Frankie

Unfortunately, I don't have the time nor money to take in these games but have been hoping someone else could for a number of years. As such I'm delighted he can provide us with the latest info so am only too glad to help increase the awareness and profile of his site. Very kind of him to work with us as well.

Beasley is frustrating. Several times last season he showed that he's an intelligent player in that he makes good runs from deep and knows when to tuck in when required. When he returned from injury to make the team for the Scottish Cup final, he showed then how useful he can be in terms of creativity and width. He can always score goals as well. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, his confidence seems to have gone completely and while I wouldn't write his Rangers career off yet, it's extremely difficult to justify picking him in the first XI.

I don't disagree mate. Burke, when fit and on form, is exactly the kind of player the team needs and is exactly the exciting kind of player most fans love watching. Unfortunately, he doesn't do it often enough which is why offering him a new contract would represent a gamble. At reduced terms, then fair enough.

I simply don't trust Burke to be able to deliver value for money mate. But until we have a replacement, then - if he is doing well in the reserves - then he should be considered ahead of others who are not doing the business.

In the summer we signed Davis, Mendes and Edu to complement Ferguson and Thomson in midfield. Five very talented players but none of them can play the wider role effectively so in essence we have little alternative options now opposition teams know how to suppress our tight midfield. Putting Lafferty and Novo in this deeper, withdrawn (and not wide per se) role isn't really the kind of tactical eureka moment I expect from my manager when faced with such a dilemma. As such, like it or not, we're back to Burke, Beasley and Aaron if we do want to change our style enough to make it more difficult for teams to guess our outlook.

Elfideldo really does a great job. Stay tuned for more info on each team with pen pictures of all the main young players.

Can't see it mate with AM and NA in the squad already.

Keep up with the very latest news about all the Rangers Youth teams with Elfideldo's fantastic blog. Gersnet will also post all the reports and news on our site as well as NewsNow! First off we have the team and all the scorers from last night's Under 17s match v Clyde as well as the Development fixtures for this weekend and the Under 19s Scottish Youth Cup 4th Round Draw. http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/311329957?-11344

That was the media rumour. Not sure if it was true but if it was, then we should have taken the money and ran.

Yep, Aaron is a left-sided winger so I wouldn't be averse to him getting a chance. Lafferty is a striker but played the last season for Burnley on the left wing. Not like us to sign a player then continue to try and minimise his contribution.

Novo has been very poor the last few games as well though. I think Lafferty needs more than one game as well if we want to give people a run at it. The worst thing is we're again having to shoe-horn players into non-preferred positions. Maybe Champagne Charlie should be brought back.

IMO, Lafferty looked a lot more dangerous than Mendes who rarely got anywhere near the opposition box and wasn't in the game at all. Lafferty was abysmal first half but did much better in the second and looked the player most likely to create an opening which is why I gave him an extra point. Also, no sympathy vote for Ferguson. I'm far from his biggest fan but I thought after a dodgy initial spell he played well up until around the 70th minute where he (as well as the rest of the midfield) fell out of the game. Most of our play until then went through him and he looked a lot sharper than of late. As such, I felt he was our best midfielder over the piece. It's all about opinions and I don't claim to be right!

Aye, the combined �£6million+ on Lafferty/Edu represents a gamble for a manager who needed players he could rely on immediately to bring back the championship. As an aside Lafferty wasn't playing well but after half-time he was a lot more direct and arguably our most dangerous player. Miller should have been taken off as he was having an off night; Lafferty moved further forward and Edu brought into the midfield to allow Mendes to play further forward.

That's fair enough mate but we have 90mins to win games and while it is certainly grating when valid goals are disallowed, those decisions alone can't be blamed for us not winning matches.

Boruc on his way out perhaps?

Thanks for that mate... The last sentence sums it up and there's no doubt it's extremely difficult to be a Rangers fan right now. For periods in games we look the part then for whatever reason fail to win. I can live with that happening occasionally. But it happens far too often and we won't win titles unless we fix it.

Yep, the linesman did get it wrong (again) but we shouldn't need to rely on one-off decisions to ensure we win matches.

Aye, the save he had from Hughes' curling shot really was fantastic. Hopefully he can gain confidence from that.

http://www.newsnow.co.uk/A/311110867?-11344 After another 2 points dropped at Fir Park last night, our team’s dreadful inconsistency has to be examined. Why do we struggle to go on any kind of winning run? Why does our form spike then drop like a Blackpool roller-coaster? Who is and isn’t taking responsibility for our patchy form? Right away, we see the same questions being asked again and again of our club. Let’s try and look at why another title challenge seems to be fading before our eyes. First of all, I’d like to raise the issue of leadership. From the very top of the club right down to the dressing room, there seems to be a complete absence of people capable of standing tall, and leading our club to the SPL title. We have an owner desperate to sell the club as soon as he can while apparently preferring to slag off his own fans instead of looking in the mirror and asking how his contribution is affecting the status quo. Next Sunday will see Sir David Murray’s twentieth anniversary at the club. Twenty years since he bought Rangers FC and started the Murray era. Are we any further forward since then? Should he be judged on his first ten years in charge where he oversaw an ambitious (and largely successful) attempt at dominating Scottish football, or should we concentrate on the second ten years where that dominance and ambition has largely disappeared? No matter our opinion of Murray’s tenure, the fact is we now lack a leader at the top and that immediately affects the whole club’s outlook. Of course the chairman will point to the funds he allocated to the manager during the summer and that brings us neatly to our next problem. Quite simply, as it stands, that money appears to have been gambled on players that have so far had little effect on being able to increase our quality and achieve winning consistency. Madjid Bougherra, Pedro Mendes and Steven Davis have all done reasonably well so far but the latter two especially don’t appear to be the type of player who can lead from the front when the going gets tough. The rest of the money was then spent on Kyle Lafferty and Maurice Edu – two young players with little experience of top quality football and the pressures therein. As such, the manager doesn’t appear to trust them to justify their fee by playing them ahead of injured or off-form players. Indeed, if we look at Smith’s other signings – Lee McCulloch and Kenny Miller to name but two, there has been a lot of money spent on players that one doubts can really change our fortunes. When the going gets tough we simply don’t appear the have the inspiration to change games effectively. That goes for the manager and his selections as well as the players who shirk responsibility when it’s most required. Nonetheless, our form hasn’t been that bad. I’d contend the football is better than it was last year and that we’ve deserved to win most games out with the dreadful losses to Kaunas and St Mirren. A combination of bad luck, good goalkeeping, defensive errors and awful officiating means we shouldn’t be too downbeat about the season so far. Surely the slightly better football will soon be accompanied by more goals, stronger defending and linesmen doing their job? Unfortunately, I don’t think it is as simple as that – and that’s where the article title applies. Too often over the last couple of years there have been false dawns. Several excellent wins – home and away – versus Celtic and passionate defensive displays to deliver a UEFA Cup final contest would have most people thinking our players would be oozing confidence and brushing their SPL opponents aside. But no, as soon as we get a good result, the merest hint of things going against us has shoulders stooping and heads dropping before more points are lost. We also seem to lack motivation at times and the urgency and pride to win games is often missing until it’s too late. Or even worse, it doesn’t appear at all. Who’s to blame for that and who can change it? Well, we all can of course. The fans – as usual – will be unmatched as they follow follow their team all over the country. It’s time the players, manager and chairman acknowledged and matched that commitment in the way they approach their contribution. Let’s make it very clear. Second best is not good enough. Not against Lithuanian teams. Not against provincial Scottish teams. Not against Celtic. And definitely not losing the SPL title four times in a row. I shouldn’t need to quote Bill Struth but it is time a few people at the club were reminded of his words and asked themselves if they are really welcoming the chase or are they hiding from it.

Whenever you like. I'll add you to the writers section so you should see the new sub-forum where you can post your ideas.

Keep the entries coming in guys.

Thanks for that Ian. Pity they seem to be getting the better of us now even if we're still beating them in actual games between us.

http://www.gersnetonline.net/newsite/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=698&Itemid=1 Thought David Weir had a particularly good game so he gets it for me...

Either of those two teams will do me... About time we played Celtic in a final again though. Bring back Lovenkrands for that one...

And Celtic v Dundee Utd