MelbourneBlue

Likely because he plays centre back in a very good England U21 side?

If Coulibaly was fit, Ejaria would not have started. SG put him in to cover a role he's not really suited to (as he did with Halliday at LB) and I thought he put in a very decent shift. No, he doesn't have the dig of Jack or Arfield - but he tried his guts out like the rest of our team tonight and I have nothing but praise for him (and the others) on that showing.

Read most of it. Not a journalist's work. Goebbels would have approved.

Excuse me for pointing this out, Rab - but we have been dealt some dreadful hammerings from the scum, including a couple of the worst ever. We have equalled our worst number of losses in a season at Ibrox since before WW1. FC Shkupi were competent and well organised. Look how far competent, well organised teams (as opposed to genuinely talented teams) managed to progress in Russia. We are a team with half the side starting a competitive match for Rangers for the first time. The new guys were mostly in defence. They did very well for a first competitive match and should only get better. The old faces showed their flaws yet again and their lack of creativity and fluffed chances kept the score respectable for Shkupi. We have a solid defence to take over there, and a two goal lead. I'm very confident we will get through. I'm similarly confident we will struggle in the next round if we haven't brought in some improvement in the front two thirds in Sadiq and Coulibaly.

I think that scoreline summed up how shite the Bremen keeper was that night. I can't recall his name now, but he let in a couple of very soft goals. ?

There were glimpses of real quality prior to his long term injury (resulting from foul play, as was the norm last season). Never really got going again after that, arguably because played out of position but the whole team ended the season with a whimper. I think after a full pre-season, guidance from a decent manager and remaining injury free, Graham Dorrans may turn out to be a gem. I'm always an optimist this time of year - this time with more justification than usual.

Gerrard's handling of the questions is smooth and controlled. So was Warburton's when he first arrived. The difference I've been finding is that Gerrard answers every question as if he has already considered the problem and worked out how he will address it - but he doesn't sound like he will be inflexible. Warburton sounded competent (at first) by reciting from the "how my teams play football" mantra he had concocted, and as we found out, was never able to adjust when it hit the rocks. I get more optimistic about the coming season every time I hear another interview from SG.

Based on his performances on loan with us - albeit restricted by limited game time, as Ozblue has detailed very nicely for us - I can't see why we would make him a permanent signing at this stage of the transfer window. If we get to the end of the window and haven't been able to sign better, I suspect he will still be available. He really didn't show much when playing against the stronger sides other than a bit of petulant arm waving at his team mates and some poor first touches. My view is that we will not be where we want to be in terms of our strike set up if Cummings is signed this window.

If that happens, I can't believe we would sign up to it unless the revenue split was vastly more in our favour. I'd still rather tell Ashley to GTF, mind.

If they hadn't signed it, we'd still be in boycott mode for years to come, we would have a conscience debate on whether our kids could have one, and the club would be missing out on essential revenue. Look at the up side. With Gerrard's world wide fame, we now stand to sell unprecedented numbers of Rangers kits. We are coming back!

Some of the stuff we get in the papers in Melbourne is pretty poor - but I can't remember anything as bad as this. This article is purely an opinion piece dressed up as a journalist's report. Not a single quote or clear statement of fact from beginning to end, just use of fabrication terms like "It is believed...", "Surely Steven Gerrard...". Bog roll material.

Completely agree on Brenda. I'm pretty confident we'll get to put the Rodgers mirage under real scrutiny if we strengthen enough to dispose of the teams we should be beating every week - everyone outwith the scum. Then let's see if the tranny fancier shows consistency with his past performances and bottles it.

Our squad will be stronger - already is with Arfield and McGregor - just waiting to see by how much. I'm pleased to read the scum are spending a large wedge (reports vary 7m to 10m) on signing Edouard permanently from PSG. That's likely to be a big chunk of their total spend gone without achieving any improvement whatsoever on last season as they already had him - but of course the mhedia raving about it. Overall I'm with the folk who believe the gap is not as big as some would have us believe - so I'm optimistic we can make a strong challenge for the league with a real chance of winning it.

People have been a bit hard on Murphy, IMO - often saying he "may improve with better players around him". Because of where I live, I only get to see Rangers on TV and because I'm a fanatic, I watch and re-watch games. Murphy's passing creates great goal scoring chances for better players. With the current squad, he must feel like Foghorn Leghorn: "I keep pitchin' em boy, and you keep missin' em!" I'm really pleased about this and look forward to him having close to the most assists in the league next year.

There's a strange honesty in your choice of user name.

At 0-3 I never believed we'd get anything from the game. Somehow, a "team" that has bottled it over and over this season found a bit of inner fortitude and fought the game out. Stupidity (Holt) and chronically bad refereeing aside, I have to say they pleasantly surprised me.

In several games he has looked a class apart. Some of his through balls have taken our less gifted players by surprise - but that shouldn't detract from their quality. I agree he has quiet spells but believe a lot of that is to do with the focus we have on the right hand side through Tav and Candeias. John also works far better with Murphy than Halliday ever will. I agree Murphy did well as an inside forward when Cummings played left against the sheep.

Forrest tore up Halliday's prospects of a deal of any kind last week. This was only Kilmarnock, and he made as many mistakes as he did good things.

At least no one from the club will have to congratulate the scum.

It's all about opinions, of course - and we both share the most important one! I do hope we''ve reached the stage in our recovery where we're not looking to sign squad players, though. I'm expecting us to sign players who turn our current starters into squad players.

The away leg against Bayern when Mols was wiped out on the side line by their goalie. Still wake up screaming over that one....

Usually I agree with Ozblue - but not on this one. Nowhere near as good as Goss, despite being a few years older. Nowhere near as talented as Rogic either, for that matter. I'd be dreadfully disappointed if we went as far backwards in quality as sign this lad. We've done so well with Docherty - no idea why we would consider O'Neil - and I see him most weeks on TV or live if they happen to play the Victory in Melbourne. He is okay at free kicks but otherwise does not stand out at all (in my opinion) in the Sydney FC midfield. Strange one.

I agree. Thought at the time that Murty needs to keep this sort of thing in-house. Irritating the club with which you probably intend to negotiate is not smart.

Windass, IMO is a gifted but flawed player. He is a great chance of scoring when running towards the 18 yard line, unless the keeper comes off his line. He sometimes remembers his defensive duties, sometimes disappears. In a strong Rangers side - which we're getting towards - there is a place for him. (But he should have been subbed off about the 60 minute mark against Hearts). Cummings: Far too many plaudits offered in here for a player yet to show enough at the level (albeit not great) at which we are now back to playing. I'm a bit "old school" so his smiley tattoo on his hand (WTF goes through people's heads when they walk into a tattoo parlour??) and his "cumdog" nick name both make me cringe. I could happily ignore those if I were convinced of his quality as a player - but this jury is a long way from returning a positive verdict on that. I liked both his goals for us so far - but not anywhere near as good as some of Morelos's goals - and no indication of anywhere near the capability as a one-up striker. I honestly don't think he'll be offered a contract at the end of the season based on what I've seen. Hopefully he'll prove me wrong and give me two fingers with his smiley hand.

Windass's worst performance for weeks - how he stayed on I don't know. But great from pretty much everyone else.