Frankie

I'm not overly fussy about Goodwillie either to be honest. Sure he looks a decent player and has potential but he's another idiot off the park and will have a lot to do to become first choice at Rangers. Perhaps another area of the team should be given the cash to strengthen. Not sure about defence but I would like a right-sided midfielder.

Alex McLeish 'hopes Kenny Miller will move to Birmingham Cityin next 24 hours'. Make of that will you will folks...

Exactly...

But the problem is the bank are allegedly party to not offering these players extended and/or improved contracts so it's difficult the lay the blame squarely at the door of Bain et al.

My old man's a mushroom etc...

Well said YL...

Is that George Peat there...?

Points on the board usually but we should be able to win at least two of our games in hand so I'd like to think the players will take confidence from last night's result and push on to win this league...

Nobody is absolving Murray of blame. He's the owner and was the chairman for long enough so he's ultimately responsible for the decline in standards. Any reasonable person would admit this nowadays and Murray himself has alluded to his mistakes. The problem we have is enforcing change. It simply cannot happen without high level interference and I've yet to see one Rangers-minded person in the media directly criticise Murray or call for him to go. Of course, suggesting he leaves is easy without any obvious replacements so I'd settle for a constructive debate about the future of the club. Even that seems to be lacking from our peers. I'm surprised David Leggat hasn't taken up the baton on this one but he's far from the only person who lacks focus (and/or support).

Both Hamilton players sent off will be suspended against Rangers on Saturday. It's a conspiracy!

Dung is everything that is wrong with journalism in Scotland. Will never jeopardise his relationship with people in order to constructively criticise and educate supporters.

It's easy to look at individual transfers or investments and pick out the bad ones. Ultimately, buying players is a risky business and there are no guarantees which makes the Beattie purchase (and the car racing thing of last season) look even worse when prudence is supposed to be the guide. There is a fine line between careful investment and wastefulness. To be honest, Martin Bain is paid a lot of money to ensure we stay on the right side of that line. Is he representing value for money? As ever there are more questions than answers but we seem to have few people asking in the right places.

I prefer to look forward than back and while SDM is certainly deserving of our criticism, we need to use our valid complaints wisely if we're to be a real part of the club. I sympathise with the club's position and I don't think we have much to gain from playing the blame game. However, the situation is poor, communication with the club's biggest remaining investors dreadful and Murray remains the sole person responsible for this. We need to be asking questions of him to find the solutions we seek.

Now Barry seems to have found the same black-hole I did...

I go away for a few weeks and come back to all sorts... Where's my ban stick!

First of all, a Happy New Year to all Gersnet's subscribers; after a few weeks R&R; it's good to be back online and reading the varied opinions across the community! And it's with that initial greeting that we can immediately ask ourselves if indeed 2011 will be a prosperous time for our club. As ever the answer isn't easily found. Of course we started the year rather badly. After an icy December of cancelled game after cancelled game, it was no surprise to see our lack of sharpness affect our performance against Celtic. Added to the inconsistency we've seen throughout this season (despite being top) I wasn't expecting a great display on the 2nd, though I was disappointed with the familiar motivational problems rearing their head again. However, as ever, the reaction afterwards was overly negative and, as Monday's night's win over Kilmarnock showed, rumours of our demise have been greatly exaggerated. We may be four points behind our rivals but we're more than capable of winning our games in hand and retaining top spot - with or without Kenny Miller. On the subject of Scotland's most prolific striker, fans are again worried about his probable sale and, given the mixed messages coming from the club regarding Lloyds Banking Group's involvement, I certainly share in their concern. After all �£20million of European income should surely enable our manager to strengthen his squad in January in order to help facilitate the same CL revenue next season? Do we really need to sell in order to buy? A quick (and empirical) look at our finances tells us we're have around �£27million of debt after reducing this from the �£32million in 2008/2009's figures. Moreover, last year we used around �£9million of our European income to pay off any remaining transfer fees owed to other clubs. This means, instead of reducing our debt by only �£4-5million as in the 2009/2010 figures; we can hope to at least double that when we report in 2011. Therefore, with a decent Europa Cup run, we could easily find our debt almost halved by the start of next season. Now, that's great news in anyone's book but it doesn't automatically mean we'll have huge transfer 'war-chests' this month or even in the summer and beyond. The simple truth is that unless the club is bought over we'll remain reliant on MIH/LBG for ongoing finance. Thus, it is exactly because the CL income from the last two seasons has been so essential that the bank will be so reluctant to loosen the purse strings given our CL involvement is less than guaranteed (as Champions or not) next season. Their view will be that for their �£22million long term loan to be repaid in full, they will have to ensure the club remains on an even keel - without or without the European gravy. As such, while they may not be taking the �£20million from this season in one lump sum; they may 'suggest' to MIH that this money is used to reduce the long term debt in part once more while the rest is kept back for a 'rainy day' in seasons we don't qualify for the CL Group Stages. After all, without these monies we struggle to break even and unlike other clubs we don't appear to have the financial philanthropy of a mega-rich owner to guarantee our fiscal viability. I appreciate none of this is the kind of news that makes us smile. In this long, cold winter (someone please close that transfer window quick) positivity is hard to find so we may just have to content ourselves with realism. Unfortunately, that realism tells us that the days of huge transfer budgets every summer are gone. Indeed, the only huge fees we'll see nowadays is when we hope to move on our better players in order to supplement our operating expenses enough to keep the club competitive. Furthermore, even if we do manage to attract a new owner; I wouldn't expect a whole load of difference from this model. Craig Whyte (or rather certain journalists) have suggested an annual budget of �£5million each season if he takes over which, although conservative at first glance, is actually quite high (and possibly impossible) without major European dividends. We did spend around �£5million on transfers this season so is it any wonder we'll struggle to spend more as it stands? Again, I understand this is quite depressing when you juxtapose your Giovanni van Bronkhorsts with your Richard Fosters. Ten years is a long time in football and we are not just in a new climate but a new era. Monday's Ibrox Scottish Cup crowd shows just how difficult it will be to keep fans interested in a declining product with increasing prices. In a recession, the choice of �£30+ on a night out at the football or paying for your fuel to get to work for the week is a tough one. Unfortunately, these difficult choices extend to the club (and their bank) as well. All in all, I think as a support we need to examine the future carefully as we head into a new year. Sure, we want our club to be ambitious and our investment should entitle us to improved clarity from Rangers when it comes to finance going forward. But if we want to be taken seriously as partners, then we have to be realistic in what we expect. The unpalatable truth is that the 1990s have long gone and we're closer to bust than boom. To that end, prudence continues to be our buzzword so such vigilance requires patience and wisdom if we want our club to remain successful on all fronts. Like every bear, I look forward to meeting our challenges head on and urge everyone involved with the club to work with us in that regard. Here's to #54!

Moved to Sunday 6th February - KO 12.15pm - Live on Sky TV and BBC Radio Scotland

I'm just a BFG in real life...

Good player but his uncertain future appears to have affected his form this season. I'd expect he'll move to the Championship as opposed to anywhere else up here.

It is ironic that we use that system a bit more now so Adam may well have thrived this season. Problem was while he's a naturally fit lad, his application wasn't so good at times which meant he couldn't be relied on as a regular first team player up here. Moving to England made him more of a key player which I assume matured his outlook. The result is a fitter, better player but one who also stands out in a team that (like Rangers) lacks any real individual flair. I don't remember many people complaining when we sold him so I'm surprised many of our fans are moaning now. I thought �£500K was a fair reflection of his worth at the time but considering guys like Whittaker, Thomson, Naismith (and now Goodwillie) have never played CL football, I am surprised we seem happy to pay inflated prices for their inexperience.

Now you're just confusing us proles...

Plus we all know Lenny can't count...

Fiorentina have felt it necessary to release a small statement on their official website stating that: "ACF Fiorentina deny the alleged statements attributed to Lorenzo Amoruso, Scouting Coordinator of the first team, quoted by Scottish newspaper 'The Herald' and postings on several Internet sites." http://it.violachannel.tv/dettaglio-ultimora/items/comunicato-stampa.9834.html

PS: Do you mean 47 years?

And even when we played them in semi-finals, we had to play them at Celtic Park...