When will we see another league flag flying over Ibrox?

[Soulsonic5791 408]

Without being a tease, please see previous replies Gonzo79. From that you can draw your own conclusions...

[Gonzo79 13,613]

9 minutes ago, Soulsonic5791 said:

Without being a tease

Edited April 4, 2018 by Gonzo79

[Soulsonic5791 408]

Stick yer Sherlock deerstalker on Gonzo79 and you'll get the answer.

 

Oh, and remind me not to drink what Unicorn's having....coz judging by the poll it might be a goblet of chilled curare.

[ranger_syntax 3,768]

2 hours ago, der Berliner said:

So, the unthinkable happened and we lost an Old Firm game, sadly, but sure not entirely unexpectable. Then we managed to put on as poor a show as any against Killie and didn't live up to the fight we always face against Motherwell. And then Aberdeen win at Fir Park (oh dear, we must be poor!) and TLB's hammerthrowers beat Accies. The heat is on again, doom pending!

 

Wooooosh, out comes the pessimistic brigade and looks for some votes.

 

Did we have similar ahead of the OF game when most of us were sure full of at least a certain level of optimism? Well, I spare myself some thread necromancy and dig as far back as then, but out of my head we hadn't.

 

What usually baffles me with these kind of essentially pointless questions - though people shall obviously feel free to voice their opinions, concerns, and all that - is that those asking them aren't about for 5 months or say even 2 years in the game. Thus, they would know that title wins and series arevery much determined on a season or even half-season basis, rather than in 2,4, 6 or 10 years. Exceptions to the norm are there, like the first 4 or 5 titles of the Yahoos, who virtually had no-one remotely close to challenging them. Even now, BTW, they have a team costing 20-30odd million more than their closest rivals. That's like Bayern Munich marching through Bundesliga 3 for as many years.

 

Yet, after all the troubles we have behind us off the field, we have for a year established a solid footing for the financial side of things and ploughing money into the team again. The latter is always a trickery game, even before Caixinha spending 4odd million on two players who never really met expectations (one due to constant managerial shortsightedness, but that's just MHO). Yet, in January we got half a handful of really good folk in who have or will enhance the squad in the future. At the end of the day, we may dream of European success, but if you watch the CL games or indeed tomorrow's EL stuff, you will note that it will take us some time and a very solid and well-oiled squad to manage anything of note.

 

Speaking of time here, the coming months will be important. We'll have to wait and see how the share issue goes, whether we get a decent sponsorship deal, and - indeed - if Morelos goes to the World Cup and is being snatched from our hands by some foreign side. All factors that one can hardly put a finger on and say with any great conviction how things will transpire. Not to speak of the managerial decision. So how can we reasonably predict the next few years of title challenges? If we do it now, we will get a result that is diametrically different to one we had received 5 days ahead of the Scum game at Ibrox.

 

What we have seen this season though is a core of a team that works reasonably well against most teams in Scotland. John, Jack, McCrorie, Murphy, Docherty, Cummings, Morelos, Candeias have sure improved standards considerably, Cardoso, Alves, Dorrans and Goss too. Others have made their mark too, Holt and Tavernier spring to mind, Windass because of his goals.

 

What have held us back were appaling suspensions, injuries, loss of form and tactical inefficiency and experience off the field. If we can avoid all the latter things AND manage to get ourselves a strong midfield character (I think James McArthur is Ibrox-bound in the summer) or two, we are on a good way to leave most of the rest in Scotland behind us.

 

IMHO, this season was marred by lack of leadership and tactical awareness from the sidelines, as much as missing leadership on the park. Those utterly silly defeats at Ibrox virtually cost us the title, for make no mistake, despite all their monetary power - and they still might win the title by 20odd points - Scum FC is hardly a great force. WIll they spend next summer with all the European money flooding into their coffers? Most likely. Yet, they also have a 20odd million bill coming up next summer, when the CoOp bank loan runs out. And they will pray that they make next season's CL group stages ... or someone snatching Dembele of them for hilarious money.

 

All ifs and buts. IMHO, strong / intelligent characters with some tactical awareness are required, the nucleus of the team is there though (should we get Murphy and Cummings). While at this moment in time, it is hard to see us getting any silverware this season, but the fat lady isn't even dressed just yet, both for the league nor the cup. So how would one reasonably predict next season or the seasons thereafter? This season will probably go down in history as THE season of missed chances on oh so many levels. Even without being overly optimistic, I would hazard a guess that somesuch will not repeat itself all too soon.

 

 

So what are you saying?

[ranger_syntax 3,768]

4 hours ago, Rousseau said:

When you take an objective view, I think we're getting there. I thought it would take a good 5 years after promotion, and since then we've progressed, but not enough; I had hoped to really give them a go this year (which was my thinking when we got promoted), but we're not there yet. 

 

Warburton got us 3rd. Pedro improved us, and then it went to the dogs. Murty improved us a tad again, but we're still inconsistent.

 

The points total/league position is objective.

 

Opinions about improvement are subjective.

 

Are we really getting anywhere?

[buster. 4,808]

2 hours ago, Soulsonic5791 said:

Despite my voting for 2020 for the purposes of realism, I really reckon that everyone should pull out the stops to win the league next season.

 

Without starting an online rumour, I have heard some encouraging news in the last 48 hours which says to me that there has finally been a realisation that 'you get what you pay for'. And after two false starts, it could be a case of third time lucky.

 

 

I'd hardly call that a strong base for optimism.

 

Our transfer business in the past couple of years has been very poor and the January window just gone, whilst being better was mainly about players who will be going back to their parent clubs in the summer.

 

If you are implying that our directors have only just realised that 'you get what you pay for' opposed to actually allocating what scarce resources were available very badly, then what level of gumption is in the boardroom ? In other words, they know fine well that 'you get what you pay for' but finances and managerial/player choice have been problems.

 

The main base issue for me is who the manager will be.

If it were to be a 'Head Coach' working under Mark Allen, then we'd better get ready to use a larger wall for the manager portraits because Ibrox under current pressures is not a place that young coaches will be allowed to thrive.

 

 

Edited April 4, 2018 by buster.

[der Berliner 3,246]

28 minutes ago, ranger_syntax said:

So what are you saying?

Given the amount of variables involved - as well as football usually not going according to plan, funny old game that it is -  predicting league titles for years to come is a pretty pointless excercise. It is even more pointless when it is essentially again started after a number of bad results by people obviously looking to get some backing for their gloomy view on things.

 

With, by comparison to them, low key spending, we have assembled a squad well capable of beating the rest in Scotland, bar certain factors that I listed above. Who's to say that if similar money is being spend and a different, more forceful and progressive manager coming in, we can't win titles sooner rather than later? Yep, it could all go down Caixinha's way again, but we don't know that either. And obviously, given their buying power, the Yahoos might very well sign half a handful of quality folk to keep us at bay, no matter whom we sign or appoint. It's not that the world just revolves around us.

[der Berliner 3,246]

2 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

How on Earth can we be anything but pessimistic after the last three games?

 

Things need to change and until that happens, there's not much to be optimistic about.

 

By the same notion that we should not be optimistic after the 6-game winning run ahead of the OF game. For that would have had the same zero-impact on the next few years ahead as the three bad games that we have seen.  Also see my post above with regards to the variables involved. Or, for comparison, you may very well e.g. start stocking up food and wood for the blizzard that will defo happen by in three days time (like the last one). But would you start stocking up food and stuff for a blizzard that may or may not happen by next winter, the one after next or in 5 years? You would not, as it would be a pointless excercise in the here and now.

[Gonzo79 13,613]

Which good sides did we beat on that 6 game run?  

 

I was hopeful a corner had been turned, like many others were.  Turns out that hope was misplaced.

[Bill 13,717]

24 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Given the amount of variables involved - as well as football usually not going according to plan, funny old game that it is -  predicting league titles for years to come is a pretty pointless excercise. It is even more pointless when it is essentially again started after a number of bad results by people obviously looking to get some backing for their gloomy view on things.

 

With, by comparison to them, low key spending, we have assembled a squad well capable of beating the rest in Scotland, bar certain factors that I listed above. Who's to say that if similar money is being spend and a different, more forceful and progressive manager coming in, we can't win titles sooner rather than later? Yep, it could all go down Caixinha's way again, but we don't know that either. And obviously, given their buying power, the Yahoos might very well sign half a handful of quality folk to keep us at bay, no matter whom we sign or appoint. It's not that the world just revolves around us.

Aren’t you being just a tad pompous about this. Lighten up, it’s merely an opportunity to express an opinion and in the process share our ideas about where we are on the road to recovery. You really shouldn’t get so upset to see different views put forward. There’s no right or wrong, only opinion, some more informed than others but all equally valid.  

Edited April 4, 2018 by Bill