rossco87

Hard to tell whether Clark is scrambling his way to victory or is just 1 shot away from falling apart…

Yeah maybe. On the other hand is say McGregor going to be 100% sold if Rodgers starts bumping up how great he is seeing as he never took him down south.

Will he though? Squad will just be getting over Ange “you will be surprised how long I am here for” and now got Rodgers who fucked off at the first flirtation from an EPL club (granted they were on a high when he joined but weren’t exactly an established big name) Sure he will have some respect in that he has won stuff and managed in the EPL but would guess there are probably some who will just be wondering how long until he fucks off again…

Get where you are coming from but for me Rodgers is as big a gamble for different reasons. Let’s be honest we all pished ourselves when they appointed Postecoglu, but that gamble worked out. Moresca is of the same ilk, but because of what happened with Postecoglu I suspect their support would be more inclined to give him time - still might not work but there is also the chance it might. With Rodgers the gamble is if they have even a slightly dodgy start it isn’t going to take long for the Timplosion to get under way, and pretty easy to see a situation with the nutcases splitting themselves into camps wanting Rodgers head (and probably the boards for bringing him back) and those that still see him as the saint blaming the players.

Yeah on the surface. We all know how deep and long their sense of injustice runs. First sign that it might not be going right and never mind Jaws, it will be Sharknado in the carpark!

Totally depends on what the new owners are selling him. Massive budget and guaranteed investment for future years - could totally see him convinced it is his chance to prove everyone wrong and that he has hard done by lack of investment at Leicester. Get the point about his ego not wanting to go to championship, but similar could be argued about coming back to them after walking out for his big chance to get back into England going wrong. Surely even he isn’t so delusional that he doesn’t realise they still have a large amount of seethe that will still be bubbling away after he dared to leave them last time. Would be funny as fuck if he turns them down now though!!!

From the links they have had he is without doubt the biggest name with the most proven track record, big issue though is he the right person. Giving Postecoglu the run of their transfer activity obviously worked for them in terms of getting players that suited his style of play but they are now in a position that they need to either appoint someone who is going to play the same style, to some degree rip it up and start again or try and get the players they have to play a different style under a new manager with a different philosophy. I think Rodgers falls into the latter and they then start down a tricky path that if it doesn’t work you have a bunch of players harking back to how it used to be. Also think he brings an unnecessary load of baggage that he can’t preach loyalty / giving your all for the team when he walked out during a title run in and while it’s pretty much accepted that any manager at either of us has a good couple of seasons they are going to be looked at down south, he is going to be getting that question the minute he walks in the door. It really is a weird one as in many ways it’s probably the manager they have been linked with I least want them to get but also has the biggest potential for it to go spectacularly wrong.

Genuinely could see him at Newcastle in a few years if they stick on the same trajectory. Or if Ten Haag continues the rebuild at Man Utd could see them pushing for him in a year or two as the “finishing piece” so to speak. Last I had read Madrid are still pretty stung he didn’t choose them last summer and have moved on (although that could change pretty quickly). Outside those 3 and obviously Man City (and they aren’t going to get Mbappe while they have Haaland) it’s pretty sad to say but I can’t see another club able to afford him unless some other state takes over another team or Barcelona somehow how find another 20 “financial levers” to pull and mortgage more future money for cash now…

Was that tonight? There has been stuff earlier in the season. As I said don’t follow Spanish football as closely as I used to but this gives a pretty decent summary (warning it contains quotes from (un)Fare…) https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/03/15/football/vinicius-jr-racism-in-spanish-football-spt-intl/index.html

I was going to suggest that but would Mbappe really want to be part of that swap given what Vinicius has suffered? Don’t really know the ins and the outs of the Vinicius Jr story to know if there was something that has made him the target so just assuming it is he is a good player and there are some right pricks in Spanish football. If he goes there does Mbappe just become the target?

Seems to have been going on all season with the pundits and press making veiled revisit comments on top of the outright abuse he has been getting from some supports. Wonder if he ends up leaving because of it? Can’t see Madrid being too keen to let him go but if player power comes in to it and Real dress it up as him being a makeweight for them getting someone in?

Yup. All ifs and buts, but if we hang on in Jan and Alfie’s goal stands (and we get a draw in that match) we are going in to tomorrow with a win taking us level at the top. Just goes to show how much a narrative can apply to a season. Ours has been poor, yet a couple of key moments change in our favour and it could all have been a lot different. Done now and we need to focus on building a squad good enough that it is everyone else looking back on what could have been.

Just don’t get why this is a thing? We should be pushing to get as many games on TV / as much exposure as possible so why are we limiting the number of games that can be shown. As much as it is all about us for me, I probably would have put on some of the games post split as there is a lot riding on them and I am more interested in the outcome of them than a meaningless EPL game or the League 2 playoffs…

Makes you wonder what could have been had we realised Gio wasn’t up to it earlier and the injuries had gone the other way (we didn’t have so many and they had to deal with some more to key players). Cant really recall them having to deal with too many long injuries to key players in the middle of the season.

100% this. For a player of Tillman’s age, potential & even just the fact he has come through the Bayern academy (not saying I think it should matter but you see clubs seemingly valuing it all the time) he is absolutely worth £5M in todays market. Trouble is we need a £5M player to be coming in as one of our top performers. We all know Tillman can be at that level, but for me he has a bit to go in terms of delivering consistently and in the big games. We pretty much need a new front line and some big signings for GK / defence and midfield. We need to be spending some serious (for us) money to give us the best chance of getting those right, which leaves the question do we use a big chunk of that on Tillman? I think whether we sign him or not is going to be more informed by if we can get decent money for players we want to sign and how much of our budget our other targets use rather than what we think he is worth.

Hadn’t picked up this one was because of the number of home games. I know @The Dude has previously hinted this was an SPFL decision rather then Sky. Just infuriating that we are tied into this deal for so long and are going to be even further behind in terms of marketing & promoting the game. That game should have 100% been heavily marketed for the last week would have drawn a fair amount of interest from neutrals given the importance.

I know I am opening up old discussions but I really don’t know how anyone associated with Scottish football can defend Sky’s decision not to show Hearts v Aberdeen so it doesn’t go up against Stockport v Salford playoff game.

Just can’t understand the mindset of some folk. Hopefully coverage gets those responsible caught and also maybe some of those that make a (relative) fortune out of our game might decide to give something back.

We should be offering them a couple of behind closed doors friendlies, purely to maintain sporting integrity 😂

We need to be looking at a model that you only need to have one subscription to be able to watch all live games for Scottish teams. The idea that you need to have Sky, Viaplay & BT Sport (fair enough we don’t have any say in European TV deals) and then have random games (youth cup final, OF woman’s game, Championship game tonight) on BBC Scotland must be driving down the number of people subscribing which then drives down the value of the deal. Utter madness that the incompetent cabal running our game seemingly went to Sky cap in hand for whatever deal they would give us rather try and set something up that would benefit the game.

While all that may be true, a lot of it is as a consequence of disastrous historic decisions on TV deals / relative paucity of the TV deals we have had in recent years. The way I see it it is a chicken and egg scenario. If there is not even an outside chance of a team winning silverware it isn’t exactly a surprise that their average crowd will decrease. The discrepancy in gate figures, coupled with the increasing income from Europe in recent seasons means the gulf is only going to go one way. Someone would need to have a prolonged period of being in serious contention for the league each season to see their gate receipts grow (and even then stadium capacities are around 50% vs us) and would need regular participation in European group stages. Basically the quality is only ever going to improve if there is more money coming into the game, gate receipts (outside us and them) are only going to improve if the quality (and competitiveness) on offer improves. One needs to break before the other does and in my opinion it is we need those running the game to find a way to get more money into the game - which is primarily going to be through TV. Sky aren’t in any rush to give us any more than they have to as they want all eyes on the English game as they have invested heavily on it over the years so I think we need to find a way to get someone else to come in and be looking at innovative ways of making the game more marketable (spreading kick off times to maximise games on TV, more access to players / dressing rooms / behind the scenes).

Also as much as I assume we would like to sell that we can be a stepping stone to the EPL for future talent, the reality is the best talent we have is realistically moving to middle of the table EPL level. If he backs himself he can already get loan / move to that level of club (and not have to face another season of some of the hammer throwers and non-existent protection from referees up here) then, as you say if he is not a Rangers fan, makes total sense to try and make that move. That is before you even through in stuff like potentially higher wage, better cities to live in , better weather.

Yeah - he has been talked up a fair bit on some of the European football podcasts I listen to and I had to Google his name and there was a fair amount of positive news articles on him and linking him with big summer moves. To be fair to him he never hid and kept trying but by the end it felt like he would have been better just not being on the pitch

Really enjoyed watching Napoli tonight, first I have had a chance to watch them properly since we played them. Absolutely dominated the game but fuck me their left winger Kvaratskhelia had a stinker - topped off by the missed pen.

Massive mistake in not going for a forward in January. Shades of Tottenham in 2015/16 when they didn’t got a CF and they ended up fading away.