Zander1

It's surely got to be... "Diomande, Diomande..." to the "Dee-Oh-De-Dae" bit. Someone better than me can sort the details, I'm a big picture kinda guy.

Objectively, McInnes is the second best manager in the league, behind Rodgers. That said, the fact he's turned us down previously should automatically exclude him from consideration. A couple of bad results and things would get toxic very quickly.

Wouldn't be against that either. Just don't fancy any of the names mentioned, so would rather wait until the summer and see if there's anyone better available. If do so, I'd rather have someone experienced at the helm until then than a rookie, as there's still a lot to play for this season. Like I say, it one of the older heads gets a tune can consider extending, if not, nothing lost.

Ha, I posted this almost word for word - great minds and all that.

I'll probably get pelters, but I'd offer it to Warnock until the end of the season and the reassess. We need someone to get the best out of a poor bunch and Warnock has previous for that. At his age he might take a short term deal. If he does well, extend it. If not, look again in the summer, as I don't see any outstanding candidates available just now anyway.

This is the thing that annoys me. Him not being a good manager isn't his fault, nor is it his fault he was promoted to a position he'd done nothing to merit. But coming out with pish excuses is an insult to the intelligence of the supporters.

As predictable as it is depressing.

Then he's the only one. Also, when did the whole '3 games in 7 days' become an issue. Robson was coming out with it too after Aberdeen's game midweek. It's what happens if you're playing in Europe. Or a midweek cup game. Or any midweek game. And it's always been the same. It's another pathetic excuse.

If he tries to use injuries an excuse - We've no defensive or goalkeeper injuries. Lundstram has arguably been our best midfielder this season. He paid >£1m to brin in Cifuentes early, so presumably he thought he'd be a starter. He paid >£7m for Dessers and Lammers, so he obviously thought they'd be starters Sima is a loan, so obviously wasn't brought in to develop, i.e. he wanted to play him now. In summary, yes we've got injuries, but they wouln't be affecting us nearly as much if his recruitment hadn't been so awful. Also, Van Bronckhorst had 11 players out at one point and it didn't save him.

Not only was Ibrox in a computer game, but back in the 2000s there was a Rangers Playstation game. It was part of a series of games that were based around individual clubs, called Club Football. I bought it at the time. I see to remember they even had a horrific version of Alex McLeish in it. I thought I'd dreamt it but then found this...

Don't think the league is as done and dusted as everyone seems to think. If we go there and win (big if) doubt will start to creep into their minds. They are, by and large, a squad that has never won a league. Still tricky games to come. All ifs and buts, and we're massive outsiders, but it certainly isn't all over.

Exactly - imagine we're playing Hearts and Souttar is in their team, knowing that if we don't win it dents his chances of playing CL next season. It's actually mental when you think about it.

This 100%. Given the financial implications of the league this year, and how light we've been at centre-back lately, I think it's a no-brainer.

Eternal optimist... But if Gerrard is approached, turns it down flat-out and states that he has unfinished business here, then it would actually be a huge morale boost to the whole squad. Admittedly, we'd be in the exact same position we are now, but after all the speculation, it would almost feel like a new signing.

He's really not. For the record, I don't want him anywhere near the Rangers job, but his record at Aberdeen was good for a long period. Not brilliant, but good. I'm not claiming he's a great manager, and I repeat I want him nowhere near Rangers, but he's certainly not terrible.

Wouldn't know, only watched his Aberdeen sides playing us, and they were never going to be playing free-flowing football in those fixtures.

I actually don't think he's a bad manager, but given he turned us down before that would be completely untenable.

I disagree. Even forgetting what he's achieved here, his status as a player would always put him in the frame for that job. Lampard, Ole, Arteta...none of them had particularly impressive records as managers, all got their jobs due to their status as players. And none was as a big a hero to their fans as Gerrard is to Liverpool. In short, Gerrard doesn't need to go to Villa. If Klopp left tomorrow, 100% Gerrard would be in the frame for that job. The lure of Villa isn't (or shouldn't be) that it gets him closer to Anfield.

I know nothing about journalism, so might be totally wrong here...but... For any journalist to know that Gerrard is interested, he himself would have to have told them (or told someone who told the journo). Given no official approach has been made, It just seems unfathomable to me that he's been telling people he wants the job. Even if it were true, I don't see what he would gain by speaking about it. Strikes me as more likely that there is a source, but one who's speculating based on what they think Gerrard wants to do.

Fair enough - I just think that the point of this thread is (I think) to assess how good Gerrard has been in the transfer market. To do that you have to look at if, overall, he's brought in good players for the money spent. For the reasons I've mentioned, I think the answer is yes. The financial state of Scottish football doesn't really change that imo.

Agree to disagree on that point. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but allowing for the £26million you've quoted + any other cost for transfer fees, would £30m be a reasonable estimate of his spend? Over 3 years that's really not a huge amount in the modern game. Given where we were when he took over, it's difficult to envisage us having won the league spending less over those three years.

For comparison, here's Sir Alex's first 42 signings at Man Utd. It's all about opinions, but I'd guess less than half could be regarded as definite 'Hits'. Viv Anderson: £250,000 Brian McClair: £850,000 Mark Hughes: £1.8m Jim Leighton: £500,000 Lee Sharpe: £200,000 Mal Donaghy: £650,000 Giuliano Maiorana: Undisc Ralph Milne: £170,000 Mike Phelan: £750,000 Neil Webb: £1.5m Gary Pallister: £2.3m Paul Ince: £1m from Danny Wallace: £1.2 Les Sealey: Undisc Denis Irwin: £625,000 Neil Whitworth: £45,000 Andrei Kanchelskis: £650,000 Peter Schmeichel: £500,000 Paul Parker: £2m Pat McGibbon: £100,000 Dion Dublin: £1m Eric Cantona: £1.2m Roy Keane: £3.7m Graeme Tomlinson: Undisc David May: £1.4m Andy Cole: £6m Nick Culkin: £250,000 William Prunier: Free Raimond van der Gouw: Free Ronny Johnsen: £1.2m Tony Coton: £500,000 Karel Poborsky: £3.5m Jordi Cruyff: £1.3m Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: £1.5m Teddy Sheringham: £3.5m Erik Nevland: Nominal Henning Berg: £5m from Blackburn Jonathan Greening: £500,000 Jaap Stam: £10.7m Jesper Blomqvist: £4.4m Dwight Yorke: £12.6m Mark Bosnich: Free

The 'last season' comment is odd given we're top currently. You make it sound like we're miles behind. There's no reason to think we won't win the league again this year. And just think how much less money we'd have made without some of the brilliant performances we've seen in Europe in recent years. Gerrard inherited a team a million miles behind celtic. He's built an entirely new squad, spending less significantly less than our nearest rivals. We won the league last year without losing a game, are top this year and have, generally, been excellent in Europe. Pretty clear cut to me.

It's very easy to look at that list, see that the majority have been failures, and conclude that Gerrard has been poor in the transfer market...but that's not the whole story. Many of those guys were frees and/or brought in as squad players. When you look at our best 11, or even best current squad as a whole, the majority are Gerrard signings that have been good/great for us. And he's done that without spending a fortune. That's good enough for me.

Why are they completely ignoring the fact that we've won Old Firm games, easily the highest-pressure fixture in the country, in front of crowds at both Ibrox and the Piggery? Lazy, reactionary nonsense. News flash - champions league qualifiers are always hard. We had an off-day against Dundee Utd. We're still favourites for the league and the fact the everyone seems to have forgotten that will only work in our favour.