JFK-1

I see no reason we can't win it with some consistency. If Aberdeen can beat them twice which they did I see no reason the team we will be fielding can't do the same thing.

Totally forgot about them. How ironic that they barely cross my mind while they obsess on us night and day.

Mike Ashley "humiliation" as he steps down from Rangers' retail board http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14539708.Mike_Ashley__humiliation__as_he_steps_down_from_Rangers__retail_board/?

Back when the title was clinched and promotion guaranteed I would have been content with a top 6 finish for the first season back but given the quality of player being targeted and brought in recently the stakes have been raised and top 3 to clinch a Euro spot is now a minimum expectation and that is in fact what Dave King himself stated when he took over. He said that the Europa league was a minimum expectation. Aberdeen were second best in the SPL last season by a distance and there is no way they are going to be attracting the quality we are which presumably is one reason the bookies have Rangers at 3/1 for the title with Aberdeen 12/1 And though I may be looking at it with slightly blue tinted spectacles so to speak I don't think it's beyond us to win this league. I hope to hit the ground running like we did last year and again I don't think that's beyond the team. The shake up of the midfield has thrown a lot more creativity in there which i'm hoping can help break down those ten man defences we have to face to take advantage of all the possession in the final third we habitually have against any team we played last year. Even against St Johnstone when we experienced the first stumbling block of the season we still had 66% of the possession and 12 shots at goal to their 6 and I don't see that changing much in the SPL but I do expect this team to be taking more advantage of that superiority. Dundee were totally blown away and in the first half of the cup semi final we were all over them with a weakened side. Nothing is beyond this team with Warburton at the helm and I fully expect we're going to see some even more fabulous football than we did last season. Tighten it up at the back and I see only one out there who can stand in our way and it's not Aberdeen. As for Aberdeen I have seen them making spurious claims that Rangers will have to spend mega millions to compete even for the top 3 in the league. What a load of utter bollocks. They themselves claimed to be legitimate title challengers and when did they ever spend ANY millions far less mega?

I like it, it's indicative of the fact that sanity is a distant memory and maybe a never experienced state for some of them. It further marginalises them, they now even have a T shirt saying i'm a proud fringe nutcase obsessive.

All that matters to us is that we're getting a match fit player.

It's encouraging to see a number of centre backs being pursued as we are all aware that has been an issue. We have the midfield already signifcantly strengthened with the incomers plus the return of Forrester and hopefully a bedded in O'Halloran available in all competitions it's building up to be an impressive unit. I don't recall being so excited about an upcoming season since Souness first arrived. I don't really care much about the league cup other than viewing it as useful warm up matches for the real thing when the league kicks off. Hoping for a home match on day one of the league.

I'm guessing since he will be in Glasgow for talks today the chances of him signing are good. You would imagine that whatever they are offering him would already have been offered over the phone or whatever and since he is coming the offer must be acceptable. So presumably now it comes down to simply coming up to have a look around and that can hardly be anything but impressive . So says Joey Barton.

Well in regards to it taking 4 years to get back to the SPL that's just 1 year longer than the shortest possible time and it has to be viewed from the perspective that when he reached the Chmapionship what he found there was the two Edinburgh giants who are not part timers and who had just come down from the SPL. This was an unusual situation and if not for their presence he would have won the Championship at the first attempt. As for the style of football no one would swap the Warburton style for it but he was more or less playing the style he himself had been coached in and what was suitable for the leagues he was in and the players he had at his disposal. So effectively the greatest failure of Ally was not getting out of the Championship at the first attempt in a situation where he had the two Edinburgh teams in there with him and that's aside from all the background upheaval he was having to deal with. I wouldn't swap Waburton for him but Ally was dealing with a unique situation no other Rangers manager ever had to. And as I mentioned in another post Ally was burdened with a lot of emotional baggage with all the trauma going on at the club which in the circumstances he had to wrestle with along with everything else. He was just as upet with everything that went down as we were and if his first management job had been at a club where he didn't have these emotional ties he may have been a different manager which is why I think he may be a different manager at another club.

I will bet a fiver on Barton to win by KO.

I have fears he may become a target for opposition non entities aware of his reputation and looking to get some attention for taking a dig at and getting a rise out of such a high profile player which then propels them from non entity to headlner.

I never gamble but if I were forced to bet on somebody I expect it would have to Germany. They haven't exactly been on top form of late but they're always there or thereabouts when it matters. Dark horse England if they can keep it tight at the back plus Vardy and Rashford can reproduce their league form. England have a lot of strike options.

Nice to see some interest in a defender being reported even if it doesn't come off.

Jamie Vardy: Arsenal bid for Leicester City striker meets release clause http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36450106

Bookies SLASH odds on Swedish superstar making move to Glasgow http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/zlatan-celtic-bookies-slash-odds-8108473#tHb8M53adjoWzFh4.97

Glad I got in the post that pushed it over the line then.

Think I prefer to leave ref conspiracies to others who have obsessed on such matters for years. This is the same as saying all it needs to swing a match is a referee giving dodgy penalties or denying blatant penalties etc.

I would be interested to see how he fared with another go at management. I feel part of his problem at Rangers was that he was still a player at heart trying to be the joker of the dressing room when that role can't be played by a manger who has difficult decisions to make. He may learn from his mistakes and be a different animal at another club.

To me that's one of the most bizarre features of the entire obsession. I seriously look at it and see a band of complete weirdos so far gone in this weird obsession they don't grasp that they're looking like obsessive oddballs to anyone outside their fantasy reality. I also feel this sevco new club obsession started as banter and somewhere along the way they forgot that and created an elaborate alternate reality they now think is real and can't get out of it as the rest of the world looks on bamboozled at the freakiness of it. And I suspect it's actually becoming worse recently due to the fact that the team were on a high this season playing a brand of football everyone was impressed by while their season was basically a dud when they were humiliated in Europe and won nothing but a one horse race of a league and to top off the dud of a season were humiliated again in the Scottish cup semi final when they weren't just beaten they were made to look second rate for long periods. And now an even darker terror beckons. Rangers come back into the league and win it in the first year back highlighting for one and all how much of a one horse race it really was and how irrelevant winning it was without us in it. If we hit the ground running next season and they stutter we're going to see levels of screaming about sevco approaching full meltdown. And incidentally I and I expect everyone else but the obsessives have become so bored with the new club line that I don't even give a flying expletive about it anymore and why would I when every footballing authority maintains records saying otherwise. If they want to add to their alternate reality that a brand new team popped into existence like magic and instantly put an end to their one horse trot go for it. Now along with being whipped by the minnows of Europe they're being humiliated by startups.

Mark Warburton has Rangers on the right track as he works through his summer shopping list http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/sport/14527174.Mark_Warburton_has_Rangers_on_the_right_track_as_he_works_through_his_summer_shopping_list/?ref=mr&lp=1

I hope he goes because I think they will struggle if they change horses so to speak at this stage and they deserve all the shit that can be piled on them for the point blank denial and whatboutery of the cup final scenes.

Well in this instance at least if they didn't work out it's a nothing lost nothing gained scenario instead of millions lost. And you have to think that over the course of it a bunch of them will actually prove to be not just good players but worth millions after being acquired for a relative pittance. Jordan Rossiter in particular may prove to be in that category in 2 or 3 years time. We appear to be crafting a formidable midfield and I have found myself wondering recently if the Manager thinks that solidifying the midfield will solve the defensive issues. Crooks in particular could act as a big central defender when required such as corners etc. then return to his midfield role when the danger is cleared.

I came from Hamilton before moving to the US and saw him around the town centre area regularly. Don't know if he is still living in Hamilton but he was there for years after finishing as a player.

I agree, Vardy didn't really score many more goals in a season with Halifax town as an example than he has in the EPL this season. During the 2010/2011 season with Halifax he netted 26 times which is probaly similar to his tally for this season with Leicester. It's difficult to judge how effective Crooks and Windass will be when surrounded by a better standard of team mates but as you say if Mr Warburton thinks they can do it I will trust his judgement.

I'm Scottish and I don't understand why we tolerate and pay for what's basically the Irish segregating themselves in seperate schools and THAT'S where the tribalism begins. If we were forcing them to do that it would be called apartheid and it actually even goes beyond just bare segregation. A priest decides who is fit to be a teacher? http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13150385.Controversial_Catholic_school_recruitment_policy_under_fire/