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Just watching Sky Sports News.. the SFA have rejected Walter Smith's request to be released from his contract and told Rangers they won't let him go.

.....Walter Smith and Ally McCoist The more i think of it, we must appoint these 2 now. Todays result is dire and unacceptable. We should never go down 3-0 to Dunfermline. Ok we got 2 goals back but we lost it too early. Its not Durrants fault. The events of midwekk ahve obviously affected the squad. We need Smith to come in first thing Monday morning and bring his "steel" with him. He needs to being in McCoist who will bring back some harmonay to Ibrox and get the players playing with a smile on there face but at the same time pulling on the jersey and knowing what its all about. The crop of players there are pure average but do have a bit of potential if they get the right man management. Im not sure if Smith can do both Rangers job and Scotland job. I hope so but his and Super Ally's pressance is needed ASAP!!! And get Gough in there with you's aswell.

On the day that DA was removed from the managers office, David Murray makes an appearance flanked by Walter Smith (or Graeme Souness), Alex McLeish and a few Rangers legends. David Murray looks into the glare of the camera's and lights and states that due to financial restructring and increasing debt, which he acknowledges were his doings, Rangers are today setting out a 5 year plan. This plan will see the sale, over time of all our high earners and they will be replaced by a mix of the best Scottish talent and some very experience continental and 'British' players. Any money that Rangers do have will be channelled into Youth Development and the predictions are that in 5 years, we will be developing the very best of Scottish, British, European and World talent thro our academies (this will also help to establish Rangers as a global brand). Ex-players like Laudrup, Albertz etc will manage these academies and act as scouts for Rangers. David Murray also announces that he is (genuinely) looking into other areas for financial opportunities (not a pie in the sky casino) and will match every pound that the supporters put into the club with a pound of his own money. Now, that fairytale would have been bearing fruit if it had happened. I for one would have accepted that then and indeed, if David Murray was to deliver this rallying call on Tuesday when the latest managment team are announced, I would accept it then. However, I fully expect a bullish SDM to announce that the new dream team will deliver moonbeams of success whilst he continues to whittle away the little money we have into his own companies. Cammy F - We Need A Long Term Vision Over Short-Termism Promises That Go Unfulfilled Loyal RSC

http://www.gersnet.info/fmrangers/newmain/050107.html Who�d have thought it? Walter Smith and Ally McCoist to be the new dream team! Is this a master-stroke by McFly or more short-term appeasement followed by heartbreak? Smith is obviously a man with Rangers in his heart. During his earlier stint we had some great times and his contribution to the 92/93 CL run and 9iar cannot be underestimated. However, at the same time, he had millions upon millions to spend; was up against a faltering Celtic and despite that one great CL season our European record was very poor. How will he cope with no financial backing and a Celtic who are now well in front of our mismanaged outfit? In some ways I can understand why we would bring both of them back. Smith is proven at SPL level and McCoist will fix the dressing room disharmony. Thus, as a short-term solution until a new man could be brought on board I'd be quite happy but as a long term solution I'm not so sure. It had been rumoured that Billy Davis was the long term candidate to succeed PLG, but given that era ended so prematurely, I don't think we were ever going to be able to tempt him away from Derby at short notice - especially given the compensation we'd need to pay. If Smith is part-time and McCoist the only full-timer poached from the SFA, then that's cost effective which as well all know takes precedence nowadays. More so if, as rumoured, McCoist, Gary McAllister or maybe still Davies is to be groomed to take over eventually. Of course, that would require long term planning and ambition and unfortunately the current administration don't have that quality. Bloody hell, our chairman and his CEO couldn�t even arrange for their holidays to be different times to keep maximum order in one of their absence! No, short-term appeasement is what Murray is always about. This appointment will deliver that but it won't appease the ever-increasing number of us who expect that little bit more vision. Just last November Murray was telling us that PLG would be here for the long term and his managerial position reviewed at the end of this season. What changed his mind so quickly? Was it Ferguson and the playing staff? Was it the unacceptable results and inconsistency? One can only assume it was the former as he didn�t sack Alex McLeish so eagerly last season when he should have. One thing is for sure Smith should bring stability. Smith was also never Barry Ferguson�s biggest fan in his early years so that might ensure our ex-captain won�t rule the roost as he might expect. We certainly need dominance in the changing room and leadership throughout the club. I don�t think PLG gave us that but I�m not so sure Barry Ferguson or Sir Davie McFly do either. Papering over the cracks just about sums it up. Can one obtain an honour for that?

Do we believe that IF our new management / coaching team consists of Walter Smith, Ally McCoist and Ian Durrant that this will placate the anti/pro Murray, anti/pro PLG and anti/pro BF sections of the fan base so we can move forward as a 'united front'? If it is, then a true master-stroke by David Murray I was one who was suckered in by the PLG signing and Murrays protestations regarding finance, I can already feel myself (against my better judgement) being suckered in again was the 'promise' of a Scottish & Rangers management / coaching team and the prospect of some exciting Scottish players being signed. Cammy F - Easily Hoodwinked Loyal RSC

I think we'll get him in the summer if he's needed.

Some of this is fact, some of it fiction and most of it will fall somewhere in-betweenââ?¬Â¦Ã¢â?¬Â¦. Throwing together information I have received from a few sources, friends and Rangers ââ?¬Ë?peopleââ?¬â?¢, it appears that The Boy David has pulled off a master-stroke. Youââ?¬â?¢ll all know my feelings when it comes to the minted one, but even Iââ?¬â?¢ll admit that when he puts his mind to something, he usually gets what he wants. PLG and BF have been (un)willing participants in David Murrays latest brain-wave concerning Rangers Football Club. PLG was looking for a way out of Rangers as things were clearly not working out as planned (hence his ââ?¬Ë?damaging my reputationââ?¬â?¢ quote) and he wanted to become the next French National Coach ââ?¬â?? only heââ?¬â?¢s tied to a contract at Rangers. During the summer, Rino Gattuso made contact with David Murray (thro Walter Smith) and indicated that due to his family circumstances (his wife wants their kid(s) educated in Scotland), he wanted to return home. He was unable to move in the summer, but informed the minted one that he would be able to return in January (or this summer at the latest). As Rino let slip in an interview (which I posted on here) a deal had already been done, wages agreed and a timetable put in place for his return. Enter PLG ââ?¬â?? PLG wasnââ?¬â?¢t for having the Chairman decide what players we signed (as most Managers would) but knew that this particular hurdle would take 6 months before he would have to ââ?¬Ë?negotiateââ?¬â?¢ it. In saying that, maybe PLG secretly warmed to the fact that he would have one of the best midfield players in Europe in his squad. Here comes a problem ââ?¬â?? Rino mentions to The Minted one that he would ââ?¬Ë?preferââ?¬â?¢ to work under his Scottish father ââ?¬â?? Walter Smith and would love to Captain The Rangers. Ok, says The Boy David, not an issue. PLG wants a ticket out of Ibrox, Wee Bazza needs knocking down a peg or two. Get PLG to strip Bazza of the captaincy whilst assuring Bazza that he wonââ?¬â?¢t be sold and that PLG ââ?¬Ë?may not be aroundââ?¬â?¢ for much longer. Also, with Walter Smith in charge, backed up by ââ?¬Ë?Scotlandââ?¬â?¢ legend, Ally McCoist, certain young, in demand Scottish talent pledge their futures to Rangers Football Club and others indicate that they wouldnââ?¬â?¢t be adverse to working with them and sign from other Scottish clubs. Following The Scottish management team into Ibrox on Tuesday will be Andy Webster, Kevin Thomson and Scott Brown (deal for Brown is done and dusted, as I posted a few weeks back). Following them will be Murrayââ?¬â?¢s coup de gras Rino Gattuso either this month or in the summer. So, take from that what you want. Cammy F

and will be replaced by Walter Smith and Ally McCoist.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/01/04/ufnall04.xml Cammy F

With the likely appointment of Smith, McCoist and a-n-other to join Durrant, it looks like we are going back to basics. For some of us old skoolers, that is a welcome return to 2nd degrees, singing the sash and good old fashioned pish ups, before and after games (only joking). As Walter Smith proved with Scotland, if you get the basics right (proper defending, taking advantage of set-pieces, getting EVERY player giving 100%) the rest will take care of itself. IMO, we shouldn't expect fancy, free flowing football, but a return to the days when The Rangers were hard to score against, never mind defeat. Hopefully it'll also lead to a return to fortres IBROX where times litterly shit themselves when they emerged from the tunnel. Cammy f

Anyone? Bad move if you ask me.

- W.Smith N/O - A.McCoist 5/2 B.Davies 5/1 G.Souness 7/1 I.Durrant 8/1 T.Butcher 8/1 G.Burley 12/1 J.Calderwood 12/1 R.Gough 12/1 P.Sturrock 16/1 A.McLeish 20/1 G.Graham 20/1 O.Hitzfeld 20/1 S.McCall 20/1 C.Hendry 25/1 I.Dowie 25/1 S.Clark 25/1 C.Brown 33/1 D.Advocaat 33/1 D.Moyes 33/1 G.McCallister 33/1 K.Keegan 33/1 R.Wilkins 33/1 S.Alladyce 33/1 S.G.Eriksson 33/1 T.Mowbray 33/1

Just been told that Ferguson had a real go at Steven Smith going up the tunnel at half time yesterday. BF was shouting and swearing at him for not getting forward enough and putting pressure on the Motherwell right back. Smith was trying to tell him Le Guen had told him to sit back and not to get forward as much. Clearly all is not well in that dressing room.

The first part with Chick young is exellent. Strachen was eating love hearts when CY interviewed him after the game.

Referee Kenny Clark admits he was wrong to deny Celtic a penalty during Sunday's Old Firm derby. The official ignored the pleas for a spot-kick when Neil Lennon was fouled in the box by Rangers full-back Steven Smith. Celtic were leading at the time through a Thomas Gravesen goal but were held to a 1-1 draw when Brahim Hemdani netted for Rangers with three minutes to go. Lennon and Hoops boss Gordon Strachan were both fuming about the penalty incident after the game, which could have allowed them to win the match and extend their SPL lead over Rangers to 19 points. After watching the incident again on television, Clark admits he called it wrong. Speaking on the Whistleblower section of the Scottish Football Association's website, he said: "I got the opportunity to watch the incident for the first time last evening (Monday) and, yes, it should have been a penalty kick. "In penalty area situations a referee tries to take up the best position possible and, as play developed from the left, I moved with it and thought I was well-placed. "From the angle I had at the time, I saw the challenge but obviously didn't think there had been an infringement. "Having now had the benefit of seeing the incident from various camera angles, there certainly was contact." The SFA's head of referee development Donald McVicar also admits Clark made the wrong decision. But he insists the incident should not overshadow the referee's otherwise impressive handling of a potentially explosive fixture. He said: "It's a pity that the debate is all about one decision because Kenny handled the game extremely well and contributed to what was an excellent advert for Scottish football. "He used all his experience to manage and control one of the most passionate fixtures in football and got the balance right." Good to see a ref admit he was wrong. It was even better he got it wrong. I hope he dosn't try to right the wrong in the next OF game though.

I would say that Lemmon's comments are just that. He was clearly looking for it, and waqs going down before he was touched by Stevie Smith. Inciting a riot - again another dig at our fans.... there would have been a riot as he went down like a sack of spuds polaxed by a fookin JCB. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/celtic/6189611.stm He is also questioning the referee's ability to make decisions when he is in a game. That is surely not fooking on. One question for Lemmon - Who the fuck are you?

Too many Foreigners at the OF Law wants more Scots at Old Firm Rangers' Brahim Hemdani challenges Celtic's Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink Hemdani and Vennegoor of Hesselink are Old Firm foreigners Denis Law believes a growing number of foreigners at Celtic and Rangers is stifling home-grown talent. "That's a long story, but you do wonder, and Scottish football and the Scottish team is suffering," the former Scotland striker told Radio Five Live. "You don't really know why the Scottish youth has dried up, but in a way you've got to look at them not getting the opportunity and that's the problem." Law believes the Old Firm should be providing the backbone of the team. "You look at the Rangers team and the Celtic team, which a good part of the Scottish team was taken from, and basically there are so many foreign players in there that it's got to be very difficult," he said. Celtic fielded five players from outside the British Isles in their team to play Dunfermline Athletic on Saturday. Rangers had six foreign players in their line-up to take on Hibernian on Saturday. First off, as things are improving atboth clubs is this article about 5 years late? And are Hearts not the worst offenders now? On to the point anyway: This weekend's Celtic team: Boruc, Wilson, Balde, O'Dea, Naylor, Nakamura (Riordan 75), Lennon (Sno 88), Jarosik, McGeady, Miller, Zurawski (Gravesen 75). Subs Not Used: Marshall, Telfer, Pearson, O'Brien. Miller and Wilson, 2 scots starting. 1 on as a sub. Rangers Squad: McGregor, Hutton, Hemdani, Svensson, Smith, Sionko (Rae 79), Ferguson, Clement, Adam, Prso (Sebo 76), Novo (Buffel 84). Subs Not Used: Klos, Papac, Rodriguez, Stanger. 5 Scots stating with 1 on as a sub. Normally you would also have Boyd starting and prob Burke. How do the bbc report this? "Celtic fielded five players from outside the British Isles in their team to play Dunfermline Athletic on Saturday. Rangers had six foreign players in their line-up to take on Hibernian on Saturday" FUnny choice of words. Who gives a fuck about the number of brits in the squads. Law's point is about stifling Scottish talent. So the important numbers are 2 and 5. Yet the BBC deliberatley try and make us look like the worst offenders. Very strange.

I know there is a UEFA game on Thursday first to deal with but Im really looking forward to Sunday night for the game. The Hibs game was good preparation and the confidence booster we needed. The form of Ferguson is well timed as we need him at his best on Sunday. At Ibrox I always feel confident against them. I think Le Guen needs to rest a few players in the UEFA match so key players dont pick up injuries, and we have qualified anyway. We cant rest Smith unless Ian Murray is ready to step in. However Id rest Ferguson, Clement, Sionko and Prso and start with this: ______________McGregor______________ Hutton____Hemdani___Svensson___Smith N'Diaye______Rae___Buffel_____Adam ____________Sebo___Novo_________

Look at the team who are the players who will fight for the team Mcgregor, Smith, Ferguson, Prso, Adam, Novo 4 out of those 6 or scottish I think it's about time we had more scottish/british players in our team instead of some european diddys that can't cut it in Scotland I have in mind like Naismith, Brown , Thomson , Anderson, Healy etc Yes we can have a few forigners but not many. If you look at past succesful Rangers teams they have had mostly Scottish/British based players in the team. Think we should get back to basics with having mostly scottish/british with some people from europe or from else where. Thoughts ?

Think it will be pretty much same again with Smith and Sebo coming in ----------------McGregor---------------- Hutton----Hemdani------Svensson----Smith ------Ferguson----Clement----Adam ------Novo-------Sebo-------Prso Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence does it?

We can all relax now its just a back injury he has but he is out for Sunday!

That Hearts game is the first ive seen us play in a few weeks, and IMO i dont think we are far away from turning a corner to putting wins away. We have the basis of a good squad but the formation needs tweaked and 1 or 2 personnel needs added while a few exit the door. Those who exit are the likes of Gavin Rae, Stefan Klos and Fernando Ricksen whom arent starters anyway. As for the current side, watching the game yesterday the midfield 3 of Adam, Clement and Ferguson all played far too close to each other, they need to spread themselves out the middle. However the front 3 were the opposite. Novo and Prooshow (as Scott Booth calls him) hugged the touchline. Thats ok if they are genuine wide players or midfield wingers but not if they are strikers trying to feed an out and out golascorer who doesnt get involved in build up play. At the back I saw a bit of daylight at the end of the tunnel. Svensson gave us a scare early on but we'll put that down to a mis-hit as he improved throughout the game. His partner Hemdani strolled the game but I think he should be doing that in the midfield and a No-nonsence centre half needs to come in and partner Svensson. Maybe Papac can still do this. Young Steven Smith is a breathe of fresh air at LB and its a position he has made his own - well done that man! At RB id say overall the jury is out on Hutton. He shows promise on occassion. I think he may improve if he had a genuine right sided midfielder to assist him - Stand up Sionko! To conclude, id say the 4-2-3-1 or whatever has to be scrapped and get back to flat formation of 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-5-1 or even try a 3-5-2. My concern with the midfield at the moment is they are all close-knit together. A 4 man midfield should be 1 on the right, 1 on the centre right, 1 on the centre left and 1 on the left. At the moment they are all playing centre-centre which deprives us of passing the ball about more freely. Lets get back to basics

Apparently going on loan to Cardiff from Man Utd. I'd love to see him at Rangers. Mind he was pictured in a gers top a few years ago

"We would not have been allowed to have become complacent. We had so many characters in the team. "I was speaking to a good friend on Sunday and we were discussing Johan Cruyff at Barcelona, when my brother was there, and he signed Hristo Stoichkov. "Not just as a player but also because he was a little bit crazy and Cruyff thought the dressing room was getting a bit too friendly. "That was the secret behind our success in the nine-in-a-row team at Rangers. "We had a backbone of Scottish players and they do not have that any more which a great shame. "We had Goram, Gough, McCall, Ferguson and McCoist. A lot of good Scottish players. "It is very difficult for the young players at Rangers at this moment. "If you come into a settled side with a lot of experienced players, it is a lot easier to settle in. "I watched Rangers on Saturday and was impressed by Steven Smith, he is a young promising player. "But, if you are looking at one of the younger players to be a leader on the park, that's wrong. "That is maybe the problem at the moment. Rangers have a lot of foreign players and they have to get used to the language, the way of life and football and that takes time. "There is a new manager as well and, while I think he'll come good, it will be a rollercoaster for the next couple of months." ------ a dig at barry ferguson perhaps? he has also supported david murray.

http://www.rangerssupporterstrust.co.uk/news/2006/151106b.html 15 November 2006 Trust Announce 2007 Annual Dinner Following the resounding successes of our previous three annual dinners, the Trust is pleased to announce the date of next year's dinner will be Saturday the 24th March, 2007. The venue is the Holiday Inn in the city centre of Glasgow. Doors open at 7pm and the 5 course dinner will be served from 7.30pm. The cash bar will be open from around 7pm till 2am. Our first honorary member Mark Walters will be our main speaker of the evening and we are delighted to announce that renowned speaker Bill Copeland; comedian Bert Allen and the legend that is Gordon Smith (MC for the evening) will complete the first-class line-up. A host of ex-Rangers players are hoping to attend. These include Billy Davies, Colin Jackson, Colin Stein, Tom Forsyth, Ally Dawson & John MacDonald and hopefully many more. We are also hoping to organise discounted room prices for those of us who would like to stay over in the excellent hotel. Tickets have again been kept to a very reasonable �£50 per person or �£500 for a table of ten and demand is expected to be high. All monies raised will go to further increasing the RST's shareholding in Rangers FC. Dress code is smart. You can now buy tickets securely via our online booking form or by sending a cheque (made payable to the Rangers Supporters' Trust) to: The Rangers Supporters' Trust c/o Direct Sharedeal 3rd Floor Sterling House 20 Renfield Street GLASGOW G2 5AP You can now also pay using PayPal by clicking the link above! It really couldn't easier! Keep an eye on the site for more info regarding this exciting event. Please contact us through the site regarding any questions regarding the dinner. Please note that Rangers have no game that day but Scotland are at home to Georgia.

As reported on espn soccernet today Allan Smith of Man Un could be going on loan to Cardiff City if terms can be arranged What do you think of him coming to us on loan maybe the bit of backbone we badly need :thup: