Super_Ally

How long before we see an Irish tricolour up the back of the Copland front?

I hear there's a plan to have it added by the 32nd of Julember.

Hearts start with a 15 point deduction? So have made up nothing?

Can Daly succeed Jig as top scorer?

You hear them praised regularly for focusing on youth development but how many players in Wenger's era have gone on to be first team regulars?

 

It's not just them, the whole of the premiership is shocking at bringing through their own players.

It's no Murray Park that's for sure.

Nowhere near the same level.

 

For the past 15 years we've been paying most of our players 20k plus to beat players on 1k or 2k if they're lucky.

Agree the gulf in wages will be smaller. Will still give us an advantage in quality of squad/player to stroll the championship.

Paying about 9000 times more than them too.

And we'll still be vastly outspending all the teams in our league next season.

You'd need more faith in Ally's ability to construct a decent defence than I've got to think we'll romp D1. Win it aye, romp it, not so sure.

We've finished many points ahead of SPL teams regularly barring Celtic.

I beg to differ and tend to agree with amms. I've always had thoughts that it won't be a stroll in the park. Raith, Hamilton, Hearts, Falkirk will all be tough.

Besides, hopefully we won't have any away support at these games

15points maybe even more.

I'll state now we'll still walk the league even with Hearts in it.

Many years Hearts could realistically have expected to beat every other team in the SPL outwith the OF and it never really happened.

Not winning that division against Hearts would be a disgrace.

I can't get my head around people rating Hemdani and not Fergie. Hemdani was the "back pass" or "side pass" player everyone accused Fergie of being. Hemdani was a decent enough player with good ball retention but that was because 99% of his passes were the easy, short 5 yard ball to a team mate when under no pressure.

Fergie was a class above anything we've had in midfield since the Advcaat era. I don't think the Advocaat players made him look good. He was an equal in that company and often stood out among them.

The guys who sat next to me preferred to call him '' Barry Ma Baw ''

 

I don't think Ferguson's contribution can be denied and he was a sound player for us, his ability to keep things simple is a plus in a culture of kick and rush, but my main problem with his play was that although he knew when to keep it tight, he rarely knew when to loosen the valve. I honestly believe that had Barry added an attacking string to his bow, he would have enjoyed far more appraisal and success as a player.

 

Here's a question for you, and it may seem an obvious one to answer but not so if you think about it, Would Barry shine in our current predicament Knowing how tight these pitches are and the little time he'd have on the ball? even if he were in his prime ?

"Sound" player and could he hack it in Spfl league 1?

By an absolute donkey dick's length the best Scottish footballer since maybe Souness.

Suffers from a few key incidents in his career clouding people's judgement and the fact that Brits don't appreciate cultured, continental style players in the way the Spanish, Italians etc would.

Just scene my mistake there pete.

Columbia better odds than England?

The seen at Pete's house last night/this morning?

I was one who liked the fact his name was bandied about purely because I remember him from being involved in Liverpool. Listening to craig and BD I realise that was a bit daft and a more cautious view of his potential appointment is in order. Not saying he wouldn't be good but shouldn't get carried away with his EPL credentials alone.

I fear you're right, but they'll never drag The Rangers down without a fight from me.

 

I saw yesterday Toure, of Man City, being abused in Moscow & the suggestion has been made that his side should have walked off. My persistent nightmare is that the traditionalists persist with their repertoire right up and into our European return, upon which bodies like FARE organise a walk off during a game, and we are broadcast across the world as a bunch of fundamentalist loonballs.

 

There will be no coming back from that...that's why it's so important to drive home the message again and again, not so much to the mentalists but to the alarmingly large body of apparently clever and normal fans who can't bring themselves to drop the shit of the 60's, 70's, 80's & 90's, that they have an absolute duty to the club we all love to realise that we do not exist in a social vacuum, and that behaving as if we do will only result in harm to The Rangers. Like you I'm bored stupid debating this stuff over and over again but if we don't, it will be Rangers that suffers.

Dont think we need to drag ourselves into the racism row. Doing the mhanks work for them here.

The legislation and the formation of FoCUS came out of the so called "shame game" and was introduced because the SG were concerned about the damage it was doing to Scotland's worldwide reputation.

Really? More mountains out of molehills then.

I live in England. If anyone's staunch football fans would remember that so called shame game and see it as tarnishing Scotland's worldwide reputation it would be our closest neighbours. I don't know anyone down here who could recall the game, the incidents or has had their opinion influenced by it.

More using sledgehammers to crack a walnut.

If our higher powers are worried about how we appear worldwide they should stop overstating our sectarianism "problems" a million fold. Stop turning every small incident into a national scandal. Play it down because as you and amms have shown it is less than one third of 1% of fans engaging in such behaviour.

As far as I can see all BH and amms stats do is further prove what a sham the sectarian issue is. If just 0.029% of fans are engaging in this behaviour why is so much time, money, expense, politicians time, police time and media inches and minutes wasted on this sham.

Those figures don't show that there isn't a greater focus on rangers fans. They just show the authorities are struggling to justify their bs agenda with charges and convictions.

Take Rangers and Celtic out of it and look at the bare facts.

In society there are 2 groups who account for the vast majority of the population. These groups, A and B, engage in similar behaviours that are deemed unsavoury. The government tell us they wish to eradicate this behaviour.

Initially pretty much only group A are targeted whilst group B and C (C are collectively the remaining small but diverse groups in the population) make no change. They carry on being as offensive as before. There is no political pressure or media pressure to alter what we are told is offensive behaviours.

Group A remove a lot of offensive behaviour. They show massive improvement. Still no attention is focused on groups B an C. This continues for several years. Eventually the occasional incident involving those from group B and C is highlighted. The efforts of media, politicians and the police continues to focus primarily on group A.

How do you expect the group A population to react?

And can you honestly, with a straight face say that there is a real commitment to tackling offensive behaviour? Or just a want to blame one section if society for all it's ills.

Also, you take a group of many thousands of people, you largely persecute them whilst ignoring other equally offensive behaviour. They improve a lot but still no one is interested in other parties. How do you expect people in that group to respond? Do you think their might be a backlash from these people when they understand no one really wants to tackle this issue across the board. Not everyone in the Rangers support can have the patience of amms etc waiting for attention to be turned to other parties.

You take tens of thousand of people at rock ness. You get a lot of anti social behaviour. I think this demonstrates that you cannot ever expect the Rangers support to be 100% white. If that is what we have to wait for until the rest are tackled then that will never come. Perhaps that is the point?

Amms, more Rangers fans do get done than others. I think the stats and numbers show this.

Largely Rangers cut out all offensive songs with the odd slip here and there.

Largely Celtic did nothing and continued with pro-terrorist and sectarian displays.

I think a good case can be made that Rangers cleaned up our act immeasurably. Celtic largely did nothing and continue with nigh on all their offensive behaviours.

Yet as many if not more Rangers fans get charged, prosecuted, condemned in the media etc.

How you can paint that as even handed I don't know.

The argument is not "look at them, look at them". The argument is:

- you tell us modern Scotland wants to eradicate anti-social behaviour.

- we are the first and main target.

- we improve our behaviour immeasurably.

- fans that were previously if not as bad as us are certainly now far worse. Our behaviour has improved massively. There's has not changed.

- if politicians, media and Jock public really care about all this stuff why are there no other targets in their sights? The odd effort here and there e.g. Thistle is not the same as the concerted anti- Rangers agenda that gave birth to the money draining and political grandstanding sectarianism industry.

At some point there needs to be a serious look at the behaviour of the Celtic support and then Aberdeen and all the other offensive chants and clubs.

If the sectarian initiatives and campaigns only ever focus 90% on Rangers, and a Rangers support that was massively improved in behaviour how can anyone believe there really is any true effort to tackle society wide offensive behaviour in football.

( Regards your point on the man in the street and the YCV and pistols and guns. They just don't give a fuck. They care about the price of petrol, whether their job is safe, even independence. Unless they belong to a staunch football support they don't give a fuck. You, the media an the politicians can pretend it is being done to protect the innocents sensibilities but they just don't come into contact with this offensive behaviour or probably even realise it when they do. It would require someone else to tell them the words, explain the context and tell them why they should be "offended". Your average Scotsman is probably more offended by someone not indicating off a roundabout. They likely wouldn't want you jailed for that though.).

You're obviously a really clever guy. And I agree the songs aren't necessary. But genuinely no one is really offended or gives a flying fuck. To give this sectarianism industry and crusade any credence as a real and honest attempt to clean up anti-social behaviours is farcical.

Those who want to engage with the policy and decision makers as it stands now are off their heads. There is little interest in stamping out offensive behaviour across the board. That's why so little is done to Celtic, Aberdeen, every other club singing about Huns etc.

As Pete states no one is truly offended. People either want to harm Rangers or bolster their own position using the sectarianism industry. There is no appetite for actually changing attitudes and behaviours in the game.

All this talk of our fans singing songs that are deemed unpalatable in a modern Scotland. That's got fuck all to do with it and is disingenuous. Your average man in the street doesn't care. Doesn't know what the songs are about.

Good day for the Bear Cubs. :-)

Re-reading Gribz and BHs recent post threw up a question for me.

From previous interaction and looking at Gribz XI I know we have watched Rangers through a similar number of years.

Gribz names Gio in his XI. Now taking out the fact that many people don't like Barry Ferguson personally, but who was the most effective performer for Rangers at their peak? My memory would say Barry. What is also not obvious from Gribz post is whether Gio is selected as a CM or LM? Many of his midfield can play in different positions across the engine room. If it's as LM of course it's Gio. At CM I would say Barry.

Further still, did Gio get greater acclaim away from Scotland as a LB for Holland, Arsenal, Barca etc? If so, for me Numan is better there.

Edit: really interesting back and forth between the two of you.

Looks like a formation Brazil would favour with their "you score 5 we'll score 6 mentality". But I'm too young to have seen it.