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ALLY MCCOIST admits the month of September was a frustrating period for his side as disappointing league displays against Alloa and Hibs overshadowed positive performances and results against Raith Rovers, Inverness Caley Thistle and Falkirk. Monday night’s 3-1 defeat to the Hibees was a sore one for the manager and his players who gave themselves a mountain to climb by conceding three poor first-half goals in the space of 15 minutes. Nicky Law gave the Ibrox faithful a glimmer of hope when his superb half-volley flew past the visitor’s number one Mark Oxley before the hour mark but it proved too little too late for the Light Blues who now sit six points behind Championship leaders Hearts after seven games. There is, of course, a lot of football still to be played but McCoist hopes his squad can now push on in October and go on a winning run, starting this weekend against John McGlynn's Livingston. Speaking at Murray Park to RangersTV he said: “We’ve found the consistency in very short periods, sadly not long enough consistency. “We’ve had some good performances and good results, I think we’ve played the best part of 12 games, lost two and our cup form would indicate we’re still in the cups as well. “As I said our league campaign has barely started, there is a long, long way to go so we’ll continue to do our jobs, work hard on the training ground and continue to progress. The consistency and getting a good run of games is obviously the ideal scenario and that’s what we’ll strive to do.” McCoist knows his side will need to play better than they did against Hibs if they are to take three points from Saturday’s trip to Livi’s Energy Assets Arena. He said: “It was really disappointing and frustrating (on Monday) because we haven’t been defending as we did at the start of the season in these previous games. “That said we’ve had a couple of reasonable performances with clean sheets, with performances against Raith Rovers and Inverness, so I couldn’t see that coming. All three goals, particularly the first one, it was inexcusable defending. “I said at half time when you come in losing by three goals you do need a minor miracle to get back into the game. “We couldn’t find the second goal that would have given us that impotence to go on and attempt to get an equaliser so it was a poor night at the office in terms of the result. “We’ll do our jobs and look at it, look to improve from it and learn from it but it’s a league defeat and not a death in the family.” McCoist and his players have come in for fierce criticism following Monday night’s defeat but the manager knows from experience that this reaction comes with the territory. He added: “I’ve been here long enough to know what to expect, it’s alright me saying it’s an overreaction but I’m used to it. I’ve been here long enough as a player, as a coach and as a manager so it goes with the territory. “I don’t see that changing anytime in the future, it is part and parcel of a club of this size that a defeat is taken with far more seriousness than it is at the vast majority of other clubs. "But as I said I don’t see that changing, it will continue to happen so we just have to accept it and move on.” http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/7772-we-must-find-consistency?

Wednesday 1 October 2014 IS ALLY McCOIST'S POSITION UNTENABLE? No, not yet, but we appear to be trundling progressively closer to that state of affairs. Six points behind in the SPFL Championship is a surprising position for him to be in after seven fixtures and the situation is worsened by the fact his side have already lost at home to both Hearts and Hibernian, generally regarded as their two main rivals for promotion. The question is: how far behind must they fall before something dramatic has to happen? Eight points? Nine points? What will tip things over the edge? Will it be defeat at Tynecastle on November 22, or the latest in a long line of losses in knockout competition when St Johnstone pay a visit to Ibrox in the League Cup? So far, McCoist's players have done just enough to keep him away from the noose. They scraped an ill-deserved win at Falkirk thanks to a late, deflected mis-hit from Lewis Macleod in their second league match of the campaign and beating Inverness Caledonian Thistle to maintain interest in the League Cup was a big result. The team showed promise when winning 4-0 at Raith Rovers, but that has been shown to be a one-off and belief that McCoist can turn them into a side capable of providing entertaining football every week is dwindling. Supporters are not yet calling in significant numbers for McCoist's resignation or removal, but performances are nowhere near the standards expected. A number of bookmakers have already installed Hearts as favourites for the Championship and that is only sensible on current form. McCoist did agree a pay-cut, understood to amount to 50%, on the £825,000-a-year wage he enjoyed until January 2014, but his earnings are going to continue to prompt questions when his team plays as it did in the process of losing 3-1 at home to Hibernian. Open revolt in the stands, if it happens, would force the issue. SHOULD HE CONSIDER WALKING AWAY IF THINGS DO NOT IMPROVE? Tough one. Would you walk away for less than to what you are entitled when you had witnessed a number of others from the boardroom - all accountable, in part, for almost £70m being squandered in two years - receive pay-offs? HOW MUCH OF THIS CAN BE BLAMED ON THE ONGOING UNCERTAINTY CREATED BY THOSE ABOVE HIM AT BOARDROOM LEVEL? None of it. The players state ad infinitum, after all, that they do not focus on financial concerns. McCoist knows the pressures at Ibrox. Whatever is going on in the background, asking Rangers to set the pace in the Championship with a budget that dwarves anything available to other clubs in the division is not unreasonable. The money being spent on Rangers' football department means they should beat everyone in the game other than Celtic. IS SPECULATION OVER McCOIST'S FUTURE NOT A KNEE-JERK REACTION AT AN EARLY STAGE IN THE SEASON? Not really. Rangers fans have, generally, been scathing over the standard of football they have watched for the last 2½ seasons. The team did win the Third Division and then SPFL League 1 by a street, but they regularly struggled to dispatch teams of part-timers. McCoist's record in cup competitions cannot be allowed to pass either. Rangers did not, whatever he may say, spend the money they did purely to win Scotland's bottom two divisions. If they did, they spent way over the odds. Losses to top-flight sides such as Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dundee United were dressed up as understandable and acceptable; questions over Rangers having a Premiership wage bill were glossed over. Defeats in the Ramsdens Cup to Queen of the South and Raith Rovers, who humiliated them in the final at Easter Road, were shameful in the extreme. WHAT WILL HAPPEN, THEN, SHOULD RANGERS FAIL TO WIN AT LIVINGSTON ON SATURDAY? McCoist will have to answer questions on whether or not he believes his time is up. ARE THE GROWING QUESTIONS OVER HIS TACTICAL APPROACH FAIR? Yes. Too many games have resulted in an over-reliance on long balls and there is a distinct lack of variation about the play. His team selections continue to raise eyebrows as well with players continually being played out of position. The side has been letting in goals too easily, but Darren McGregor, a centre-half, continues to be fielded at right-back while Bilel Mohsni remains a starter. McGregor admitted in the match programme for the Hibernian game that he had only played on the right "a couple of times with St Mirren". Wouldn't Richard Foster be a better bet there with McGregor in the middle? Lewis Macleod is a central midfielder who was being used on the left before injury. Rather than use attacking players with pace in the wide midfield positions against Hibernian, McCoist used Steven Smith, a full-back, and Arnold Peralta, a central midfielder. So much emphasis seems to be placed on sending Lee Wallace powering down the left flank, but Rangers are not getting behind opposition defences often enough and that is contributing to Kris Boyd's clear problems. He is a natural predator, but has failed to score in the league and has only hit the net in two of 12 appearances. There have to be greater signs of an established style of playing at Rangers. Regular supporters also note the absence of a Plan B. BOYD SCORED 22 TIMES FOR A POOR KILMARNOCK TEAM IN THE PREMIERSHIP LAST SEASON. WHY HAVE THE GOALS DRIED UP? He missed a number of chances at Raith Rovers and Alloa and looks a shadow of his former self, but he is not receiving adequate service. Rangers have lacked invention, variation and creativity. Boyd admits that he has been forced to feed off scraps at times. WHY HAVE SO MANY ESTABLISHED TOP-FLIGHT PLAYERS STRUGGLED AT RANGERS? Great question. Dean Shiels, Ian Black and Nicky Law all arrived in great form. David Templeton had just scored for Hearts against Liverpool at Anfield in the Europa League qualifiers. Marius Zaliukas, signed this summer, is not even deemed worthy of a start in a defence leaking goals left, right and centre. All these players are going backwards. Are they simply incapable of handling life in the goldfish bowl or are their collective troubles a reflection of wider failings within the team as a whole? Probably a bit of both. WILL THINGS CHANGE WHEN KENNY MILLER IS FIT AGAIN? Will Kenny Miller be fully fit again? He is three months from his 35th birthday. His career has been built on relentless workrate and selfless running. That catches up with you eventually. We are a month into the season and he has already been laid up with hamstring and calf problems. A NUMBER OF OLDER PLAYERS HAVE BEEN BROUGHT IN AND REMAIN. SHOULDN'T RANGERS HAVE USED THEIR TIME IN THE LOWER LEAGUES TO CONSTRUCT A STRATEGY BASED ON YOUTH? Of course they should. Jon Daly, for example, admitted earlier this week that he can no longer train two days in a row because of knee trouble. McCoist is not entirely to blame for the way Rangers have frittered away their millions, but they missed a trick. Two years in the bottom divisions could have been used to build a young, fit squad that could grow together. If those in the existing youth set-up were not good enough, a more structured, long-term and cost-effective transfer policy could have been employed. Instead, Charles Green was struggling to sell season tickets following his takeover and permitted McCoist to lure established top-flight players to the club. He needed quick results and could be understood in having gone for a quick fix. In the meantime, Rangers' footballing department was allowed to continue without a recognised scouting network. Rangers' development squad, for the record, currently sits close to the bottom of the SPFL Development League with three points from four games. EVEN IF HEARTS DO WIN THE LEAGUE, WON'T RANGERS STILL ACHIEVE THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF GETTING BACK TO THE SPFL PREMIERSHIP THROUGH THE PLAY-OFFS? Let's just say that anyone who has watched Rangers' two meetings with Hibernian so far would be reluctant to place money on that. http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/...=email%2Balert

Rangers fans group Sons of Struth threaten boycott of Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct shops Ashley has been targeted after purchasing the naming rights to Ibrox for £1. The threat of a boycott of Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct retail group along with the business interests of other Rangers directors has been made by dissident fans’ group, the Sons of Struth, following a ballot of supporters. The group, named after Rangers’ longest serving manager, Bill Struth, staged a demonstration behind the directors’ box at Ibrox during the team’s recent meeting with Inverness in the Scottish Communities League Cup, but have now raised the possibility of direct action against McGills Buses, a transport group owned by the Rangers football board chairman, Sandy Easdale, and his brother James, who serves on the plc board. Ashley has been targeted because Sandy Easdale recently revealed that the naming rights to Ibrox had been sold to the Newcastle United owner for £1. Easdale himself has been the subject of condemnation from the Rangers support - whose boycott of season tickets has reduced the club’s income from that source by half - because he has been seen in the company of Rafat Rizvi, who was sentenced to 15 years in absentia when convicted of fraud in an Indonesian court. Rizvi, a UK citizen, is the subject of an Interpol international arrest warrant but cannot be extradited because the UK has no treaty with Indonesia. He was pictured recently in Glasgow along with Easdale and Malyasian businessman, Datuk Faizoull Bin Ahmad, who was named as a potential investor in the troubled club, although he subsequently denied any intent to take a stake or any knowledge of Rizvi. The Sons of Struth issued a statement detailing the results of their poll, which did not specify how many fans’ opinions had been sampled, although it is thought that they have around 3000 members. The statement read: "Due to recent events, such as Sandy Easdale's meeting with convicted fraudster Rafat Rizvi, his broken promises of having investors lined up and the selling of our stadium’s naming rights to Mike Ashley for £1.00, Sons of Struth have received an increased level of calls for tougher action against the board, Sports Direct and, Easdale-owned McGills Buses. “Recent polling of our members resulted in 99.35% calling for the removal of Sandy Easdale as a Rangers director and 97.19% wishing Mike Ashley to cancel his 7 year contract for the naming rights to Ibrox, 92.87% want to boycott McGills buses and 87.47% want to boycott Sports Direct in attempt to achieve the removal of Sandy Easdale and cancellation of Mike Ashley's naming rights agreement. “89.64% of those polled want to see some sort of boycott at matches with an aim of removing Sandy Easdale. The general feeling amongst our members is that he lies to fans and shows no respect to his position through his close association with Jack Irvine and his meeting with a man on Interpol's most wanted list. His words and actions are disrespectful to the position he holds as a director of Rangers Football Club. “Our firm belief is that Sandy Easdale is an obstacle to future outside investment and, despite his recent outlandish claims that the fans' actions may put the club's future in danger, we firmly believe that after 100,000 season ticket sales in three seasons the blame for the clubs perilous financial position lies squarely in the boardroom. “The club operate a "football board" which is viewed in the eyes of the fans as nothing more than a vehicle to allow Sandy Easdale a directorship as he may not be eligible for a seat on the PLC board. Does this "football board" have any other purpose? “We shall release our intentions for further protests and boycott action in the very near future and in the meantime would encourage the board to immediately remove Sandy Easdale if they wish to avoid this. “Sandy Easdale has been heard in the past to claim that if the Rangers support do not want him at Ibrox he would leave. We would ask him to take the hint and go before his association with our club causes more damage. “Sons of Struth also call on Mike Ashley to cancel his naming rights contract before the 11th of October. If he still retains the naming rights after this point we will instigate an immediate series of actions aimed at his Sports Direct stores. “We would ask all Rangers supporters in the meantime to use discretion when deciding to give either Sports Direct or McGills Buses their custom. We will hold a public meeting of Rangers fans in October at at a venue to be announced." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/rangers/11131196/Rangers-fans-group-Sons-of-Struth-threaten-boycott-of-Mike-Ashleys-Sports-Direct-shops.html

Rangers Youth @RFC_Youth · 2h 2 hours ago Rangers play Dunfermline in the SPFL Development League in Dumbarton tonight at 7pm. We'll have team news and goal updates right here! Rangers Youth @RFC_Youth · 22m 22 minutes ago #Rangers U20s v Dunfermline: Robinson, Foster, Sinnamon, Faure, Zaliukas, Hutton, Finnie, Murdoch, Hardie, Ramsay, Roberts. Rangers Youth @RFC_Youth · 22m 22 minutes ago On the bench this evening for Gordon Durie's team are Kelly, Pascazio, Brownlie, Gibson, Wilson, Hamill and Ogen. Kick-off is at 7pm. Rangers Youth @RFC_Youth · 8m 8 minutes ago The action's underway in Dumbarton as #Rangers seek their second Development League win of the season. We'll have updates as goals come in. Follow the match news here - https://twitter.com/RFC_Youth

Former Rangers owner Craig Whyte has been banned from being a company director for 15 years. The 43-year-old was handed the maximum ban possible after a judge heard his conduct in dealing with Rangers was "shocking and reprehensible". Whyte was previously banned from being a director for seven years. A second ban was sought by UK Business Secretary Vince Cable after Rangers' liquidation in 2012 and the subsequent liquidation of Whyte's firm, Tixway. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-29429752#?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Portsmouth have announced they have now cleared all debts following the club's exit from administration in April 2013. The Pompey Supporters' Trust has been in charge since striking a deal with former owner Balram Chainrai. A club statement said they could now look "forwards not backwards, while still recognising that the rebuilding process will continue to be a difficult task in the years ahead". Portsmouth have been in administration twice in the past five years. The club came close to liquidation in 2013 before the Trust came together to take over. Some 2,368 shareholders have between them raised about £2.5m through individual pledges of £1,000. The PST owns just under 51% of the club, with a group of 13 presidents making up the remaining share. Those presidents include Portsmouth chairman Iain McInnes and property developer Stuart Robinson. Robinson himself owns land surrounding Fratton Park and plans have been approved for a supermarket behind the ground, a project that will finally mean the site is redeveloped and transformed. Portsmouth's presidents have also injected £500,000 to help with ground improvements, which will take potential attendance to around 20,000. "Everybody at the club has worked hard in reorganising our operations during the past 18 months and the legacy debts were a significant liability hanging over this ongoing process," the statement said. A new training ground is due to open before the end of the year and the club statement added that it was part of a process of "putting in place foundations to enable the sustainable growth of all aspects of the club". Portsmouth are eighth in League Two as they look to begin the process of climbing back up through the divisions, having been in the Premier League as recently as 2010. And chief executive Mark Catlin paid tribute to the hard work of the staff, as well as the support from the fans, and warned there could be no repeat of the financial mismanagement of recent years. "Obviously it's another milestone in the club's evolution, a great day and the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people over the past 18 months since we came out administration," he told BBC South Today. "It's the fans, staff and backroom staff who have got us here. The supporter base is key as they've given us financial clout, "Operationally it makes a big difference and means we can build for the future, but what we can't do is take our eye off the ball." http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29408776

Following the news yesterday that Kyle McAusland had gone out on loan to Brechin City until the end of the year I decided today to have a look at who from the bunch of our reserve & youth players currently out on loan were playing for their teams today, so here's some brief news about them following today's games: Calum Gallagher - Calum played the full 90+5 minutes and scored the second goal after 41 minutes for Cowdenbeath today in their 2-1 home victory over Queen of the South. Gallagher's goal was a right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. He also had an earlier attempt on goal saved following a corner kick 20 minutes into the game when his left footed shot from the centre of the box was saved at the bottom left corner. Luca Gasparotto - Luca played the full 90+6 minutes for Airdrieonians today in their 2-3 victory over Ayr United away from home. Just before the 53 minute mark Luca hit the bar with a right footed shot from the centre of the box. Just after the 86 minute mark Luca scored a header from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner to get his side back on level terms. The goal was mistakenly awarded to David Proctor, but later given to Gasparotto. He only conceded one foul and one corner in what was an excellent away win for Airdrieonians. Craig Halkett - Craig played the full 90+3 minutes for Clyde today in their 1-1 home draw with Annan Athletic. The goal Clyde conceded was a penalty following a foul in the box by Craig's teammate Brian McQueen. Barrie McKay - Barrie played the full 90+2 minutes for Raith Rovers today in their 0-0 home draw with Falkirk. Not sure how well he played yet, but he did have one attempt on goal midway through the second half where he put his left footed shot from outside the box over the bar. Robbie Crawford - Robbie played 73 minutes for Morton today in their 2-1 defeat away from home to Stenhousemuir before being replaced by Jon Scullion. Morton dominated the game and created far more chances than Stenny, but a close range header early in the second half gave the home side all 3 points. Kyle McAusland - Kyle made a substitute appearance for Brechin today in their 3-1 away defeat in Forfor. He came on for Gary Fusco after 58 minutes when Brechin were already getting beat 2-1. Not much info to report yet apart from him giving away a foul shortly after coming on, but quickly making amends by winning a free kick in the attacking half only 5 minutes after his introduction, then winning another in stoppage time. Danny Stoney - Danny got a substitute appearance for Stranraer today in their 2-0 home victory over Stirling when he came on after 73 minutes. He was only on the pitch for about 90 seconds before forcing the Stirling keeper into a save when his right footed shot from a difficult angle on the left was saved at the bottom left corner. So, it was a reasonably good day for our young lads out on loan with four of them getting the full match under their belt and really good days for Calum Gallagher and Luca Gasparotto in particular, with both of their teams recording excellent victories against very tough opposition in their respective leagues. Keep up the good work lads!!

Friday, 26 September 2014 10:00 Keeping It Simple Written by Andrew Dickson BILEL MOHSNI admits he’s going against his natural instincts as he tries to eradicate mistakes from his game by keeping things simple for Rangers. The Tunisian defender has been in mixed form lately, turning in strong defensive performances most of the time but making occasional mistakes too. One such error almost gifted Inverness an opening goal in a League Cup tie last week but the 27-year-old got away with it as they missed their chance to score. While such lapses are more memorable, it’s fair to argue Mohsni has done well more often than not. What’s notable is he has stopped trying to come forward past opposition player so often and he has done that at the request of Ally McCoist. The international stopper admits his manager prefers him to stay back and do what his task is in the first instance, defending and protecting his side’s goal. Mohsni said: “In the Inverness game, I made a big mistake and I was very lucky they didn’t score. “I would not say it was a lack of concentration which caused that to happen because I was concentrating the whole game. “It was more down to talking and we need more of that than we had then. Everyone needs to talk to each other. “Maybe I need to concentrate more too. The mistakes I made earlier in the season were maybe down to that and a lack of match fitness too. “I feel more comfortable and fit now but I know I need to keep working on my concentration to stay focused on the game. “I’m trying to give 100 per cent there and not make any mistakes. The manager wants me to be solid. “I know I can pass and dribble and I like doing that but I also realise you can make a little mistake when you do that and lose the ball. “The manager has said he needs me to be solid and to defend. That is a little bit frustrating for me but I am doing that. “I know the fans maybe don’t like it if they see me kick the ball out of the pitch but I don’t want to upset the manager or my team-mates and I am working hard on doing simple things. “I know if I get caught out it will be more dangerous than it was before last season so I prefer staying at the back and trying to be solid with the centre-backs.” http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/7741-keeping-it-simple

....we won title by 21 points one season and lost it by 15 the next. BARRY says the next meeting between Rangers and Celtic can't come quickly enough and reckons, should they meet in a cup this season, his beloved Gers will prove they are closer to matching their rivals than people think. THEY might have been kept apart in the League Cup quarter-final draw but there is definitely a feeling an Old Firm collision is getting closer. A clash of the Glasgow giants could yet come in that tournament this season or even in the Scottish Cup with Rangers now getting deeper into knockout competitions. If it doesn’t then few would bet against Rangers winning promotion from the Championship which means we’ll have to wait only until next season for one. Personally, it can’t come quickly enough because it’s been badly missed and that has been the feeling of many Celtic fans in the past two years. But I’m not so sure they’re as eager for a crack at Rangers now. I’ve heard so much talk in the past couple of years about how Celtic are 10 years ahead of my old club. It’s a phrase that seems to have been trotted out whenever Celtic were at their highest or Rangers at their lowest. But there is no doubt the gap is closing. In fact I believe the squads are pretty evenly matched in terms of quality. But regardless of that I don’t think you can ever say one is 10 years ahead of the other. The thing about the Old Firm is that superiority goes in cycles. That’s always been the case and it probably always will be. They simply don’t get so far ahead that the other one can’t quickly catch up. And one of the best examples of that comes from a period when I was playing at Ibrox. Under Dick Advocaat we won the league title by a massive 21 points in his second season charge. It came on the back of a treble in Advocaat’s first season and, having won the final Old Firm game of that season 4-0, many believed the gulf had never been so great. Celtic were seen as being in disarray with Kenny Dalglish in temporary charge after John Barnes had left the club but Martin O’Neill was brought in that summer and things quickly changed. And what happened the following season? Celtic won the league by 15 points. So that was a 36-point swing in the space of just 12 months. If that doesn’t prove how much and how quickly things can change, nothing will. Nothing much at Rangers had changed and Celtic made only two signings, Chris Sutton and Joos Valgaeren, before the opening league game of that campaign (Alan Thompson and Didier Agathe followed in September, Rab Douglas in October and Neil Lennon in December). People have their opinions on the state of Rangers and Celtic just now but for me talk of being 10 years between them is exaggerated. It’s nothing like that. And it would be great to see them going at it for the first time since Celtic won 3-0 at Parkhead in April 2012. For a lot of people the Old Firm fixture is the only thing they associate with Scottish football and it’s been a difficult couple of years for our game without them. That’s a bit disrespectful to the other clubs but it’s the truth. I know Celtic fans would have loved a crack at Rangers at their lowest ebb in the last couple of seasons but it’s changed now. I don’t think Celtic have gone backwards because they still have a very strong squad. The personnel is pretty much the same but they have lost a manager in Neil Lennon who knew the Old Firm derby inside out while Ronny Deila is still learning aspects of our game. But I just feel Ally McCoist, right, has improved his Rangers squad greatly. He’s had a lot of younger boys in the past couple of seasons but now he has guys with Premiership and Old Firm experience. Plus it’s the old cliche of form going out of the window in an Old Firm game. Even those who do feel Celtic are 10 years ahead of Rangers would probably agree that in a one-off game anything can happen in that fixture. Again I can go back to that 2000-01 season for proof of that. Celtic beat us 6-2 at Parkhead in the first Old Firm derby of the season and we went out and beat them 5-1 in the next. Another big swing – this time all in the space of just three months. I feel Kenny Miller, although he’s been injured, and Kris Boyd are two huge signings and their experience is vital. I’m sure any Premiership manager would snap your hand off for those two. I know Boydie has yet to score in the league but it will come. It might just take one to go in off his backside and he’ll be on fire again. A lot of my friends are asking me if there’s anything different or wrong given the fact he hasn’t scored as many as some might have expected. But nothing has changed, apart from the fact he’s a much better all-round player than in his first spell at Ibrox. I don’t have any concerns about him. He’s a confident guy who believes in his own ability. That’s the kind of player you want in there and he’ll soon stick one in the top corner. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/barry-ferguson-you-cant-say-4326012?

Liverpool are one of seven clubs under investigation by Uefa for potential breaches of financial fair play (FFP) regulations, European football’s governing body announced 
yesterday. The Merseyside club were absent from European competition last year and only recently submitted detailed accounts to the governing body, which dictates that losses must be restricted to £35.4 million over a two-year window. Liverpool are one of seven clubs under investigation by Uefa for potential breaches of financial fair play (FFP) regulations, European football’s governing body announced 
yesterday. The Merseyside club were absent from European competition last year and only recently submitted detailed accounts to the governing body, which dictates that losses must be restricted to £35.4 million over a two-year window. Liverpool reported losses of £49.8m for the 2012-13 season, and £40.5m for the ten-month period before that, and join Monaco, Roma, Besiktas, Inter Milan, Krasnodar and Sporting Lisbon in being subjected to investigations relating to “potential break-even breaches”. A Uefa statement read: “The CFCB (club financial control body) has opened formal investigations into seven clubs as they disclosed a break-even deficit on the basis of their financial reporting periods ending in 2012 and 2013. “These clubs will need to submit additional monitoring information during October and November upon the deadlines set by the CFCB, subsequent to which an additional communication shall be made and conservatory measures may be imposed.” Liverpool face no immediate sanction as they prepare to provide further details to Uefa throughout the next two months, though the provisional withholding of Champions League funds lingers as a potential next step. The Reds are thought to be confident they will avoid such penalties by virtue of lucrative new commercial deals and writing off some previous losses. FFP allows certain spending streams, including youth development and stadium expenditure, to exist outside of its strict guidelines and Liverpool will argue that a £35m chunk of their 2011-12 deficit was attached to former co-owner Tom Hicks’ aborted plans for a new stadium on Stanley Park. Manchester City and Paris St Germain were the clubs hit hardest by Uefa last season for breaching FFP rules – they were each fined £49m and handed restrictions on transfer spending and a reduction in Champions League squad size. Uefa has also announced that prize money has been held back from five clubs – Bursaspor, CFR Cluj, Astra Giurgiu, Buducnost Podgorica and Ekranas – as a result of non-payments to other clubs, players and/or tax 
authorities. Reflecting on the recent work of CFCB and the FFP regulations, the Uefa statement continued: “The introduction of the Uefa club licensing and financial fair play regulations has already had a very positive impact on the scale of overdue payables, as they have decreased from 57 million euros in June 2011 to eight million euros in June 2014. In addition, aggregate losses reported by Europe’s first-division clubs in the 2013 financial year have gone down to 800 million euros from a record-reported deficit of 1.7 billion euros in 2011.” Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers said the club are comfortable with the Uefa investigations because they support the FFP system. Rodgers said: “It’s obviously something that will be dealt with by the directors. It’s something we’re comfortable with because we’re great advocates of financial fair play. It’s ongoing with the club.” Rodgers is neither surprised nor alarmed by reports linking Real Madrid with a bid for Raheem Sterling. The 19-year-old forward, whose contract at Anfield runs until 2017, is one of the brightest talents in the Premier League and has had an impressive start to the season. “It shows that he’s playing exceptionally well,” said Rodgers. “I think you could probably link Raheem with every club in the world at the moment. He’s a fantastic young talent. I’ve nothing really to add to it. There’s obviously lots of speculation every day about players coming and going here at Liverpool. “He’s a wonderful boy who’s developing very, very well here. I think him and his representatives and the people close to him know how comfortable he is here and I’m sure at some point in the future, whatever contract we’re looking to work with will be sorted, but he’s still got three years left and there’s no rush from my perspective.” Sterling is likely to be a key figure for Liverpool in tomorrow’s Merseyside derby against Everton at Anfield, when both teams will be looking to get back to winning ways in the Premier League. Rodgers has not ruled out having Daniel Sturridge available, with the England striker having been sidelined by a thigh strain suffered on international duty earlier this month. http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/english/uefa-probes-liverpool-over-potential-ffp-breach-1-3553588

Unloved owner in the North East should concentrate in taking over at Ibrox – it would be perfect for both Newcastle United and Rangers. Given the problems he has had at Newcastle United and the resentment he has caused during his seven years as owner, it may seem curious to suggest Mike Ashley is the ideal man to buy Rangers. Newcastle were a mediocre mid-table club when Ashley bought them and that is all they remain, yet Ashley could still be the ideal person to restore Rangers to its former glory. Most Newcastle supporters cannot wait to see the back of him. Although there is appreciation for the work he has done to improve the club as a business there has – with the exception of one fifth-place finish in 2012 – been little, if any, progress as a football club. There is animosity on both sides, Ashley is still bitter about the way supporters turned against him in the aftermath of Kevin Keegan’s resignation back in 2008, while they are convinced he is content for a proud club to be stuck in a monotonous mid-table wasteland while he uses it to promote his other business interests. The refusal to take cup competitions seriously is a wound that will not heal. Rangers fans also have their misgivings about Ashley’s intentions. So do the Scotland Football Association, who do not like the idea of one man owning two clubs, even if they play in different domestic competitions. Yet, if Ashley wants to buy Rangers, the SFA should let him. I don’t think there is a conflict of interests, just as there isn’t with Manchester City’s owners starting an American franchise, New York City. The opposition of the SFA to him increasing his stake to more than 10 per cent is a major barrier. He would, in theory, have to sell Newcastle first, but he has denied he wishes to do so. At least, he has denied he wants to at the moment. In a statement published on the Newcastle website, it was said Ashley will consider selling Newcastle at the end of next season, which interestingly is the earliest Rangers could be back playing in Europe. Uefa rules stipulate two teams owned by the same person cannot play in their competitions, which is reasonable enough as they could meet in a competitive fixture. That should not matter now if Ashley moves to save Rangers. Ashley would be an unusual fit for the knight in shining armour role. He is more market trader than chivalrous hero, but just because he has made his billions selling cheap sportswear should not disguise he has been phenomenally successful because of his business brain. Just because an idea is simple does not mean the man who came up with it isn’t a genius and few are better at making money than Ashley. Of course, being clever and innovative in business does not automatically mean you will be any good owning a football club and Ashley hasn’t been for Newcastle. The division between followers and leader saps its strength. The bitterness will not go away, there have been too many callous calls from Ashley, too many mistakes and too many perceived insults for Newcastle’s supporters to forgive and forget. Newcastle are paralysed by the lack of ambition in the boardroom. Many believe the only cure is a new owner and a new start. Ashley, though, is able to provide Rangers with exactly what they need, a secure financial footing and stability in the boardroom. He has the money to end the threat of economic meltdown and, as he has shown at Newcastle, he can turn a loss making business into a profitable one within a few years. The crucial difference between Rangers and Newcastle is that being a stable business in the Premier League is not enough to compete with the top clubs. Ashley stopped wanting to put his own money in to sign players and cover losses when he fell out with the fans and you cannot blame him. However, a stable business is all that is needed to return Rangers to the top of Scottish football because they are capable of generating far more income than their rivals. Only Celtic can rival Rangers in terms of gate receipts, sponsorship prestige and media interest, so all Ashley has to do to restore the old order is remove the spiral of debt repayments. Emotionally, no matter how much he tries to put a brave face on, the abuse Ashley receives as Newcastle’s owner must take its toll. There are only so many times you can be told you are overweight and not wanted. Ashley has broad shoulders and claims he is not particularly bothered what people think and say about him, yet he has also shown a thin enough skin to ban all three local papers for offering their supporting for a protest march calling for him to sell up last season. Ashley has still managed to make a project turned sour work for him. The exposure has been good for his retail chain, proving once again that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Even when he changed the name of the ground, provoking fury on Tyneside and beyond, Ashley ignored it and watched his other business interests prosper. Premier League exposure is one of the most powerful marketing tools around and Ashley’s sport shops are undoubtedly better known now than they were when he took over. Yet, although he has described the relationship between his sport shops and Newcastle as extremely beneficial for the former, it is still only responsible for a tiny fraction of its vast profits. He would barely notice if he lost them and there is every chance he can make even more if he buys Rangers. Not only do they have more fans worldwide than Newcastle, they are also far more likely to win trophies and success is a good thing to be associated with. Under his steadying hand, Rangers would almost certainly return to the Champions League, watched by huge television audience across the continent. Europe is the most obvious market place for Ashley’s other business to expand. They look made for each other, but Ashley has not made a move yet. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/11121232/Newcastle-United-owner-Mike-Ashley-perfect-for-Rangers.html

"Following the publication of updated holdings in Rangers International Football Club PLC, the Union of Fans feel it is important to continue to highlight the position of Sandy Easdale. Mr Easdale and his associates have invested just enough to keep them above the 25% mark required to hold a veto over any inward investment to the club via a further, more substantial, share offer. Despite owning only around 5% of the club himself, Sandy Easdale claims to hold proxy voting rights for around 26%. We have long been concerned that Mr Easdale refuses to disclose who he actually holds these proxies for and instead disguises them through Beaufort Nominees. Mr Easdale's recent meeting with convicted fraudster Rafat Rizvi would lead us to believe that some of those proxy voting rights may be held on behalf of Mr Rizvi. It is also clear from this recent announcement, despite PR stories placed in the media to the contrary, that Mr Easdale has not purchased Charles Green's shares. We are therefore in a position where Mr Easdale appears to hold, through Beaufort Nominees, proxies for people such as Charles Green, Rafat Rizvi and Imran Ahmad. Our concern is that Mr Easdale will continue to act, as he always has done, in the interests of those shareholders and not in the interests of the wider shareholder base and the club itself. We have been clear that we feel that Mr Easdale should be removed as a club director but the PLC board appear to be unwilling or unable to enact that much needed change. Regardless, Mr Easdale is in a position, with the backing of shareholders who appear desperate to mask their identities, to block much needed investment into Rangers. We would ask Mr Easdale to confirm publicly that he and his associates will not oppose any resolution at the upcoming AGM which would allow fresh investment from those who care about the future of our club. If Mr Easdale ignores this request or refuses to answer unequivocally then, in the near future, we will recommend what course of action we believe fans should take. We are also concerned at newspaper reports that the annual accounts and therefore the AGM may be delayed. We would ask the PLC board to clarify if this is the case and to explain why, after what they described as a successful fund raising, there would be any reason to delay publication of the accounts."

THE financials to the end of June were expected to be published by the end of this month with an agm to follow within 28 days but with no date yet fixed there are concerns a delay could have a knock-on effect on fundraising plans. The auditors signed off on the half-year results in March with the caveat the business remained a going concern as long as season- ticket sales remained at the levels of previous years. FEARS are rising of a delay in announcing the annual results of Rangers and of possible financial consequences for the club. It had been reported the club’s financials to the end of June 2014 would be published before the end of this month, with an agm to follow within 28 days. However, Record Sport can reveal a date has yet to be fixed for the release of the annual results, with sources suggesting it has been delayed by the board. It had been anticipated Rangers would use their agm to put forward a motion seeking support for a new, significant share issue to guarantee the long-term financial future of the club. Any delay would have a knock-on effect on the timetable for fundraising, with the £3.13m brought in from the recent share issue only expected to see the club through until Christmas. Insiders suggest the board are either confident of raising funds from other sources or struggling to have their financial results okayed by auditors Deloitte. But a boycott by fans over the summer has seen season- ticket sales slump and left a black hole in the finances. Rangers would not need to go to the market for fresh finance in the short term if they secured loans from investors such as Mike Ashley or the Malaysian group who recently visited Ibrox. Their involvement would almost guarantee, at a stroke, that potential saviour Dave King would be destined to remain on the outside looking in. Rangers yesterday confirmed director Sandy Easdale had increased his stake in the club Asked to confirm a date for the release of their financial results a Rangers spokesman said: “No date has been fixed. We have a regulatory requirement to hold the agm by December 31 and will do so.”

I didn’t think it was possible for the Rangers support to be more fractured and lacking consensus than we were in the first half of this year but rather depressingly we’ve managed it. In the maelstrom of a referendum on Scottish Independence the boardroom turmoil that has dominated the forums, social media and old fashioned conversations took a back seat to Loyalism, Unionism and the bogey man topic of Nationalism. Such is the ineptitude of our board, they missed the opportunity to bury some negative news in amongst the fog of the ideological war that raged throughout the month of September but I digress. Being a pro-Independence Rangers supporter these last few months has been a real challenge. I’ve been confronted by many fellow fans on social media and called everything from a “timpathiser”, (whatever that is) to a Nazi and Quisling. One particularly poorly adjusted and misinformed fellow told me I was a “traitor to Rangers Loyalist Unionist roots…” The idea that a Rangers supporter could support Independence just would not compute for many and my follower count on Twitter tumbled dramatically, I won’t lose any sleep over that however I must admit to now facing somewhat of a crossroads. Do I plod on attending matches listening to chants about where people like me can “stick your Independence” and the Loyalist songbook which was given an airing in George Square on Friday night amidst scenes of thuggery and hatred? Do I carry on turning a blind eye to the continual linking of Rangers Football Club to Loyalism and The Orange Order just as I have done for many years? The thought of turning my back on the club I’ve supported since I was five years old and which has provided myself and my (now deceased) Father so many happy memories makes me physically ill. The thought of a future devoid of one of the precious few constants in my life so far is unthinkable and so that is not a road I’m willing to go down just yet. So what are my options? I could become the archetypal armchair fan and refrain from discussing football matters on social media but we are in an age where it’s almost impossible to avoid. I could fool myself into thinking that it’s not so bad and the majority of my fellow fans are reasonable, open minded individuals but I’m not capable of cognitive dissonance on that scale. It seems that the core of our support are labouring under the misconceptions that being a “real” Rangers man means that you must also be many other things. I’ll use this juncture to clarify what I mean by “core of our support”. There are probably thousands of Rangers supporters (I don’t like term “fan”) who are feeling similarly disillusioned at the moment and those are probably a large percentage of the several thousand fans who’ve been missing for the last few home games joined by those who are boycotting, suffering from boardroom related malaise or simply disillusioned with how we are playing. What’s left are a core (match attending group) and of those I’d estimate that 75% fall into the category as described previously in this article. There’s also a large group of fans who, for one reason or another don’t regularly attend matches and again I’d estimate that a large percentage of those are politically and ideologically aligned with their brethren sitting in the stands. I’m conscious that I’m in danger of pigeon holing large swathes of people here and would only offer the fact that this is how I see things in basic terms. I’m sure there are reasonable folks in amongst the core who do not fall into any of my hastily preconceived notions and that I do not think the situation has reached the point of no return just yet and this leads me to the only other option I feel I have left. I’d urge everyone who considers themselves to be a Rangers supporter to distance the club from toxic and divisive affiliations. To seriously consider for a moment that we are in real danger of losing thousands of people like me who feel marginalised by their fellow bears and more importantly that we are in danger of losing the next generation of season ticket holder who have shown throughout the referendum run up and beyond, that they are increasingly well informed and turned off by Northern Irish politics, by far right-wing rhetoric and the kind of vulgar displays of aggression that we’ve seen both online and in the streets of Glasgow from both Unionists and Nationalist factions. Next time you’re attending an Orange parade maybe leave the Rangers merchandise at home, remove the Loyalist symbolism from Rangers flags and banners, try not to marginalise your fellow supporters who don’t care about that kind of stuff really, that’s all. Is that too much to ask? For some, what I’ve asked is probably tantamount to singing rebel songs in a tri-colour but to me it’s just common decency, something that has been eroding away for many years and something that the gallant pioneers probably had in abundance. Try to be a bit more like a Moses McNeil or a Tom Vallance and live the values which built the very thing that we all hold so dear. If we want a positive future for our club we all have to sow the seeds of that starting from now after all, we share much more in common than we do which divides us. I’ll remain a supporter and will try to live by my own code, respecting others right to support the club any way they choose but speaking out against intolerance, negative affiliations and polarizing attitudes. Let’s see if we can build a stronger and more together support from the rubble. The alternative I’m afraid would be a very dark period in Rangers history. It’s only a matter of time before we will be back attempting to compete with Celtic. It may be only a matter of time before we see major boardroom change. Do we really want to be facing these challenges with a support that can’t agree on what colour the sky is? The answer is obvious to me.

RANGERS have denied reports suggesting they have been contacted by the Indonesian Government over the club's involvement with convicted criminal Rafat Rizvi, who is wanted by Interpol. Newspaper reports in Indonesia suggested that the country's deputy attorney general had contacted bosses at Ibrox about the issue, but a spokeswoman for club vehemently rejected this. Government officials are understood to have been astonished to read media reports of Rizvi's meeting with Rangers' chairman of the football board, Sandy Easdale, two weeks ago. Following that meeting, the club claimed that Rizvi was acting as an adviser for a third party, Datuk Faizoull Bin Ahmad. However, Mr Bin Ahmad later denied this. It has prompted action from Indonesia's attorney general, his deputy and their minister of justice and human rights. Deputy attorney general, Andhi Nirwanto, is reported as saying: "We have already approached this club to tell them our views." The country's attorney general, Basrief Arief, also revealed: "We have filed a new request to Interpol in Lyon, France to hunt down the fugitive Rafat Rizvi after reports he was involved in buying a Scottish football club, Rangers FC. "We beg Interpol to look for him and to bring him back to our homeland in order to accept his sentence." However, a spokeswoman for Rangers said: "No approach has been made to the club by the Indonesian Government." UK-born Rizviwas sentenced in Indonesia to a 15-year jail term in absentia and a £775,000 fine for 'stealing assets' following the collapse of the country's Century Bank in 2009. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/rangers-dispute-receiving-warning-over-rizvi.25386413?

By Alan Brazil, 21 September 2014 9.00am. It’s one of the biggest mysteries in football. Why on earth aren’t clubs beating a path to Neil Lennon’s door? Since the Irishman left Celtic in the summer, the likes of Norwich City, Southampton, Huddersfield, Crystal Palace, Cardiff City and now Fulham have all ditched their manager. Lennon has been linked with all those clubs – and has expressed an interest in the other two – but he’s still out of a job. For me, that’s bonkers. This is a man who has masterminded a Celtic victory over Barcelona in the Champions League, and taken the Hoops to the last 16 of the same tournament. He’s a man who has won three League titles and two Scottish Cups as a manager. He’s also a guy who, for my money, has one of the best football brains around. But still nobody seems particularly interested. It’s mind-boggling. It would be easy to argue that the reason for English clubs’ reluctance to back Lenny is the lack of credibility Scottish football has south of the border. It’s very sad, but it’s a fact that people in England look down their noses at the game in Scotland. But if that is the main reason for Neil Lennon STILL being a passenger on the managerial merry-go-round four months after leaving Celtic, then why on earth was Paul Hartley coveted by Cardiff City? No disrespect to Paul, who I think is a very good, up-and-coming manager. But his CV isn’t as impressive as Neil’s at this point in time. Yet it was the Dundee manager’s name at the top of Vincent Tan’s list of potential replacements for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, not Neil Lennon’s. After Hartley knocked back the Bluebirds, Lenny emerged amongst the front-runners, but I can’t believe he wasn’t leading the pack from the very beginning – especially given his relatively high profile in the media these days. There was a time where you probably could have said Neil had a bit of an image problem. Touchline altercations, being sent to the stands, touchline bans. All of those things were fairly regular occurrences, particularly early in his managerial career. But in his increasingly regular media appearances, I think Neil has gone a huge way towards proving he’s not THAT person. He’s on TV on a near-weekly basis, and I’ve had him on my radio programme plenty of times. He has always represented himself brilliantly. By managing his profile the way he has, he has positioned himself as a thoughtful, articulate student of the game, rather than a touchline-prowling firebrand. That transformation, taken in tandem with his achievements as Celtic boss, ought to make him a prime candidate for plenty of Premier League clubs – and EVERY Championship side. It really shocks me that it hasn’t turned out that way yet. But I believe that eventually, the tide will turn in Neil’s favour. All it will take is one club to take a chance and appoint him as manager and I think the folly of all the clubs who ignored him this summer will be exposed. Whether we’ll be able to add Cardiff and Fulham to that list or not, we’ll find out soon enough. http://www.sundaypost.com/sport/columnists/alan-brazil/the-lack-of-interest-in-neil-lennon-is-mind-boggling-1.586211

....not to panic over wages fears in secret dressing room plea. WALLACE held a clear-the-air meeting with players yesterday to reassure them their wages and future were secure, claiming the £3million raised by the recent share issue had stabilised the Ibrox cash crisis. IBROX chief executive Graham Wallace has held a secret special briefing to reassure the Rangers squad that the future is secure. Wallace addressed the players in the home dressing-room at Ibrox on Friday and insisted there were no imminent financial worries. Ally McCoist’s side scraped a 1-1 draw with Alloa yesterday, with David Templeton hitting a late leveller. But at the clear-the-air meeting Wallace claimed the £3million raised by the recent share issue had stabilised the Ibrox cash crisis. One player said: “Wallace spoke to us on Friday and tried to assure us that the situation was under control. He spoke well and clearly, and told us not to worry about any speculation. “A lot of us don’t really know what is happening off the field. We just try to concentrate on winning games. He insisted the financial situation is under control.” Wallace claimed the picture is rosier than portrayedby worried fans in an attempt to ease fears the club may not be able to afford future wage payments. However, the chief executive’s comments clash with the feelings of supporters’ groups who worry that the club will run out of money by the turn of the year. Former chairman Alistair Johnston has also expressed grave reservations and has urged the Easdale brothers to sell their shares and get out of Ibrox. Revenue is drastically reduced at Rangers this season after only 23,000 season tickets were sold and corporate hospitality is also down. The club have had to borrow a total of £1.5m from wealthy fan George Letham and Sandy Easdale and sell almost 16 million new shares to provide working capital. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-chief-graham-wallace-urges-4297450

RANGERS could be without Cammy Bell until Christmas after it he dislocated his right shoulder in training yesterday. The goalkeeper has been out injured since he hurt the same joint during the 2-0 SPFL Championship win over Falkirk at Westfield on August 15. He had been making good progress in his rehabilitation and was starting to think of making a return to first-team action once again. But his mishap yesterday at Murray Park means he requires surgery and he is expected to be out for around three months as a result. Losing Bell, who kept 25 clean sheets in total last season, is clearly a big setback for manager Ally McCoist. He does have experience to call upon in the keeper’s absence, however, and Steve Simonsen should continue between the posts for the foreseeable future. The former England under-21 cap has featured in each of the last six games and has kept clean sheets recently against Raith Rovers and Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Lee Robinson will keep providing back-up to Simonsen after signing a one-year deal with the club last month. http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/7678-further-setback-for-bell

Now he is delighted to see the 20-year-old Gers star continue his superb comeback from injury and illness by shining for club and country. Macleod has become a key part of Ally McCoist's plans since making his Light Blues debut three years ago. He helped them clinch the Third Division and League One titles, but missed the closing stages of each campaign. After fighting his way back to full fitness, the midfielder has shown his class in the Championship and netted the only goal on Tuesday as Gers beat Premiership outfit Inverness Caley Thistle in the League Cup. McCoist has refused to heap extra pressure on Macleod's shoulders but Wotte reckons he is as good as any of his peers in Scotland. The SFA's Performance Director said: "We were very pleased with the comeback of Lewis, who wasn't able to play for six months. He is a very talented player. "Lewis is of the level of Ryan Gauld, who is now at Sporting Lisbon. Lewis was with the Under-18s and Under-19s when I started and I said he was one of the gems of his generation. "Then he got his setbacks because of a heart condition and a virus. They kept him out for over six months, which is always very hard to take for a young boy. "But I think Lewis has a great future in front of him. These players have composure. We tend to judge players by their ability but their ability also has to be good when under pressure. "Boys like Ryan, Lewis and Aberdeen's Ryan Fraser can perform under pressure. They are in control of situations. "They have such good technique that they can dictate what the ball is doing instead of the ball dictating what they do." Macleod's fine form for Rangers was rewarded on the international stage earlier this month when he was recalled to the Scotland Under-21 squad. He then scored in the 3-0 win over Luxembourg after starring against Slovakia just days before. Macleod has proven he can handle the pressure of playing week in, week out for Rangers, and Wotte is delighted with the starlet's progress. The Dutchman said: "I was very encouraged to see Lewis back with the Under-21s. I think Scottish boys are very strong-minded and have a great mentality. But sometimes you have to manage the game and take better decisions. Decision-making is key at the top level. "When I came to Scotland everyone told me that we needed more technical players. I said yes, we have to drill the skill, but we also need to train the brain. Technique is always number one, but the decisions players make are very important, too." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/wotte-relief-to-see-return-of-rangers-star-lewis-181018n.25357429 How much did Ryan Gauld go for ? Interesting what Wotte says about "train the brain"

...until assurances over club's direction are given. The Rangers Fans Fighting Fund set up in 2012 after administration Group has raised more than £600,000 in donations to date RFFF will only give £500,000 to Rangers if assurances are given Ibrox board must be able to prove they have long-term project set up The Rangers Fans Fighting Fund will not pass on their £500,000 kitty to the Ibrox board until they receive assurances about the club’s future direction. The organisation was set up in the wake of the descent into administration in 2012 and raked in more than £600,000 in donations. Money was used to settle football debts owed to Falkirk and Dunfermline, as well as helping pay for the relaying of the Ibrox pitch. The Fighting Fund is now ready to disband and it’s thought they would prefer the money still in their account to be used for a long-term project at Rangers, such as youth development or the establishment of a club museum. Chairman Andrew McCormick wrote a recent letter to chief executive Graham Wallace detailing 13 questions about current and future policy within the club. Wallace responded by asking to postpone any further discussions until after the completion of the share issue which last week raised £3.13million to stave off an immediate financial crisis. The Fighting Fund have grown increasingly frustrated about the lack of progress in terms of communication and released a statement on Wednesday evening to confirm their position. ‘Mindful of its obligations to the Rangers Family and the money we hold in trust, the RFFF has sought information from the board of Rangers International Football Club plc to enable us to make decisions regarding the future of the RFFF and the disbursement of funds,’ it said. ‘We had a meeting on May 5 this year with Graham Wallace, chief executive of the club. Unfortunately, as he was not accompanied by another member of the board, he felt unable to make any statement on areas of policy which we could communicate to supporters. ‘Since then, we have attempted to engage in dialogue but this has run its course and no further meetings have taken place or have been scheduled. ‘With the passage of time, our chairman, Andrew McCormick, wrote to Mr Wallace on August 28 and received a reply on September 2. ‘Having considered the content of Mr Wallace’s reply at our most recent meeting, the RFFF has decided to retain the funds donated to our safekeeping until we are satisfied that the club is financially stable.’ The stop-gap share issue has removed any doubt about Rangers meeting this month’s payroll and will also enable the repayment of £1.5m in loans to shareholders George Letham and Sandy Easdale. However, the club will need to raise further significant funds to make it through this season, most likely via a wider share issue. The distrust that exists between fans and the current regime has caused damaging falls in matchday income, with just 15,208 turning out for Tuesday night’s League Cup win over Inverness. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2760388/Rangers-Fans-Fighting-Fund-not-500-000-Ibrox-assurances-given.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

...that is the question facing Sons of Struth members as Rangers woes continue The Sons of Struth protest group this week polled its 1,500 members over whether to stage a boycott of Rangers. The controversial move has divided opinion among followers of the Ibrox club. Many believe it is the only way to achieve change at the troubled Glasgow instutition. Others are of the opinion that it will do further damage to a club facing serious financial problems. Matthew Lindsay of SportTimes spoke to Craig Houston of SoS and asked him about their plans... ST: Why are you polling your members about a potential boycott of Rangers? CH: It's quite simple. In the year the Sons of Struth have been in existence, a lot of people have asked us: "Do you want to boycott?" But we have always been of the opinion that it is a big ask to say to a fan they can or cannot go to watch their team. So we haven't spoken about it in any great detail. But over the last two weeks that has changed with the stories about Rafat Rizvi and the stadium naming rights being sold to Mike Ashley for just £1 coming out. The number of people who are asking us, both online and in person, if we would have a boycott, has multiplied. More and more folk have been raising the issue. There are a lot of angry Bears out there. In the last few weeks we have set up a Sons of Struth membership scheme and we now have over 1,500 members. With the feedback we have been receiving, we thought it was fair and democratic to ask our members their views. We have not told anybody to boycott. We are simply asking their views on it. But, unlike the club, we will listen to what they have to say. ST: What are you asking Sons of Struth members? CH: We are asking them three things. Do they think there should be no boycott? Do they think there should be a one-game boycott? Or do they think there should be a boycott for the rest of the season until change is made? We have also asked them about the prospect of boycotting Sports Direct and McGill's Buses. ST: What change would you like to see? CH: We believe if Sandy Easdale leaves Rangers Football Club we would be better placed to attract investment. In an ideal world we would like the entire board to change. But in reality that is not going to happen. It is a big ask to get rid of every director in one fell swoop. We are aware of people who are willing to invest money in the club. We believe the only people stopping them from doing so are Sandy Easdale and those investors whose proxy votes he holds. ST: But Sandy Easdale lent Rangers £500,000 last year to keep them afloat. And he hasn't called in the debt. Where would the Ibrox club be now without him? CH: Probably in exactly the same situation. I am quite sure if he wasn't involved that somebody else would have put up the money. Certainly, he isn't the first director to do so since we went into administration. One ex-director put his own money in to pay the electricity bills when we were waiting for funding to come through. It is not a new thing. But Sandy Easdale is the first person to have loaned Rangers money at a time of need who has required security on his loan. ST: Why are you targeting Sports Direct? CH: Mike Ashley took a deal that any businessman who does not care about Rangers Football Club would have taken. But we do not want Ibrox to be renamed - for a pound or any other sum of money. Ashley could exercise his right to name the stadium the Sports Direct Arena or he could sell the rights to another company in the years ahead. Rather than wait until that happens we will, if it is the wish of our members, be proactive. We will hit him in the pocket. We will give him £2 if he makes the agreement disappear. He will double his money. ST: You have just over 1,500 members. But the Rangers support is hundreds of thousands strong. Who cares what you think? CH: Nobody in the boardroom, anyway! Seriously, though, if you put all of the Rangers supporters' groups together they would still be in a minority. The vast majority of fans are not part of any official organisation. But the Sons of Struth have members who are different types of people and who are different types of personality. So they represent a broad cross section of the Rangers support. If the majority of them want to take action and boycott I think it is fair to presume the majority of supporters want to. When the Sons of Struth was just two people strong we still managed to get over 30,000 people to take part in red and blue card displays at Ibrox. If the consensus among our members is to boycott then we will put it out to the wider fan base. ST: So if you do decide to stage a boycott what exactly will you do? CH: You are putting the cart before the horse there. Our members might come back and say we shouldn't take any action. But it would be foolish to think we have not discussed what to do in the event that the majority of our members back a boycott. We have a few ideas kicking about. ST: Ally McCoist has stated his Rangers team will perform better with a full support behind them. Aren't you concerned a boycott will harm the side on the park? CH: Unlike a lot of Rangers supporters, I was at the League Cup game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle at Ibrox on Tuesday night. There were just over 15,000 in the stadium. So it was at a third of its total capacity. But that didn't seem to affect the players too much. I certainly respect Ally McCoist's view. It would be far better to have a full stadium behind his side. But I don't think fans boycotting games will impact upon the players too much, if at all. ST: Rangers are in a precarious position financially. Won't a boycott do further damage to a club you say you love? CH: If we do decide on a boycott it would not surprise me the club said investors had been put off getting involved due to the actions of the fans. But we have been told that investment is lined up by two separate directors in the last year and we only started talking a boycott in the last couple of weeks. Everything gets blamed on the fans. It is scandalous for anybody to suggest the actions of Rangers fans are detrimental to the club. In the last two years we have filled stadiums week in, week out. We have bought approximately 100,000 season tickets. To suggest we have put the club in peril is laughable. Certain people within the club should have a long, hard look at themselves for suggesting that and questioning the loyalty of fans. If our members feel a boycott is the best course of action to take then it will send a message to the board. It will underline they are not happy with the conduct of a certain individual at the club or with the naming rights to the stadium being sold for £1. We will talk to them in pounds, shillings and pence. Hopefully, they will then take action. ST: What has the reaction to a potential boycott been so far? CH: It has been a mixed bag. A lot of Rangers fans are already boycotting Ibrox of their own freewill. You only have to look at attendances to see that. They are the "not a penny more" camp. They made the decision we are asking our members to consider now before this season kicked off. Others have not gone to games for two or even three years. They want more people to take their stance. They are telling us: "Great. We hope you do this." But some Rangers fans want to go and see their team regardless of who is running the club and what is going on. No matter what the result of our survey is, I would not dictate to any Rangers fan not to go to a game. ST: Why don't you protest in a way that won't damage the club or the team? CH: If somebody can tell me of a protest that is guaranteed to work we will do it. No matter how crazy or bizarre. We have staged marches, have put postcards addressed to the chief executive through the door of Ibrox, have had John Brown hand in an online petition, have held red card protests and blue card protests. If somebody can suggest something else we can do that will have positive results then we will do that. When you go to a game as a football fan you are entitled to air your view. If the right-back has a shocker and scores an own goal then you can have a pop at him. I reserve the right to criticise the board if I think they are not having a good game. Many people feel that giving more money to Rangers just now is akin to giving an alcoholic you love a bottle of gin. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/to-boycott-or-not-to-boycottthat-is-the-question-facing-sons-of-struth-180991n.25356637

In a relatively short time the changes that have taken place in our country, and at our club, have taken the breath away. Our club has survived after a prolonged and unforeseen crisis but it belongs to strangers now and is almost as remote from supporters as London is from Glasgow. Scotland is on the brink of fundamental and irreversible change and whether it remains within the UK or goes it alone, things will never be the same again. Those who grew up thinking that Rangers and the Union were forever must have been visibly shaken by this cataclysmic turn of events. Identity is important to us, and having already endured a period where our football club almost died, we are now seeing Britishness at the cliff-edge. Coming on top of the shocking collapse of our banking institutions, this is a bizarre period in our lives. It seems that nothing is forever any more, and much of what is dear to us is under threat. Even the Church of Scotland is languishing. It seems to have slipped back in the country's pecking order behind another strand of Christianity, the Catholic Church. Like Rangers, this cornerstone of society has seen better days. When the 21st century chimed in, who expected this? Inside a relatively short time, our world has been turned upside-down. The Church always had a fight on its hands to retain flock, but the Scottish parliament, which was specifically designed to stop nationalism in its tracks, has completely failed to do it. Within the Rangers family, the widespread belief that the club was immortal has been smashed, and the idea that two 300 year-old banks could fail was thought to be too outlandish to be seriously contemplated. Here we stand, days before a vital referendum, and much of what, historically, has been important to us, has either changed, is presently changing, or could change in the not too distant future. The iconic Union Flag, perhaps under a new name, could be redesigned if Scotland becomes independent, and no-one can be sure what currency we are going to use or even if the Queen will still be our monarch in another ten years. The times, they are a changing - and much faster then we ever thought possible. If Rangers gets through this period, I wonder, how much will it have to change to be at ease in this new era?

Sportsmail ‏@ScotMailSport 29m Malaysian businessman claims he does not know fraudster Rizvi. @Mark_Wilson8 on the latest twists and turns at Rangers. In tomorrow's SDM Chris Jack ‏@Chris_Jack89 1m When is an advisor not an advisor? When he's Rafat Rizvi, it seems. Interpol may know who he is but the Rangers Malaysian delegation don't

RANGERS still need to secure substantial additional investment to get them through to the end of the season - despite raising over £3million last week. And further off-field unrest at the Ibrox club, where disgruntled fans are considering a mass boycott, could impact greatly on dwindling resources. That was the stark message from financial expert Neil Patey today as he assessed the situation at the troubled Glasgow institution. The SPFL Championship club announced last Friday that £3.13m worth of shares had been purchased at a share offering. But Patey, a partner with accountancy firm Ernst and Young, believes Rangers will only be left with around £1m of that to use for running costs. And he stressed that Gers directors will have to bring in fresh funding to stave off the threat of a second administration in three years. Speculation is rife that Sports Direct magnate Mike Ashley will increase his involvement - or club assets like Murray Park will be sold off. Patey said: "The club themselves stated that if 15 million shares were taken up it would take them through to the end of the current year. "What they raised was just marginally over the minimum so it will probably see them up to just past Christmas. "Of the £3million they have raised, around £500,000 of it will go on expenses leaving them with £2.5million. "If they repay the loans to Sandy Easdale and George Letham in full, they will be left with about £1million. "If they are saying that £1million will get them to the end of the year, that suggests they have succeeded in getting the monthly cash burn down to a fairly low figure. "Broadly speaking, going on the figures the club has given, they will then need to bring in at least £2million to get them through to the end of the season. "Towards the end of the season, the club are going to start selling season tickets once again and money will be coming in." Patey added: "But, again, that is dependent on the fans coming out and buying season tickets. The big thing for the club is fan support. "The club may only have sold 23,000 season tickets, but they are still taking in money from ticket sales on match days. "But if the supporters stop turning up for matches then it will make the situation worse. Fans have a big say in how things go at Rangers." Patey stressed the financial situation at Rangers would improve significantly when they rejoin Old Firm rivals Celtic in the top flight. He said: "Getting back into the Premiership does two things. In the first instance, they get more money from games. "Secondly, it helps them to attract investors if they are a Premiership club." http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/financial-experts-rangers-warning-180534n.25322293

Lifted from FF: Cllr Julie-Anne Corr has condemned an attack by republicans on children playing football for Ballysillan Swifts at Whiterock Leisure Centre as "absolutely horrific and motivated by a blind hatred of protestants." Cllr Corr said, "This is the most disturbing incident I have heard about for a very long time. It beggars belief that a group of children were subjected to barbaric sectarian abuse, vicious assault and a violent attack by republican adults and youths wielding hurling sticks." She continued, "What is worse is that a vicious, dangerous dog was also set on the children who, at one point, were protected by a group of volunteers who encircled them. The incident was so bad that the children were threatened by adults who shouted they didn't care what age they were." She continued, "Many of the children suffered cuts and bruises while one had serious bruising and damage to his eye and another required hospital treatment for his injuries. I'm sure the experience must have been absolutely terrifying and will stay with the children and their families for a long time." She continued, "I would also like to thank and commend a group of young people from another team who helped the children and volunteers from Ballysillan leave the centre grounds. Their actions demonstrate the future we would wish for all our children and young people." She continued, "It is about time that leaders and politicians from within the republican and nationalist community recognised the real and growing hatred of protestants that exists within their community and, in particular, within the attitudes of their young people." She continued, "There is not a day goes by without us hearing of an attack on protestant young people and this incident is the worst in a long line of incidents. It is only a matter of time before someone is killed and I would urge serious action by community leaders before this happens." She continued, "If any other section of the community was attacked with such regularity then this would be treated as an outrage. Whether at interfaces, or just going about their daily business, protestants are being attacked with regularity." She continued, "I will be asking that Belfast City Council does everything in its power to investigate the circumstances around this incident. I also hope that the police treat this hate crime as seriously as possible and bring to justice all those responsible, including adults who feel it is ok to attack children." She concluded, "A shared future requires shared responsibility, and unfortunately there are those within the republican and nationalist community who don't treat hatred of protestants seriously. Attacks like we have just witnessed are a legacy of this complacency."