Reformation Bear

I've already got some lined up in front of me. Raging at what Warburton is doing to dumb down the tradition of Rangers players playing with pride for the Rangers jersey. And raging at King for letting him continue to get away with it.

I swear to Almighty God that if Warburton uses some sort of phrase like 'bad day at the office' or something like that after this crap I'd be likely to throw a brick through my TV. I bet he won't even take personal responsibility.

It starts beyond Halliday and Kiernan (and the others that massively underperform). To an extent it starts with Warburton. He simply does not have what it takes to be an effective manager at Rangers. He is not able to set up a Rangers team - even one as mediocre as this - to play for the shirt. He does not understand it. He only seems to understand football-by-numbers as an intellectual coaching exercise, not as football games to be won and he certainly does not get what it means to bring success to Rangers. He can't be sacked because King could not afford it. But maybe he will walk before the end of the season. If the same indifferent form continues in the second half of the season we need a new and better manager before the season ends to start to sort out the shambles and prepare in good time for next season. No good waiting until the season ends. The rest of the problem lies with King. Too many promises of dosh and not delivered. He is presiding over a Rangers that is dropping firmly into also ran territory for many seasons to come. Results like this will tell King that what has happened in the first half of the season is absolutely likely to repeat itself in the second half of the season - or worse. A strong second - don't make me laugh. Qualify for Europe - don't make me laugh. Pressure is bound to be put on Warburton to voluntarily pack his bags and go before the end of the season. He has not got the first clue about what is needed to be a successful Rangers manager. Not a clue.

It is. And it needs to be taken. Thing is though, can Warburton instil in them what it takes to do it.

He's in the business end of the season but doesn't see it, or doesn't understand it, of if he does (or claims he does) then he's doing fuck all to set a team up with the necessary motivation, tactics and sheer damned authority to get stuck in as a Rangers team should and to get the job done. He's an analyst at heart. A salary man just doing a job. Doesn't get how important it is to the Support. Warburton I'm talking about.

Maybe the other question would be how long will it take to realise that the biggest liability is Warburton himself. IMO he does not have - and never has had and never will have - the leadership qualities to get the best out of what is a mediocre-at-best (but expensively assembled and expensively paid) Rangers squad.

Good enough to secure 2nd? Only if they find a way to score a lot more goals and reduce the very heavy reliance on Miller. If Warburton cannot achieve that then getting 2nd may be beyond them. In addition to scoring more goals (to win the sorts of games we dropped points on in the 1st half of the season) getting 2nd also heavily depends on Aberdeen's form. I substantially discount Warburton's managerial and leadership influence on driving the team to win 2nd because in my estimation he's not the sort of manager that seems to get a good bit extra out of what is an unexceptional squad in terms of talent, and that extra drive might well be needed this season. Under Warburton the team appear to me to be more strivers than achievers, and that may not be good enough. It's only an opinion of course and its for Warburton and the team to prove it to be wrong. Who might leave when the season ends? It depends if Warburton is still to be the manager for next season. If he is then Senderos and McKay (for a decent transfer fee) if Warburton retains his job as Manager. If he decides to leave and is therefore replaced then depending on how much transfer money King can give to a new manager to entice him to come to the Club, there could be quite a bit of a clear out.. For example, Forrester, Windass, Bates, Kiernan, MOH, Crooks, Holt, Halliday, and maybe Waghorn. Could be a big list for 2 reasons. 1 being a new manager would most likely want to craft his own side and whether or not most of the current squad are good enough for a credible title challenge next season is, imo, very debatable so an upgrade in talent would be needed. But - and its a very big but - that would depend on what investment money King and the Board are prepared to put on the table in addition to a transfer fee for McKay. The 2nd is that if Warburton left chances are some of the squad may follow him as part of his Brentford entourage. Which might be useful as it would presumably then also generate more transfer fees and therefore money for a new manager to spend.

Well this is going to be good to watch. Warburton on Rangers website stressing that Alnwick must* challenge Wes Foderingham for the Rangers number one jersey if he is to succeed at Ibrox. (*italics as per the Rangers website quote so the Club has used them to emphasise Warburton's point). But.........how can he challenge if he's not given the chance to play in the first team. Despite Warburton often stating he has full confidence in the squad, that there is no best 11 and its all about the squad, Gilks only got this chances very rarely and .....here's a point to bear in mind....never let us down. In fact he saved from more embarrassment in OF game. Despite that there was no move to give him more games. What more could / should he have been doing to challenge Wes? More to the point what does Alnwick need to do to show to Warburton (that Gilks was not doing) that he is challenging well enough to get games. Or does he only get his chance if Wes gets injured or fouls up in a game. If that's really the way to the No1 GK jersey then no amount of training well or preparing well will earn him his chance in the first team, it depends entirely on Wes not being injured or not fouling up. Still don't see why we seem to have dropped the investment in Kelly who seems to getting a lot of first team experience at Livingston and doing well. I guess Alnwick's arrival could well herald Kelly's departure in summer.

Maybe the same question should be asked about who gets the goals if Miller becomes injured. We have a stack of forward players who are not yet delivering enough goals and a ton of reliance on 37yr old Miller to come to the goal scoring rescue. Losing Miller might be way more fundamental to the outcome this season than losing Halliday.

It might be that Warburton himself decides that working at a club with more money to spend on players might be more attractive than plodding along with King's meagre transfer budget and with no alternative but to continue to try to persuade the Support that its a gradual pathway back to the next title. I doubt if King and the Board have enough money to sack him so he either sees his contract out or gets an offer to manage another club and leaves of his own accord. If he goes then yes, it provides a gilt edged opportunity to pocket the inevitable settling in period as another excuse. Even with all of that I still think that a lot more needs to be done by King, the Board and the Manager to shift the focus to producing a title winning side soon, and not just hide behind the gradualism, it'll take time, must be patient stuff we hear all too often - none of which carries, imo, anywhere near enough emphasis on achieving a 55th title soon. Seems to me there is a determined effort to play down early title winning in favour of a strung-out 'project'. I don't advocate financial recklessness, but I do look for a whole lot more energy and effort and finance being applied to win the prize of 55 in the very near future. Asking for too much? Probably. But its for Rangers to aim high.

Good point. But even if its a new manager I still think there would (should) be much harder questioning of King and whoever the manager is for the start of next season about what the objective for the team is to be and how it is to be funded. The sooner we move back to a clear, determined focus being to get a team together that puts in a credible title challenge - actually more than that a 55th title winning side - the better.

Gone for a fee - well that's good. So long as the undisclosed fee was not just some sort of fig leaf token fee to create the impression that a meaningful commercial deal was done. But we'll never know will we, even in this supposedly more transparent era we are supposed to be in. Now then, if Warburton continues to apply his confidence in the full squad principle but still picks Fod for every game unless and until injury or foul up intervenes and he has to call on Alnwick, I wonder how many games Alnwick is going to see this season which might keep his motivation high and sustained. Time will tell . I'm still left wondering why this transaction was even needed. Why not simply recall Kelly from Livingston - has Warburton no real confidence that despite playing regular first team football Kelly is still not good enough for Rangers' first team squad. I suppose it would not be unreasonable for Kelly to be next up to Warburton's door to ask if the manager sees a future for him at Ibrox.

I thought King had made it clear that we had to qualify for European football next season and that having expected Warburton's side to be much closer to C....., he required Warburton to lead the team to finish a strong second. Leaving aside for now the dumbing down of Rangers' traditional ambitions of winning titles what King's message back in the Autumn seemed to me to be saying is the very least he would accept as success for this season is qualifying for Europe and the very best he would regard as being successful would be to finish (his words) a strong second. At this point neither of these objectives could be regarded as being safely on target to achieve. The first half of the season saw far too many games with points carelessly dropped. A defence that was well capable of leaking stupid goals, a powder-puff strikeforce that was shot shy and struggled to score enough goals, and a midfield too easily overrun and too lacklustre in creating goal scoring opportunities. Will 2 loan signings and a replacement substitute goalkeeper change things so materially in the second half of the season that we establish a big lead over the third placed side or if that does not happen that we at least qualify for European football next season? With huge (maybe closer to total) reliance on a 37 year old striker and nothing much by way of goals coming from Waghorn, MOH, McKay, Forrester, Garner, and Dodoo then where are the goals going to come from if Miller was injured or lost form? Nothing, absolutely nothing of any positive effect seems to be being done to improve the number of goals scored. All we hear are assertions from Waghorn that goals will come. Nothing done in the January transfer window to try to fix this other than adding some midfield players. Is adding a couple of midfield players the inspired move that unlocks far more goals from goal-shy forwards or is it just a bit of a gamble, a 'hope it works' move? We'll see over the next few months. Has Warburton led the major improvement he himself identified was urgently needed after the 5-1 OF game? I don't think so. IMO we live on the edges of success or failure in each game with the outcome (3 points won or points dropped) very much in the balance and it being easy enough to see the points dropped. Its what happened in the first half of the season. To use Warburton's own description, we've had too many bad days at the office. If that does not improve the second half of the season will be pretty tense not just for the Support but for Warburton too as it will start to beg the question of what are we to expect next season. But maybe some very important questions for King and Warburton will emerge as this season draws to a conclusion. Not just about apportioning blame or about analysing what happened and so on. But questions focussed on what King and the Board will expect from Warburton and the team next season. STs will have to be sold and to sell them in the sorts of numbers seen this season there may need to be a very much improved focus from King and the Board (for investment money) and from Warburton (team results) to show that next season a far more credible title challenge is mounted, and get rid of this settling for second best attitude that has characterised this season.

I don't understand what is going on at Ibrox with the signing of a new GK and Gilks apparently leaving but not yet gone. We don't know if Gilks is just being released or whether a transfer fee is being agreed. If he's just released from his contract with no transfer fee obtained then the Club would seem to be in an Alice in Wonderland world. It does not appear to make any credible sense. More to the point, the problem is scoring enough goals not finding somebody to keep goal. Why the effort to find a replacement goalkeeper (could Kelly not have been recalled from Livingston?) when its goal scorers we really need.

Thanks - I'll look there and leave this one to Alnwick posts.

Ah, I see. So the status is more going than gone but with some certainty that he will go. For a fee I wonder. If no fee then what exactly is the Club playing at by yet another release of a player without obtaining a transfer fee,

Warburton is clearly enthused and impressed by his CV so Senderos would be the man for the job. ........a few drinks tonight with some former work colleagues from a long time ago helps to unlock the creative thinking needed to solve the DM problem.

Where did Gilks go? Who did he sign for? Don't see any announcement of him leaving on the Rangers website.

I hope he does well at Ibrox and enjoys his time at Rangers. Presumably he'll be given some games under Warburton's philosophy of not having a preferred first team but using all of the squad. I'm not really seeing why we needed to sign a goalkeeper - a young ambitious one at that - unless Gilks is to leave the Club in January (has he gone?). Is the signing intended to be an investment ie we get more than we paid at some future date? But that would assume he gets games ahead of Foderingham in order to prove his worth. Is it to develop his talent? Again that would infer that he gets sufficient game time. Is it just to keep Foderingham on his toes and performing to the very best of his ability? If so then can't see this being much of an incentive for Alnwick as it depends on Fod fouling up for him to get a game. What about Liam Kelly when his loan period ends? He's been picking up a lot of game time on loan and must surely have been looking forward to competing for the jersey at Ibrox. But with Fod and now Alnwick at Ibrox does this mean Liam moves on in Summer? Like I said I don't follow why this signing has been made. Scoring enough goals seems to me to be the bigger problem by far. I wonder if Warburton solving the right problems, in the right order, at the right time. He clearly thinks so, which is why he is Manager and I'm just an old puzzled Supporter.

I know its off topic, and its good to see the reports on the youth teams,..............but someone needs to get a grip of Rangers' website reporting on loan players. Today we see reports about Ryan Haride at Raith Rovers (yes Haride is the spelling Rangers have used); Ross Mccrorie; and Sterling Albion. Clearly whoever has released the reports to the website can't be bothered to proof read the articles. Shoddy. BTW, Crooks getting 5 mins match time at Scunthorpe is not exactly going to get him match fit is it. Is that what Warburton hoped for when he loaned him out?

Half way through the season so I guess a mid term review was due. Sitting 2nd - only just - and no chance of winning the title. It looks to be hard enough just to finish 2nd never mind the strong second that King insisted was the objective at the back end of last year. Not even remotely close to an OF win with a real risk of being whitewashed by them this season. The minimum target of securing European football for next season still requires very hard work and if the form of patchy results of the first half of the season continues it could still be missed. Now that really would produce a sparky Board meeting at the end of the season if the SC was not won as the way into Europe. A tall order for the team that lives on the edge of success from game to game (sometimes winning but all too often dropping points). Have the summer signings demonstrably propelled Rangers into being a strong title-challenging side? Nope. Not by a long way. That's not to say there are no successes - Gilks for one and probably Hill. But the rest are not yet at the Rangers races, and many may not be capable of getting there. Warburton might argue it was always going to take a season for them to settle in and who could have predicted the Barton departure or the Kranjcar injury or the Rossiter injury. Well Barton may well have been down to Warburton's own way of handling the row. Other managers might have handled it differently and better. Kranjcar - went from the excuse of a freak (but unexplained) injury to eventually being downplayed from 'freak'. So what caused it then - we've never been told? Rossiter - absent injured having made no meaningful contribution to the team this season. We could all list the disappointments to our expectations about the other players. Taken together under Warburton they are simply not title-winning material. Nor are the looking like being forged into title winning material. They are a work in progress on a strategy of gradualism being worked through by Warburton. King and the Board bought into this when they hired him. They bought into the 'be patient', 'we must persevere' types of messages we've heard this season. But King and the Board will be well aware that its the title that the Support wants to see won, and won sometime very soon. A strategy of gradualism may not be good enough. Waiting until one season maybe far downstream when enough development players make the grade and when added to some experienced players bought on the cheap, and some talented loan players we might just be able to win a title may see King and his Board come under tremendous pressure by the Support. Supporter patience might run out and King would be mindful of this. Come summer is it stick or twist? Is it patience and persevere for another season in the hope that the summer signings start to gel and deliver as a credible title challenging side? Maybe part of the message to Warburton is there is half a season to show that the side he is producing gives enough of an indication it will get a damn sight closer to a credible title challenge next season. They - King, the Board and Warburton need to place a whole lot more focus and emphasis on building a 55 winning side very soon. Not a 'project'. Not a side that's just in good shape. Not a side that's just training well. Not just a side where everyone is encouraged to be the best they can be. Not a side that is settling for 2nd best. Its a title winning side that is required, and the leadership team at Rangers need to set about creating one with far more drive and determination and investment than we've seen this season. As much of this is down to King and the Board's leadership and preparedness to find ways invest more fully (or more to the point, lack of it) as it is down to Warburton's track record this season so far.

The only person who will know - because he is the man who takes the decisions - is Warburton. The question being In Warburton's assessment how far away is Gilmour from being included in the first team squad, and more than that how far away is he from the prospect of becoming a first team regular? Impossible for us to answer of course since none of us makes the decisions on who to include in the first team squad. There are quite a few players who have made first team appearances for EPL teams aged just over 16. They don't all deliver to their full potential but at least the club managers were brave enough to select them. The SPFL is not the EPL in terms of quality of games or in terms of the average standard of the players. Very far from it. So what then, I wonder, are the barriers to Warburton taking a brave decision to play him once he turns 16 in summer. Can Warburton give him some sort of fast track assurance that he'll get his chance in Rangers first team next season as opposed to going elsewhere, being put in their player bank as a potential future asset of value and being farmed out for years to come to lower league sides in the hope that one day downstream he's recalled back fit and ready for first team action? Another thought is if the lad wants to (and decides to) tap into the big money that Chelsea or Arsenal can offer - as well as the downstream potential of playing first team football for them - then maybe with the fashion for loans, whoever he signs for then immediately loans him back to Rangers on a longish term basis.

The cost of financing and operating the Rangers Training Centre will be known by the Club. It's easy enough to do that. The value of the Rangers Training Centre is something else and to be assessed over a reasonable (but not too long) period of time. At some point measures of success need to be taken and published. I know there was a recent message about the aim being 'x' players in the first team squad in 'y' years and that's useful to keep sight of. But it crucially depends on whether the first team manager is prepared to accept they are good enough and accept the risk of introducing them into a first team squad where winning every game is a must and failure to do so leads to intense scrutiny not just a manager level but at individual player level too. Assessing the value of the academy to the Club is important imo. Value defined in the number of players who are considered good enough by the first team manager (whoever that is at any point in time) to be included in the first team squad, and who are then good enough to make regular first team appearances, and maybe more than that, are leading contributors to winning titles. And / or value defined in terms of how much money is brought into the club by way of transfer fees when the players move on. Surely over a defined period of time success for the academy must also be defined by the transfer fees covering, or going a large way to covering, the cost of running the academy over (say) 'x' years. Otherwise its scarce money invested with insufficient tangible return and questions would rightly be raised about whether it is delivering sufficient value. Hyndman is 20 years old. He's thousands of miles away from his home country. He's good enough to already be an EPL player and of course loaned to Rangers for this season. He's played at international level. He's already making a huge beneficial difference to the Rangers midfield (let's hope that continues). I'm sure his playing in the first team should be encouraging to the development squad. So when Mulholland persuades Warburton that 2 or 3 (I think it should be at least 2) development players are good enough to go into the first team squad for next season - and more than that, that they are seen to make a positive difference to the team, then the good words are turned into tangible benefit. And tangible value.

Warburton has some decisions to make this coming summer. Presumably Senderos will depart. Hill will be a season older - will he be good enough for another season in Scotland? I'm assuming he'll keep Wilson. But what of Kiernan? Will he still be here next season? I suppose its more than possible. Maybe he'll have a stormer of a 2nd half of the season and find himself the transfer target of clubs back down South. Unfortunately, unless there are some last minute transfer moves over the next few days, it looks like central defence will still be a big talking point for the start of next season. As much of a problem is the problem of finding players that can score enough goals next season so that a much more credible title challenge is made. It's not as if its just a few changes are needed to take the team to a much higher level of performance.

He claimed this week that the goals will come. Well as with any walk of working life there comes a point where the talking has to stop and action has to start. In his case scoring goals and assists to others in scoring goals. There is only so much time a person can be given in response to their claims that it'll all come good. Dodoo must be wondering what he needs to do to get some game time to try to show that he can score goals.