JFK-1

I only saw the first half but I was encouraged. They're on another level from the typical SPL dross and we didn't look out of place against them from what I saw. We're getting there.

I like the look of Candeias. He could really tear up the SPL dross.

I can see it. In the early minutes we can't get a touch of the ball. They're very good indeed at pinging it around keeping possession. Moving up the pitch at will..

All I expect of Alves is that he organises a defence which cost us so many goals in the break last season and help take away the anxiety I felt very time a high ball came in from crosses and corners. If the midfield and front players have confidence in the rearguard it can only help.

Apparently it is that simple or at least it is for some. I was told on another thread that Aberdeen were better than Rangers because they had 9 more points in the end. So that being the case it follows that Walker is considerably better than McKay after getting 12 goals to 6 for McKay and that while playing in a team that finished 21 points behind Rangers.

We don't seem to be getting them into the net for now but saying we don't create chances is patently exaggeration. The goals will come and if they come when it counts rather than in a mere warm up with the side being constantly rotated to give as many as possible a chance of fitness I will be content.

Obviously we're all fervently hoping Alves will be the answer to these 'mixups' It makes it sound like they didn't play themselves into a scoring position but rather the defence messed up and allowed them into it.

I expect something so light as confetti/ streamers would stay largely in the stands. Anything at all with enough weight to reach the pitch and is then thrown on to the pitch has to be frowned on.

Sounds like we're dominating them but failing to put the ball in the net. Troublesome to some extent since we have seen that before but not so much in a bounce match. Going to be a whole different dynamic in front of a crowd when there are points at stake.

I don't know if he's that imperative, above my pay grade as Warburton might say. But there are many teams out there who aren't the same machine when one key player is missing. From a Rangers perspective the loss of Terry Butcher with a broken leg one season very possibly cost us 10 in a row. And if it turned out he was that imperative to what the manager has in mind and were injured then that's the breaks because as it stands we don't have the resources to bring in equivalent or near equivalent quality for every position. But I think if the extra cost amounts to little more than a couple of hundred K we need to bite the bullet and go for it. Can't afford to be lacking a player who may make a title challenge feasible for the sake of relatively little. The first half of the campaign will be crucial. We need to be still in it by January and if Pedro thinks Walker may be key to that another 200K is worth it.

Bit of passion in a bounce match. Good old Niko. Hope that introduces a bit of dig into it though we obviously don't want anyone injured.

At the end of the day Walker himself will force their hand. It's more than obvious he doesn't want to be there even for the same money he might get with us. They would be foolish to hold on to a player who doesn't want to be there and would potentially play at less than 100% then go for free. I think they may be dragging it out to satisfy their followers that every last possible penny was squeezed out of it.

The only footballer biography I have ever read was Terry Butcher which was given to me as a Christmas present in the year it was published. I enjoyed it but what Rangers fan wouldn't when it describes the entire Souness era and beyond into the 9 in a row years. Ronaldo's should be an easy read when it comes. I'm so great, the end. An ego so inflated he actually insisted his waxwork get regular hairdos.

While I agree with your opinion to a great extent there's also a bit of me that feels if the manager thinks Walker could be the final piece in the jigsaw then we have to get him in before the start of the season. What is he worth? Say 500K? Transfer market rates him at 750K So for the sake of another 250K we could be going into the season weaker than we otherwise might have been. We seriously need to hit the ground running hopefully taking all points before the visit of the unmentionables and if Walker is the key to that an extra 250K is worth it.

Fiinished 5th in Ligue 1 with the highest average attendance in France of 52K. A good test and hopefully we're going to see the actual starting 11 though personally I don't know if Alves is even in the country yet.

It's irrelevant what any Tom, Dick, or Record 'pushes' for. I could 'push' for all of their journalists to have their faces forcibly painted green but it would be pointed out that's outwith the rules and a bit crazy. Exactly like what they're 'pushing' for.

I'm not suggesting we will be unbeaten, I don't know yet and that's the point. The question was do you think anyone would have predicted an unbeaten season for them after that? As for us what I am suggesting is that the gloom and doom over this freak result is all fine regarding the loss of Euro income but at this stage meaningless regarding the prospects for our upcoming season. One thing that does need to happen is the urgency of the final 10 minutes has to be on display from the first minute of every match. If they had played the entire match like they did those final 10 minutes it would have been an entirely different result. I'm hoping that in the dressing room the manager will address that lack of urgency until disaster loomed and the likes of Alves deal with it on the park.

Freak results happen. You think anyone would have predicted an unbeaten domestic season for them after this? [video=youtube;L9FUNt-jSHY]

Regarding 'big Eck' Craig Moore used to hang out in Hamilton a lot during his time at Rangers and during the tenure of Eck. I spoke to Craig on a few occasions and the best he had to say about Eck was that he was a lucky manager.

A joke league? While the Scottish league is world class? You think the team he left would be in terror of Progres? Tell all that to our neighbours who make more TV money from a single game than our entire system will in a season. And what will it make you if this guy gets this team clicking and blowing the opposition away? We have no idea how this team will perform at this point and anything contrary to that is a joke.

What a strange coincidence. He also vehemently denied the earlier allegations which got him two years in the slammer. Presumably an ex Scotland internationalist whose name was already known to many was simply lying about a non entity known to no one outside those he vehemently denied abusing to get embarrassing attention he didn't need?

I generally wouldn't bother going to see a pre season friendly because I always felt as if no one on either side was going to over stretch themselves for something that means nothing other than a workout/warm up. We do need them for fitness reasons but it means absolutely nothing beyond that. And regarding last weeks disaster it also crossed my mind that there was a streak of arrogance running through the side who were in this pre season mentality of i'm not going to overstretch myself while i'm not yet at peak fitness in case I get an injury that rules me out of the real business. And our 1-0 lead has already sealed this. For Progres on the other hand this was the real deal, as big a match as they might see all season and they went at it full blast. We're not going to get any real idea of how this team will perform till the first real game on August 6th. Can't come quick enough for me so we can all get back to talking predominately about football rather than the grunting of pseudo tax/legal experts and frankly total nut cases.

If you mean in regard to the raving of the followers of other clubs absolutely nothing would be any different. Title stripping isn't really what they desperately wanted. Extinction is what they wanted and they're getting into a frantic froth right now because not only are we not extinct it looks as if we're constructing s side that will put the likes of the sheep back in the shade they were actually always in aside from a brief Ferguson inspired period. Right now the followers of both the sheep and Dundee Utd are frothing at the mouth about title stripping. What possible difference would that make to them? If you took away every honor w got in the past 50 years we would still be eclipsing both of them combined. We didn't need EBT's to eclipse them, we always did and we will again.

So if we were to consider Kranjcar and Rossiter new additions which in effect they are at the last count we now have 11 in and more to come.