DMAA

I was referring to the 15 year period I mentioned in a previous post with this, Celtic’s problems seem to have extended the period of the old firm not finishing top two for another few years. I didn’t realise the extent of the Bosman ruling, thanks.

The fact is though that an Atlantic league is simply not realistic, everyone knows it would be fiercely opposed by UEFA and it would also be less popular with our own fans. I've seen a couple of polls among our fans on joining the English set up and both came out at about 70% in favour.

That’s interesting. Presumably, the gate receipts being split 50-50 went way back and though and this didn’t change the fact that the old firm always dominated, so it seems to me that it was the combination of exceptional managers at those clubs along with Rangers being cash strapped for a spell due to investing in Ibrox that were the primary causes. Celtic then had their own financial problems then of course which allowed the dominance to be challenged to another few years.

It’s all before my time, but I find it interesting that there was a period where old firm dominance was dented as late as the 80s. In 15 years, the top 2 was only Rangers and Celtic once. How did that happen? Because contrary to what many think, the record books show the old firm have always dominated, just not quite as much as they do today. Since 1890, the longest period without an old firm title winner is 3 years, which has happened twice.

In reality, most Rangers fans would rather a longer bus/train journey every other Saturday than not being able to attend at all, realistically. It is actually easier to get to Manchester than it is to get to Dingwall.

No brainer for me. We are being left behind. 20 years ago we could make the Champions League groups and put up a good fight against big teams. Those days are long gone, year by year the gap has grown between us and Europe's top clubs. We do have a rare opportunity to qualify directly for the UCL next season but that will be near impossible to maintain without loads of Europa League qualifiers to top-up the coefficient, with a 5th Scottish side in Europe diluting our coefficient and, at some point, without Gerrard. And without direct entry, qualification is going to get harder and harder. Going back only 5 years, the Champions route qualification play-off losers were Viktoria Plzen, Hapoel Be'er Sheva, APOEL, Dundalk and Red Bull Salzburg. Next season, the champions route losers will be one of Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Slavia Prague, Olympiacos, Young Boys, Crvena Zvezda, Rangers, Midtjylland. All those teams are on a high, most are thrashing their leagues. And as things stand, even tiny clubs who are relegation candidates in the EPL have at least twice the revenue we do and far more than twice the draw we have to attract players from across the world. If we played in a British League, you would back us to rise to the top and become a European force once again. Things are ok just now but we won't be beating the odds in Europe with Gerrard forever and without that we have no access to decent funds.

It's a difficult question actually. In order of priority: Centre midfield - I would love big money (if we have it) to be spent here. A strong player who can tackle but can build attacks too. Davis and Arfield will be a year older, Ryan Jack isn't available enough and when we play tough opposition Aribo seems to lack the aggression and defensive discipline we need. Striker - I think Morelos will leave so we will need to spend good money on a replacement. Roofe is like Jack, we can't rely on him being fit often enough. Itten is unproven still, particularly in terms of how much of a goalscorer he can be. I think he has shown quality in other areas of his game but we don't really know whether he can be a 20+ goal striker yet. Attacking midfield - With Kent, Hagi, Roofe, Aribo and Wright do we need a senior player here or just reinforcements? Stewart, Jones, Barker, Middleton leaving makes space for....yougsters McPake and Kennedy? Centre back? We are well-stocked but an injury to Helander (19-20 style) would leave me a bit concerned history would repeat itself. He ended that season with 22/24 league points and only 4 league goals conceded (despite only 2/8 of those being home games). This season Balogun has improved our record without Helander, though we've still conceded 10 goals in the 15 games when he hasn't played (3 conceded after he's been subbed), and only 6 in 24 when he has played and that includes 3/4 Celtic games and 3/4 Hibs games who have posed by far the biggest goal threat to us. Having said that, I don't think we can attract better back-ups than we already have. So in short, a big signing in centre mid and a big signing up front (if Morelos leaves) would leave me happy (I would prefer 1 big signing in centre mid than 2 signings). Sales to any of our current starters would obviously need replaced.

I missed that, thanks. Calm again.

Why on earth was Helander taken off? He's our best out and out defender, and I don't think we concede a free header in our six yard box if he is on the pitch. Very frustrating.

Really gutted to go out. It is a mystery how Gerrard continues to work miracles in Europe but still can’t crack the domestic cups against weak opposition. When we went to penalties I knew we were going out. The psychology is always in favour of the weaker side but would also be in favour of a team who have scored a late equaliser.

As soon as he did that I was getting flashbacks to Arfield in Portugal. There is no logical reason why it should lead to us losing a goal and yet it happens again.

That penalty was an absolute disgrace. Not the first incredibly soft penalty given against us. I know it’s a meaningless game but it annoys me, I want as high a points total as possible.

When he is fit he is a certain starter, has been since coming in. I’m a big Hagi fan but Roofe may be starting up front next season. And when Roofe plays behind the striker we certainly have more goal threat.

He's a player who lost a bit of pace quite young, no doubt because of the constant injuries. I remember when he first burst on the scene with Hibs and his pace was frightening.

Our bans are totally disproportionate. This is a serious blow to our chances of making the champions league groups too, both players are automatic starters (when fully fit in Roofe's case).

18 team league isn't the answer. Our league is already terrible quality without adding the top half of the Championship to it.

I think it just rotates every year, presumably by league position. What is interesting though is that last season there was no split but they chose to act as though there had been. So we had Hibs, Celtic and Aberdeen at home in 18-19, then we would have been away to them last season but we didn't reach the split, and now we are back to playing them all at home for the second time in a row. You'd have thought they would have just put us away to them since last season didn't happen.

Very favourable fixtures in a season where the league is already done. Next season could be close and we will be away to Celtic, Aberdeen and Hibs.

It’s a good problem to have, Tav is sending signals he has no intention to leave and loves it here. Patterson is breaking onto the scene and looks ready to develop into an Alan Hutton type player. I have no idea what to do about that problem but I hope we don’t sell Patterson, I would like to see him as the natural successor to Tavernier without costing us a penny.

To be honest I don't think the colour of Morelos' skin has anything to do with that, they hate each other, I don't see a reason to be cynical about the gesture either. Can't say the same about Celtic's initial tweet of support which they bizarrely accompanied with the hashtag oneclubsince1888.

I'm happy with that result. I think people underestimate the impact of a high intensity game against high level opposition 2 and a half days before this game (8pm kick off on Thursday, 12m kick off on Sun). Before the game I was a bit concerned they'd win, they had a full fortnight to prepare and were at home and this game was their big cup final, whilst our focus has been on the two legs vs Slavia during that fortnight. Losing Patterson in addition to not having Jack or an in-form Arfield left me a bit concerned. If you look back through history it is very common for the champions to lose one of the last old firm games. In light of that I think the players have done very well. And even in a low key draw there were a few additions to the list of things hilariously working against them this season. The irony of Balogun starting being our weakness and he ends up setting up our goal. Alfredo getting his first Old Firm goal, and getting it on their ground too. Edouard passing up the chance to pretty much score an open goal to take a dive (which we all know he only does because he is the penalty taker and the penalty spot is where he has been most comfortable shooting from this season). For once, the break comes at a good time for us (except Patterson maybe). Jack and Tavernier should be very close to returning by the time we get back, it would be great to have them back for the post-split games, especially the Celtic game.

If Alan Power had nicked the ball before Ryan Jack’s head would it have made any difference? Blue tinted specs all round here.

I’m a wee bit worried by the fact that we could be a bit fatigued from Thursday and we could be without a natural right back. The fact we don’t have Jack is a worry too. I expect we will probably go with Arfield again in that position who isn’t in his best form at the moment.

It isn’t live commentary mate. Apparently it was almost like an interview with Defoe with comments on the game about 30 seconds after they happened. People were complaining that it wasn’t in synch. Maybe it will work better this time though.