rbr 1,247 Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Quite honestly, the source of the lavish spending isn't the point, nor is the fact that it put us in debt. My simple point was that his squad was the last time we had class in our team, and we've been declining ever since. If we're not allowed to compare our current squad and club with past ones because of different economic climates, then I guess discussion on the entire subject is null and void. His teams were the only one's I have ever went to Ibrox with real expectations 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tannochsidebear 2,320 Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 And with all that quality by the 2000-01 season we were miles behind in the league to a team of hammer-throwers and divers. Some of the football we played was fantastic, and sometimes the billy-big-boots attitude was infuriating. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexscottislegend 2,090 Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Totti I totally agree and unfortunately this has always been the case , I can remember back to the NIAR team when we had a truly reat squad but in europe we were continually humiliated by the likes of AEK , Grasshoppers ,Strasbourg , Levski Sofia , Auxerre , christ the list goes on and on , yet if we beat Celtc on the saturday everyhing was brilliant Exactly - and why was that? If they could not do anything in Europe no other Gers team could. I suggest it was because psychologically everything was about beating C****c - pathetic. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy steel 0 Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 It is an interesting point though - I would say the last time we had an squad performing this poorly was just before the Souness appointment, 84 or 85ish. I don't go back before that; maybe we had some poor spells previously. What does inspire a mote of optimism, though, is that the players who are underperforming at the moment - Whittaker, Thomson, Davis for example - are capable of far better things. When gazing with youthful gloom upon the limited abilities of Davie MacKinnon, Dougie Bell, and Craig P******n, even my acne-ridden head knew they were playing as well as they could. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny 0 Posted December 10, 2009 Author Share Posted December 10, 2009 It is an interesting point though - I would say the last time we had an squad performing this poorly was just before the Souness appointment, 84 or 85ish. I don't go back before that; maybe we had some poor spells previously. What does inspire a mote of optimism, though, is that the players who are underperforming at the moment - Whittaker, Thomson, Davis for example - are capable of far better things. When gazing with youthful gloom upon the limited abilities of Davie MacKinnon, Dougie Bell, and Craig P******n, even my acne-ridden head knew they were playing as well as they could. Davis: he seems to have the same season for us every year - bright for the first few months, has a stinking lull in the late autumn winter early spring, then hits form again as spring deepens. Thomson: I never bought into the hype surrounding him, but even I am aghast at how catastrophically abysmal he's been since returning this season. Whittaker: Seemed to reach his career peak during the run to Manchester, and since then has been going backwards in every sense. The only notes of optimism I have are: McGregor has been sensational this season - negative being the inevitable vultures. Emergence of Wilson who must feel utterly downhearted at being ditched for Bougherra. Edu's still to come back. Lafferty is capable of much better than what he's shown, but must also be played as a second striker and not a winger. Beyond these I am struggling. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gribz 743 Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 Totti I totally agree and unfortunately this has always been the case , I can remember back to the NIAR team when we had a truly reat squad but in europe we were continually humiliated by the likes of AEK , Grasshoppers ,Strasbourg , Levski Sofia , Auxerre , christ the list goes on and on , yet if we beat Celtc on the saturday everyhing was brilliant Yip agreed. And there is no doubt we had better players and squad than those teams, it was purely down to some baffling WS decisions in Europe. Craig Moore was a regular midfielder those days with Alex Cleland playing as a right midfielder - says it all. The only year WS got is right was in 92-93 with a solid proper 4-4-2 with everyone in their right positions and we were 1 goal away from the Champions League final. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 I remember a Dutch documentary of that time called "Glasgow Rangers! Too big for Scotland, too small for Europe" God knows what the headline would be now. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 I find this a staggeringly insulting comment. Seemed true to me. Show me where the insight is in comparing a time when you're relatively rich and still spend far more than you can afford to a time when you're relatively poor, in debt and can't spend at all. Walter Smith has spent somewhere between �£30M & �£40M on players in his second spell. I see elsewhere you start to compare NET spend with this - why don't you compare like with like? So Walter has spent about what an average, mid-table Premierhsip team would spend on about three players. Could you say the same for Advocaat? Why don't you compare Advocaat's teams' wages with the average in the Premiership at the time and compare Walter's current squad in the same way. Do you think you'll still have an argument? The point is of course the team has declined and it would be a miracle if it didn't. Boom followed by credit boom gets followed by a big bust. It doesn't matter who you have as manager. If you can't get that then how can you say you were insulted? If anything, under Walter we're on the slight rise out of a deep trough which reached rock bottom under PLG. I'll address this point when you've addressed the one regarding Smith's quite comparible spending with Advocaat's, and how it fits your argument. See above - especially using the Premiership as a barometer. Do you still REALLY think that Advocaat's and Smith's spending on players and wages are comparable? (And HOW much has been spent in the last year?) I'd like to add that despite Advocaat vastly out spent Smith in relative and absolute terms and yet still lost the league twice by huge margins. How does that compare to today? Just what is the point of your comparison? We will never learn anything from the past if our goal is to repeat mistakes that almost put us into oblivion. If you can come up with a way of increasing our spending to be comparable of that of Advocaat ie comparable to the top four in the Premiership, without getting the club into any more debt, then please tell us about it. You'll be a miracle man of biblical proportions. I'm not now sure who you are trying to blame and what you are blaming them for. You can't even use SDM as a scapegoat as you are actually strangely lauding his spending during that time, as that is what built DA's squads. Actually what is your point again? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 It is an interesting point though - I would say the last time we had an squad performing this poorly was just before the Souness appointment, 84 or 85ish. I don't go back before that; maybe we had some poor spells previously. Sorry, could you explain this? How is finishing champions as poor as finishing 5th? You can go on about how there were better teams around then but how does that translate to now? If Aberdeen and Dundee Utd were producing such great teams in the last few years, don't you think we'd have bought their best players - or the Premiership would? We can only deal with our current environment where we've less money than some Championship teams and our local talent pool is at it's poorest. Every year it's about choosing from the talent available and beating the rest. If your team is poor compared with other eras but you are still winning then it suggest there just isn't the affordable talent available. Scottish football is in a terrible low point at the moment, as Rangers fans, why are so many quick to blame only Rangers? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted December 11, 2009 Share Posted December 11, 2009 I remember a Dutch documentary of that time called "Glasgow Rangers! Too big for Scotland, too small for Europe" God knows what the headline would be now. I don't think there are any Dutch teams who are now big enough for Europe. I think the commentators will probably be too busy commenting on that to even have Rangers on their radar. I doubt you'll see another dutch team as champions of Europe in the near future, I wonder why that is...? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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