1998 all over again?

[Gribz 743]

The way this season is panning out has similarites to Smiths final season in the 90s. A team running out of fuel fast!

 

He continues to play guys who have nothing in the tank and players out of position. Although the quality of this team cant be compared to one in the 90s. But silly defeats like at home to Inverness remind me too much of Rugby Park and Pittodrie in 1998.

 

McCulloch, Ferguson and Dailly all on the park/squad ahead of younger and fresher players like Aaron, Edu, Fleck is mind blowing.

 

Ferguson along with Davie Weir is playing too much games. Everyman and his dog can see they arent fit to play every game so should be being used sparingly to get the best out of them, then we might see some better performances from BF rather than someone who isnt even a shadow of what he did 7 years ago. BF should start thinking about Rangers first rather than be an auto pick every game. Surely he must know he is struggling to run games these days.

 

Celtic are no great shakes and I firmly believe if we had Davis and Mendes in the centre midfield they would have pulled the strings a lot better. Novo should have been on the right rather than coming wide left and Dailly coming on is an embarrassment after he hasnt kicked a ball all season.

 

Lee McCulloch continues to be selected in every postion available. He does a ok job defensively by breaking up the odd opposition move but offensively and technically he offers nothing.

 

The league and Scottish cup double is still firmly in our sights but if WS doesnt start to set his teams out with a hint of common sense then we will be runners up all on fronts. He needs to start playing to our strengths and forgetting about the opposition. Right now if we meet Aberdeen in the Scottish cup final id be surprised if WS made any changes from yesterdays 16 players.

 

Next season we need to rid the dead wood once and for all. Mendes is suffering with 'past it' players next to him. He should be the focal point along with Davis, Thomson, Bougherra, Novo, McGregor and Papac for me. The rest aren't at the races.

 

To think we started the season with about 9 strikers but WS still doesnt know who / want to play is concerning. Miller shows promise in some games but thats not good enough, his problem is when he has 1 bad game he will suffer more than the rest. Lafferty is the same, he shows glimpes of skill then shows he has no end product. But i dont think WS is doing any of our strikers favours by switching personnel and formation on a weekly basis.

 

Young Fleck and Aaron are potentially good enough but the way they have been introduced is all wrong and the pressure on them could affect the way they develop. After 3 appearances each, both of these young players are expected to be match winners!

 

Edu and Velicka continue to not feature in games but id rather see these two given some match time before judging. They deserve it more than half the team.

 

We cant win every tournament but id rather see us lose after having a good go at the opposition, then we could hold our hands up and say there wasnt anything else we could do rather then picking the obvious errors that continue to baffle the fans.

[pete 2,499]

Agree fully Gribz and to put it into a few words. Total mismanagement!

Walter Smith has to spearhead the clear out. He has to go. I would prefer he went now, to be honest but that won't happen. Unfortunately i fear it will be more of the same next season.

[Gazza_8 233]

Christian fuckin' Dailly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That's all I'm saying.

[johnnyk 158]

Good piece Gribz

 

Surely Walter and his sidekicks must see the football is not good to watch and has certainly not had the same effect as last season where we at least got commitment from virtually every player. The money he has wasted this season alone is criminal especially as we are broke. Unless he moves on our style won't change and what's to say the players commitment will under him again? We are going back to where we started before he came.....

[Gers4Life 0]

If smith fails to deliver the spl championship, he won't be at the club next season, it's as simple as that. I can be bothered watching my team play pish and players being constantly being played out of position.

[alexscottislegend 2,059]

If smith fails to deliver the spl championship, he won't be at the club next season, it's as simple as that. I can be bothered watching my team play pish and players being constantly being played out of position.

 

 

And does that mean we will have Ally as manager then? Much as I love him, that thought fills me with horror. Which brings me back to who could we get, who is available and who would take the job? My favourite would be Martinez from Swansea (someone, sorry can't remember who first suggested him). Other than that, Billy Davis.

[Gazza_8 233]

Roberto Martinez from Swansea or Boaby di Matteo from MK Dons would be a couple of great shouts.

[Gers4Life 0]

Ally will follow walter out the door, we have to win the title this year! For financial gain because if we don't then we are up shit creek without a paddle.

[Yieldshields loyal 0]

Roberto Martinez from Swansea or Boaby di Matteo from MK Dons would be a couple of great shouts.

 

 

Gav, u being serious?

 

Ive mentioned him before, but how about Michael Laudrup? Done a cracking job at Getafe last season, playing attacking football and he could be the type of high profile manager we need to attract decent names to Ibrox again, bound to have plenty of links in europe and a good eye for a player.

 

At Spartak Moscow just now, season just started, only 1 game in.

At least he also has a bit of an insight into our club and its traditions.

[maineflyer 0]

It's not a problem to identify better managers, even one's we could afford. The problem is that we are owned by an arsehole who knows nothing about football and understands even less about Rangers. Before worrying too much about the next manager, I think we need to concern ourselves with how to get rid of the one we've got.

 

I see no prospect of David Murray getting it right when it comes to finding the sort of manager we need. He'll spend hours telling anyone who will listen how proud he is never to have sacked a manager - as if that somehow made him a super-chairman, better than all the rest. If he's spend a fraction of that time trying to ensure we had a successful manager, we'd be a whole lot better off today.

 

Smith never was a particularly capable manager in the first place but he benefited from immaculate timing and gathered a reputation he never really did deserve. He was a washed up old goat with nothing left in the tank before he left Rangers in 1998. We saw how much he was capable of in the team that took the field in that cup final against Hearts - he'd allowed the squad to play past their sell-by date and had been singularly negligent in assuring any succession. When he resigned, there was nothing left in him or the playing staff.

 

Quite simply, Smith has to go now. As much as I wouldn't give the managers job to Ally McCoist, I would prefer to have him rum the playing side between now and the end of the season as caretaker manager. I earnestly believe we would have more chance of lifting the league title without Smith than with him there. If Smith stays we will win nothing this season, that much was crystal clear from Sunday's game, where he got everything wrong that it was humanly possible to get wrong. Surely we can justify no more head-in-the-sand support for Walter Smith.