Bakbear

Just can’t take to Morelos at all. Seems like a huffy spoiled wee prick. Dont know if he is a confidence player or if he is just a shit finisher but whatever is going on, since the China speculation he has been completely incapable of finishing. Still puts a shift in but needs to be able to finish Really disappointed with the mid to front tonight.

This is the crux of the matter. As a support, our tolerance for abuse is high. Most bears I know couldn’t give a fuck if we get called names. There is a reason that one of our anthems is “no one likes us, we don’t care” but what’s happened in the last decade has shown that this approach only hurts us. We need to highlight the hypocrisy and double standards. It’s not whataboutery. It’s one club being held to a different standard from all other clubs. I get that vanguard bears seem to be talking about them a lot but that’s natural given that they spend their existence always denegrating us. All most of us want is parity and even treatment. We will call them fenian bastards and they will call us Dirty Orange H** Bastards and the world will be balanced once again.

While the reaction to this is way over the top. Using an image of a guy in a Rangers top is completely unnecessary. One photo was more than adequate. And there was no need for that one photo to be in a top he had on simply because he had swapped it at the end of a friendly. The argument of copyright is a straw man. If they are paying for 3 photos why use a 4th that is free. Just use one that you are paying for and save the money on the other 2. Thereby postponing the inevitable demise of a gutter rag and the loss of employment of talentless bottom feeders?

22 players involved and yet plenty didn’t feature. Just shows how much work there is still to be done to trim the squad.

Only 8 teams have ever won the World Cup and I don’t see that changing this year.

Gerrard mentioned two makeshift "back 4s" in his interview today. So does that mean no 3-5-3? Also facilities were first class and hotel was very nice....

I expect a close run second place tbh. I want first. But if we take it down to the last 2 games of the season then he gets a reprieve for next year. Assuming it’s not a treble treble. If they win a treble treble the SG can do one

Agree with this. Love Walter but his input now should be purely about traditions and standards. Ally McCoist was a fucking shite manager and one of his failings was he tried to be something he was not. Walter Smith. Gerrard needs to be his own man. Speak to Walter about the old days by all means. Get a sense of what we are about, although I think he already gets it, but leave his footballing ideas in the past.

Apart from the fact that they have done a tonne of ball work , the hard running isn’t just about physical fitness. It’s about mental fitness. That’s what Gullane sands was about too all those years ago We were psychologically weak last season. Get these fucking pussies hardened up. No surrender isn’t just a tagline, it has to be drilled into them with fucking hard work.

This is the crux of it. The days of us, or anyone in Scotland, or even outside the big 5 or 6 leagues in Europe, buying real quality are over......

Fucking Mental talk frankly. How much money would we make from sales of specific names and numbers on shirts? If someone wants Gerrard 8 on their back they can go in and get it. Bizarre idea to assign a squad number to the manager

Probably a hyperbolic use of the "fuck" made my post seem more aggressive than I intended. I meant to be more aligned with the opening sentence which was "i don't know what would make me overwhelmed" I genuinely don't know what players we could sign the are any better than what we have signed. I get your point that we don't know who might be interested but we can't overlook that its not just about interest anymore, its about earning potential. Football is all about money and as we saw with Skrtel, we are on a different footballing planet when it comes to money. No one is going to be sitting with a good reputation, getting +60 grand a week looking at options around the place and say, "fuck it, Stevie G is building something good in Glasgow, I will go there on <30 grand a week because its Stevie G" I think with the signing of guys like Flannagan, Barton, MOH, Black etc. we have demonstrated that a players character is less important than their potential playing attributes, which I disagree with. So to back to my original post, we are shopping for misfits or unknowns with potential. Thats just reality, not a slipping of standards

So I am very underwhelmed so far but here is the thing.... I don't know what would have me overwhelmed anymore... or even just whelmed... if it was a word We are likely never again going to be able to afford the cream of the "known" talent. They are all going to be already on mega bucks. We simply cannot afford them irrespective of the Gerrard effect. So that means there are only three categories we are able to shop in Unknowns with potential - Goldson Katic etc Misfits - Flannagan Pena Has beens.- Alves, Kranjcar etc Experience has taught us that Has beens rarely works out, so its Unknowns with potential and Misfits that we are left with. So who the fuck were we expecting to sign?

Ha. Sent this before I watched the video. Just assumed it was his interview from Spain He almost hasn’t changed though. Still got the excitement levels of a 12 year old

His accent is fucking bogging. That aside, I think he is one of our highest potential players. Injury free, he has the potential to be a star for us

Watch the interview with him. He says something about Turkey. I am sure he is saying that he once did a preseason in Turkey where they didn’t touch a ball for 3 days.

This was not what I heard in his interview. He was asked if this was the hardest training ever and he said yes but once I was in Turkey and we trained for 3 days without the ball. I have watched all the videos from Spain and they have done a lot of ball work every day. Shooting practice, mini games, drills of keep ball. Not aimed at you but generally speaking I don’t get why so many of or fans are so quick to be negative about everything.

Tell you what. Am no much for Twitter but it’s funny as fuck seeing all the coverage we are getting from all the mainstream media and the fenians all moaning like fuck that they are getting no attention. More taigs commenting than anything else, all butthurt that we are the main attraction as usual.

Wouldn’t be against Alves for his swan song with Goldson or Rossiter taking over next season if they earn it this year

We need rid of the deadwood.

A good few years ago things were different. And not just we were on top. I agree that to consider that there is a grand conspiracy, orchestrated by nefarious characters who all get together (in a lodge) at the start of the season and decide they are going to keep down one team through refereeing decisions is paranoid. That is not what I am suggesting. I can’t speak for others. i am saying that referees give the vast majority of difficult decisions to our detriment because that’s the path of least resistance. I dont even think it’s consciously done.

Is not even close to a God argument. This is a straw man. Its impossible to prove the God exists because that requires faith. However it is possible to provide evidence that we were on the end of beneficial decisions as often as we were on the end of detrimental decisions. It is simple data based analysis. I have watched games and based on my witnessing of the data in real time, I conclude that more decisions went against us. However I am willing to concede that my perception based on real time decisions over the course of the season may be wrong. I would just like to see the counter argument based on incidents that I may have overlooked in real time. A factual based rebuttal other than “nah your para”

On the contrary. If you can present data to refute my perception then I am happy to change it

Trait 2. Deliberately miss the point. The Rangers supporters who believe there to be bias, do not believe that one referee is biased towards our club. We believe that all referees have a bias that has been generated over the last 8 years due to the pressure applied to them by certain clubs and their supporters while other clubs and their supporters have taken a dignified silence approach. Trait 1 Be Contrary if you have watched all the Rangers games this season and feel that the decisions that have gone against us in those games. Compares equally to the decisions that have gone for us in those games. Then the discussion is over. In the interests of sporting investigative journalism why not create a spreadsheet and have a for and against list. Put down in the “for” list all the Pena red cards that never happened and all the Morelos red cards that never happened and then in the “against” column add in all the red cards we wrongly got or red card challenges that were overlooked and let’s see what it looks like. I am willing to accept that I am perceiving this incorrectly

Dude I have never really had the inclination to engage in a debate with you. It is akin to debating a brick wall. You have three traits 1. Be contrary 2. Deliberately miss the point 3. Set up straw men You have exhibited all 3 of these characteristics in this post. Now I don’t want to be the guy who tackles the man instead of the ball so let me try to respond and then I am happy to agree to disagree You are constantly trying to convince us that with all your vast experience of watching Scottish football it has you uniquely placed to confirm to us that the referees in Scotland are shite. Please. Stop. We all agree. This is not the point and you are deliberately missing it (trait 2) That kind of deals with 70% of your post. The brass tacks is are they biased? You have said that time and again studies have shown that teams with the louder crowd get decisions. To copy a contrary trait from you, please link these studies? Only joking don’t link the studies as I don’t care and it’s a pointless request as it is irrelevant to the discussion (trait 3) if, as you say, time after time studies have proven that the louder crowd influence a referee into giving a decision then why is it the biggest and best supported club in the country were on the end of the overwhelming majority of incorrect decisions last season? If it was the case that Motherwell played Kilmarnock and the poor refereeing standards meant that the overwhelming majority of the decisions went in Motherwells favour over the course of the game. With Motherwell getting away with a couple of red cards, awarded a soft penalty and scoring a dubious goal, while Kilmarnock had a wrong red card issued, one of their players injured by an assault of a challenge and a stonewall penalty turned down. Then Klimarnock would be entitled to think that referee was biased against them. Now take that scenario into Kilmarnocks next game, the same thing happens to them even though they are now playing St Johnstone and again the following week against Aberdeen. Then Kilmarnock fans would for sure say there was a bias against them. Because the facts are that poor refereeing is poor for everyone. The old adage “it evens out over a season” applies when there is consistently poor refereeing, but if it’s inconsistent and it is inconsistent to the detriment of a particular club then there is a bias. How do you train an animal or a child? You reward it for good behaviour and punish it for bad behaviour. Referees have felt the pain when they have made calls that have hurt a certain club. They have been pain free when they have made calls that have hurt us. Isn’t it time to bring the pain? Even in the form of registering our complaints. I hope to fuck Gerrard thinks so. I hope he ditches dignified silence and calls out every single Ref fuck up against us and highlights every wrong decision