ian1964 10,409 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 By Andrew Dickson RANGERS' season will begin in July as a result of their failure to win the SPL title tonight in the final round of championship matches. Because they have finished second in the standings, they now face the prospect of going through two qualifying rounds to reach the Champions League group stage. Consequently, that means Walter Smith's players will get less than a calendar month off on holiday as they return for pre-season training on June 23. David WeirGers will be the highest-ranked club in the draw for the second preliminary stage, meaning they'll avoid the likes of Fenerbahce, Panathinaikos, Basel and Anderlecht. Potential opponents do, however, include former Euro foes IFK Gothenburg, Anorthosis Famagusta and FBK Kaunas. First-leg ties at that point in the competition will be played on July 29/30, with return games taking place on August 5/6. Should the Light Blues progress to the third qualifying round, they will again be seeded with only Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Schalke and Juventus ranked above them. That doesn't mean they'll be in for an easy draw though, with a string of tricky teams lying in wait there too. Among them are Sparta Prague, Dynamo Kiev and Galatasaray and those matches will take place on August 12/13 and 26/27. Should Rangers advance again, they'll go into the group phase for the ninth time in the revamped European Cup's 17th year and pool games will start in September. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraser54 0 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Why the second qualifying round ? What really pisses me off is not that we lost the league last night but we have got Celtic into the Champions League proper, while they do fuck all 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexscottislegend 2,057 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Why the second qualifying round ? What really pisses me off is not that we lost the league last night but we have got Celtic into the Champions League proper, while they do fuck all Yeh, that IS sickening. It was US who raised the co-efficient. Surely we have done enough now to avoid the 2nd qualifying round? It's like last year when we had Zeta and Red Star. Imagine getting Dynamo Kiev! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazza_8 233 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 All it means is that we'll have to endure more of the same pishy, long high punts up the park earlier than usual! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian1964 10,409 Posted May 23, 2008 Author Share Posted May 23, 2008 I'm looking forward to WS signing some quality players and improve our style of play,and hopefully at the end of the season we will be sitting in the same position as we were a couple of weeks ago,only with a different outcome. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazza_8 233 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 I'm looking forward to WS signing some quality players and improve our style of play,and hopefully at the end of the season we will be sitting in the same position as we were a couple of weeks ago,only with a different outcome. Apart from Cuellar, Smiths signings haven't been any better than average. I hate being so negative but I fear more of the same for next season ie Miller. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gisabeer 409 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 Apart from Cuellar, Smiths signings haven't been any better than average. I hate being so negative but I fear more of the same for next season ie Miller. I feel the same. We have a lot of average players who never stood up to the mantle when the chips were down. I shudder to think what crap will come through our doors next season. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 They may be average but they're as good as the Celtic squad and quite a few teams in Europe. I think most are pretty decent players and have shown that this season, but we need a few more that are a cut above and able to do something special, and replace a couple that are not quite good enough. We've got the best squad we've had since Advocaat and have outperformed his teams in Europe but we do need a few quality signings. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hurlock 0 Posted May 23, 2008 Share Posted May 23, 2008 By Andrew Dickson RANGERS' season will begin in July as a result of their failure to win the SPL title tonight in the final round of championship matches. Because they have finished second in the standings, they now face the prospect of going through two qualifying rounds to reach the Champions League group stage. Consequently, that means Walter Smith's players will get less than a calendar month off on holiday as they return for pre-season training on June 23. David WeirGers will be the highest-ranked club in the draw for the second preliminary stage, meaning they'll avoid the likes of Fenerbahce, Panathinaikos, Basel and Anderlecht. Potential opponents do, however, include former Euro foes IFK Gothenburg, Anorthosis Famagusta and FBK Kaunas. First-leg ties at that point in the competition will be played on July 29/30, with return games taking place on August 5/6. Should the Light Blues progress to the third qualifying round, they will again be seeded with only Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Schalke and Juventus ranked above them. That doesn't mean they'll be in for an easy draw though, with a string of tricky teams lying in wait there too. Among them are Sparta Prague, Dynamo Kiev and Galatasaray and those matches will take place on August 12/13 and 26/27. Should Rangers advance again, they'll go into the group phase for the ninth time in the revamped European Cup's 17th year and pool games will start in September. Great, another 10 or 12 matches in one month, advantage Celtic already ! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gribz 743 Posted May 24, 2008 Share Posted May 24, 2008 The footballing bodies really need to sit down and look at the calender and fairness. Im not against the players being brought back in July, footballers along with teachers have an incredible amount of time off compared to the average job. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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