WeeJim

If thats the 11 that show up best in training this week then fair enough, lets see if he can get something out of them. He might also have a plan or formation in his head from watching us over the last few games and be picking players to fit that. Personally I think he needs to be seen, at least by the players, to be working off a clean slate. If they all look at the day he joined as day one of a fresh start and have to fight for a place or fight for a new deal thinking they've not been written off already then maybe we'll get more out of them. Heart still says drop the under achievers and the ones definately leaving but I'll give him credit for knowing a shitload more than me and I won't be bitching regardless of who he picks... I just pray he can turn us around and I'll be looking for steady improvement rather than a magic wand. Magic wand would be nice though.

Hopefully this isn't about jobs for them at all.... maybe scouting as mentioned already but I think just as likely it's the board talking to people who's opinions they value about what direction to take, how to set things up or what people to approach. If they thought Davies would be good for a managerial role he'd be there now instead of McCall.

Happy with this

I honestly can't see the harm in giving him and a couple of others more game time. We don't have a manager that's going to be there next year but it must be fairly obvious out of the players coming to the end of their contracts who is definately going to be leaving so I'd drop their arses right now. No-one is performing and results are pish so putting in the younger guys or fringe guys that have not had much of a chance isn't going to make anything worse.... so why not give them some game time? The younger guys might actually develop and the fringe guys you'll see how good or bad they really are, either way it'll help us. The Newcastle guys as well, how far away are they? Are we actually going to get any meaningful game time out of these guys any time soon? Lets face it it'll take a few games to get any kind of consistency out of them as they're returning from injury so if they're not going to be playing within the next month or so they're useless to us so get them to fuck and bring our own youth guys through. At least they'll be here next year so bringing them on is helping us long term rather than helping Newcastle get players up to fitness.

I get the feeling that Gilligan is going to nursing a belter of a hangover tomorrow

Sincerely hope he won't be back but I can see the OP's point in starting the thread as Murray was quite ambiguous, he could have said "no, I don't see that happening" or "Ally has resigned so our view is to get a new kind of manager for the long term" or something else that says no without actually saying the word, he must have known the question would be asked so should have been prepared, but he didn't. I still think it won't happen but Murray could have been clearer. I don't see us going with a DOF either, King was saying in a previous interview he doesn't understand the role, doesn't think it has worked elsewhere and thinks thee should be one man in charge of the football side of things. I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see McCall get the nod.... if no-one a lot better approaches them. What Kings been saying we need is pretty much what McCall was doing at Motherwell and when he suggested today they've already had approaches I wouldn't be surprised if McCall was one of them. In an ideal world I think they'd want better or higher profile but it'll be down to who they can get on a reasonable wage.

Well you're entitled to your opinion, can't agree with you though. The arguement with Ferguson, and as such Boyd and his other mates, goes back waaay longer than that and was always going to come to a head at some point. I can see where your train of thought is coming from but I honestly believe if Murray had backed him he would have stayed and while there would have been short term pain in the long run it would have been better for us. Guess we'll have to agree to disagree since neither of us can back up our opinions with cold hard facts.

So what you're saying is he engineered the move by the fans of PSG wanting rid of their manager, by being linked with the job in the French press only a few months after he started at Rangers and finally by taking another job 11 days after leaving us? I know, I'm being facetious. My point though is that you're not answering the original question, how did he engineer the move? What did he do? You're original claim was that he engineered his exit, so how did he go about that?

How exactly did he engineer an escape? Maybe he had an idea that Guy Lacombe would be sacked so he started chucking league games? Spent a few months fostering building a bad relationship with our captain by getting him to train, eat and act in a more professional manner on the off chance Lacombe would make an arse of it at PSG? Or maybe, just maybe, after he'd left PSG saw he was available and took on board that they were sitting just above the relegation places and decided to replace their manager with one with a better reputation rather than just putting up with a shit manager the way we did with McCoist. He had a great name in France before coming to us and was unbeaten with us in Europe finishing top of our group, is it so unusual that in his home country where a team badly needed a manager they asked him if he wanted the job. Believe what you want, it's a free country. Second part of your point doesn't even warrant a reply.

Nail on the fucking head. And didn't take a pay off or sit taking a salary till he found a new job, he showed integrity. Ally McCoist isn't heading to the poor house if he doesn't take his salary but by the same token it's a 12 month rolling contract that works both ways, so just to play devils advocate here and give the man the benefit of the doubt, here's a scenario he could be playing out. He goes to the board says "I want out because its clear its not working and I'll leave with no further payment", board says "great, sign this confidentiality clause and you're gone". Ally says "I can't do that, I think it's important the supporters know whats going on", they say "fair enough, you want to get out of your contract you pay us the £750,000 to buy yourself out". He can afford to leave with nothing but he doesn't want to feed the board £750,000 out his own pocket so he says "fuck you, I'll stay". Their reply "ok, gardening leave then, off you fuck" thinking that gives them a year to do what they can to lessen any pain of what they think he'll say. Ally's position then is to say nothing and hold out for King to gain power and at that point he approaches them and asks if they'll let him go for nothing with no clause, even offers to pay back wages since he went on leave. King says ok as he has nothing to lose, might even help him if it highlights how bad his predecessors were. King wins, Ally shows everything he did he did for Rangers and maybe wins back a lot of respect from the support and the actions of the prior board get highlighted to the supporters. Personally I don't believe that's what's playing out right now and that's why I'm having difficulty seperating Ally the playing legend and Ally the man right now and holding on to all the love/respect built up over the years. But at the end of the day it's possible. The next week or two will show us all the measure of the man.

Option 3 is my bet. I'd like to think it would be 1 but can't see it. I'd think more of him if it was 1.

Maybe I'm picking you up wrong but that reads like we'd never be able to make more than peanuts from player sales as they'd all be in the final year of a contract at all times. I was thinking more we should never let anyone reach the last year of their contract without extending or being sold, well not anyone that holds any sell on value. There's going to be exceptions to any rule where their worth to the team is greater than a sell on value (like Laudrup when we were going for 10), more so with older players, but this is one area we've let ourselves down in for years. We leave it too late and sell too cheap. Way I look at it if we have a decent manager and a more fiscally prudent board we shouldn't be signing any parasites that we need to get rid of.

This. Before he left if he was out injured we dropped the standard of our play, last year as well as this season. Besides, didn't McDowell say he was in almost daily contact with McCoist? Do we suppose they just talk about the weather or their families or is it possible they talk about what made them friends in the first place? And if McDowell still holds him in such high regard as a manager it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he still takes some advice from him. None of that is fact but at the same time it wouldn't be a wild assumption.

We've been in this position before with a club legend as a player being a terrible manager and this for me is what's defining Ally. Do I believe in the same circumstances that John Greig would have milked the club for every penny he could could get and then, knowing he'd been a failure as a manager, still sit for a year taking a ludicrous wage when he knew full well it was holding the club back and as a secondary consideration was forcing a good friend of his to do a job he had no interest or desire to be doing? I'm just guessing of course but no, I don't think he would. I think he would be a bigger man, I think he would have more integrity. John Grieg, greatest ever Ranger and club legend. Ally McCoist the player was a legend but I'm finding it increasingly difficult to seperate him from Ally the manager ..... or Ally the man.

McDowell interview summary "Please sack me...... Please, please sack me"

If King is even remotely confident of winning on Friday he needs to be sorting out a manager right fucking now. Priority number 1.

Just how shite does McDowell think Daly is that he can't get a start or even come on as a sub for Boyd?

They'll just have a whip round, raise 4 glass cheques and a bag of skag for some "catholics only" kids charity and the press can then go on a brown nosing exercise about two great sets of fans coming together for charity. Any violence will be "a very small minority" probably not connected to any club with an afterthought remark about how one of the troublemakers might have been wearing green trainers.

I'm offended and so is my wife.

Voted yes, I'd give him another year as long as he's cheap. We're going to need to bring in a full team and if we're good in the market I don't see him as a starter but he's not the worst and is versatile without being fantastic in any one position so far so is worth a cheap deal as a squad player, if he'd take it knowing thats where the new boss saw him. It'll be difficult enough bringing in a team never mind bringing in almost a full squad.

Rather see him start alongside Daly. But to see him get a run of games is the more important thing so if it has to be Boyd so be it. Wee bit of match sharpness and we'll get a better return than we would from Miller, plus he'll be around the squad ongoing and Miller won't so to me it's a no brainer.

Not our best player to a team like Brentford for £800,000. Any time he was out we always played a lot worse, fair enough we needed money but that was a sale that cost us more than it made us.

They sold McLeod.

A manager that can see whats wrong and make an unforced sub before the 70th minute would make a big difference to us.

Deserves a place ahead of Black, no worse and will get better with game time.