DMAA

Would have much preferred St Johnstone or someone like that so he could play against our rivals.

April 2018 Tavernier - Martin - McCrorie - Halliday Bench: Hodson Holt - Dorrans Bench: Goss, Docherty August 2018 Tavernier - Goldson - Katic - Barisic Bench: Flanagan Coulibaly - Jack Bench: McCrorie What a difference in the back 6 Celtic will face this season compared to 4-5 months ago. Granted injuries were involved but the lack of defensive ability in that back 6 was staggering and virtually unprecented at Rangers. I predict the days of the old firm drubbings are over and the signing of Barisic - when we weren't desperate for a left back by any means - just emphasises how important Gerrard believes real quality in defence is. Souness more than halved the goals conceded in his first season and Gerrard will be aiming to do the same.

The other thing is we have two right footed left wingers in Murphy and Kent. As we saw with Wallace and McKay a left footed left back benefits a lot from a winger who cuts inside in front of him because of the space is opens up for him. John has the pace to benefit from this but Barisic has the delivery to.

FK Ufa scraped past Domzale (3rd in Slovenia) on away goals, and only qualified for Europe because the team who won the Cup didn’t get their license in on time. They look to have some talents in their side including a quick Nigerian winger they call Sly, but if we’re good enough to beat Maribor this tie looks very winnable.

Everything is a far cry from last season

It's amazing how low the average age of this squad is. In one short summer Gerrard appears to have put together a team with twice the resale value we had last season. Of course Ejaria, Kent, Sadiq probably won't be hanging around and it hasn't been confirmed Coulibaly could be made permanent yet. But we've got a squad now which is young, hungry, with huge potential to improve and finally start making the club money in the transfer market.

I feel a bit for Flanagan with a LB being signed, he's been a very good signing considering he cost us nothing. I think Gerrard has given us every reason to believe he'll be flexible with his formation and strategy unlike Murty so Flanagan will still get plenty games I'm sure. It's hard to believe we've gone from Hodson on the bench for full back cover last season to the possibilty of Flanagan on the bench this season.

Wallace and Hodson aren't officially out the door either so could be included here. Top priority is cover at centre back. You can't be relying on Flanagan or Barisic to play there if Goldons or Katic have a spell on the sidelines. Gerrard has made is difficult for himself to play McCrorie there after his previous comments about McCrorie at CB. Next priority a goalscorer as others have said and I'd ideally like a playmaker but it's not going to happen because Gerrard clearly expects Arfield, Ejaria and maybe even Murphy to play that role.

Yeh we have 9 senior centre mids and 2 senior centre backs

Who, DJ or McBurnie? I think we missed the boat with McBurnie (assuming we could have got him). I think he's got a huge future ahead of him and he'd have solved our striking problems. His value will double in the coming couple of years imo, but he's signed a 3 year contract and is now first choice and scored on the first game of the season for Swansea.

Well, you’d expect Ufa of Russia to be better than Limassol of Cyprus. But of the 4 options we definitely can’t complain, Atalanta would have put us out.

We definitely have a good chance of getting past them. But how on on earth do Celtic get an easier team than we do to get to the Champions League group!? According to transfermarkt Malmo’s squad is worth £14.5m and FK Ufa’s squad is valued at £27m. Unbelievable.

Quite a tough draw; 5: Apollon Limassol (CYP)/Dinamo Brest (BLR) 6: Hapoel Haifa (ISR)/Atalanta (ITA) 7: Ufa (RUS) /Progrès Niederkorn (LUX) 8: Slovan Bratislava (SVK)/Rapid Wien (AUT) It's quite easy to predict who'll get through in all but one so I'm going to rank our possible opponents if we get past Maribor from hardest to easiest ; Atalanta Rapid Wien FK Ufa Apollon Limassol I think we'd be major underdogs againt Atalanta, hopeful underdogs against Rapid and Ufa and favourites against Limassol. Hibs on the other hand are as good as out even if they get past Molde.

Having a squad capable of competing for second spot is something you'd expect to be said in praise of Hibs or Hearts. To say it about us is a thinly veiled jibe.

The DR wouldn't write an article claiming it is happening without solid information though. There will be hurdles to clear but they must be working on it. I thought the same thing. At 6ft1 you'd have to think he could probably fill in. Could maybe be our 4th option at CB.

Chris McLaughlin concluded his Aberdeen-Rangers match report by saying "he (Gerrard) has a squad capable of competing for second spot." How very flattering that he thinks we are capable of competing with Aberdeen after outplaying them on their own park with 10 men. He's like a wee (Celtic supporting) boy adding provocative stuff like that to his match reports.

Halliday beat Middleton to the bench at the weekend and surely that was purely to provide cover as a left back. One we get either a CB or FB in that hopefully means he can move on. Hopefully no more loans unless they have the option to make it permanent.

I think the squad is shaping up well with a strong starting line-up and a strong bench. However I'm still concerned we're wasting money on a slightly bloated squad and I think we're still missing 2-3 players (already identified by Gerrard). Suggested Ins: Centre Back - With Goldson and Katic performing well I'd like to see a young player who's wage would be reasonable with high potential Full Back - Barisic would be ideal Striker - Lafferty not the man for me, i think we lack a proper goalscoring striker Suggested Outs: Definitely - Foderingham, Hodson, Halliday, Wallace Maybe - John (if Barisic joins), Docherty (loan) Middleton and McCrorie are exactly the kind of players you want on the bench imo. Good enough to worry the starters but young enough to have low wages and have big potential to improve as players and potentially make us money down the line.

The BBC continue antagonising Rangers fans in every way they can. Including ending their match report with "he (Gerrard) has a squad capable of competing for second spot". You couldn't make it up.

You'd also have to assume they knew about him already and have probably done their homework on him given we're now known to have scouted the Croatian league. They'll certainly have got someone to analyse his performances against us in depth. 25 is a great age too. Old enough to perform now but young enough to have proper re-sale value.

This is a very exciting one. What a difference it would make to have wicked deliveries coming from both sides. He appears an all rounder so let’s hope it goes through.

I think that’s a little unfair, we all know someone who’s a bit of a cynic. And to be fair to SBS the “highest scorers in the league” thing has been massively overplayed. As has been pointed out before, along with the previous season it’s our lowest goals tally since Paul le Guen. Celtic had their lowest scoring league season in who knows how long. We were good in spells but it’s not hard to see why some could be cynical about it.

It looks a big ask. It would be a huge boost to the club if we got to the groups. Not just financially but psychologically, it would be a return to Rangers on the European stage and capture the imaginations of the fans for the first time in a decade.

Gutting that it’s a clean sheet lost and goes down as a draw because it should have been 3-4 nil.

True about his decision making but I actually thought Ejaria was really impressive. Kent impressive in flashes but really frustrating.