Frankie

I always start these things then forget about them so I won't bother... Have fun lads!

The fact no games were postponed when Tommy Burns passed away says it all IMO.

If we have managed to get a �£1million we're doing well...

Speaking to a Burnley guy on another forum I use and he says this: "Arrogant way beyond his ability, may do well in Scotland but for the rumoured �£4 million fee you could buy in someone much much much better." Amen to that.

To be honest, Broadfoot (average which he is) was still the attacking impetus for a lot of our games after January as well. That showed just how lacking in creativity we were. For all his good points, I was disappointed in just how far backwards Davis went after a good start. He seemed to lose fitness badly but I guess he's still young as well. We won't be as negative next season so I think it's time to move on from that and look forward. And, Once a Ranger..., you're right the decline is unacceptable so if one good thing has come out of losing the league, it's the black mark against the administration again. Why so, some will ask? Well, if we look at our failure to compete both in the CL and the SPL early in the season, we should have realised this in preparation for the January transfer window. We didn't - or at least we probably did, but didn't invest in the squad enough to ensure the title.

How did we rob Utd blind in the CIS Cup? We had a poor first half certainly but after that we were just as good as Utd and deserved both our goals. I can understand the negativity regarding our European displays but again we're a team in the early stages of development with many players without any European experience. As such, you play to your strengths and if that means sitting in, defending extremely well, hitting on the counter and taking what few chances you get, then that's not funny but the kind of disciplined continental football we've all wished for in the past as we've been beaten by teams no better than us. Of course we want to see a more attacking outlook next season and I'm pretty sure we will. However, I'd like to think that we can retain many of the positives from the Euro run as there were many.

Excellent... should be a good game!

Some of the memories of season 2007/08 will stay with me forever. The emergence of Alan Hutton as one of the UK’s best right backs; Allan McGregor rising to the challenge of being the Rangers number one; Kevin Thomson showing he will become a huge player for our club; the sheer commitment and passion of Nacho Novo; the formidability of PotY ‘King’ Carlos Cuellar in central defence; and the late but exciting appearance of a young, ginger-headed teenager by the name of Fleck to light up our Scottish Cup final win. Not to mention the unrivalled and incredible support the magnificent Rangers fans gave their team over the course of a season that we’ve not seen the likes of for nearly 40 years. As such, it’s these positives that the club must build on. A lot of money has been raised in the last year - Ã?£15-20million via our European run and Ã?£10million from the sale of Alan Hutton. While it’s impossible to demand all of these monies are used for players in the summer, if we managed to spend Ã?£12million last year we should do the same this close season. Of course some of that may depend on whether nor not we make it past some tricky CL Qualification Round teams but Ã?£10million is not an unreasonable figure to expect before the new season starts. If we can do this and bring in genuine quality then we can make a renewed challenge next year. Last season was a good one but no Rangers fan can say the football per se has been exciting or that they’ve not been disappointed with the lack of creative attacking flair in the team. Sure, our defensive play was expected at times (and necessary of course) but Walter Smith has now shown he’s made us hard to beat, so now he needs to make this even more difficult by purchasing a few new players to ensure we can take the games to most standards of opposition. If not, he may find the patience of some fans may not be as forgiving in season 08/09. We really are only short a few players to deliver a more attacking thread and exciting system though. Yes, it could be argued that we need large scale changes again but to do that would be dangerous in terms of continuity. What we need to do is not have a revolving door of squad players but only make the kind of changes that mean the first XI is genuinely affected. As such, while players like Broadfoot, Weir, Dailly, Adam, McCulloch, Novo and Darcheville may not be immediately considered as players who will take us to the next level, their experience of being at the club still counts for more than we may see at first glance. In saying that, neither should we be keeping players that have shown they can’t contribute over time or players that may have a reasonable residual value in the transfer market. If moving them on allows us a bit more financial lee-way in terms of wages then their sacrifice may be worth it - if the replacement players are of sufficient quality to make a real difference. Ergo, players like Burke, Cousin, Hemdani, Buffel and, even the enigmatic Kris Boyd, may be the fringe players allowed to leave to accommodate new signings at those higher wage levels. Obviously this means it’s imperative any new players are of the standard required to improve the team. Recent years have shown transfer money is in scarce supply in Scotland so if we are to spend big again we should be doing the maximum possible to ensure value. Even at the ~Ã?£2-4million level, bargains can be had if our scouting is good. It’s debatable whether the likes of Kenny Miller, Kyle Lafferty and Danny Shittu do represent minimal risk at those spending levels so the powers that be at Ibrox Stadium will be placing their already imperfect reputations on the line with what players they do buy. It cannot be underestimated just how vital these decisions will be. To conclude, despite the good memories of last season, it cannot be forgotten that Celtic have now win the SPL for 3 years running. Yes, we can argue their side is not of a great quality either and good reasons can be given for our failure to regain the flag from them. However, the time has come and gone for any lingering complaints and we need to look forward to next term and regroup. Further failure is not an option. Generally, lots of people at the club get pass marks for their performances of last season. However, they’re not excellent pass marks by any means and every player, Walter Smith, Martin Bain and Sir David Murray will need to do even more if they’re to bring real success back to the club. I hope they enjoy their short holiday because next year’s expectations will be even bigger than anything they’ve experienced before. Roll on July!

A long read but have fun... http://www.gersnetonline.net/newsite/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=645&Itemid=1 It’s cold and wet outside, the transfer rumours are starting up again and tennis/cricket seem to be taking over the sports bulletins – the football season must be over again! Let’s have a look over the season that, in Spring promised so much, but by last week delivered so little… Firstly, I think it’s important to say that last August, if we’d been told we’d qualify for the Champions’ League Group Stage, draw with Barcelona, beat Lyon 3-0 away, make it to the UEFA Cup Final, take the SPL title to the last day and win both domestic cups, I feel most bears would have been happy with that given the dearth of quality/success in recent years. Unfortunately, when one considers the way we threw away the chance to win the SPL title, our poor performance at home against Lyon and a pretty tame UEFA Final display, then that positive outlook starts to become a wee bit more unrealistic. Some will choose to point to fixture congestion, dubious game call-offs, key players becoming unavailable and/or numerous officiating mistakes but generally we have no-one to blame for not winning the league but ourselves. The season started brightly enough. We made several decent signings in the summer on a budget that we hadn’t seen for a long time. The jury was out on some of them but by early September after a faultless start in the league and CL Group Stage qualification secured, the signs were already there that we could provide a decent challenge to Celtic in the SPL while testing ourselves in the toughest club competition abroad. In contrast, the next two months actually foretold what would happen in 2008. September and October showed exactly the kind of inconsistency that would belatedly curtail our chances of league success. Defeats and draws against Hearts, Motherwell, Dundee Utd and Hibs suggested our squad wasn’t strong enough to compete in Europe while maintaining a high enough quality domestically. Was our league challenge already stuttering? Fortunately, we managed to improve our league form as the year closed while Celtic also struggled to match their reasonable CL form with domestic results. By Christmas we were top of the league again and on an unbeaten run that would cement our status as genuine challengers. Meanwhile, in Europe, we had lost our early advantage in our group by losing away to Stuttgart (DaMarcus Beasley injured for over 6 months as well) and eventually went out in disappointing fashion at home to Lyon – that game actually in some ways being decided by our striker’s late miss, just like what would happen in Manchester the following May. However, UEFA Cup qualification was a decent alternative and this gave us a few months to concentrate on the league. Our form improved in that regard and even although the impressive Alan Hutton had moved south to Spurs for a club record fee, the fans still felt confident we could regain the championship. After all, we wouldn’t do much in the UEFA Cup, would we? Yes, we could actually and soon the debate was what trophy we preferred to win or could we do the unthinkable and win a quadruple? Certainly, the initial signs were very positive – impressive, but unglamorous, wins against Panathinaikos, Werder Bremen and Sporting Lisbon, coupled with important league wins against Celtic, Hibs and Hearts meant we were suddenly in a position none of us could have dreamed of just 6 months earlier. By early April, we were effectively 10 points clear in the league and in the semis of the UEFA and Scottish Cups! Of course doubts remained about whether or not we could cope with the punishing run of games that we now faced. Earlier in the season, we had already struggled badly to juggle our European commitments with league matches. Again, these cracks were starting to show with replays needed to beat Partick and Hibs in the Scottish Cup while we just managed to win the CIS Cup with a penalty win against Dundee Utd. Nonetheless, March had been a good month and April was upon us. Indeed, this was the month that would prove crucial in determining the league title. Two games away to Celtic, extra time needed in both cup competitions and an away game against a Dundee Utd team aggrieved by the league cup final loss the previous month amongst the difficult schedule. Two points dropped at Tannadice early in the month was the first sign that perhaps we were struggling. Our defence didn’t look as sound as it had previously and fan confidence took a hit. This was compounded by back-to-back losses away to Celtic in two games affected by some strange officiating decisions. Further pain was literally inflicted with injuries to Allan McGregor and Lee McCulloch in the first match while Chris Burke and Steven Naismith had also fallen in the Scottish Cup semi. Not only were Celtic back in the title hunt but our squad was stretched further, creative players almost non-existent and the SPL adding to our woes by refusing to extend the season. The writing was on the wall. Suffice to say May was little better. Our incredible run in the UEFA Cup was ruined by an impressive Zenit side in Manchester (not to mention the actions of a few thugs amongst a historic 200,000 fans who travelled down for the game). Meanwhile, two positive wins at home with superb backing from the real Rangers fans couldn’t precipitate enough confidence and energy (mental or physical it seemed) to catalyse the players into managing any further wins in the games that mattered. The league was gone, our UEFA Cup achievements seemed distant and the Scottish Cup win against a determined QoS outfit little consolation for our woes. It was easy to become depressed and react overly negatively to this extremely disappointing end to the season. However, I think it’s important to concentrate on the positives – even if the above wasn’t easy reading. [CONTINUED]

damien: The RST have had full control of their site since lunchtime yesterday. If they want to add news stories to it they now can.

Let me know what name you want and I'll do it mate.

cal: I'm sure you understand I cannot make my reasons clear for the moment. However, I will be doing so in terms of the RST rules and how the organisation works in the near future.

That may well happen mate. This isn't something that can be decided upon in the heat of the moment though.

Despite all the conspiracies theories about the Clyde and cement boots, I WAS actually on holiday for a few days after being in Manchester... biggrin.gif Unfortunately I took the decision to resign because of a few issues which I can't go into here as I'm sure you'll understand. I'm sure the RST will manage fine without me and will replace the other resigned board members with suitable people as soon as possible. Hopefully they'll continue to serve us as well as they have done so for the last 5 years.

Guys, I forgot that I'm away on Monday for 5 days so I can't do next week's preview or upload them to the main site. bmck/gribz: Can you organise an alternative? Cheers guys!

There was none during the game. Plenty outwith the stadium though.

I knew you wouldn't want to socialise with us working class yobs...

Aye that text was from me... Was pretty good in there actually...

Firstly the game itself. I thought we played reasonably well. First half we sat a bit too deep as usual and Zenit struggled to break us down. As such, they seemed to sit back a wee bit in the second half, allowed us more space and possession which then enabled them to play their effective attacking game. Essentially the match came down to two mistakes. Our dreadful throw in which the Russians capitalised from. And Nacho Novo/Lee McCulloch getting in each other's way and missing the game's best chance. Who knows what would have happened if we'd taken that? It wasn't to be though but we can hold our heads high and be proud that we managed to get so far and were just a ba' hair away from getting a result. Now onto the rest of the day: 1. There is no excuse for the behaviour of whatever fans caused the trouble at Piccadilly Gdns. I seen Rangers fans and Russian fans involved and these people should disgust any reasonable human being. 2. Quite clearly the local authorities could not cope with the incredible numbers of fans who travelled. Not sure what the final numbers were (it's impossible to say IMO) but there were too many fans in too few areas. I spent most of my pre-match time in Portland Street and next to the Piccadilly fanzone. It was all good natured fun but I was worried that hours and hours of drinking, coupled with the sun and minimal police presence could result in issues later. Trouble was inevitable IMO. 3. I was down with 4 mates - 3 of us who went to the game and one without a ticket who stayed behind to try and get into the fanzone to watch. He couldn't get in and quickly saw the screens were buggered. Unfortunately this seemed to cause problems with people throwing objects. My mate tried to tell a copper but the police sergeant was more interested in chatting up his female colleague. My mate then watched the game in Yates Bar and didn't see any trouble there - a hundred yards or so from the Gardens. 4. After the game we walked back towards the Gardens to meet my mate. On the way, around 5 or 6 police vans sped past us (they were based in a retail park - 60 second drive from the Gardens) so we knew there was a possibility of trouble. We kept walking though as we couldn't get through on the phone to our friend (the networks were problematic all day - still getting texts now!). Around 100 yards from the Gardens (CoM side) we could see the police vans halted but nothing seemed to be happening. We got a bit closer and then we could see around 100 fans challenging the police vehicles. We seen a few bottles being thrown by people with Rangers tops on and by people with Zenit flags. But the trouble was NOT that bad. 5. At this point one of the van doors opened and around 10-15 riot police got out. I thought thank goodness, they'll challenge these idiots and stop the problem. Bizarrely (and was actually very funny watching from the side of the street) they ran from one of the vans, across to another and got in. The vans then reversed, put their lights on and drove away - reappearing seconds later from another side street. It was surreal. Best way to describe the police response would be to compare it with a faulty GTA game engine. No organisation, little aims and crazy driving. 6. As this was happening, obviously we were a bit worried for our own safety so we doubled back 20 yards and walked round the block. By the time we got back round to the place where the trouble had been (2-3mins later) the trouble had ended (or moved). We found our mate and moved on to try and get the train back to Widnes (or elsewhere) since the city centre was still heaving and some pubs had closed. 7. We walked down to the Edwards train station to find all the trains had been cancelled. Replacement buses were to be used instead. Unfortunately, this was not suitable given the numbers of people still needing transport. Thousands of people were at the station but only 4 buses were put on in the 2 hours we stood there waiting for transport. One to Blackpool, one to Warrington, one to Liverpool and one which the fella said 'would go everywhere but take hours'. We decided to start walking out the city centre - still packed full of people trying to get transport home - and get a taxi asap. Eventually (and luckily) we managed to get one around 2 miles out and were over-charged by around �£30 for the privilege. 8. All in all, we still had a great, great time. Our hosts were very hospitable and the craic between the Russians, Rangers and Mancunians generally excellent. Unfortunately, there was just far too many people and trouble was inevitable. I honestly think it would have happened with any club if they took this sheer number of fans to such a game. Law of averages suggests neds, yobs, hooligans and whatever would have had their small time of day and I'm just gutted it's the huge majority of decent, law-abiding Rangers fans (and Scottish people) who have their name tarnished by a small number of mindless idiots. Fortunately, these idiots were minimal and hopefully everyone concerned can learn then lessons for future events.

Aye, all the mobile networks were fucked from early in the day... Still getting some texts now telling where people are. Hope everyone had a great time and got home safe.

Excellent stuff... All being well around 6 or 7 of us will get a few pints together!

I'll try and remember to buy a few... Have a list from family and friends anyway!

http://www.stv.tv/news/Rangers_fans_set_off_in_their_thousands_080513123227527

Still happening guys...? PM me for my mobile number whoever is going.

Great article Cammy... WATP!