JFK-1

It's in the interest of the SFA to start having teams making it to the group stages of the Euro competitions. Despite anything else I expect them to act out of self interest rather than the interests of Rangers. There seems to be a concerted effort going on to tighten up at the back and that was one of the main areas of concern all of us complained of the entire season. If we can close that flapping door we can get to that money spinning group and a return of Euro nights to Ibrox at least up till Xmas. It's early days but if all the rumours are true a lot of work is going on to make us a far more formidable outfit. I'm encouraged.

Just saw it confirmed in a BBC article that United go directly into the group stage. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40047060

Go Accies tonight at Tannadice. DU are heavy favourites.

And 10 points to me for consistently choosing Garner as FGS. He's only missing to wind me up. But I don't think we should be cutting it off 90 minutes before kick off since for one thing the team isn't even posted till an hour before kick off and for noon kick offs i'm up before 6am just to make that kick off. For a noon kick off I would need to get up before 4:30am just to make the cut off.

Depends on who wins the champions league in some circumstances, if Juventus win United go straight into the group stage in a certain circumstance. And since I think Real will also be Spanish champions which also gets them a place in the group stage I believe United are straight into the groups. It was mentioned on the channel I watched the match on that United go straight into the group stage which is better than 4th place in the EPL which has to enter at the play off round.

I'm sure he is fully committed from a professional point of view alone and maybe even more so if he is actually a born and bred Rangers man. He never cut us any slack despite that so why would he be any less than fully committed for this. I actually hope they do boo him to leave a bitter taste in his mouth for the next time we play them and to let all see what a foul and nasty bunch they really are. Of course if they do the record etc will gloss over it since they have Pedro bonding with fans to obsess over. Far more sinister than a support booing their own player in a cup final. I would love them to be booing his every touch then he scores the opening goal to frazzle and confuse their sheep brains.

Well if that happens presumably the sheep fans will be happy? They all apparently hate him because they somehow think they're shite under him which they are as such but that's not his fault. They conveniently forget/ignore that in the season prior to McInnes taking over which was in our first year out of the SPL they finished 8th. Not even a top 6 finish with a negative goal difference and just 6 points above St Mirren in the play off spot. And that in a league that didn't even have Rangers in it. In McInnes first season they went from a finish of 8th to 3rd and won the league cup which was their first trophy in 19 years and in the seasons since then he has delivered a second place finish each year. How shite is that in comparison to 8th. If McInnes gets the chance he should indeed get out because next season I suspect they're going to get even more of a reality check and second place finishes are likely to become as much a thing of the past as winning titles is and he will be blamed for it. They could bring in Mourinho and that wouldn't change anything but McInnes will get the blame for their failure to grasp certain realities.

They set up to not lose and managed to take a sort of comfortable win at the end of the night. It wasn't pretty but at the end of the day they got what they needed. It was simply more important for Mourinho than it was for Ajax who already had a Champions league place. He began planning this night months ago when it became obvious to him that a top 4 finish was going to be a very tall order. Mission accomplished I suppose regardless of the manner it was accomplished in.

Tannadice tomorrow night New Douglas Park on Sunday afternoon.

Over two thirds of the possession, 17 shots to 7, 5 corners to 2, and still Ajax couldn't do it and they never actually really looked like doing it despite the massive possession advantage. United simply soaked it up and had more quality in players who could snap up a glimpse of a chance. Reminded me of us in some respects in relation to possession superiority but producing no finish. Ajax are a young team and have still qualified for the Champions league third qualifying round through their league placing. They will improve and be harder to beat. United will spend more in the Summer than we could in decades and be a more formidable outfit next year.

I have actually surprisingly found a channel showing it on my US TV package.

So there are no legal issues if somebody posts a link for all us expats to view this free for all?

Yeah it's ludicrous and the reality is that the record et al probably know it's ludicrous but they don't care if it sells an extra paper or gets them another click. If Pedro acted like this every week there may be something to talk about but as you say it was the final match of the season in his currently very short tenure and he felt he needs to bond with the support. He did nothing cringeworthy or inappropriate.

They're not going to be letting him go for a fraction of the price we paid. That's not even enough to pay the outstanding balance.

I have doubts they're as good as some seem to think they are and nowhere near as good as they themselves think they are. If we can put some steel into the centre of the defence and midfield they and everyone else could find us a much different proposition next season. They had some good performances last season but against poor to mediocre opposition it's hardly impressive. Plus the sheep came within a goal of making the qualifying round last year while they're totally crap and were totally outplayed by us in all games but one that didn't matter. There can be some decent teams in the qualifying round but the bulk of them will be beatable with the right approach and I expect us to be significantly strengthened. Ibrox has to become a maelstrom of sound to terrify the Euro opposition out of their boots and socks too.

Mergers are oft mentioned but rarely if ever implemented. A Lanarkshire merger was once mentioned to incorporate Airdrie, Accies, Albion Rovers, and Motherwell but at least 20 years later no such thing has happened.

Or a comment on how good we think Rossiter could be?

I'm sure we all would but as it stands we have what we have. I don't care how he gets them into the net providing he does so. Can bounce in off his arse for all I care.

This time round I will be expecting a minimum second place with a hugely reduced margin between first and second and a good space between second and third. We have to expect targets were narrowed down weeks ago because we don't have a great deal of time to get this done before the first Euro qualifier. We only need to consistently beat the rest to make this thing a far tighter race. Probably looking at a stiffening of the central defence and midfield. That all on it's own would make for a major improvement. He seems to like Garner and has intentions of playing to his strengths so if we can also throw in another good striker we will be getting there.

I think any improvement at all would edge us ahead of the rest and a vast improvement would put us far ahead of the rest. I'm obviously hoping for the vast improvement and feel somewhat encouraged that will happen. I will take his word for that since I think he's smart enough to know that if he said that then all we got was more of the same he would have put himself in a very difficult position indeed.

He was in an indisputably very good sheep side but that was an entirely different era. We're now in an era where they will likely never win another league title.

And the fact that they have been artificially in the top two while we were gone. Those days are coming to an end sooner rather than later.

Baffles me why anyone would want to leave the second best team in Scotland to join the third best.

What would a midfield with him and Rossiter in it look like? I remember watching Rossiter in his early games and began to notice that I never once saw him lose out on a challenge for a 50/50 ball.