Rangers 2 Hibernian 3 (Morelos, Tavernier).

[colinstein 294]

I hope our fans don't give TLB the attention he craves!, keep it clean guys!

 

we should welcome him and his club

[ian1964 10,720]

Hibs Training Gallery

 

 

https://rangers.co.uk/news/galleries/hibs-training-gallery/

[pete 2,499]

After Mr Dallas's gift in not giving a stonewall penalty to Thistle in extra time tonight, tomorrows result is now even more important.

[Gonzo79 15,152]

Tomorrow has been a must-win match since Luxembourg. If Brendan's lot had lost or drawn and we dropped points tomorrow, it'd be just as frustrating.

[Devil's advocaat 1,517]

We need to batter the wee ginger monkeys reprobates, to send a message to the organ grinder.

 

The Rangers are after ye.

[RANGERRAB 3,612]

 

Read what I said. Good going forward but there for the taking defensively.

[ian1964 10,720]

Really enjoyed this match @ Ibrox, hopefully we have the same atmosphere today, and result!

 

[ian1964 10,720]

Boyd - Rangers didnt try and sign Whittaker because of how he left them last time

 

STEVEN WHITTAKER will be wearing a Hibs shirt at Ibrox.

 

But had he not been so stupid, naive and badly advised he could have been running out in a Rangers one.

 

Maybe my old team-mate Whittaker is happy the way it’s worked out.

 

Maybe he wouldn’t want to swap teams even if he was offered the chance.

 

But Gers would have been interested in snapping him up on a free transfer this summer.

 

I’m convinced the biggest reason they didn’t was because of the way Whitts left five years ago.

 

Remember that press conference he held? Sitting alongside Steven Naismith, he said how Rangers wasn’t the Rangers he signed for, and he was well within his rights walking out the door.

 

Rangers was on its knees at the time, desperate for every penny it could get. But Naisy and Whitts wanted out.

 

I’m sure they both regret the way the whole thing was handled because no one came out of it looking good.

 

Holding a press conference to leave a club, what was that all about?

 

As it turned out they got their big money moves with Naisy signing for Everton and Whitts going to Norwich.

 

It’s maybe only now they look back on it and think they should not have left the way they did.

 

I once left Rangers on a free. But that happens, it wasn’t an issue.

 

Whittaker and Naismith didn’t need to stay and play in the lower leagues of Scottish football.

 

Had both players come out and said they weren’t prepared to go down to the Third Division then I think the vast majority of Gers fans would have accepted that.

 

The supporters would have been disappointed, but most of them would have understood where they were coming from and taken it.

 

They were two international players at the peak of their careers, so stepping down the levels wasn’t going to do them any favours.

 

 

But there’s a way to go about things. And in football, like in life, you really shouldn’t burn your bridges if you can help it.

 

There were other Gers stars at the time who did the same thing by refusing to stay and move their contracts over.

 

But the likes of Steven Davis and Kirk Broadfoot did it in a way that meant they will always be welcomed back to Ibrox.

 

That’s not the case with Whittaker and Naismith.

 

When there was talk of Naisy going back in the summer I had mates saying they wouldn’t set foot back inside Ibrox if the wee man signed for Gers.

 

They weren’t kidding either, they simply weren’t having it.

 

Maybe Whitts isn’t bothered, maybe he’s happy where he is, back at the club where his career started.

 

It’s not like he’s joined a small club. Hibs are very much on the up and seem to be going places under Neil Lennon.

 

Hibs are a top club with a brilliant stadium and great fans.

 

Last week at Easter Road the attendance for the Thistle game was over 17,000 which is just outstanding.

 

With that kind of backing there’s no doubt they can have a successful season.

 

Apart from Whitts, Lennon has signed well this summer and brought in some proper players.

 

Anthony Stokes is a boy who seems to have his issues off the park, but on it he’s got real talent.

 

If he can stay focused then I reckon he could be one of the signings of the season.

 

That’s what Lennon will be thinking because he will not be interested in returning to the Premier League just to make up the numbers.

 

 

Lenny is a winner who doesn’t accept second best.

 

When he was Celtic gaffer people said he only acted with so much passion because it was Celtic. But he gets as hyped up now at Hibs, and I think it’s tremendous to see.

 

Lennon will fancy his chances of finishing in the top half of the table, and that’s where I’ve already predicted they will end up.

 

Tomorrow at Ibrox it’s going to be a big test for them.

 

Rangers have been decent in their recent games so I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

The atmosphere is certain to be intense given everything that happened in the 2016 Scottish Cup Final when they last played.

 

The scenes after that game were appalling, there’s no excuse for the Hibs fans who charged on to the pitch.

 

They were well out of order that day, even taking into consideration they had just won the trophy they thought they were never going to win.

 

There will only be a few thousand Hibs fans at Ibrox , but it’s sure to be a red hot occasion. Especially for my old pal Whitts.

[Uilleam 5,919]

From the Daily Mail

 

Rangers defender Bruno Alves says his tough tackling style is a family tradition: '

My father was one of the most dangerous defenders in Brazil... I like to play hard but fair too'

 

Bruno Alves has brought his tough style to Rangers after his summer move

Alves' father was also a defender who played in Brazil with a similar reputation

He brings experience and success to Rangers, having won Euro 2016

By Calum Crowe For The Scottish Daily Mail

 

During his formative years in the Porto youth team, Bruno Alves was taking lessons in the art of defending from Jorge Costa, an absolute brute of a centre-half whose unerring ability to maim an opposition striker saw him acquire the nicknames of ‘The Tank’ and ‘The Animal’.

 

As Costa captained the club to UEFA Cup and Champions League victories under the guidance of Jose Mourinho, Alves watched his mentor from afar after being sent out on loan to apply the finishing touches to a footballing education that can be traced back to his father’s exploits in Brazilian football.

 

Proprietor of a quite magnificent afro which would not have looked at all out of place in The Commodores or The Four Tops, it was a different group to which Washington Geraldo Dias Alves belonged.

 

‘He was one of the five most dangerous defenders in all of Brazil,’ says Bruno of his father. Given the ruthlessly physical nature of South American football and its capacity for violence, that qualifies as quite a formidable title.

 

Given this influence, and also the fact that Costa was once the most uncompromising defender in Europe let alone Portugal, it is perhaps no surprise that Alves has developed into something of a chip off the old block.

 

When the news broke earlier this summer that their club had signed the veteran Portuguese defender, Rangers fans probably took to YouTube to seek out some kind of highlights package. There are plenty available to watch but few of them contain any goals or skills.

 

Two stand out in particular. Firstly, you have the self-explanatory ‘Compilation Bruno Alves Fouls’. Secondly, there is just over three minutes’ worth of footage in the highly entertaining ‘Bruno Alves - Kung Fu Techniques’.

 

As you watch the clips of Alves almost decapitating England’s Harry Kane at Wembley, a foul for which he was shown a straight red card in a friendly match, or almost breaking both of Chelsea striker Diego Costa’s legs in an outrageous lunge in a pre-season friendly, it is easy to forget that this is a player of considerable pedigree.

 

Fluent and articulate in English, Alves has won major honours with Fenerbahce, Zenit St Petersburg and Porto. Indeed, a remarkable run saw him win the Portuguese league title in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, the Russian Premier League in 2010 and 2012, followed by the Turkish top flight in 2014.

‘I like to play hard but I also like to play fair. All of my career, I have liked to play this way. Many people that I know told me that I have come to the right club and the right country because this is the kind of football that I like.

 

‘I have a really good relationship with Jose Fonte. When I told him about Rangers, he said: “Bruno, this is a good move for you”. He told me it was going to be physical.

 

‘I come from the north of Portugal and my father came from Brazil to play football in my home town of Varzim. It is a special place because it is a fishermen’s city and they bring a bit of this difficult life to the pitch.

 

‘We always have a lot of talented players from my city and they have always had this attitude. It is something you cannot explain. So I learned from my father, but also from my city, with this culture they have there.

 

‘Also at Porto, at that time it was like that. We played all the time very hard, fighting against all the difficulties. Because Porto back then was so small but it grew up so much.

 

‘Benfica and Sporting Lisbon were bigger than Porto at the time but Porto is what it is because of this kind of behaviour and attitude.

 

‘I spoke with the coach after the game last weekend to say that this reminds me of the games we used to play in the North League with Porto reserves.

 

‘The north league is very competitive - rainy days and small stadiums. The games are so difficult away from home. This is the time I maybe grew up the most.’

 

Alves begins to recount tales of battling Wayne Rooney and Didier Drogba in Champions League ties, as well as his days spent training with Cristiano Ronaldo with the national team.

 

A cast list of Anthony Stokes and Simon Murray may not be quite so glamorous, but the assignment is no less important as Caixinha’s side welcome Neil Lennon’s newly promoted Hibernian to Ibrox.

 

Both sides will be seeking to land an early psychological blow in the battle for second place in the Premiership, with Hibs arriving on the back of an impressive 3-1 opening-day victory over Partick Thistle as well as a 5-0 trouncing of Ayr United in the Betfred Cup in midweek.

 

Rangers won 2-1 at Motherwell last weekend before producing the best performance of Caixinha’s tenure so far in a 6-0 thrashing of Championship Dunfermline on Wednesday.

 

Alves scored an unstoppable free-kick against the Pars, a novelty as he readily admits. But it is the task of leading the Ibrox defence which will occupy his mind rather than finding the net at the other end.

 

He said: ‘I have scored some free-kicks previously in my career but none for the national team because Ronaldo never lets me take any! Daniel Candeias was supposed to take the one on Wednesday night, but I asked him if I could have it because I like taking them from that area of the pitch.

 

‘I am not sure I will be taking them all the time, though, because we have a lot of good technical players, who can shoot from these positions.

 

‘I bring a lot of experience and I want to help the club and the players. The players listen to me. It is an amazing feeling when they really respect you and listen to what you have to say.

 

‘My move to come here was because of the high expectations. I am in a team that wins more often than not, and a team that can always fight for something more.

 

‘This club is so big in terms of the commitment and the history. The coach also played a big part in my decision. It also gives me more experience in life, another country to add to the ones I have already played in. I want to have a good experience here.’

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4783558/Rangers-defender-Bruno-Alves-toughness-family-style.html

Edited August 12, 2017 by Uilleam

[Blinkyman 0]

After Mr Dallas's gift in not giving a stonewall penalty to Thistle in extra time tonight, tomorrows result is now even more important.

 

The Sheltic player clearly kneed the Patrick player in the thigh & in addition had a hand on his back but the reaction, a full stretch dive, to me, was enough for Dallas to void any hope of a penalty & draw in a game that was up for grabs.