917

I keep reading that Rangers need to sign 12 new players for next season. While that would be ideal if we had an unlimited transfer budget, that is actually the last thing we need, in my opinion. We tried that the last 2 summers. It worked out well in 2015, when Mark Warburton put together a squad that easily won the Championship by paying probably about double what Hibs could afford. Didn't work out so well last summer though, when another dozen players were brought in by Warburton and Frank McParland. The net spend was probably about the same, say £5million. But you quite simply can't get 12 international class players for that sort of money, even if we were to spend £10million this summer. What we actually need is half a dozen player of genuine quality, to complement players like Foderingham, Tavernier, Wallace, Mckay and Miller. And let's face it Brenda Rodgers only really signed 2 players last year. A couple of quality attacking players could wreak havoc in a league where the quality of player is at an all-time low. Proof of that is that we even managed to finish comfortably 3rd - back in the early 80s with a slightly better squad we never even finished that high! So, 2 centre halves, 3 midfielders and a decent class forward and we should comfortably get into the top 2 next season. Then the following season we sign another half dozen internationals. Simple. But what we simply cannot afford in any way, is the manager to bring in another dozen players who simply aren't Rangers class. We've got enough of them already, and most won't be leaving any time soon either..

If it was a ploy it didnt work very well. Plus he also explained his game plan to journalists before celtic game. Which played a big part in that humiliation, imo. Also i cant see how it is a problem Hill & Senderos leaking their departures, especially now the season is over. Agree with him re.transfers though, but i suspect Benficas dominance is due to a bit more than a discrete dressing room!

Would have scoffed at this suggestion a few years ago but not now. If he can even get into the Scotland squad and play in the English championship then he must be far better than Wilson, Hill & Kiernan. Similar situation to when celtic signed Craig Gordon last year. Decent value so worth a punt.

I think posters are missing the key issue here. It isnt whether or not anybody reported these alleged crimes to police - the unnamed scout was reported, but in those days unsubstantiated claims obviously were not pursued. The police did nothing anyway. The main scandal here is that celtic paid Torbetts company £1million after his conviction. For what?? That is the BIG question. Does anybody have a link to an article about this payment, before i post it on twitter?

I remember a few years ago, Rangers played AC MIlan legends in front of a 50,000 crowd at Ibrox on a Friday night. It was £10 a ticket and Ally McCoist scored the only goal. Why not make games like these a regular event at Ibrox? A lot of these ex players owe their millions to the club, yet they must be anguished to see how far we have fallen, in terms of quality of player and competing for the title. But with Mike Ashley having the retail deal sewn up for the next 5 years, no prospect of a further shares issue and very little European or TV money, how can we narrow the financial gap with celtic, and increase our advantage over the likes of Aberdeen? Well that night in 2012 was special, and genuine legends were on display for both teams. Now using my A level maths, I reckon half a million quid must have been handed over at the turnstiles that night. I don't know what comes off, but say we had a monthly game at Ibrox and charged even £5 to get in. I reckon at least 20,000 would turn up for every game. We could get the players to play for free hopefully, and let's face it even ex-players from other clubs would love to play in front of huge crowds in a throwback to their glory years again. Seniors golf is quite successful, I think Sky Sports even show some events. I reckon we could generate between £50,000 and £100k each month with these games. Who is going to turn their noses up at that, in the current financial situation in Scottish football? Would posters on here be interested in things like this, or any other fundraising ideas??

I'm bewildered. Maybe Kris Boyd hasn't been following the trial of the century. In fact he pretty clearly hasn't been, as this article reads like it was penned a few months ago. There did seem to be a media campaign to bring Murray back a while back, however it is a non-starter. There is a fair chance he will be banned from ever operating a football club again, even if Whyte is found guilty. Then there is the obvious issue that the banks wouldn't lend Rangers, or any other Scottish football club any money anyway, especially if he was in charge. Of course Murray is still minted, despite all of his businesses collapsing, which just goes to prove everything that is wrong with capitalist market economics. However in case anybody, like Kris Boyd hasn't been following the trial and can't do the sums, then I'll remind them that Murray never actually invested a thin dime into Rangers FC, apart from the £6million he bought out the previous owner with. 9 in a row, Gazza et all was all funded by debt, which is neither illegal nor cheating. But Murray never put a penny in then, and he wouldn't now either. Unless forced to do so by a court, of course..

I keep reading that this is the worst Rangers team ever, and it's certainly true that the gulf between us and celtic is as wide as it ever has been. But we have had rubbish players before, some of whom even won a few medals in good teams. It's just we didn't have a first XI full of them. So which past players can our current line up realistically compare to? Here's my list.. 1) Foderingham <> Nicky Walker (keeper before Souness signed Chris Woods) 2) Tavernier <> Ted McMinn (if any manager was daft enough to play him at right back) 3) Wallace <> Jan Bartram (Danish international fell out with Souness) 4) Kiernan <> Scott Nisbet (Champions league hero!) 5) Wilson <> Steven Pressley (Decent player.. for Hearts) 6) Halliday <> Cammy Fraser (won league 86/87) 7) Garner <> Billy Urquhart (6 goals in 3 seasons up front) 8) Holt <> Ian Durrant (post assault by Neil Simpson) 9) Miller <> Kenny Miller 10) Waghorn <> Philip Sebo (big guy, slow, can't score but a trier) 11) Mackay <> Gregg Wylde Any opinions?

It's not complete though while Mike Ashley is still a threat. The only way King would get his £20million back (apart from success in court) would be if Rangers qualified for the Champions League again. If that ever happens, then he will be welcome to his money back, in my opinion.

Although I was slagging off Dave King in another thread, I hope he hypothetically sues SDM for a big slice of that £150million, if hypothetically it emerges that SDM knew that 'Tam Pepper' was a carpet bagger who never even had a pot to pee into, as is currently being alleged by Donald Findlay QC in an ongoing court case.

Can't see a word wrong in that article, though Jackson should have been banned anyway as he will probably giving evidence at the Craig Whyte trial. Which is probably the next time we'll see King either come to think of it. As for the article itself though, it seems the truth is starting to hurt for some of these directors. Fair enough, the club is skint, but we could be putting up some kind of resistance to Lawwell's takeover of the SFA, eg. putting out a statement about Scott brown being allowed to play despite his booking against Ross County having taken him over the disciplinary points threshold for a suspension, which he should have served against us, as that is what would have happened if the ref had only booked him at the time. Or, how about not kicking out 7,000 Rangers fans to make way for a green brigade party?? But Stewart Robertson and the rest of the board are quite happy for celtic to use Ibrox as a training ground, and for their fans to use the Broomloan stand as a party venue to tell us h*ns to go home. And Dave King isn't even there to see it. So I think on this occassion, Jackson is 100% correct with that article.

Is May 15th not quite early for renewal deadline? Traditionally we wait to see the board's intentions regards signings before committing to renew, but it looks like Dave King wants to see our cash before he commits to anything..

Probably could find another thread on this if I looked hard enough, but I went down to the TO on Friday to see if I had a semi-final ticket. I am a ST holder and on the CCS scheme, and did tick the box. As I hadn't received any email from the club, I didn't know if I had been successful in the ballot or not. Turns out I wasn't. But what really annoys me is, the guy tells me that they just don't bother emailing unsuccessful applicants!! WTF IS THAT ALL ABOUT?? So basically I'm getting £20 taken off me every time we draw some diddy team at home in a Cup tie that I could have watched on the telly for nothing, but they don't even bother telling their customers if they are unsuccessful?? The ticket office do not give a shyte about Rangers supporters, ONLY OUR CASH!!! And my maths isn't maybe that strong, but apparently there were 21,000 on the CCS scheme and only 17,000 tickets available. Do we not get a 50/50 split against celtic any more, and if so, then where the hell have the other 17,000 tickets gone?? Hampden holds 51,000.. With renewals coming up, they might want to show paying customers some respect!

WTF is "promoting fan engagement and diversity..?"

The entire C1872 board have to stand for re-election every year, right? Then nobody should be resigning due to any other board members conduct. If it is so bad, then he wouldn't be re-elected again. It is up to the membership to decide whether he is out of order or not. Who proposed/seconded these board members when they ran for election anyway? This sort of petty politics reminds me a bit of the trade union movement - instead of standing together for the members' interests, committee members instead soon end up going in the huff with each other and throwing their toys out of the pram. Ultimately this sort of thing just leads to reduced membership and less influence. I cancelled my C1872 subscription due to the fact the club completely ignored their demand to cut the away allocation at the celtic match. They have zero influence, couldn't even be bothered to respond to my tweets, and didn't have an AGM this year. But hey, they are quite good at organising dinner parties and raffling tickets for the directors box.. they seem to think we are all desperate to get a seat in there, for some reason..

The guy is a complete moron, however he seems to have forgotten that the Easdale's were forced out in 2014/15 after season ticket sales plummeted. But let's face it the likes of Leckie are gutted that we stuck by the club. For years they labelled us all glory-hunters. When we were signing Gazza etc his columns (and others') were all full of claims we would disappear "like snow off a dyke" if we stopped winning everything. Now the loyalty of our fans is the most famous thing about our club, and it is recognised and appreciated around the world. The whole idea behind demoting us, or at least part of it, was that our fans were supposed to stop following Rangers and start supporting other teams, like St.Mirren(!). As we all know their gates, and those of most other Scottish clubs plumetted, as local based Gers fans decided to stop giving money to these clubs who tried to kill us off. If Man Utd got demoted to the Conference in England, would they still sell out Old Trafford every week? No, but Rangers fans stuck by us when they could have turned elsewhere, and in the long run that will see us back at the top of Scottish football

There are many parallels between now and 2002. McLeish seems to be a good motivator, or at least he was. Maybe I'm over-optimistic but I genuinely believe the players we have are not being used to their full potential. Joe Garner being a glaring example. He has been chasing the ball into the wide areas all season, when it is obvious he is a penalty-box striker. Incidentally as for him "getting Birmingham relegated twice.." He did get them promoted back to the Premier League in 2009 and won the League Cup in 2011. But actually keeping a job in English football management for over 4 years is an achievement in itself.

Yes I did. I think our goal difference was a bit better than +6 after 26 games. Could be wrong though..

McLeish - SPL winner 2003 & 2005 Scottish Cup 2002, 2003 League Cup 2002, 2003 & 2005 Treble 2003 (last manager in Scottish football to do so) Champions League Last 16 (only Rangers manager to do this in current format) English League Cup with Birmingham Scotland manager beat France away, finished 2 points behind World Cup finalists. Warburton..? The circumstances facing us today are very similar to in 2002. Dick Advocaat's team played the best football I have ever seen as a Rangers fan, but his time was up at the end of 2001. Celtic were "light years" ahead of us, had won 1 treble and were on course for another under a top manager with more money to spend than us. Under Martin O'Neill they won 22 games in a row in the league. They looked unstoppable, but we did stop them. A new voice in the dressing room and suddenly players like Ricksen, de Boer, Amoruso, Lovenkrands, etc started looking like players again. I know we don't have players that good these days, but then again neither do Celtic. When big Eck won the treble in 2003, it was against one of the best Celtic teams ever - who got to the UEFA Cup final. Yet arguably his biggest achievement was winning the league in 2005, on a much smaller budget with players like Marvin Andrews, Nacho Novo and Alex Rae. And Dado Prso - surely the best Bosman signing ever in the SPL?? Of course it all petered out in the end, but that happens to all managers. It is extremely rare to get a successful manager who wins things over decades, like Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger. Success at a club like Rangers is lasting 4 years. Giving McLeish the job now is a "no-brainer" as I reckon we have good players, but they have been suffering under a manager who completely refused to change his tactics, when it was blatantly obvious that every other team in the SPL had worked out how to beat them. Yes I would love to see somebody like Frank de Boer in charge in the summer - mainly because he would surely have contacts across Europe and in Holland who could get him VFM players who could win us the title and be sold for profit a few years later. However even if we could afford him, it would still be a gamble - and he would probably be holding out for a better offer elsewhere anyway. Get McLeish in for 6 months - and if he wins the Scottish Cup again, make him permanent manager!