[Daniel Candeias Leaves to Turkey]

I hope they got a decent fee for Candeias.     The DoF is going to have to work hard throughout the remainder of the transfer window to offload quite a few more for hopefully decent enough fees.     After the court judgement against Rangers announced today dosh is going to have to be generated to play the claims about to be made.      There is no escaping these as yet unspecified claims but clearly money is going to have to be set aside for them.   

Other clubs will now be aware of this and who knows, it might generate fire sale bids from them so that despite what Gerrard says about best prices for players if the Board now need to set aside funds for claims then deals at any price might yet happen.    Depends of course on the Board's assessment of how much they think they will have to shell out, and the timing.    

The inside Rangers question from Gerrard and the DoF could be a respectable …"how much do we need to generate from sales this transfer window".      Would be very interested to hear the answer to that question.    I suppose after today's legal judgement journos will be very tempted to ask that type of question to Gerrard at press briefings 

[Gerrard to get tough with indiscipline.]

Its the bull elephant in the dressing room.   It needed to be confronted more effectively last season and wasn't.  

I think all SG is doing is registering to the media and by extension to the SFA, the match officials in Scotland and the abysmal compliance officer that improving the disciplinary record is a priority for Ranger and that as manager he is getting to grips with this.    In saying it in public maybe he is also preparing the ground for others at Rangers (DoF and Robertson) to get their faces firmly in front of SFA people and make it clear beyond doubt that the Club will not put up with refereeing or post-match adjudications where Rangers are treated differently to other clubs.   This is not just a one-way thing for Rangers, it requires the football officials to ensure there is no bias (intended or unintended) against Rangers.    

[Feeling like a little kid again]

18 minutes ago, LiverpoolBlue said:

Ambling through Formby this morning, wearing my Rangers polo shirt of course, couldn't believe my eyes to see SG walking towards me.  He was going into one of the main street's restaurant chains with his daughter.  Shaking my hand before they went inside, we did manage a brief chat - he is confident this year we'll see 55

Can't understand  why a 60 year old can feel like a 6 year old again though 

Great stuff.  I'm sure SG would have been just as chuffed to see a Bear in Formby wearing a Rangers polo shirt.    

I don't know about others, and it may be a misplaced observation, but since SG has arrived there seems to me to be a lot more Bears on the streets wearing Rangers kit.   

[Josh McPake to Sign a New Deal]

Banking for a few more seasons really excellent potential is probably a very sound piece of business.    The difficult bit is still to come.   

As ever the question will be whether the player can show enough to persuade Gerrard to give him enough first team experience to see if potential can be translated into actual first team quality performances in games that matter when points must be won or cup ties won.  And whether Gerrard is prepared to take the risk of playing him to see if he can make the transition into a really good first team player.  Or perhaps a loan to another club may beckon first in order to give the player first team experience and Gerrard takes things from there once he sees how the player adapts.

The player and the manager now have additional time to see if there is a star Rangers first team player in the making - one who goes on to have a great career at Rangers and who maybe in due course moves on in due course for a very healthy transfer fee.    Here's hoping. 

[Gaffer Still Has it]

Those who can, do.

Those who can't just indulge in armchair quarterbacking or become 'consultants' or work in the media or become politicians.  Point being they can't do what Gerrard has done and can still do.

He might not be at a level where he could play first team football but he sure doesn't hide from leading from the front and showing the team what sort of effort and skill they need to produce.    

[Hastie and McCrorie update]

16 hours ago, eskbankloyal said:

Preferably a top 6 side in Scotland or English Championship if staying in the UK. 

A club abroad would be good for him though in terms of improving his passing etc 

If its to be a loan spell, or an outright sale, it seems to me the best way to improve the more technical aspects of his game in terms of his creative etc distribution of the ball and turning him into a more complete midfield player then a move European club may be the best option.   That'd depend of course on his willingness to work in a foreign country and having to deal with a foreign language.    Going to the English Championship does not seem to me to be the route to improve the creative side of his game.     How many Scottish players go there and really improve their game and become far better football players as a result?   Not many I think.   But the money would be good.    As for going to a top 6 side in Scotland on loan, that just seems to me to be a means of getting more game time but not a route that would lead to a big improvement in the technical 'use of the ball' side of his game.   

Will be interested to see where he ends up.   Its a pity though that Gerrard seems to have chosen to comment about the player in the media ahead of actually deciding with the player about what happens next in his career at Rangers.   Or maybe it has been decided and Gerrard is simply applying a drip feed approach to the media so that when the move is announced it comes as no surprise to anyone, least of all the Support.  

[Hastie and McCrorie update]

6 hours ago, eskbankloyal said:

McCrorie needs to go to a decent level and play of else a loan is pointless. 

If its to be a loan the question then becomes what would be a decent level for the player. 

A club in the SPFL?  A club in the Scottish Championship …. if its that then I can't recall any player who has gone there and come back a better player and then gone on to become a regular first team player at Rangers.  Going there looks to me like it'd be a staging post on the way out of Ibrox.  

A club in the English Championship or League 1?  Again if its loaned out to a club in one of these leagues is there any track record at all of players returning so improved that they make it into the Rangers first team squad never mind making it as a regular first team player?

Presumably it all depends on the fireside chat Gerrard has with the player but the smoke signals coming from the various bits of messaging seem to me that the player is more likely to exit either directly to another club or via the scenic route of loan transfers.     Which would be a pity as I thought he had what it takes to be not just a first team regular but also to grow into being a key player for Rangers. 

[Signings thus far]

Out of the 7 players listed we've seen only one (Davis) in action in a Rangers shirt last season.   First part of his time back was, imo, poor to average  but he was very much better in the tail end stage of last season.    The others have yet to prove to the manager, to the rest of the squad, and to us that they are actually a noticeable step up from the players we saw last season.    

I would not label any of them as so-called marquee players though.  Marquee being the term Gerrard himself used recently to characterise the sort of player that would needed at Rangers.   His emphasis a month or so ago was that the transfer window would be more about improving quality than adding quantity.   So far its been quantity.   I'm assuming that when he takes into account those who will be leaving the resulting balance in the squad compared to last season will be that it has improved quality with these 7 players added.     

In my view though that doesn't get this transfer window over the line as far as improved quality is concerned.  There would need to be a few players added who fit the bill of being marquee signings - players who have the skill, experience, will-to-win at any cost attitude and the nous to deliver their very best game on a consistent basis at Rangers.     If that is a reasonable measure of what a marquee player might be then none of the 7 fit that in my book and with (60 odd?) days of a transfer window to go and with - presumably - the bulk of his transfer budget still available its those superior quality players that I'm looking forward to seeing at Rangers.   Its early day in the transfer window and so far its the low hanging low cost fruit that's been harvested.

[Welcome to Rangers Joe Aribo]

5 minutes ago, eskbankloyal said:

Delighted to get it over the line - he now needs to deliver. 

Agreed.   I suppose he'll become the new target man for the hatchet merchants that masquerade as football players in Scotland.  They'll be hoping that once he's been on the receiving end of their ways of playing he does a Morelos with cards dished out against him.   I hope he has the temperament to deal with that.   Its one thing being told about what to expect, and another to deal with it when the shit is dished out week after week.     I'm sure Gerrard will have plenty of coaching words of wisdom for him. 

[Welcome to Rangers Joe Aribo]

Signed at last.  Well done to Allen and Gerrard for persuading the player to sign for Rangers.   Here's hoping he makes an outstandingly positive goal scoring and goal creating impact in the team.

From the Rangers website today..............".........….The highly rated 22-year-old, who had options to move elsewhere, has made the decision to join the Gers on a four-year-deal. London-born Aribo, who plays as an attacking midfielder, started his career at Staines Town, impressing to win their academy Player of the Year Award in 2014 and be offered a trail at Charlton.............."

Seems like Rangers has also been trailing him for what seems like ages.   Thankfully the trail has ended with his arrival at Ibrox.

ps - its a pity the media team can't get their messaging right first time.  Its not as if they haven't had a lot of time to draft the announcement and have it checked.   A bit like the team last season with far too many careless errors this happens too often from those responsible for Rangers announcements.   For a club of the stature of Rangers far more care needs to be taken in the quality of comms coming from the Club.   But first things first and its welcome to Aribo.

[Bhoys v Bluenoses podcast]

9 minutes ago, gogzy said:

You have an ignore feature too,  use it instead of continuing arguing with other members.

The constant arguing and personal attacks need to stop, it's a drain on the forum.

Re the text highlighted - that intervention seems to me to be timely.  

I don't confine that view to just this thread but the observation you make could apply to a number of other threads too.   Which is a shame really because while quite wide tolerance, and self imposed restraint can be applied by most posters there may come a point where the spiralling descent into seemingly spiteful argument and personal attack may drive posters out of RM.   If it happens it happens but it would be a pity because RM has been a very broad minded forum with good wide tolerances for strength of discussion.    I hope your message is heeded. 

[What else do we need?]

A CB and a striker  (maybe 2 strikers if Morelos were to depart).   And maybe a midfield enforcer.

CB.   I'm not convinced we have enough quality, power and experience at CB (and maybe also in midfield).  The sort of powerful and experienced player that has a burning will to win approach to defending and who can galvanise the defence into a 'just keep it simple and get the job done' mode.  With the result of far fewer careless goals being given away.  A more effective form of defence leadership than Tav has shown so far.      It seemed to me we dropped far too many goals (and points)  through too many instances of slack defending.      Surely that has to be greatly reduced this coming season and so far the addition of Edmundson with Worral having gone does not look to me to be bring enough of that experienced will to win toughness in defence that would reduce the giveaway goals.

Midfield.  There is a lot of midfield talent in the squad and I guess some will transfer out and some will go on loan.   But do any of them really have enough leadership quality about them to really impose themselves on the opposition and on the rest of the team?  So that when games get to a point where an extra dimension of quality /leadership is needed to turn 1 point into 3 points that player provides the leadership.    Maybe that type of leadership player in midfield isn't needed if there is a powerful enough captain or CB who is a good enough 'persuader' in getting other players to lift their game when needed.

Striker (maybe 2).    Even if Morelos stays I'd not be too confident that he's learned enough of the disciplinary lesson to avoid the red cards and still thump in a barrowload of goals.    I just don't know if he will have reformed his way of playing.   If he hasn't then unless there is another quality striker along with Defoe it seems to me it'd be a bit of a risky throw of the dice for Gerrard and Allen to think they can have a trophy-winning season without adding another quality striker.   Besides which with Morelos in the side he is bound to be the immediate target of opposition players to provoke him and to try to get him sent off.   After this last season its as certain as certain gets that they'd take that approach...…...and that's before we get to the officials and the compliance officer getting stuck in to doing their 'leaning decisions against him' bit to get him out of games.     If Morelos goes then its not just one more quality striker that'd be needed, it could be 2.

[Lampard and Murray]

This thread seems to be steering itself to a position where the only outcome that would make sense is a circular firing squad.   Ready, fire, aim. 

[Welcome George Edmundson]

I hope that right from the opening game and all the way throughout the season he fully lives up to the expectations of Gerrard and Allen and of their reasons for signing him.   It must surely be the case that they think he can make an immediate positive impact in the side and then sustain that throughout the season (otherwise why sign him).   

If there is 'must win'  intention to win the league title this coming season and to add a cup or 2 then imo signings such as Edmundson (and Hastie and Jones and Stewart and Ojo) have virtually zero time to make the sort of impact they need to make to justify coming to Rangers.    There is no room for newly signed players to hit the ground stumbling this season.

With his background of football experience in England I'm presuming this is not one of the marquee signings that Gerrard and Allen alluded to a month ago so we still look forward to seeing these signings announced before the transfer window closes.  Plenty time left. 

[Fixtures On Friday?]

Gerrard and his management / coaching team have had the benefit of a full season of knowledge and experience of what to expect in Scottish football and what to expect when European games are overlaid on the league fixtures.     If Gerrard, the coaching team and first team squad are serious - really serious - about winning the league title this season then no matter what the fixture list is there needs to be a squad of players ready, willing and able to deal with that fixture list and secure wins regardless of the venue and the type of pitch.

If the aim is just to compete well as well as they can, make more progress and close the gap further,  lift a cup and have a decent money-generating run in Europe then the attitude of players going into these league games will fall short of the level it needs to be at for a proper league challenge. 

If Gerrard is about instilling 'must win' attitudes and recruiting players who have a 'must win every game' way of playing then it doesn't matter what games are played in what order (home / away) or on whatever pitches and in whatever weather.   Its about getting a Rangers job done.    We'll see come the end of the summer transfer window whether the squad assembled for the coming season looks to have enough of mix of hunger for success, proven ability to deliver under pressure game after game, and goal scoring potential to make this a memorable season.  

Gerrard knows what to expect from next season from the opposition teams.   He also knows what is expected at Rangers.  This coming season should not be about closing gaps.  It should be about turning out a team of winners of the league and of a cup. 

[Those “marquee” signings?]

We either have a situation where the Manager says what he means and means what he says or we don't.   As I recall it he used the term marquee himself.  In mid May both Gerrard and Allen went on record as saying the emphasis is now about quality and not quantity.

The transfer window is still open for many weeks so the judgement of whether or not marquee signings have been made, and whether (taking account of those players who transfer out) the overall quality of the squad is improved - hopefully materially improved - can only start to be done when the transfer window has closed.    Accepting there is a degree of subjectivity about whether a signing is 'marquee' or not I think we should take the meaning at face value ie it should be clear enough if a signing can really be categorised as being in marquee territory.  So far none are imo…..they are more about adding quantity than adding markedly better quality.

Having made their statement, Gerrard and Allen must now deliver on producing signings that are patently 'marquee'.    Their decisions to use that sort of phraseology and their decision t publicly state that the emphasis is on adding quality over quantity need to produce outcomes where we can all plainly see that they meant what they said.  Its as simple as that imo.

[Kris Boyd retires]

Best wishes in retirement from playing football and thanks for the huge contribution during his time at Rangers.

It'll be interesting to hear the lines he takes about Rangers in a pundit career going forward now that he has retired from playing.    And whether he plays the 'controversial pundit' game to add yet more unhelpful provocation towards his former club.  Or will we see Boyd looking to add some pro-Rangers counterbalance to the Scottish punditry anti-Rangers stances we so often see and hear, including from our former players.      He'll now presumably have an opportunity to redress some of the punditry imbalance and it'll be interesting to hear what approach he takes. 

 

[Jordan Jones]

1 minute ago, Ace said:

JORDAN JONES is aiming to get Rangers fans on their feet next season as he prepares to join up with his new teammates as they return for pre-season training.

Jones, who agreed a pre-contract deal back in January while still a Kilmarnock player, arrives back in Glasgow following two impressive showings for Northern Ireland against Estonia and Belarus as they handed themselves a real opportunity of qualifying for Euro 2020.

Jones is now raring to go at Ibrox, and is desperate to entertain the Gers fans in what is sure to be a hugely exciting season.

https://Rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/ill-get-you-out-your-seat

If the twitter announcement is anything to go by Jones can get the fans on their feet by being chief cheerleader for the singing at Ibrox. 

[Jordan Jones]

Didn't know Jones was also a singer.

Have we signed him on as the singing winger?

[SFA President]

Perhaps they've been taking lessons in democracy and transparency and trust from Putin. 

[Morelos' value]

There are probably broad market norms for transfers involving EPL clubs.  Transfer value norms for them which are unheard for transfers between Scottish clubs and EPL clubs in modern times.   Its not a comparison on a broadly level field basis imo in a football transfer market down South that is, again imo, vastly inflated.

That said market norms are their to be broken so if an EPL club valued Alfredo as an asset that it must absolutely have then provided Rangers (and the player / agent) hold their  commercial nerve it seems to me quite possible to extract a top dollar sale that would push the level of transfer values between a club of Rangers stature and EPL clubs.  

If however Rangers valuation was not all that ambitious it'd be easy enough to sell at a lower value than might perhaps have been possible.    Ultimately of course the selling price for a Rangers player is the price the buyer is willing to pay and which Rangers is willing to accept.   If it is essential to transfer the player to generate any sort of income, and the buyer suspects this to be the case, then clearly there is a risk the player is sold knowingly undervalued.    If cash generation is not a determining force at Rangers then its really up to the DoF to screw as much money as possible out of the buying club regardless of what previous market norms or other benchmarks have been.  Each deal on its own merits and all that.      

[Glenn Middleton Joining Doncaster Rovers On Loan]

I hope does well in this loan spell and returns an improved player.  In a way I find this loan move disappointing.  It seemed to me the player had now seen enough of what was needed to become a successful player at Rangers and had done very well in the latter part of the season.   I thought he might have been a player to have built on that experience and become a useful first team squad player for next season.

Clearly Gerrard and the DoF think otherwise and don't yet have enough confidence to elevate the player to first team squad hence this move.  Hopefully they are right and the player goes on to improve his game and improve his eventual chances of first team football at Rangers.   If not, then despite all the scouting and coaching effort signing him risks being a waste of money and effort as far as benefit to Rangers is concerned in which case it'd be yet another scouting signing that was a percentage 'hope for the best' type of signing that hasn't worked out.  

[Has Jimmy Bell been sacked?]

Just now, eskbankloyal said:

Still a Rangers employee. No change

Thanks.  I think that conclusively clears up any lingering rumour of untimely departure.    Perhaps Admin would like to close this thread now?

[Has Jimmy Bell been sacked?]

16 hours ago, eskbankloyal said:

He hasn’t been sacked. 

Just for completeness and maybe to help bring this thread to a quick conclusion is it the case that he has not left the Club or about to leave the Club for any other reason?  (not being sacked is not quite the same thing as not leaving voluntarily)

[Rangers appoint Steve Doyle as Lead Technical Scout]

Fascinating and interesting.   This looks like its a brand new job that's been created.    If is a newly created job then one inference could be that this 'Lead Technical Scout' role of emphasis on video analysis either wasn't being done properly before and that the deficiency is now being rectified......with a wrapping of modern management-speak to help explain things.

Would be interesting to know what measures of success exist for Scoulding's scouting system.  The costs and overheads of employment etc will be readily calculable by the Club......but what are the measures of value they generate / the measures of success?  (So that the Company can assess over reasonable time whether value for money is being generated by the actions of the Scoulding team).   

Or is it really a case of these sorts of fancy jobs being created in a modern big football club because they just have to be created as if you don't have these sorts of jobs then the club falls behind in modern football management trends.   So that objective assessment of value for money and success in scouting operations becomes a secondary matter or not even a consideration at all.      Its the sort of thing shareholders might be interested in at annual general meetings as back-office departments have very tangible costs associated with creating and operating them...…..and the questions would include do they do enough to bring success - and added value - to the Club and Company.  But in this King Concert Party dominated era we are about to enter into that sort of close questioning of the extent to which back office functions deliver good enough value is one which may be quietly sidestepped or ignored for the foreseeable future. 

In the meantime it may be useful if the Club would, from time to time, publish measures of performance for the scouting department or failing that qualitative statements explaining how well the scouting department is doing.    Not to do so invites the Support and shareholders to draw their own conclusions on the evidence of the players who are brought in who then are shown to be patently unsuitable for Rangers or unable to perform to Rangers' expectations......which in turn begs questions about the efficiency and effectiveness of the scouting department.    There's a long enough list even from the start of last season of players that did not (do not) cut the mustard for Rangers.