Ibroxholm

I don't think we have been any worse than Celtic than making money from youths, which is not saying a lot I grant you. From memory, we made money from Hutton and Wilson, what boys have they brought through and sold? The Scottish/Irish winger is the only one I can think off in recent past. In recent years, I think that lot have realised that it's easier to make money by picking up young developed players from lesser clubs who are looking for the final step to take them to the riches of England, case in point Wanyama. We have done similar over the years. Cribari wouldn't have been my choice but I think you have to take into account the extenuating circumstances at that time. We could have gambled on youth and it might have worked out but it was big gamble to take. For all their qualities, Rangers fans are not the best at taking a players young age/ experience into account when we are not winning or even winning well. Charlie Adam will vouch for that. I wouldn't be too doom laden over our chances in the top league next year. In football, a hell of a lot can change in a few months, never mind a year.

Great respect for them. One of the few clubs who stood by us in our time of need.

Before we hit the buffers 2 years ago, we were doing not too bad in this area, certainly not a great deal worse than any other Scottish team. Hutton and Wilson come too mind, and although not a youngster we did alright out of Cuellar. If we had been a bit more patient, we may have got more out of Adam and even Burke. Going back further, we got good fees for Boomsong and Ferguson. You have to take into account we had the guts pulled out of our squad in 2012 so you cannot employ the same criteria to us over the recent past. IMO guys like Naismith, Whittaker, McGregor, Davis, Ness, McCabe, Fleck, Aluko and possibly Edu would have brought in reasonable money if we had wanted to sell and the rug hadn't been pulled from under us. In the lower leagues from a standing start, we were always going to struggle to attract the better prospects, as players have so many different options these days. Even with this, I think Wallace, Templeton, Aird and McLeod of our current team could possibly attract a fee if we were tempted to sell.

Not normally a great fan of him but I though Archie McPherson was pretty fair, almost supportive, in his appearances on Scotland Tonight. Remember vaguely him putting Thompson in his place.

Colin, Colin, Colin Stein

From memory, he seemed a reasonable CB when he was with Hearts. As always, I will defer judgement until he pulls the blue jersey on and see how he performs in the white heat of the battle. Not particularly knocking Ally or his signings but once again I'm slightly concerned over the finances. Four players have been brought in on wages that will not be insignificant. Ally says he is working to same budget as last year so who has left to make up the wages of our new signings. Andy Little, Cribari, can't think of anybody else. By my sums, that would appear to leave us a bit away from working to the same budget as last season.

Agree with this (second sentence only) but give Murray his due he was brilliant at bringing in money over the first 10-12years of his tenure. Ultimately, people got wise to paying him money whilst he got more and more control. He started having to dig into his own pocket to fund us around early 2000s and IMO this seemed to coincide with him losing interest in us. After that, there appeared to be only random periods when he splashed the cash, I think because he liked to be the big cheese and didn't like it when fans started giving him any grief. He seemed to have great relationships and friendships with all our various managers. Although on the surface this appears beneficial, I think this was unhealthy, were these friendships maintained to the detriment of the club's finances. I think Murray was a great deal maker, his forte was taking a chance on any random opportunities that came along. His downside was he was not a planner, he never appeared to lay down any medium/long term strategy, he swayed with the wind. Remember him after Prodan debacle declaring he would not sign any more players from old eastern block, 12months later he was splashing out 5m for Kanchelskis. How many training complex ideas did he think up and give up on before Advocaat forced his hand. Ultimately, all of his successes with us were trashed by him capitulating to Lloyds and selling us to Whyte. I think he was probably in a very difficult position but he knowingly made decision to sacrifice us to save his other businesses. That will be his legacy, the custodian who ran away from his responsibilities and sold us out.

Long time since I've been to Parkhead but thought they had something like this. Wouldn't have been the original design intent though.

The main support structure to the stand will almost certainly have been piled through the superficials to a solid foundation. Even taking account of its age, it is highly likely any mine working would have been grouted up beforehand. Contamination in the upper soils will probably not have been dealt with as effectively as would be done today, but they will be effectively encapsulated by the floor of the stand, which I'm presuming is concrete. If they are sitting on contaminated soils, it will probably be in their interests to leave well alone and not disturb it. My recollection from way back is that they had an issue with excessive deflection of the stands cantilever roof from an early stage Think they had to put in some additional temporary propping to try and reduce it. Think there was talk of them suing the designer at one stage, serves them right for going to a small 'celtic minded' outfit to design it.

Accepting what you say, if Ally did give Green this advice, the man was smart enough to accept it.

That's guesswork on your part. IMO, there is no way he would have done that, Green was smart enough to know he had to keep the fans onside - giving away titles would have finished him before he'd got started. For all Green's many faults, I will remember him for giving us the inspired 'Ranger then, Rangers now, Rangers forever' line and for putting two fingers up to the Scottish establishment and hitting out against the anti-Rangers bigotry that was widespread in Summer 2012.

Largely agree with this. We desperately need someone prominent, a leader, to stick his neck out and give the fans who do want to do something, someone to rally behind. For all the outrage and great intentions expressed on this forum over the last couple of days, I fully expect nothing of any note will happen and, in time, the majority will forget and fall back into line. I know it's against the views of many on here, and I'm not advocating that others should do it, but as an ordinary fan the only recourse I feel I have to express my outrage over the witch hunt against my team is not to give the teams or football authorities who put the boot into us any of my money. It will hurt not to see the Rangers in any away or cup games but, although I might not be there in person, I will be there following the team in spirit.

With the wind now in our favour, she's should have been taken apart for her bigoted views. Does CH not have any friends? Even if he doesn't realise his own limitations surely somebody should have talked him out of appearing on this stitch up.

Watching the STV news there, the entire episode is being largely swept under carpet on basis 'it would have happened anyway due to the debts incurred during Whyte's tenure'. This is probably going to be the fall back position, along with time to move on and it's in the past. Don't expect any apologies or humility from our detractors, they don't have it in them.

Cowie for Templeton. God help us if that happens. Fortunately, can't see it. For all his faults, Ally appears to still appreciate the value of having good wingers in the squad.

IMO those who thought 3 years in the lower leagues would be some sort of opportunity are way off. It was always going to be something to be endured rather than enjoyed, a true test of the fans loyalties. Giving the circumstances, I thought Ally did ok season 2012/13. He did play several youngsters that season (maybe because his hand was forced) which as I recall wasn't taken into consideration by some of the fans when performances were mixed. He also brought in some journeyman pros to help give some experience. Yes we paid over the odds for them but I think the early season circumstances probably dictated this. Last season, I do think Ally can be criticised for buying too many fringe/squad players rather than relying on some of the youngsters as back up. Did we really need to buy Simonsen, Foster, Smith, Peralta and the like to win the league? Also, think Ally's refusal to give the younger players more first team experience towards the end of last season was criminal, particularly after the cup defeats. Thirty plus points clear in the league and he is still not giving the younger players a run. There is no defence for that, Ally whatever excuse you come up with.

Worst ever Ranger? On the park, Gregor Stevens is up there. Off the park, Stephen Naismith without question.

Totally agree. It all seems so formalised these days, with youngsters turning up 2 or 3 nights a week for coaching/training sessions at their purpose built facilities. There is very little sign of kids playing casual / street football amongst themselves nowadays. In my day ((60s), kids were out every night, from school bell until they got hauled in for bed, kicking a football around.

Who would have thought the team we had in January 2007, leaking goals everywhere and with confidence at rock bottom, would be in a European finals 16 months later. Things can change very quickly in football. One things for certain, there will be a team in the east end of Glasgow who will be under unbelievable pressure from their own fans to prevent us winning the league again. That would be their absolute worst nightmare, they would never live it down. Pressure like that can be hard to handle, we know that from the '10 in a row' season. I wouldn't rule us out just yet.

Probably because we haven't enough good young players to guarantee winning the Championship next season. However, I would agree with you that we should be giving our young players more of a chance. There is no reason why our subs bench should not be predominantly young boys who we can bring on when games are going our way. And if we do build up a good points lead, we should take opportunity to have 3-4 youngsters in the team from the start. It was criminal that we didn't do this last season. We played Brechin at home near the end of last season with 20/30 points lead in table and I think we had only Aird in the team. To make it worse, we had Foster, Smith and Peralta on the subs bench. Shortsighted to say the least.

Think we have quite a lot of attacking options for next season. My only hope is Ally keeps it simple and plays players in their correct position in a conventional 442 or 443. We are playing in the Scottish Championship, we have the best players, so we don't need get too clever on tactics/formations. IMO playing the 3 centre forwards together as suggested in OP will not work, unless you have Miller playing deep. However, we have better options than Miller for that position.

Pretty sure he was a bear, remember him being desperate to sign for us. After the jail term and period of character assassination by the Scottish press, Rangers (Murray) took the easy option and decided to get rid of him rather than back him.

I wasn't aware of of Templeton's views but it's up to Ally to manage the situation and put him straight. I believe he was bought due to his performances as a winger with Hearts and that is where his future lies with us. Do hope we haven't got another Derek Johnstone situation on our hands - that one didn't turn out very well for club or player.

Templeton like all wingers tends to be inconsistent, it's either their day or it isn't. Even the great Davie Cooper had plenty of off days but when he was on song, what a player. Not saying Templeton is in Davy's class (reminds me more of Neil McCann), but he does have potential and he is the only player on our books at present who can do something different in the attacking sense. With McKay seemingly not quoted, the loss of Templeton would leave us without a winger who can beat a player with trickery and get to the byline. A sad state of affairs considering Rangers great tradition of playing wingers of this ilk.

Ally should be told that we need someone with remit to look further into future than next few games.