Waggy1872

There's never too much to be taken from the first competitive game of the summer – especially against part-timers on a plastic pitch at the end of a runway in Gibraltar.
But while I’m not about to get carried away with Rangers for beating St Joseph’s 4-0, I’m happy to get myself worked up about the performance of new boy Sheyi Ojo.
The opposition were no great shakes and Steven Gerrard’s side looked a little bit rusty in the first half before starting to find a bit of rhythm after the break.
But Ojo? This kid stood out like a sore thumb from the very first kick of the ball and it looks like my old club have got a real player on their hands.
It’s not about the standard of the team he was up against, it’s about the tools he’s got in his locker and from this first look it seems as if he might have the lot.
He’s powerful, strong, athletic and a great runner with a good work ethic. Technically he’s really impressive and the way he took his goal on Tuesday night was classy and composed.
Listen, it’s important not to put too much expectation on his young shoulders and to remember that he’s up here for a reason. If he was the finished article he’d be in the Liverpool squad by now.
But none of that changes the fact that this is a young boy with enormous potential.
Put it this way, I could see in 90 minutes exactly why Jurgen Klopp wanted Ojo tied up on a five-year contract before he sanctioned the loan move. You don’t do that with young players unless you’re reasonably certain they’re going to be first-team material in a matter of time.
Ojo has huge potential and I believe he’s gone to the perfect place to help him fulfil it because playing for Rangers is all about coping with demands. That’s why Liverpool will be so pleased to let him play up here for a season as this will be a critical part of his development.
Some players flourish under that kind of pressure. Some players take time to get used to it. Some find that they just can’t handle it.
Just look back to this time last summer when Ryan Kent and Ovie Ejaria were sent up the road from the Anfield academy.
Ejaria looked the part but struggled to handle the demands that come with wearing the shirt and performing in front of 50,000 fans every second week.
Kent? He took to Rangers like a duck to water and as a result of his performance level over the seasion he’s now about to fly out with Klopp’s Champions League winning squad on a summer tour of the USA.
He proved to his manager he is cut out to make the difference in big matches under intense pressure and that’s exactly what Klopp will be looking for when he’s considering promoting youngsters into his dressing room.
So it’s no wonder that he wants to take a close look at Kent this summer before deciding if he’s ready to become part of the plans for the new season.
Klopp will be comparing him to the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri over the next couple of weeks and weighing up if the time is right to give him a chance.
I hope he reaches the conclusion the boy needs one more year of first team football at Ibrox because he’s a special talent who could make a real difference to Gerrard’s hopes of winning silverware.
But Liverpool will have looked at the improvement in Kent when they decided to let Ojo move to Glasgow and they will see this as an another opportunity for a young player to take huge strides.
We’ll just need to wait and see how he handles these demands but the first impression was that he can be a really big player for Rangers this season.
The club has won a watch in 
this new relationship with the Merseysiders and much of that is obviously down to Gerrard’s status at Anfield. But Liverpool will also see the benefits of plucking young promising talent from their own academy and giving them men’s football in Glasgow, at a huge club and a demanding support.
It’s effectively a fast track for these kids to prepare them for first team football in the Premier League so it’s a genuine win-win situation for both sides.
Ojo’s proved to them that he has the ability to go all the way. Now they need to see that he also has the temperament to handle it when he’s on a big stage.
It will help him enormously to have a professional like Steve Davis at the heart of the team and I was delighted to see my old team mate dictating things from the middle of the park at Victoria Stadium.
After a sticky start to his second spell, it looks as if he has convinced Gerrard to build the team around him and that can only be good news as he is such a class act.
Anyone who reads this column knows how highly I rate him and I reckon Davo could be the most important signing of the summer in terms of next season’s top flight campaign.
Gerrard will hope that Filip Helander will be another huge contributor given the amount of money the club are prepared to shell out to sign the big Swede from Bologna. I was reading the other day that the last time Rangers spent £4million on a player was when Walter Smith signed Nikica Jelavic in 2010. There wasn’t much money floating about back then, at a time when the bank was starting to squeeze hard. We all know what happened a few years later.
But when Walter bought Jelavic he knew he had signed a player who could help his team win the title and, as usual, he was right.
Gerrard must feel the same way about Helander. With talent like Ojo and Davis around him – and competition for places all over the pitch – it really does feel like an exciting time to be a Rangers fan again.
 
Good article.

Didn’t want it enough to diet ya fat bastard! 🍔

Best of it is to Sunday for the 60 mins he was on Andy Halliday was “outstanding” nothing to see here though 

“Outstanding” is ridiculous , unbelievable the length some bears are going about him last night , only to sway it back into their favour because this was all said when he first joined last season and he turned out to be a gutless mistake of a signing all the while the lad we signed from “only” Kilmarnock who was better than Barisic last night is getting slaughtered, it’s a funny old game right enough 

I like Barisic and expect big things but he was NOT outstanding last night.

What do the tarriers on the podcast make of this?

I’ve seen this lad a few times playing with the 18s mate ,he stood out an absolute mile every time ,hopefully this time it will be a success story 

It will be 60+ game season and we needed more strength in depth than last season when the bench often looked bare. Thus far that's what Gerrard has addressed. Stewart will not start many games but over the course of the season he has a role to play.

They've maybe just chosen to leave it out. Lots do. It could also be that the quotes came from a post-match presser.
BBC Oxford cited the dispute as a reason they couldn't provide live commentary yesterday.

Is Rob McLean not covering the game for Premier Sports? 
as far as I know the dispute is very much still alive, if anything the 'relationship' between us & the BBC has gotten worse over recent times rather than better 

But this is oxford at Ibrox.

Both of us are wrong mate and we are just the usual gullible Rangers fans. 
Some right brainwashed fools in our support and it isnt the 2 of us. 

Who cares what tarriers think on a podcast?

'Derek McInnes is a bottler and Rangers dodged a bullet' Ewen Cameron lets rip at 'raging' Aberdeen fans
The DJ slammed the Dons boss and their supporters during comments made on his latest podcast.
 
Ewen Cameron has launched an incredible blast aimed at Derek McInnes, Aberdeen and their supporters.
The radio host has let rip at the Dons boss in an all-out attack and claims the 47-year-old is a "bottle merchant" and he isn't a "big club manager".
McInnes is revered at Pittodrie for his telling impact at the club where he has transformed one of Scottish football's sleeping giants since his arrival in 2013.
During his tenure, Aberdeen have won the League Cup and finished best of the rest behind celtic in four consecutive seasons, before a fourth-placed finish in 2018/19.
 
McInnes has also earned signature scalps in Europe. Famous wins over Rijeka and Groningen live long in the memory among the Reds faithful. Last season, Aberdeen dumped Rangers out of both domestic cups before coming up short against celtic.
His enviable CV has led to offers from elsewhere. Both Sunderland and Rangers made moves for his services in 2017 but McInnes rejected their interest to remain at Pittdorie.
The Dons boss has added 10 players this summer as he deals with the loss of key duo Gary Mackay-Steven and captain Graeme Shinnie.
 
But Cameron is not a fan of McInnes and made that abundantly clear with his barbed comments on his podcast alongside Grado.
He said on Football Daft : "He didn't go to Rangers because he bottled it.
 
"He's a bottle merchant. He isn't a big club manager.
"He knows he isn't a big club manager, Derek McInnes knows his place.
"It turns out, in my opinion, that Rangers actually dodged a bullet with Derek McInnes.
"Why? Because Aberdeen have won one trophy during that spell and that was when Rangers were on a world tour of Scotland, playing the likes of Peterhead.
"Hearts and Hibs were in the Championship and still Aberdeen could win just one trophy when those three teams were playing in the lower leagues.
"Since the return of Hearts, Hibs and Rangers, Aberdeen have found themselves going from second to fourth in the league behind Rangers and Kilmarnock."
 
It wasn't only Aberdeen's manager in the firing line with supporters also getting it in the neck from the DJ.
Cameron claims the Dons faithful care more about fierce rivals Rangers than their own team and they should "know their place" within the Scottish football landscape.
He added: "Aberdeen fans cannot accept they are nothing special. They have to accept who they are.
"And what is really pathetic, in regards to Aberdeen supporters, is they hate Rangers more than they love Aberdeen.
"Their fans are raging that Rangers have gone from League Two to the only club that has a chance of ending celtic's dominance.
"For me, Aberdeen fans have a chip on their shoulder.
"They were once a force, particularly in the 80s, they are not now.
"They are not a force within Scottish football.
"That's the problem with Aberdeen fans, they are living in the past and can't accept that they are nothing really special.
"My message to Aberdeen fans is this, take a page out of your manager's book and know your place.
"Also, see the p*** you've been sending me on Twitter, up ye."
https://www.BOYCOTT THIS LINK/sport/football/football-news/derek-mcinnes-bottler-Rangers-dodged-17395934.amp?__twitter_impression=true

They'll be playing for fitness similar to us rather than the result. We play a game against teams in scotland then we face it becoming far more competitive, especially if crowds become involved. I'd say injuries would be likelier.
Its clearly something we're comfortable with at this stage, and has been deemed successful previously for whatever specifically we want out of it.

we should wait and see what the numbers are after we win 55. if we still have a large waiting list for STs 2-3 seasons after 55 and if we can afford it then yes we should look at expanding the stadium.
i just think 55 is within reach and a lot of people will want to be there to experience it. when we are back to our winning ways you might see some people give up their seats.
also this is Gerrard's 2nd season out of 4 (that he is contracted to). i can't see us keeping him beyond those 4 years. pressure will be on him if we don't get 55 this season. will supporters be demanding STs with who replaces him? 
upgrading the stadium is a huge financial expense and shouldn't be done with absolute confidence, stability, and money in the bank.

I’m guessing season ticket holders who aren’t on cccs will have until a certain date to purchase their seats, that’s why to everyone it will say sold out then once public sale starts they’ll actually know what seats they have free so right now it won’t actually be sold out 

If your a season ticket holder you can log in and buy your seat, the sold out will change when public sale starts.

No doubt they are trying to take payment off a card attached to our accounts from 7 years ago or something equally as moronic.

Must be brutal getting to the hotel after all that travelling, absolutely roasting and you have to sit with the gaffer having a water 😂

Was thinking the exact same thing

Must be brutal getting to the hotel after all that travelling, absolutely roasting and you have to sit with the gaffer having a water 😂