AMMS

So the point is when the he loses the dressing room then? I would agree that would be a point when you could say 'enough is enough' but I don't see any evidence of that having happened yet. I certainly don't think that if we draw with Hibs then Ally should go. We're in an almost identical position to last season league wise, I'd have taken that in August and I'll take it now. If Jelavic is sold and not adequately replaced I think Ally pretty much gets a pass this season whatever happens.

I'm not sure what that means? Are you saying we've played only 4 good games this season?

That's an interesting question. It's January, we're in the Scottish Cup and 4 points of the pace in the league. Our best player is out injured for the season and our club captain has just left us. We're bringing in unknown 21 year olds from mid-table Swedish clubs and ex-Aberdeen players who no one else wants. Under the circumstances a what point do you think we can say enough is enough?

It's directly comparable, it's about perspective and timing and being wrong. Some people didn't fancy McCoist as manager from day 1, some after the European games, some after Falkirk and some after the Parkhead game, the point is it's still far too early to tell. Judge the season in the summer, judge whether McCoist can be a good manager or not after he's had the time and resources to demonstrate it. He hasn't had that yet. 30 poor displays, really?

Great opening post, well done. When Walter Smith took over from Souness there was not universal happiness at his appointment. When, in his third game in charge, Rangers managed to lose 3-0 to Motherwell and hand the title momentum to Aberdeen, there were many in the Rangers support who thought he should'n't have been given the post. They were wrong. McCoist is only half way through his first season as a manager, it is far too early to judge him. Not only is it his first season but he's got God knows what chaos to contend with at boardroom level and a budget that is considerably less than our main rivals. People who know considerably more about football and managing Rangers than anyone on here think McCoist is the man for the job. Do we discount these people, do we think they are idiots, indulging in cronyism perhaps? Bloody hell. Give the man your support. I'm old enough to remember when Celtic were lauded for their 'cavalier' football, I'm hearing similar just now. Apparently they are Barcelona in disguise these days. Well 'cavalier football' was beggar shorthand for not winning back then, used by a compliant press and support to try and protect inadequate managers and directors. It's the same now. Don't let the media turn us on one of our own. The pressure is being put on Ally despite his league record being fine, despite having a smaller budget than them, despite having behind-the-scenes issues to deal with, despite losing his most influential player to injury, despite losing his club captain, talisman and bedrock of the last five seasons to old father time and despite seeing his top striker being constantly linked with a move away. The pressure should be on Lennon, that they are only four points ahead of us despite all the advantages they have this season is a huge credit to Ally. Ally knows what being Rangers manager is all about. We couldn't have asked for a better pedigree. Ally genuinely is one of us, he deserves our support and nothing else until the season is over at least.

Wow, that's quite some world view you've got there. Bizarre. Okay let's look at some successful European national teams, let's start with Spain, current World Cup and European championship holders. Aye, they'd be nowhere without their African players. The previous European country to win the World Cup was of course Italy. Yip, same again. The fact France and Holland have multi-ethnic squads is due to their coaching and league structure, not the origins of their colonial past. Football hasn't been 'played in the street' for years. The omnipresence of the car put a stop to that, as it has in France, Holland and pretty much every other European country. The late Bob Crampsey blamed the teacher's strike of the early to mid 1980s as the beginning of the problem. He was a headmaster so he had some insight. The 1980s saw huge changes in Scotland on a social level. The area's that bred so many of our players were hit very hard, the social cohesion of these towns and villages broke down. Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Fife no longer have the same culture they did even 30 years ago. Bert Konterman, not the most gifted Dutch footballer to grace these parts, was actually quite a smart guy. He moved into Drymen when he first came to Scotland and looked for the local club to enroll his children. He couldn't find one, there wasn't one. His point was in Holland a comparable village would have had. It in turn would have been aligned with a bigger 'club' and so on. Playing sport is no longer part of our culture, wherever in the world we originally 'came' from.

There is no argument that football has lost the run of itself regarding salaries. If £60 a week is what Baxter wanted that's about 3 times the average salary at the time, today that would be equivalent to about £120,000 a year. Even if there were bonuses on top of that it's not a ridiculous demand from the best player in the country.

They acquired that nickname in the post WW2 years and early 50s. By the mid 60s when Baxter joined them they were a 'yo-yo' team much like they are now. Always well supported and relatively wealthy but not a particularly successful team.

From the mid 1980s through to the early 2000s we could but that was a blip in the history of Scottish football. In reality middling English teams have always been able to outbid us players. Arguably our best ever player left us to join Sunderland, a big team but not a powerhouse. Our club captain John McClelland left us to join Watford, who were trebling his salary. There are countless examples of this. In reality what we are seeing is a return to what always was.

In fact a certain Mr McCoist did a similar thing as a teenager.

See this isn't a new trend, it's an old one that's returned. Billy Bremner and Denis Law both joined English clubs as teenagers, Joe Jordan and Gordon McQueen were taken from Morton and St Mirren respectively by English clubs as teenagers. Souness of course was another, but it was his arrival at Rangers that signalled the end of the drain south and indeed for a short time its complete reversal. Elfideldo puts it very well, (and in matter like these he should be listened too) this might turn out to be a great bit of business for Aberdeen. Fulham are taking a punt, they can afford too, if he doesn't make their first team they'll hope they could recoup the £200k from a Championship or League 1 club in a few years time. West brom did too with Allen, as did Chelsea with Feruz and Liverpool with Danny Wilson. The fact English clubs are looking at and taking Scottish players again is partly economic but must also suggest an improvement in quality. He would probably have been better off at Aberdeen for a few more seasons having a good chance of first team football. Kids aren't always well advised and of course at that age they all think they are destined for the big time, over confidence probably plays a part too. Anyway, we're back to where we started.

I never said Ally has 'no say' I said he isn't involved in the day-to-day of transfers. If McGregor, or anyone else for that matter, decides he wants away, if a club meets Rangers valuation of him and the directors are happy then I'd say Ally is powerless to stop it. I'd say almost every manager is in that scenario. What's a 2+2 world? Ally is appreciated by the board is relevant how? I'm sure the commissionaire is too but I'll bet they don't ask him his advice on cashflow management. You are confusing football team management with business management and whilst the two are connected they are also quite separate. McCoist will be subject to the vagaries of the economic situation more than most, if that means Edu might be sold against his wishes so be it, he'll be expected to manage and will probably be sacked if he doesn't. There are a number of factors at play here and of those McCoist is the least powerful, his influence is marginal compared to the player, his advisors/agents and the board at Ibrox. He can speak to Edu until he's blue in the face but if Edu's agent tells him he can play in Ligue 1 on a better salary than he's on just now and make a pretty tidy sum as a signing on fee too then Mo just might change his mind and there is nothing McCoist can do about it. Don't discount that Edu might be quite happy to say one thing to Ally and the Rangers support and quite another to his agent. These guys are professional footballers, they don't think like you and me, it's just a job to them.

With a few very rare exceptions no football manager is involved in that side of a clubs business. Directors have a long and distinguished history of selling players against the wishes of their managers. Managers are simply employees, disposal ones at that, with less 'value' than a player in terms of what could be realised in the open market. That negotiations are going on, in the transfer window, for one of our players and that McCoist isn't involved in the day-to-day of these negotiations shouldn't surprise anyone. Of course he isn't. If a deal is struck that Rangers find acceptable then McCoist will be told and the club will make a decision based on a number of factors including the managers view of how this will impact the squad. But if it meets the clubs valuation or improves cashflow or is beneficial for some other reason the deal will be done wether McCoist approves or not. That's reality. In terms of where these stories are coming from there is only one source; agents. Agents tout players at the behest of clubs without the players knowledge, they tout players at the behest of players without the clubs knowledge and they tout players without the knowledge of either the club or the player. A player moving on is in the agents interest for a number of reasons, feeding disinformation to the press eases this process. Do not be surprised if Sochaux are speaking with an agent regarding this and have had no direct contact with Rangers, rather someone purporting to be representing Rangers in this matter.

What ever you think of Tanner he was definitely a bluenose growing up.

Applause!

Of course we would. They want to make as much money as possible out of us, we're a potential cash cow for them nothing else. If they can cram another couple of thousand of us in on a terrace they'll do it in a heartbeat. It's football club directors we're talking about here, a breed of person with vanity and avarice at their heart in far too many cases.

That's only partly true though. Whilst the disaster itself occurred on the staircase going out it was the volume of people trying to exit that led to/exacerbated it. Had Ibrox been seated you simply wouldn't have had that volume of people moving in the one direction at the same time. Seats funnel people differently from the old terraces leading to a more ordered exit, the nature of open terraces meant you had far greater numbers of people trying to get through a confined space at the same time. You are correct that the terrace itself was not the sole cause but it was a contributing factor, something the club acknowledged afterwards and the reason Ibrox was rebuilt into the fantastic stadium it is today.

Who do we trust to police that? The police, the clubs, the local authority? They couldn't do it before, why now? Dunfermline closed a stand this season because of costs. Can you guarantee me that with the financial issues they have they wouldn't fancy herding as many Rangers fans as possible into that section, and save a bit of money by not stewarding it properly or even worse not looking after the crush barriers properly. Yeah, they'll need safety certificates but then Leppings Lane had a safety certificate. I understand the attraction, even I still get nostalgic for terracing, for all it's faults, but this is the thin end of the wedge, the people who run Scottish football have done nothing to show me they can be trusted.

Am I the only person uncomfortable with this? Do people not remember why they were banned in the first place? It's all very well talking about Ibrox, that's only part of the story. It's the away grounds we should worry about. Grounds where locals, officials and police view us as sub-human to begin with, the thought that those people will have the opportunity to herd us like cattle again concerns me. People throw the Dortmund thing up everytime I raise this but remember this isn't Germany. This country has a long history of treating football supporters as animals, in fact worse than that at times. Too many times people have gone off to watch a match and never come home because club officials, stewards and police didn't do their jobs. I don't trust the directors of Dunfermline, Hearts or Falkirk to have our safety foremost in their minds, they never did before. This is about making money, don't kid yourself about this.

His lack of loyalty to Dundee Utd is concerning, he's only 20 and not even a first team regular yet, he should be knuckling down and making sure he's the best player in what is an average Utd team this season. He or his agent should have the gumption to see he needs first team games at this stage of his career, something he's less likely to get at any of the clubs linked with him. Signing a new deal with Utd with a realistic release clause should someone come in for him would be the best advice his agent could give him. Someone mentioned Danny Wilson up thread, the perfect example of what not to do when a young player.

Another excellent piece, well done.

Journalists 'know' information about Scottish football that they'll never publish, that has always happened long before 'blogging' became an option. Sports journalism, particularly in a small market like Scotland, is surprisingly chummy. Most journalists will not bite the hand that feeds it. Anyone who thinks the Scottish sports press corp are fitba equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein is very mistaken. They are professional in that it's a career and one most of them would like to see continue. Picking a fight with the CEO of Celtic and of the SFA is not going to make anyone more employable in Scottish media circles. Investigating and proving a prior link between Stewart Regan and Peter Lawell would be pointless. For a start it would hardly mean Regan wasn't qualified for the position, simply being friendly with the CEO of Celtic doesn't exclude you from the job, much as we might wish it did. Any insinuation that this might mean that Celtic would get preferential treatment, or indeed that Rangers would get the opposite, would be almost impossible to prove. Short of a smoking gun style tape recording of them conspiring it would be impossible to prove, if true, and every journalist knows this. So why bother? Leggat's blog is simply a continuation of a long standing tradition in journalism. From Private Eye to Guido Fawkes there has always been an outlet for rumour, supposition and suggestion carefully (usually) worded to avoid possible litigation or tracing of the original source. The only surprising thing about his blog is that he puts his name to it, fair play to him for that.

Apparently the SFA have known about this for weeks, it was picked up by the BBC today because of last nights statement. The SFA want nothing to do with it and have no stomach for a fight with Whyte which would have no 'winner'. It is not in the SFAs interest to pick fights with member clubs, particularly powerful popular ones. That's why Regan's statement is so ambiguous.