jcb

spot on. it is their way of saying that we will not attract any "big" names. Who wants a big name? Boogie and King Carlos were hardly big names but have done a good job and were value for money. I cannot for the life of me understand why we don't have a look at some decent German and Dutch players. At least we'll know they can trap a ball and pass it which is more than can be said for the average British player. Sadly i think even the £2-3 million players like Cuellar & Bougherra are now outwith our price range but would agree we should be looking overseas for younger,ambitious players rather than the vastly over-inflated Brittish market.

I'll say one thing, Charlie Adam, shines in the championship, not exactly a stand out here. Don;t fret over ledley. The other two are over paid and injury prone. The Charlie Adam at Blackpool was a different beast to the one that was at Rangers. Too many underestimate the standard in the Championship. Playing in his natural position on a consistent basis with a support who get behind him when not everything he tries comes off could also be a reason for his upturn in form.

Arrogance and Stupidity are both symptoms of our macho attitude.

Wenger bans tackling in training and it was only for one session a week. That session was used to give players more time on the ball to develop these skills. This is common practice accross the continent but hey what have we too learn??? The tackling story was all part of the misinformation coming out the dressing room to undermime him, the leaks from our judas ex captain to of all peope Radio Cattolica and the Rhebel sums the man up. No doubt PLG made mistakes but he acted with the best interests of the club and has shown dignity throughout, at least he is man enough to admit he made mistakes unlike Captain me me me. Our ex Captain was only acting in his own narrow interests and to this day has not admited his own mistakes. I'm sure some day he might but you can be sure its for more silver from his Mhedia chums for Captain me me me. By god has our club moved forward since he was punted, how refreshing to actually have a captain with the true stature of a Rangesr Captain. If only we had of got a hold of Weir years ago. There seems to be a naked hostility to foreigners and foreign ideas from much of our support. I used to listen to Albertz being called a "German poof" as he wasn't crashing into tackles and launching his head at the ball when it was in the air. Comments such as "look at the size of him and he can't header" and "look how big he is and he doesn't get stuck in" were commonplace. De Boer and Gio received their fair share of invective also. I do wonder when the country is going to wake up and realise our way is wrong. Our national team is a joke, our club teams perform pathetically in Europe and we produce no (or very few) players of substance, grace and style. The country will never wake up to the reality of things. The chip on the shoulder is still there. Due to the macho culture prevalent in this country we appreciate and relate more to players who give 100% and "get stuck in " rather than the more creative and cultured ones who are not as consistent.

Not selecting a secure centre-back pairing and certain players not following tactical instructions could also be the reasons for the loss of some goals.As I said before he made mistakes but feel we are too quick to judge both new players & managers when perhaps a long term view could be more productive.

One of the reasons PLG failed was several high-profile players never bought into his vision of how the club would change under his leadership.The thought of double training sessions,strict diets and generally living the lifestyle of a modern athlete was too much for some who sought to undermine his every move. Did he make mistakes?.Yes of course he did but I truly believe he was destined to fail from day one.

Disagree PIB,I think you can tell a lot about a person by the standards he sets in his personal life. Give me a team full of players who make headlines in the sports pages rather than page one. As someone mentioned he was found not guilty, and by your reasoning are you suggesting that we should get rid of McGregor as soon as possible? Was a general observation and not aimed specificaly at Calum Davenport.Re-Alan McGregor his off-field behaviour is not what I,d expect from a Rangers player and think it reflects negatively on the club. Also boils down to the goldfish bowl that is the Old Firm, especially our half, the other half of the bowl seems too murky to see anything, well according to the mhedia anyway. Don't disagree with you to a certain extent, but if any player (especially ours), go off the straight and narrow even by a small margin, the press gleefully blow everything out of proportion and the problem is, too many people will happily believe a negative story more than a positive story. Fair points, Although I was brought up to expect a certain standard of behaviour from our players I would agree that the media is a different beast nowadays.

Disagree PIB,I think you can tell a lot about a person by the standards he sets in his personal life. Give me a team full of players who make headlines in the sports pages rather than page one. As someone mentioned he was found not guilty, and by your reasoning are you suggesting that we should get rid of McGregor as soon as possible? Was a general observation and not aimed specificaly at Calum Davenport.Re-Alan McGregor his off-field behaviour is not what I,d expect from a Rangers player and think it reflects negatively on the club.

Disagree PIB,I think you can tell a lot about a person by the standards he sets in his personal life. Give me a team full of players who make headlines in the sports pages rather than page one.

100% correct my friend. When it comes down to being a class act Paul Le Guen is in a different league to Barry Ferguson Le Guen had his own standards on how players should prepare & train but this went againgst the grain for the over-rated ,overpaid Scottish contingent we had back then.

In a different league where goalscoring chances ara limited Kris Boyd will struggle. Fitness-Poor Attitude-Poor Touch-Abysmal By not addressing these aspects of his game indicated a lack of ambition on his part.

If we as a club are to progress players like Thomson and Davis must be retained. They should play in centre midfield with John Fleck in a advanced position providing the creativity we lack. All three are comfortable on the ball but have different strenghths which I think would make a good combination.

I would prefer a scheme in which 50,000 fans contributed £10 a month via direct debit with all monies being ringfenced for transfer fees & wages incurred. Running from August-July this would also raise £5 million with any funds not used carrying into the following season.This added to any normal transfer kitty would allow us to invest in a better quality of player while releasing other monies to drive down our debt saving on interest payments plus making the club more attractive to any potential investors.

First and foremost any signings must be based on ability and not for commercial reasons however I would agree that both Japan & South Korea have players with more technique ,tactical awareness & dicipline several of whom I Would welcome to our club.

agreed!! do u know how much that budget is? No-one know's bar the management team, Martin Bain, Alastair Johnston... The £5m banded about is a guess by the mhedia. Rangers are hardly going to come out and tell everyone how much they have to spend, it doesn't work like that. No matter the amount available for transfer fees,signing on fees,wages etc we must get full value for every pound spent and never return to the days where millions of pounds were wasted on sub standard players or those looking for a final payday.Think of how the club could have progressed from when Joe Lewis and Dave King invested had a long term buisness plan & footballing strategy been put in place and adhered to.

Agree 100% but would be surprised if all four are still with us when our Champions League campaign kicks off(Would love to be wrong),In the long term however our aim must be to retain our best players,promote the most talented from the youths and invest wisely in the transfer market buying players that fit into the style of play we adopt.

Our limited transfer budget should I hope ensure that any signing made would be based on more than a few games in the World Cup.We should be looking at the areas that need improving and signing the best player available in our price range.

Most talented player to emerge in years but in order to get the best out of him he must play in his natural poition.Playing him on left wing does both player and team no favours as it limits his effectiveness.

Bleugh, my mistake, I meant him at left back, and Whittaker at right back i like the 4-3-1-2 --------------mcgregor--------------- whittaker--webster--bougherra---papac ----------------edu------------------ -----------davis----thomson---------- ---------------fleck----------------- ---------lafferty--miller------------ if we dont sell or buy anyone which of course, we will or 4-4-2/4-2-4 -------------mcgregor----------------- new rb---webster---bougherra---new lb --------davis------thomson------------ new rw-------------------------new lw --------miller---new striker---------- but thats 5 new players, not going to happen!! First team looks pretty decent- flexible formation,Players selected in their natural positions,John Fleck given free role behind front two. We can only dream.

of course he will fans who are judging John already dont have a fuckin clue what they are on about, i find it hard to believe any Rangers fan would be hard on the lad when they are happy to support hammer throwers like McCulloch in the team, whos kidding who? ! i said when he made his debut Walter could end up ruining the boy if he plays him out wide left, he has not had 1 good game playing left mid and has not had nearly enough chances playing through the middle, he does have a touch, he likes shooting and has a great drive from midfield, skills other players who get a game do not possess, he will be some player for the Rangers and Scotland as you say Ricky fans slagging John Fleck!! !! what utter shite! geez peace Anyone who has followed John Flecks progress through our youth teams could tell you we have a very special talent on our books. All he needs is a regular start in his preferred position. *fans patience would also be much appreciated* i agree 100% Re John Fleck Talent-No Question Potential-No Limit Fans Patience- No Chance.

of course he will fans who are judging John already dont have a fuckin clue what they are on about, i find it hard to believe any Rangers fan would be hard on the lad when they are happy to support hammer throwers like McCulloch in the team, whos kidding who? ! i said when he made his debut Walter could end up ruining the boy if he plays him out wide left, he has not had 1 good game playing left mid and has not had nearly enough chances playing through the middle, he does have a touch, he likes shooting and has a great drive from midfield, skills other players who get a game do not possess, he will be some player for the Rangers and Scotland as you say Ricky fans slagging John Fleck!! !! what utter shite! geez peace Anyone who has followed John Flecks progress through our youth teams could tell you we have a very special talent on our books. All he needs is a regular start in his preferred position.

That is the key Frankie. We must find other ways of generating revenue. I'm pleased that we are going to Australia this summer and that's an area we certainly have to expand our operations as well as North America. As I said earlier we need to find a way of breaking even without Champions League money. In the past Celtic have done so. We must also do the same and never again find ourselves in the limbo we have been for the past 18 months I agree completely. Other areas of income need to be investigated. As for expanding into other areas I can only speak from my experience living in Australia. There are thousands of bears in OZ, and most other football fans have heard of Rangers but their knowledge is limited. As for merchandise it is non existant here none of the big sports outlets carry Rangers gear, they have lots of the EPL, Serie A team tops and quite a few others some even carry green and white hooped shite, but not Rangers. This is a vast untapped market which ok is not going to solve our financial problems, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. Great point Bluenose. I simply do not understand why the money men at our club have not thought of this. Even the website which sells our clubs merchandise is utterly shambolic The subtle flaw in all of these grand plans is the small matter of a company called JJB who don't give a flying fcuk about Rangers merchandise. While £4.8 million per year is from a financial viewpoint is good buisness the lack of stand alone Rangers shops(especially in Glasgow city centre & airport)is typical of the quick fix attitude we have adopted in recent years. I recall Nick peel( ex head of retail)talking of a three storey building(which would be lit up in blue in the evening)complete with restaurant being planned for the city centre only for him to fall out with Martin Bain and leave soonafter.

And that's us come full circle. As i originally replied this attitude is why we will never improve. A sad acceptance of Scotland producing technically deficient players and a "we're daein no' too bad" view. Population undoubtedly gives us a smaller pool to fish in but attitudes towards youth development and attitudes towards being a truly professional athelete (and the sacrifices this entails) need to change or we will never get any better. I don't believe we should just accept the status quo. My old Chairman had a motto for the company, "there is always a better way". This mentality has taken his organisation from a three person company in the 1970s to an organisation with a £1.2 billion income employing about 900 today. Instead of bemoaning "population, climate, development" (not sure what defines development!?!?) we should be looking at a better way. Where better to start than emulating the countries known for consistently producing the best players? are croatia and holland, maybe serbia not small countries too? they seem to develop outstanding talents even the smaller south american countries, they can all play football, basics come naturally to them unlike the scots who cant even do the basics on a pitch The Netherlands have almost four times as many people as we do. Croatia, smaller population, but better climate and less developed, so it's easier for youngsters to play football in the street. Serbia have twice as many people as we do, and have a similar climate to Croatia. fuck me, the girls have been busy in holland, i didnt know their population was upto 20million! thats news to me cheers Population of The Netherlands is 16.6 million compared to our 5.2 million yet they have produced some of the Worlds greatest players,defeat countries with far bigger populations and regularly reach the latter stages of World Cups & Euro Championships while we have failed to qualify for either and produce players who lack even the basic skills.What is it going to take for us to change!!.

Also recall Dynamo Kiev playing at Ibrox around 90 or 91,beat us 3-1 going on 6 or 7.If memory serves me right Oleg Kuznetsov played(might have scored)that day.

We have a set up like there's. It cost £10,000,000+ to build. I think over the next 5 or so years we will see a lot of youth players coming through. I'm happy with the set up, Murray Park has more or less paid for itself with the sell on of a few of the youth players over the last couple of years. I think its just the beginning. Hutton covered most of it and if we get a good chunk of change from possibly Wilson, Fleck etc over the next 2-3 years, we're actually in the black with the construction of Murray Park completely. Its just all the other bad financial management that's cost us, ie - Advocaat. Just think - instead of buying Tore Andre Flo - we built the complex back then. I'm quite confident that we would of had at least 10+ youth players through that method by now. It makes me sick thinking about it. It was Dick Advocaat who insisted on us having a top class training & youth facility which put to an end the ridiculous practice of multi-million pound players being bussed around Glasgow to train at a different venue each day.As for bad financial management we were £5.9 million in debt in 2007,six years after Dick left.