The slating of walter smith and the team!

[calscot 0]

Like any Rangers manager, Smith was brought to the job to win the league title. He couldn't in his first season. He didn't in his second season.

 

I think that's incredibly harsh considering the circumstances and the bonus of a European run and final. I think most non agenda bears would agree that had Celtic not cheated and the SPL done more to relieve our fixture congestion, we'd have almost definitely won the league. Walter ultimately failed in unprecedented circumstances and many other teams have done so under lesser pressure of games.

 

This, his third season, he has a chance. However, his opportunity has come about largely because of a slump in sellick's form, rather than anything Smith has done to improve our own performances.

 

So us winning games has had nothing to do with it? When you look back in history you see who's won the league, which is done by the team with the most points. You see no footnote to say whether a rival team had a bad run or not, it's 100% irrelevant, and just shows why you should not follow football. You seem to get no pleasure whether we win or lose or whether our rivals lose or win.

 

Do Man U fans complain when Chelsea or Arsenal lose? Don't think so.

 

In my opinion, he has bought poorly and used his squad poorly. Much of the talk about his tactics is to do with results, not just style points. I feel a more aggressive and confident approach would actually achieve better results.

 

I think we've been the most aggressive and confident we've been since Eck's first full season. To be honest I don't think management is that easy. Maybe you should become one. I think it's probably easy for an experienced manager to take over an OF team and not finish load of points behind or go out of the cups to lower division teams, but I think it's glib to say that WS could easily get much better results than he has when his team have pretty much been the best in the land since his return.

 

Some of the displays this season have been as dire as last year and let's not forget that this has led to similarly shocking results, without which we might just be able to say we are at the top of the league by our own efforts alone. Think St Mirren.

 

Like I said you have an incredibly negative perspective and you are missing most of the joys from being a football fan. We have been the best team in the league so far, with decent refereeing we'd be well ahead, just what is you problem? EVERY year that we've won the league, 9 or 11 teams have played worse than us, don't you get that?

 

 

While this may turn out to be a championship year, none of us can predict it at the moment. What I can say however is that I would feel more confident were it not for the fact we probably have to rely on sellick doing worse than ourselves.

 

When can we predict the championship? Are you only happy if we're 20 points ahead? No you'll still be unhappy because Celtic played shit. Have you ever heard of supporting a team throughout a season especially when they are top of the league? Is there really something wrong with having a close race? I really don't think you understand sport in the slightest. Maybe you should go and watch the Harlem Globe Trotters instead, they are guaranteed to win and play with style.

 

Some of us prefer REAL sport.

 

This is a thread about Walter Smith and his ability to change Rangers from losers to winners, for there is no other purpose to his being here. So far, he appears to have spent a lot of money and achieved very little.

 

WS has spent little net money and that money is nothing compare to a bottom of the table EPL team.

 

And yet he's only been thwarted from the treble by Celtic cheating and the SPL not being fair enough to relieving the fixture pile up. He also took us to the UEFA cup final, he's currently top of the league despite poor officiating, he's in the League cup final and still in the Scottish cup. Yeah that's not achieving much at all.

 

Your viewpoints get nuttier and nuttier by the day. Do you really have a properly reasoned point that has some correlation with the real world?

 

Never mind 15 years ago when he had enough money to compensate for ability, times have changed and so have what it takes to be successful. This isn't about gratitude or respect for the past, that's long gone, history. Looking forward is almost painful.

 

I have seen people give very little credit for Walter's last tenure so this paragraph is pretty superfluous.

[CammyF 9,448]

I remember getting cuffed 3-0 nil off Lyon at Ibrox. I remember going to every Uefa cup game at home and seeing two goals. I remember being bored ridgid by our managers negativity at home and remember being embarraced by our performances in most of the away games.

 

I also remember whilst standing in Albert square in Manchester that our manager would be more than happy to take this game to penalties.

 

How right i was.

 

We could have and should have shown more quality and skill on the park cammy.

 

I personally think Smiths extremely negative tactics were a disgrace to the the supporters who pay there money to watch Rangers and to the club on a whole. I feel Smith dragged us through the gutter last season and hes left a very bitter taste in my mouth with his tactics in the final.

 

no amount of discussion will ever change my views on Smith. Hell get no quarter from me. He desrves every bit of critisism in my eyes.

 

So befeating Lyon 3-0 in their own back yard was an embarressment? Getting seven points in a CL group where we were told that we wouldn't get 1 point was embarressing? Gaining over �£10M for the club in that CL Group was embarressing? Getting to our first European Cup FInal for over 35 years was an embarressment? Jeez, I was doing cart-wheels when the realisation that Nacho Novo's penalty had taken US to a EUROPEAN CUP FINAL - something that I believed that I would never see. Hardly embarressing. We'd achieved something that many, many other clubs would have jumped at.

 

Maybe I was lucky that I followed our games in Europe (when I wasn't there) on ITV4 and getting an 'English' perspective on our achievement was eye-opening. Totally supportive of our campaign, totally supportive of our achievement and totally supportive of RANGERS FOOTBALL CLUB, way more than our local media could ever have been. I believe that some of our fans have allowed the negative media perspective to actually cloud their judgement of what we actually achieved in Europe last season.

 

Look at the teams we defeated : Lyon, Stuttgart, Sporting, Weder Bremen and credible draws with Barcelona and Fiorintina. Hardly embarressing and something actually to be proud off.

 

Walter Smith deserves stick for some of his decisions but also deserves credit for getting Rangers to a European Cup Final, something many other managers have failed to achieve.

 

Cammy F

[maineflyer 0]

I think that's incredibly harsh considering the circumstances and the bonus of a European run and final. I think most non agenda bears would agree that had Celtic not cheated and the SPL done more to relieve our fixture congestion, we'd have almost definitely won the league. Walter ultimately failed in unprecedented circumstances and many other teams have done so under lesser pressure of games.

 

 

 

So us winning games has had nothing to do with it? When you look back in history you see who's won the league, which is done by the team with the most points. You see no footnote to say whether a rival team had a bad run or not, it's 100% irrelevant, and just shows why you should not follow football. You seem to get no pleasure whether we win or lose or whether our rivals lose or win.

 

Do Man U fans complain when Chelsea or Arsenal lose? Don't think so.

 

 

 

I think we've been the most aggressive and confident we've been since Eck's first full season. To be honest I don't think management is that easy. Maybe you should become one. I think it's probably easy for an experienced manager to take over an OF team and not finish load of points behind or go out of the cups to lower division teams, but I think it's glib to say that WS could easily get much better results than he has when his team have pretty much been the best in the land since his return.

 

 

 

Like I said you have an incredibly negative perspective and you are missing most of the joys from being a football fan. We have been the best team in the league so far, with decent refereeing we'd be well ahead, just what is you problem? EVERY year that we've won the league, 9 or 11 teams have played worse than us, don't you get that?

 

 

 

 

When can we predict the championship? Are you only happy if we're 20 points ahead? No you'll still be unhappy because Celtic played shit. Have you ever heard of supporting a team throughout a season especially when they are top of the league? Is there really something wrong with having a close race? I really don't think you understand sport in the slightest. Maybe you should go and watch the Harlem Globe Trotters instead, they are guaranteed to win and play with style.

 

Some of us prefer REAL sport.

 

 

 

WS has spent little net money and that money is nothing compare to a bottom of the table EPL team.

 

And yet he's only been thwarted from the treble by Celtic cheating and the SPL not being fair enough to relieving the fixture pile up. He also took us to the UEFA cup final, he's currently top of the league despite poor officiating, he's in the League cup final and still in the Scottish cup. Yeah that's not achieving much at all.

 

Your viewpoints get nuttier and nuttier by the day. Do you really have a properly reasoned point that has some correlation with the real world?

 

 

 

I have seen people give very little credit for Walter's last tenure so this paragraph is pretty superfluous.

ha ha - I may be nutty but I'm not the one spending thousands of words to continually repeat myself.

 

To save your further days at the keyboard, I think you can rest assured that you've made your point, expressed your views, hammered home your opinions and generally made it clear that you wish to defend Walter Smith. We all get it. Amongst others, I just think you're wrong.

 

Are you going to go again - tell you what, if I promise to read your last post again, will that do?

[ian1964 10,870]

For me,this is why I said Walter Smith gets criticised, why bring on Whittaker on the left midfield ?????, when was the last time he played there ?????, when you have wide creative players sitting on the bench ????.........how can anyone justify that substitution ???,aye we won the game but that sub is what I find baffling with WS, unless of course I am just talking out of my arse

[johnnyk 158]

We were crying out for someone to take their defenders on as there was so much space there, I thought Lafferty done OK to start with but it doesn't help anyone playing him out of position and then as Ian says he brings on a right back at left midfield when we had beasley, aaron and naismith on the bench ffs Walter that is shocking.