nelsonRFC82

All that list shows is the Record have no clue what targets Mark Allen is working on! We need quality not squad players! Basically, 4/5 players to become the spine of the team. If we are serious about competing, priorities should not be shipping out likes of Herrera to sign Moult, to improve options from the bench! In an ideal world, of course you want to build a squad of 22+ that can be called upon and trusted to perform, but the time to improve your bench is when your first xi is solid but lacks options/depth. When first xi is failing, absolute focus has to be on that not the squad!

A club with no honour expecting a guard of honour? The field in which I grow fucks lies barren for whatever they want!

I've backed Argentina & Spain. After last night, happier with Spain's chances but Argentina, ever so slightly, less so!

The view they are expecting people to believe is as follows: - The "leadership group" referred to by Smith in his press conference consists of him, as captain, Warner, as his vice, and Bancroft, who was making his 8th test appearance I think? - These 3, all batsmen, came up with the plan in isolation to tamper with the ball to engineer reverse swing and no bowlers were even made aware. - Lehmann knew nothing about it, was pure coincidence that he got on the walkie talkie as soon as the footage emerged on screen and then the 12th man was on the field and suddenly Bancroft was trying to hide the evidence. Aye that all sounds believable!

Quoting people's comments during or after a loss, particularly an OF loss is probably not the greatest measure of someone's overall ability/career. Ferguson was a class player, was he overrated by some...probably. Fans, in general, tend to overrate their good players in good times, and are also just as likely to slaughter during bad (see your quotes as an example). What is undeniable, in games on the biggest stage, and competing against some of the very best players around (out of a fairly long list, two that stick out for me are when we played Bayern and when Scotland played away to Italy, up against Gattuso & Pirlo) he was every bit a match for these players. As a footballer, I would have loved to see him play in likes of La Liga or Serie A...although as a person I don't think he would have coped with the move abroad. Any "debate" regarding Ferguson or Scott Brown is nonsense of the very highest order!

Those first two years under Advocate were probably as good a Rangers team as Ive seen. Look at the teams we played in Europe and were more than competitive with Bayern (won 1 CL & 1 final between 1998 -2002), Valencia (2 finals), Leverkusen (1 final), Parma (UEFA cup winner 98), also throw in Dortmund & PSV.

In general I wouldn't be against this approach, is common in rugby, for example, for ref to call over captain after a series of infringements and basically say "sort it out or the next one is yellow". I don't think it would be the worst thing to see football referees a bit more open & communicative. However, it needs to be done consistently and fairly.

I don't think this is the start of it at all, it has probably already begun. Once they enforced seeding in every single draw (you even get seeding in play-offs FFS...they can't even acknowledge 8 teams who all finished runners-up in qualifying groups as equals), then they were working towards their ideal closed shop. Case in point would be UCL. A two-tier qualifier system is probably not that far away.

And when Romario left they got some boy called Ronaldo in to replace him!

It does both, as it replaces many of the dates for friendlies in the calendar it adds element of control to who you play during those dates and therefore attempts to avoid FIFA ranking manipulation (i.e. deliberately playing lower ranked teams in the dates leading up to qualifier draws to protect ranking points, you have to play teams in or around your ranking level)...although given it is a UEFA only thing, clearly all other countries can continue to manipulate their rankings via friendlies! There are qualification places up for grabs and guarantees at least one nation from each of the 4 tiers will qualify. This may very well be Scotland's best hope to qualify and certainly is Faroe's as I'm sure @johanhentze will attest to!

Bit of perspective, could very well imagine that, whilst most would have been delighted with Sir Walter's return, I am not sure the signings of Weir, Ehiogu & Thomson (think those were his first captures?) really would have inspired the fanbase? I think the narrative of how successful a transfer window is or is not, is best written postscript! I am cautiously optimistic, however, especially having signed players to strengthen two glaring weaknesses, being that of an additional winger and a striker to share the load with Morelos.

Paul Murray likes this!

He's not xenophobic but he reckons players from South America will always struggle...even though we only signed one South American, and he actually gets praise from Boyd?

C1872 statement did attack the board on it's lack of contingency planning, a suggestion King rejected before going on to say they didn't have a contingency plan as they didn't think they would need one...pretty much text book definition of failing to have a contingency plan!?!? After nearly two months we have failed with our "Plan A" and now have said it's Murty until the end of the year...clear evidence again of no contingency planning. Personally I think their actions show a lack of Plan A, let alone B & C! I would expect C1872 to challenge the board on this, and also for their quite pathetic statement last night!

Absolutely, regardless of next manager there remains significant question marks over most this squad, certainly in terms of attitude.

Are you genuinely trying to apportion blame on to players giving their all to try and ensure the club is successful for maintaining Pedro's reign too long? Should they have deliberately lost games to get rid of him sooner? The appointment/sacking of a manager is not the players responsibility, what is their responsibility is to work their damnedest on the pitch & in training to make this club successful again!

Can't say have much sympathy for Motherwell. After the atrocious refereeing in league cup semi they seemed keen to paint us as bad losers and need to just get on with it etc. Will soon be hearing about "old firm bias" again...didn't BBC Scotland even run a poll on worst decisions for decisions for old firm at Hampden on morning of our semi (why they did it before our game specifically rather than the weekend in general where both were playing at Hampden is anyone's guess...)!

Aye we are short of the required quality but we are also not THAT bad as is, understandably, often claimed after another let down. The team lacks both character & quality to go on long unbeaten runs required to challenge, however the basis of the squad is not too bad. By that, it is not time to throw the baby out with the bath water, rather than another rebuild focus on adding 3-4 quality additions that improves key areas of the pitch and you could see some significant, and fairly quick, boosts to performance and results!

Perhaps fans should withhold season ticket money and pay game by game until the board prove themselves...sure someone suggested that in the past? So fucking frustrating watching this pish, I don't blame Murty, he is an U-20s coach and should remain so. He was afforded goodwill upon retaking the reigns on the back of a backs to the wall point at parched...however it seemed people had forgotten the performances at Inverness & Dundee (handstands anaw)? We got the new manager bounce to take 6 points in to the international break and have now royally fucked up that perfect time to appoint and bed in the new manager. For all of what we had delivered so far this season, the correct appointment then and a title challenge was not out of the realms of fantasy! What I can't understand is the rhetoric that Pedro was sacked as the club "needed to act" and then have quite explicitly not acted. Even the nonsense statements, we await applications etc. Not fit for purpose and I can't really think of anything in support of them other than "there is no-one else" and maybe "they are not as bad as Green, Ashley..."

Weren't Diadora simply an additional sponsor back then and our kits made "in-house" and by in-house this meant a company own by Murray?

90/100, 1 or 2 lucky guesses in there coupled with 1 or 2 doughnut moments of pressing the wrong name while knowing exactly who the player was...so unlike Scottish refereeing decisions these things do even themselves out!

Murty's story has been rewritten on the back of a point at celtic Park, we were god awful against Inverness & Dundee during his tenure. Of course it was a massive step up and I appreciated his efforts and all in all he handled it well, but his caretaker period needs to be as short as possible, none of this give him to end of season. I would love to say likes of de Boer or Gio, as I do think that is the level we need to target to truly progress as a club. People often cite the need for a good Scottish/British manager who knows the club...but that viewpoint is based nearly entirely on the successes of Sir Walter...but those successes were not that of a "Scottish/British" manager...they were that of Sir Walter and very few would have even got close to replicating what he did regardless of nationality, especially second time round! That all said, we are in a dogfight now just to simply establish ourselves as 2nd best and unless we are going to back a revolution a la Advocaat...not gonna happen. I think we do need a short-term fix, make us disciplined, hard to beat, improved work-rate and start to get a bit of fear factor back for a visit to Ibrox! On that basis I am thinking Big Sam, he fits that bill while still offering a "statement" type appointment... he was England manager a year or so ago. As an aside, your poll suggests "from the names mentioned", who mentioned Jim Duffy? And was it for any other reason than he squared up to Lennon last year? FFS By the way my "other" is Derek McIness...he ain't on list of who you think it will be poll?

“My own view is that we have a better squad than people think and perhaps a new management team will get more out of them." That's actually a view I share , granted we still need 3-4 signings of the quality to enhance the first xi, rather than squad, before we are really likely to challenge. Also the mentality of this squad is questionable to say the least and a few home truths will need to be laid bare by whomever is the next manager.

I wonder if those in the press who criticised out players for not standing up to Motherwell's "physical" approach on Sunday, will be congratulating Jack today?

Firstly I don't think we CAN attempt a rebuild again, but I also don't think we need to! It's not THAT bad a squad. It's light and obvious character issues...but I still feel if we made 3-4 signings focussing on key improvements to first team, rather than squad; RB, LM, 2nd striker/link player...you could see immediate and significant improvements. This coupled with a manager who can galvanise the squad and things will look a whole lot better.