trueblueal

It was funny because it was them but I cringe whenever there is an opinion given by punters on the street for the news. I think they choose the thickest, neddiest tools they can find to make Glaswegians look like a stereotype. ffs the first two guys were clearly junkies. The second guy was rattling like fuck.

Higuain? who is he? I know you cant be talking about Gonzalo Higuain because he's in the Real Madrid first team!

Tanner is at it, he's giving us the run around and we're falling for it. Still can't bring myself to change channels tho. Damn this transfer window.

SSN David Tanner "The news from Ibrox is that there is no news........dont rule out another signing at Rangers" Mixed messages there, looks doubtful unless theres a late surprise.

No thanks, McCarthurs game is to take the ball from the centre backs deep and start the play like Barry used to. Plays too deep for our needs. Get a winger because we already have a forward thinking midfielder at the club to stand in for Davis and his name is John Fleck.

If you had asked who was your favourite you might have had a debate. Laudrup was unquestionably the better player.

The man has strongly held religious beliefs, hes a religious education teacher at a catholic school and if he wants to have a crucifix on his whistle then thats his free choice. I have no problem with this but I do think he leaves himself open to small minded people questioning his impartiality. For this reason im surprised he chooses to wear his cross in such a visible manner. Some people will inevitably see this as a defiant or provocative gesture.

My predictions are as follows: Lafferty will never live up to his transfer fee and because of that will be judged harshly by the fans which will damage his fragile confidence. He'll leave for a championship team for 2 million at best. Thomson is a good player and hasnt lost that, he'll come back into form with patience. Fleck is composed, has good vision and strength and shoots early without hesitation. He'll become an attacking midfielder or second striker and Rangers main playmaker over the next two or three years.

DJ wouldnt have wrote the headline but he does have a habit of refering to players by the wrong names like 'Marcus DaBeasley' and 'Derek' Ferguson

I wouldnt get too exited yet, for every Rino theres a Paul Reid, Barjam Fetai, Gil Blumstein, Lee Feeney..... If these guys do better than sinking without a trace they'll have done well. Glad to see Rangers looking around though and I hope i'm wrong.

Boyd 500 - 600k McGregor 5million Bougie 4-5million Lafferty 1.5million Thomson 1.5million Edu 2.5million Davis 3million McCulloch 500k

I couldnt find an empty seat at the back of the train but there was only one guy up front.

What really annoyed me last night was watching the replay of the first goal, the guy is about a yard past Rothen who realises hes been done and just stops playing. Their player is striding into our box and Rothen completely stopped moving! Fuck me were is the desire. If that was me on a Saturday morning in the amateur league i'd be chasing to try and put the guy off out of sheer embarrassment if nothing else.

Not for the first time this season Rothen is showed up for his lack of pace, lack of desire to track simple runs and poor attitude. I was on holiday when he signed and I was told by a Scots bloke that we had signed a French defender. Naturally I thought it was a centre back and when I found out it was Rothen I knew it would spell trouble. Rothen has been a sulk all through his career and was chased out of Monaco and then Paris. He'll be adding Glasgow to that list with his present attitude.

I think it was a good move to loan him out to be honest, it was the only hope we may have of possibly one day seeing him return to us as a regular player. He's getting regular playing time now that he would never have got at Rangers this season and it looks to be doing him good. We should of however brought a new defender in on loan instead of bringing in a new winger. I agree that he needed a loan spell to regain fitness but how about a 3 month loan to a smaller club in the SPL or a 1st Div club. That was he gets maybe 12 games where he plays 90 mins and if we dont need him back extend for another 3 months. I take issue with the length and terms of the loan since we have no reliable cover for our CBs

As I said on another thread, if there is no way to recall him then it was short sighted to loan him in the first place for a full year. We knew at the start of the season that Weir is an old man, McCulloch is a midfielder, Broadfoot was injured and Bougie would be playing nations cup and yet we sent Webster away for a full season regardless. Lunacy in my opinion.

I found this article from the Financial Times last year. Reading this article i'd say Donald Muir has some serious credentials when it comes to fixing broken businesses. Clearly we need fixing but that shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone so instead of looking at the negatives we should be glad that we're addressing our financial problems with the appointment to the board of a guy with an impressive track record. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e46add36-806f-11...?nclick_check=1 Donald Muir: How to stay on track after a ‘train crash’ By Rod Newing Published: September 15 2008 01:07 | Last updated: September 15 2008 01:07 Donald Muir talks a lot about vision and resolve. “You need the vision to see what is possible and the resolve to drive it through, particularly when people are continually trying to block you,” he says. A Scottish and Canadian chartered accountant, Mr Muir is an independent turnround professional. He got into the business through a long corporate career with Alcatel Alsthom, then a fast-growing telecommunications, power and transportation systems group. “It was buying, merging, expanding and disposing of a lot of businesses,” he says. “I was doing change management from the start, so I became a turnround expert while still in corporate life.” His next challenge was Telspec, a UK-based telecommunications systems supplier, initially as chief financial officer and then as chief executive. It was a rising star that had “crashed and burned” into intensive care with a £10m ($17.7m) loss. This was turned into a £4m profit in only a year. This was followed by the role of European chief financial officer at Global Crossing, a telecommunications network operator, and then Cable & Wireless Global, part of the Cable & Wireless telecommunications group, which delivered three-quarters of its revenue and most of its problems. “It was burning cash at an alarming rate and we had to put the brake on,” he says. “We took £500m out of the ‘cash burn’ in seven months and rapidly went from losing £600m a year towards break-even.” This was followed by turnround assistance to two ailing National Health Service trusts and Northern Rock, the bank that was badly hit by the credit crunch and was rescued last year by the UK government. Mr Muir has also worked as an interim director to provide change management for a government department and BT Retail. He believes that a turnround specialist must be a natural leader with personal integrity, strong business ethics, a good intellect, very high energy and drive and excellent people skills. The first priority is usually to build a new management team, preferably from internal candidates. “Very often we inherit a ‘train crash’, so the key is to find signs of life in the form of committed people, so you can turn the bits back into something healthy,” he says. “You must show people the way forward by focusing on the outcomes, getting them to buy in and motivating them to deliver. No turnround professional can succeed on their own, but you must be very disciplined and rigid in how you drive things through.” Mr Muir’s approach is the same, whatever the nature of the organisation. He creates a strong programme management office, mainly staffed part-time by existing employees, with a big finance input. It is tasked with standardising all change programmes, savings and management controls. The office designs management reports to give clarity and visibility, which produces the individual accountability that is essential for delivery. Mr Muir ties everything closely back to cash in the bank, so he will not accept a plan unless it is tied to a budget or forecast and will not accept a savings claim unless its delivery is recorded in the company’s books. “People often say that they have been in the organisation for 25 years and I cannot possibly understand the business,” he says. “I tell them that a pound note is the same in any sector and we need to generate cash. “If you tried to understand all the detailed complexities of every troubled business your head would blow up,” says Mr Muir. “I distil everything down to half a dozen points and use my experience to maximum effect.” He knows all the large accounting firms relatively well, but his best source of opportunities has been the PwC turnround panel, of which he is a member. The firm will not recommend a turnround specialist to a distressed client, but will introduce several available turnround professionals with the right skills. In conclusion, Mr Muir says that turnround specialists have to react very quickly, because the organisation is on the edge of a cliff with little room for manoeuvre. Successful sustainable turnrounds are not about “slash and burn”, but a lot of deep thinking, listening focus, commitment and drive to create an ongoing cash-generative and sustainable business. He wants to see his turnround successes thriving two or three years later. “We have to put leadership and discipline quickly back into an ailing organisation and instil logical and commercial thinking,” he says. “We nurse it back to strong financial performance as soon as conveniently possible, but it takes a major infusion of energy to make it happen!”

I can't claim to know the details of the loan but surely having loaned out our only natural central defensive cover to get him fit and get him playing we'd have included a clause to recall him. Short sighted if we didn't particularly when the McCulloch experiment had no guarantees of working at the start of the season and Broadfoot was injured.

Dreadful idea but an opportunity to get the ball rolling on the concept of us moving leagues. Has to be to England though which as a British team doesnt have such a manufactured feel to it as this Atlantic nonsense.

In January when Boogie goes to the nations cup its time to bring back Webster instead of moving Papac or McCulloch or heaven forbid Broadfoot into central defence. He'll have plaed six months in a decent SPL side by then and if hes managed to stay fit until then its time he was back in the fold.

If this is true I think Fleck could benefit from a year playing in Belgium rather than in fits and starts as he is at the moment. So long as he could be recalled at short notice I think it would be good for us in the longterm

Bayern, Rangers, Besiktas, Debrecern. I think thats about ideal and we'd rely on home form as the away fixtures look difficult no matter who we get

Elsewhere, Manchester City's financial muscle could ripple all the way to Ibrox this season. Their successful £24million raid on Everton for Joleon Lescott means the Goodison Park club have money to burn - and a central defender to find. There have been various whispers this summer about Madjid Bougherra and the Goodison Park outfit, but McDowall remains coy on the subject. "The window is open and we cannot stop anything that happens," he said. "We are just going about our business. That is all we can do." Todays Evening Times. Looks like the times have been reading RM transfer rumours!

Zappa you will be the first in line for humble pie when the story breaks officially on Sky Sports News.

I have heard a rumour recently that Alan Smith, Tonel and David Healy are forming a consortium to buy Rangers. They will register themselves as players and the first signing will be David Trezeguet. The plan is then to team up with the guys from Weir pumps and Las Vegas Sands casinos to rebuild Ibrox based on the Japanese world cup stadium. Graeme Souness will be chairman. Anyone else heard this rumour?