Worst start to a league season for 27yrs

[Blue Avenger 22,567]

1 hour ago, Dazzler said:

No we should be realistic. 

We have had better teams get beaten at the glitterdome and we have had poor starts to the season before.

This season was always going to be difficult. 

I'll ask you again, did you expect us to be top of the league by now?

 

Not with the pishy investment that WE paid for!

and we will NOT be winning any league titles whilst the absent man from RSA is in charge.

[WadeWilson 4,670]

We were also unbeaten against Celtic in the league that season.

A certain Mo Johnston also scoring a glorious last-minute winner on his Old Firm Ibrox debut.

[WadeWilson 4,670]

1989/90 Season

2 August 1989 St Mirren H 0–1 39,951 L

19 August 1989 Hibernian A 0–2 22,500 L

26 August 1989 Celtic A 1–1 54,000 Butcher D

9 September 1989 Aberdeen H 1–0 40,283 Johnston W

16 September 1989 Dundee H 2–2 35,836 McCoist (2) D

23 September 1989 Dunfermline Athletic A 1–1 17,765 McCoist D

30 September 1989 Heart of Midlothian H 1–0 39,554 Johnston W

3 October 1989 Motherwell A 0–1 17,667 L

 

After this things picked up dramatically and we only were beaten a further two times in the remaining fixtures, winning 18 of them. I still remember being at Ibrox for the 2-2 with Dundee and the 1-0 v Hearts from the fixtures above.

[Smile 26,600]

21 minutes ago, loyalfollower said:

He still got the best of what he could and there's no doubt in my mind he thought kranjcar is more than capable or else he wouldn't have signed him.

the fact of the matter is the club is being run on season ticket sales alone. This is why warburton was brought in

 

 

But that's not the Mantra King and co got in on they said they had substantial backers and money, did he also tell MW these same lies?. If so i can see why they have a Fractured relationship.

[loyalfollower 1,543]

@Smile I think he did tell him what the budgets are. It's no coincidence that warbs background before football is financial and given the fact he's quite prudent with money. I never knew they had a fractured relationship, how do you know this?

king has as much backers as I do, we've seen before that no one will invest money into us unless they're guaranteed to get it back wether it's now or over 10 years they will always get it back.  As soon as King has recouped his previous loss then he'll want nothing to do with the club.

but he's still a better choice out of what we had.

[WadeWilson 4,670]

1989/90 Final League Standings

P Team    Pld  W  D  L  F  A GD Pts

1 Rangers 36 20 11 5 48 19 29 51

2 Aberdeen 36 17 10 9 56 33 23 44

3 Heart of Midlothian 36 16 12 8 54 35 19 44

4 Dundee United 36 11 13 12 36 39 −3 35

5 Celtic 36 10 14 12 37 37 0 34

6 Motherwell 36 11 12 13 43 47 −4 34

7 Hibernian 36 12 10 14 34 41 −7 34

8 Dunfermline Ath 36 11 8 17 37 50 −13 30

9 St Mirren 36 10 10 16 28 48 −20 30

10 Dundee 36 5 14 17 41 65 −24 24

 

[Reformation Bear 6,453]

They (MW/DW/King and the squad) have painted themselves into a pressure corner of their own making.    

Has all of the money King promised been made available for spending on players?  Has the Manager made best use of the funds?   Why have the squad not gelled sufficiently, why are they making basic errors so often, why can't they defend competently, why are they not ruthless enough in taking goal scoring chances, why can the team not respond to the way the Manager wants them to play - they seem incapable of this. Why - already - is the Manager talking about having to turn things around and turn them around quickly?    There are other questions of course, but as a snapshot the unresolved issues accumulate to the fact of this being the worst start in 27 years and one of the worst OF defeats in (is it 16?) years.     The Support has not painted them into this already high pressure corner.  They have done it themselves by their collective failures.  They have put the Club in this unacceptable position.

But wait I hear many saying.  Its the end game we need to be concerned about.  Its where we finish in the league that matters (and / or winning he Scottish Cup).  The point being that King's objective of just being here to compete and to win a European slot means there are plenty of games left to achieve that ambition.  Is that the realism that we are to think of?  Is that the realism that McCoist referred to in an interview?   Is that the realism that McCoist and Walter referred to yonks ago when they said that when we returned to the top flight we would need to be competitive quickly?   

n other words is King and the Board really saying that they shrug shoulders if we suffer OF defeats and a generally lacklustre season of below-standard results so long as a European slot is obtained?  Is that their message - it seems like it.   If it is then a way of reading it is they set aside the high ambition and tradition of Rangers for a period of time until one season in the future - as if by magic - somehow, by some means (but not from King's resources) more money is injected into Rangers to acquire the type of players that actually do deliver, and to acquire a manager that can get the best out of them quickly.  Right now that does not appear to be within the capability of MW for it it were we would not have the results we have nor would we be being treated to the weekly soundbites of excuses and of must try harder and (now) of must do better quickly.    

As I said above - they have painted themselves into this pressure corner.    McCoist managed a similar trick a couple of seasons ago and could not recover.   Whether MW can resolve it either at all or quickly enough is another matter.  All games are there to be won.   But because of the accumulating pressures the next game takes on a level of importance for MW that I'm sure he could do without.    

[RFCRobertson 11,770]

5 minutes ago, WadeWilson said:

1989/90 Final League Standings

P Team    Pld  W  D  L  F  A GD Pts

1 Rangers 36 20 11 5 48 19 29 51

2 Aberdeen 36 17 10 9 56 33 23 44

3 Heart of Midlothian 36 16 12 8 54 35 19 44

4 Dundee United 36 11 13 12 36 39 −3 35

5 Celtic 36 10 14 12 37 37 0 34

6 Motherwell 36 11 12 13 43 47 −4 34

7 Hibernian 36 12 10 14 34 41 −7 34

8 Dunfermline Ath 36 11 8 17 37 50 −13 30

9 St Mirren 36 10 10 16 28 48 −20 30

10 Dundee 36 5 14 17 41 65 −24 24

 

Top 3 Goalscorers 

Ally McCoist - 18

Mo Johnston - 17

Mark Walters - 12

The league was the only cup we won that year as well. We got put out the Scottish cup in the fourth round, made it too the final off the league cup but lost 1-2 to aberdeen and the first round of the Euro cup. 

[Blue Avenger 22,567]

25 minutes ago, Blue63 said:

Sad act story to cover the humping of the unwashed, 5 games in and we're taking about heads rolling FFS, given where we've been over the last 4 years, I can't some of the pish that's written in here, let's wait a little bit longer before writing about sacking and fucking capitulation WATP

MW has is faults, but it's more about the lack of investment than the sacking of a manager who has one hand tied behind his back.

As for the story, I 100% believe that it was put out there exactly to deflect from the scum. Poor attempt right enough.

I believe the main thrust for the fans if we wish to see this club back to the halcyon days winning titles and integrity intact, sooner than later, then the focus of our endeavours should be no other than the board on two fronts:

In the defence of our club's name and of our fans.

WHEN will ADEQUATE investment to make a challenge to the scum be forthcoming?

Simple enough you'd think, but to date, wind and pish and deflection. It's one thing to have ambitions to win titles, it's another funding it and this shower have no intention of doing so despite the rhetoric fed to the gullible.

It's dead simple. We desire to win titles sooner than later and the longer we wait, the scum widen the gap both on and off the park that much is clear and there will be little chance of ever closing it unless a wealthy messiah turns up.  We live off loans to keep the lights on and the manner of securing the last one was embarrassing and told us everything that our board are pratted when it comes to funding our club. Record ST sales have given us breathing space, but how long will that last, no one knows and therein lies a rub. King/T3B need to get a return on the investment as they are not mega wealthy and TBH I am 100% convinced that King is pratted. With that as a financial backdrop, there is no way that this is compatible with overtaking the scum and winning titles for the foreseeable future and if anyone thinks otherwise then you are deluded.

This was the sting of the century and when we finally wake up and smell the coffee and ditch the denial, we might get back to reality and hold this board to account. Failure to do so, will see the scum take ten in a row. 

The scum have done their job well. Not spent a great a deal in our 4 year absence, but they didn't need to and at the right moment they play their joker and pay £5 mil sov's to bring in BR. He brings in better quality players and secures £30 mil CL sov's into the bargain.

Then we have Liewell controlling everything that is football, plus the mhedia and a very sympathetic government, police force and judiciary. We are we in that shit pile? That's right, at the fucking bottom of it! What are our board doing about any of it? Hello? Helloooooo, anybody in?!

[RangersMedia 35,961]

We've absolutely lost the core of quality in our squad, without big investment it takes years to build that back up. Warburton inherited an atrocious squad, with 1x cash player in it (Wallace (£1.5m), and added about £3.0m worth of player to it. 

Delia did a pretty atrocious job at Celtic, but he still left Rodgers a bunch of players Celtic were prepared to pay this much for -

Boyota (£1.5m), Çiftçi (£1.5m), Šimunović (£3.0m), Sviatchenko (£1.5m), Mackay-Steven (£0.5m), Armstrong (£2.0m), Griffiths (£1.0m), Bitton (£0.75m), Rogic (£0.5m), Ambrose (£1.5m), Izaguirre (£1.6m), Commons (£0.3m), Brown (£4.4m) - £20.1m total

Then Rodgers added Sinclair, Dembele and Ajer for another £5m.

Whether Celtic have extracted +£25m of value from that lot is another debate, but... they've outlayed that much to assemble their squad and have maintained a base line of quality in their squad - something which we have lost.

Of course money doesn't guarantee success, and whilst we will beat teams like Hamilton and Kilmarnock more often than not, the lack of overall quality will see dropped points. We simply don't have enough players in our squad that can turn a 1-1 draw into a 2-1 win. It's those type of results that win leagues. Look at Walter Smiths teams - they often scraped results - but got the job done. I'd go as far to say Tavernier is perhaps our only player that has shown us that he can be semi-depended on to produce a bit of magic and get a goal when it isn't going well - but, obviously he isn't going to do that every single time we need him to - he's a RB ffs.

It's no coincidence that Smiths squad was assembled with about £25m of investment in playing staff - every league winning squad (us and them) has had similar levels of outlay over the last 20yrs - going back to Advocaat times the only squad I can see that maybe hasn't had at least £20m of players, is Celtics in 2011/12 (when we went into admin), even so they had about £17-18m.

It is a very frustrating situation for us as fans - we've had 4yrs of utter despair and it still isn't over.... The hard reality is what Warburton did last season should of been a foundation put in place in 2012/13 and built on from then - however due to board and management incompetence it was woefully neglected, and we're probably 3yrs behind where we should be! Only time and/or £££'s will put us in a position where we can win the league - regardless of who our manager is. History shows we are about £15m worth of player away from being able to do this.

Whether Warburton is the man to take us forward, I don't know - like many I've doubts if he's a good enough football manager, although I like what he is doing from a structural stance (I think he'd be a great sporting director) - however, we are asking him to produce a miracle if we expect him to win the league with the hand he's currently holding. Celtic have quality and in Rodger, a good manager - they will romp this league scoring 90-100pts. I said at the start of the season 70-75pts is realistic for us, (just) good enough for 2nd place, but a long way behind them. Whilst that is totally unacceptable for Rangers, it's the reality of things.

Warburton has not had enough time or money to assemble a core of quality that means we could expect better (and remain realistic)
 

[WadeWilson 4,670]

11 minutes ago, RFCRobertson said:

Top 3 Goalscorers 

Ally McCoist - 18

Mo Johnston - 17

Mark Walters - 12

The league was the only cup we won that year as well. We got put out the Scottish cup in the fourth round, made it too the final off the league cup but lost 1-2 to aberdeen and the first round of the Euro cup. 

Yep, the League Cup final that year was a damp squib in terms of the classics that Rangers and Aberdeen had served up the previous two seasons. A 3-3 and a 3-2, both of which saw Rangers emerge victorious.

Who can forget Davie Cooper's rasping free-kick - that Leighton only touched on the way out - or Peter Nicholas rattling his penalty against and over the bar to hand the cup to Rangers or Ian Ferguson's horizontal scissored volley in the other game...? Absolute classic stuff.

It was also the first time in a few seasons that we didn't win the Skol Cup, as it was known back then when you got two trophies for winning it... Albeit the wee one looked like a tankard you would win on Bullseye. Super, smashing, lovely.

[Smile 26,600]

34 minutes ago, loyalfollower said:

@Smile I think he did tell him what the budgets are. It's no coincidence that warbs background before football is financial and given the fact he's quite prudent with money. I never knew they had a fractured relationship, how do you know this?

king has as much backers as I do, we've seen before that no one will invest money into us unless they're guaranteed to get it back wether it's now or over 10 years they will always get it back.  As soon as King has recouped his previous loss then he'll want nothing to do with the club.

but he's still a better choice out of what we had.

 

 

I just can't see any Manager working to the money MW has, i think like most not all he's been taken in by a board who told us all the same lies.

 

[centenarystand 2,227]

Are people on here trying to imply that after previous bad starts this team are going to kick into gear and finish champions? 

[WadeWilson 4,670]

Nope. Be lucky to finish second this season. Just taking a trip down memory lane... Mostly because it is better than moaning about everyone and everything.

[the brown brogue 1,909]

I spent a bit of time putting this together just for the sake of comparison, apologies if it looks shit or if theres any mistakes. Its for league games only under Warburton, simple analysis would tell us our away form is a serious issue, but our record full stop since the turn of the year is worrying to say the least when the goals have dried up and we're conceding on average more than a goal a game. Anyway, feel free to point out any inaccuracies etc.

 

Overall League record:

_____Up to 1st Jan 16 _______Since 1st Jan 16                                         

P                   19                                    22                                                               

W                   15                                   12

D                      2                                    6        

L                      2                                     4

F                    57                                     38

A                    15                                     28

Pnts                47/57                               42/66

GD                 + 42                                  + 10

 

________Championship__________Premier___________Overall

P                        36                                 5                                 41

W                        25                                 2                                 27

D                         6                                  2                                   8

L                          5                                  1                                   6

F                          88                               7                                   95

A                          34                               9                                   43

Pnts                  81/108                          8/15                              89/123

GD                       +54                             -2                                   +52

 

League record Home                                                                                                        League Record Away

_______Championship________Premier__________Overall                                         Championship________Premier_______Overall

P                  18                               2                               20                                                      18                              3                        21

W                  16                              1                               17                                                       9                                1                        10

D                   2                                1                                 3                                                        4                                1                         5

L                    0                                0                                 0                                                        5                                1                         6

F                   48                               3                                51                                                       40                              4                        44                         

A                   13                               2                                15                                                        21                             7                        28

Pnts            50/54                           4/6                               54/60                                                 31/54                        4/9                       35/63

GD               +35                             +1                                +36                                                      +19                           -3                        +16

[Smile 26,600]

1 minute ago, the brown brogue said:

I spent a bit of time putting this together just for the sake of comparison, apologies if it looks shit or if theres any mistakes. Its for league games only under Warburton, simple analysis would tell us our away form is a serious issue, but our record full stop since the turn of the year is worrying to say the least when the goals have dried up and we're conceding on average more than a goal a game. Anyway, feel free to point out any inaccuracies etc.

 

Overall League record:

_____Up to 1st Jan 16 _______Since 1st Jan 16                                         

P                   19                                    22                                                               

W                   15                                   12

D                      2                                    6        

L                      2                                     4

F                    57                                     38

A                    15                                     28

Pnts                47/57                               42/66

GD                 + 42                                  + 10

 

________Championship__________Premier___________Overall

P                        36                                 5                                 41

W                        25                                 2                                 27

D                         6                                  2                                   8

L                          5                                  1                                   6

F                          88                               7                                   95

A                          34                               9                                   43

Pnts                  81/108                          8/15                              89/123

GD                       +54                             -2                                   +52

 

League record Home                                                                                                        League Record Away

_______Championship________Premier__________Overall                                         Championship________Premier_______Overall

P                  18                               2                               20                                                      18                              3                        21

W                  16                              1                               17                                                       9                                1                        10

D                   2                                1                                 3                                                        4                                1                         5

L                    0                                0                                 0                                                        5                                1                         6

F                   48                               3                                51                                                       40                              4                        44                         

A                   13                               2                                15                                                        21                             7                        28

Pnts            50/54                           4/6                               54/60                                                 31/54                        4/9                       35/63

GD               +35                             +1                                +36                                                      +19                           -3                        +16

 

I think that explains why everyones been so worried its been bad for a while and we seem to have lost that great early football we had under Warburton.

[DMax399 3,685]

7 hours ago, Banner said:

Its not a BBC article, it a Daily Rebel one... the BBC gossip pages just posts the lead stories out of the papers.

Not that it matters, and you point is valid, but lets make sure the DR are taking their fair share of shit. 

Fair point mate.  To be honest I tar  BBC Scotland and the DR with the same brush.

Neither of them is impartial when it comes to us and them.

[loyalfollower 1,543]

4 hours ago, Smile said:

I just can't see any Manager working to the money MW has, i think like most not all he's been taken in by a board who told us all the same lies.

 

I would hope not but you never know.  Warburton does have the credentials to be a managerial legend for us as he wants to play total football.  About 7 million pound on 3-4 players would see that happen this season.  

I was under the impression the manager only has dialogue with Stewart Robertson and Andrew Dickson?

[Big Al 55 9,241]

6 hours ago, cushynumber said:

I expect to compete with cellic. I dont expect to get fuckin hammered.

I expect to beat teams like Hamilton and Kilmarnock

I dont expect to be spending a shaky 2nd half hanging on to a lead against teams like Dundee

I dont expect to be leaving it till stoppage time to beat teams like motherwell.

 

 

Not to much to ask is it?

 

No its not, but then none of them are new either. We got beat at home from Kilmarnock in one of our most inportant games ever in the 10 iar season.

Things need to improve big time, but its possible.

[RangersMedia 35,961]

People forget that far better Rangers teams than this have fairly regularly struggled against poorer teams. The difference is now we simply don't have the quality to get over the line and regularly turn draws into wins.

If Walter Smiths Rangers, assembled with players costing circa £25m with a wage bill of £28m, managed 87pts in a league season...... how many can we realistically expect Warburtons to accumulate given he's had 15mths and £3m to spend on our 'worst squad ever', and has a wage bill of about £7m (by comparision Aberdeens is about £4-5m). A squad that managed to finish 3rd in what should of been a 1 horse race....... in the 2nd tier. 

As said previously, it is my opinion that 70-75pts is the reality of what a good season is for us this year. Whether that is acceptable for Rangers, is another debate. It's where we are, and without time and/or money.... it's not changing. 

[A.T.G 10,773]

No Surrender

 

[BlueSuedeSambas 53,749]

@Badger is hitting the nail on the head here IMO.

Its hard to disagree with anything he's said in either of his posts.

[Big_dado 25]

Aberdeen game is going to be big for Warburton, we have to win that one now.

[bluenose_n1 536]

7 hours ago, WadeWilson said:

NB: 2016 - 27 = 1989

Not Helicopter Sunday season but the second rung on the heady climb to 9-In-A-Row.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989–90_Rangers_F.C._season

 

 

 

Season 04/05 we beat Motherwell and hibs 

drew with hearts and Aberdeen 

got beat off celtic

8 points from 5 games 

they won 5/5 left us 7 points behind

[HG5 11,077]

10 hours ago, Gaffbear said:

Saturdays result could be a blessing in disguise  ( a very good disguise granted)..I would hope now all our management staff now know what's required and know how much were despised and therefor our backs should be up..

That type of reaction will depend on who has the stomach for the fight & who hasn't.

I'm not sure all the players plucked from the English lower leagues will have what it takes, but I'll be happy to be proved wrong.