we think he can deal with 50,000 fans. 'The expectation here is exactly the same as Liverpool. Dealing with those expectations and the crowd is something we know he can cope with. 'He has been unlucky with injuries. It looked as though he was going to go and jump ahead and flourish but he has been hampered by injuries, hence the medical.' Flanagan's addition would create renewed speculation over the future of James Tavernier. The right-back has been linked with Crystal Palace, Swansea and Leeds United but McAllister wants him to play an important part next term. 'In this period where Rangers have taken a bit of criticism, James has been one of the standout players and he is going to be key for us,' he added. Meanwhile, Gerrard will demand Rangers avoid the complacency that led to humiliation against Progres Niederkorn when they meet Macedonian side FK Shkupi. Gerrard on Wednesday learned the opponent for his competitive debut as Ibrox manager in the first leg of the Europa League first qualifying round on July 12. That match is currently scheduled to be at home but UEFA could yet switch the legs. Rangers will face either CS Petrocub of Moldova or NK Osijek of Croatia if they progress, but Gerrard insists the embarrassment in Luxembourg 11 months ago proves his players cannot look beyond FK Shkupi. 'The message to the players will be to focus on the first game,' said Gerrard. 'I don't think it will be a very difficult team talk, that first qualifying round, because of what happened last year. 'The team and the squad were very complacent and went out at that stage, so the team talk is already done, really. 'The new players we have brought in want to play in Europe. I want to coach in Europe. All the fans want big nights at Ibrox and an opportunity to travel away and support the team. 'We are not going to play it down. It's very important and we want to be in that group stage but it is each step at a time. We focus on the first leg on July 12 and make sure the team are prepared.' http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5867757/Jon-Flanagan-deserves-second-chance-Rangers-says-Gary-McAllister.html

Wish we had the confidence of the mighty sheep. Unlike that sparkling sheep side about to whip boring Burnley with sheep flair.

Interesting point.

As has been mentioned Barton is a serial offender who has done jail time and has a brother serving life for racially motivated murder. Flanagan was involved in a one of incident he immediately took responsibility for and which has been described by Klopp and others who know him well as totally out of character. Barton's escapades were totally in character. I really don't think he's a liability due to this incident and seemingly neither does Gerrard who knows him a lot better than any of us ever will. And as far as i'm aware the girl involved is still with him.

Or thrashed by Liverpool before the final.

I keep seeing speculation that Gerrard might go with a back 3 of Alves, Goldson, and Katic. Presumably the full backs would be charging forward the bulk of the time. That would assuredly be an extremely threatening attacking strategy but i'm not sure how I feel about that given the defensive woes of last season. And would it be suitable for all circumstances.

Sounds good to me. We can expect them to be pushed towards the maximum possible peak of fitness. Anyone not up for that level of hard work will be out.

One I saw. So there you have it, simply raid the glitterati of Europe for 'decent players' and it's a done deal. I feel their confidence.

One more little snippet I found regarding the incident.

It looks as if it's going ahead pending the medical. I don't know if it's fair to say he has issues. He's not some serial offender aka Joey Barton. He got involved in one drunken incident and took responsibility for it. And we have the bonus of Gerrard knowing him very well and given he's a born scouser and a lifelong Liverpool fan it's likely he grew up hero worshiping Gerrard and wont want to let him down.

Pity, if anybody couldn't get a ticket they could just climb that big tree over on the right. Consider it a stand.

Well there you go, believe it, i'm taking it for granted. Berwick beat us years ago but that didn't stop us taking early round cup opponents for granted and neither should it. There will always be occasional contrary and unexpected results. But anyway, Shkupi stadium if anyone is interested in going there.

Whatever way you look at it we have to be more satisfied with it than the sheep can be. This is about as good as we can expect at this stage and if we can't beat them then we need to start accepting this is our current place in the Euro order. In the meantime i'm not accepting that. We know we can score and we appear to be constructing a more solid defensive unit. I will remain confident till I have reason to be otherwise. The yahoos have been beating better opposition than this and if they can do it we can too. Yes I know we have to beat Shkupi but for now I will take that for granted and be thankful of a competitive warm up for tougher opposition. Makes me wonder if finishing second in the league is all it's cracked up to be. Isn't it better to get an earlier round against lesser opposition to get up to match fitness? If we can't be first I see little value in second. As for the sheep they have two chances. Slim and no chance. I'm glad we have an extra earlier round against lesser opposition

Think we have a bit more to laugh about than the sheep do. Osijek total transfer outlay £900,000. Total market value £17.51 million. Burnley on the other hand have a £16 million rated striker as just one example and a total market value of £145.35 million.

No injuries all of last season. As for the off field thing it sounds like an isolated incident and obviously Gerrard already knows him very well.

Who knows what can swing these things but he's a born scouser and lifelong Liverpool fan. Maybe the lure of Gerrard will swing it. I doubt he would be so enamoured of Rodgers as Gerrard despite having been previously managed by him.

He's right footed and listed as a right back but can and often has played on the left at Liverpool so presumably versatile. As for off field problems. Hopefully a one off moment of madness and I know of no other instance of him getting into trouble but it was this incident that put him entirely out of the picture at Liverpool. So if he signs who makes way? DJ or Tav? At this time i'm not even putting Wallace in the equation.

I actually think Alves is good at CB but just too old and slow now which isn't suitable from the Scottish game nor the way we will generally be playing. We're as often as not pushing up high then having to rush back when the opposition get a break and he can neither turn fast enough nor run fast enough to handle that. Cardoso might still make it I suppose, be up to Gerrard to decide if he can turn him into a quality CB we can use but in the meantime he's undoubtedly going to find himself as back up at best to the two new guys.

I'm more of a paper pusher than anything else in the communications business rather than working with the public though I do need an in depth knowledge of the technical side of things. But that knowledge doesn't extend to the functions of every phone and every one of the millions of apps out there. I'm approached by some people simply because I happen to be out there rather than in the office for periods of the day and all the actual sales reps are busy with customers. And despite the fact i'm not even a sales rep which I immediately inform them of they become pissy when I say I don't know anything about your phone or your app. I never used your phone before and I never heard of this non descript app you have. You know more about your phone and your app than I do. It's a bit like walking into the doctors surgery then becoming obnoxious because the receptionist says she can't diagnose and prescribe your issue. How about this one as another example. I'm walking out of the place one day and a guy stops me. Before I can even get into my standard script about not being a rep he basically sticks a phone in my face to the extent I had to back off because I thought it was going to hit me in the face. They do that to the reps all the time. Stick a phone in their face and say nothing as if a phone in the face says everything. I felt like punching the stupid bastard but kept my cool and says you got a problem? He says aggressively my wi-fi, it's not working. I just glanced at the phone he was still holding in my face and could see that it was connected to our buildings wi-fi so says to him yes it is working. He looks at it, sees it's connected and starts cursing about "effin typical, the minute I come here it starts working but when I was out driving on the rod it wasn't" At that I briefly said wi-fi doesn't work away from a wi-fi source and told him to go inside to have a rep explain it because I was finished work and going home which also got him ranting further about getting no help. As I previously said, the stupidity isn't just mind boggling the attitude and way of speaking they adopt would never be dreamed of if he encountered me in a pub or something like that and still knew I worked in that business. Simply because I'm not a patient person with people like him and would be literally ripping his face clean off his stupid skull inside a minute or so. But because someone is working in a place of business even if they don't work in the area these cretins want to talk about they think they're safe to become abusive from the get go. In some of these situations i'm striving to quickly get it out there that you need to think again fucker because i'm not the face of this company and you're dealing with darkest Lanarkshire guy here not amiable hick from Okie.

Think we need a more settled management team before we will get a settled squad.

The answer should be a gigantic unmissable poster. GOOGLE THAT SHIT! Because that's all I would do with your unheard of third party app for something like a flashlight you already had on the phone as standard you moron.

Guessing there may be a shade of additional impetus when being watched by a new manager.