Record Blog - I expect Rangers to win the title this season

[BLUEDIGNITY 33,788]

1 minute ago, thebooler said:

Can't you copy and paste like everyone else does with Rhetard articles so we don't give them the hits?

Looks like the courageous reporting deal is back in action !

[thebooler 4,509]

I'll be happy if we at least mount a challenge going into the last 5 or 6 games, and ecstatic if we were to win it.

However, I think realistically, a close 2nd and one of the Cups would keep most of us happy, IF we do win it the following season!

[NixonRFC 1,476]

8 hours ago, The Dude said:

Shouldn't it start EVERY summer though?

Yes, they had a great season last season but it largely means nothing. I'd be utterly amazed if they have a season anywhere close to the one they've just had.  We've an almost entirely different team, they look like they'll lose their two best players and Rodgers hasn't exactly set the world alight anywhere in his second season (not to mention the guy now in charge of their recruitment is regarded as a dud by Sunderland fans who were celebrating when he left them). We might not win it next season but, imo, there's not much point going into any season looking to finish the best of the rest. When we stop expecting to be successful then we're no better than Hibs, Hearts or any of the other diddy clubs who are happy just to play in the top division.

They won't have a season as strong as last season, that's not me talking them down for the sake of it, it was one of those once in a generation Seasons where everything went perfect, it is what it is, they got 106 pts though, even if they drop 14 more points next season they'd still hit 92 points which I think is more than likely, that means we'll need to be 25 points better off next season than we were last season, thats a big ask at this stage.

[The Dude 20,026]

2 hours ago, NixonRFC said:

They won't have a season as strong as last season, that's not me talking them down for the sake of it, it was one of those once in a generation Seasons where everything went perfect, it is what it is, they got 106 pts though, even if they drop 14 more points next season they'd still hit 92 points which I think is more than likely, that means we'll need to be 25 points better off next season than we were last season, thats a big ask at this stage.

Looking back over previous seasons, somewhere in the mid-high 80s is more likely imo.vIf we can turn stupid draws against the likes of Hamilton and Ross County into wins the points quickly start adding up. We drew 10 games, Aberdeen and Celtic both drew 4. Get anywhere close to that and that's 12 points made up off the bat. Chuck in an OF win or two, and them dropping more points elsewhere and it's already MUCH closer than it was.

[The Dude 20,026]

2 hours ago, BLUEDIGNITY said:

Looks like the courageous reporting deal is back in action !

No, I'm just back off my holiday.

[The Dude 20,026]

4 hours ago, onefootwillie said:

Don't think you are far off with that. We will have pretty much a new team and expecting all of them to be a success is being very hopeful. I would love us to win the league this season and expect us to be much closer . The good thing is that the manager has had a bit of time to assess Scottish Football and that I think will be a help. It's a lot better that it was 5 yrs ago . However unless Celtic perform  poorly I think they might just be a bit ahead of us this season. I would love Linfield to put them out of Europe, you can but hope 

Of course it's being hopeful. Fuck being one of these folk that think everything surrounding the club is doom and gloom. If we cant have some optimism what's the point?

[MayboleLoyal_atb 3,799]

I expect us to win league every season a wouldn't go shouting about it in a national paper though as it could come back and bite you on the arse 

[graeme_4 35,555]

4 hours ago, BridgeIsBlue said:

We should be expecting and demanding to win the league every year. 

Why though? On what basis are you expecting us to win it? Your just not being objective. 

It would take everything to go right for us, and for the filth to have an absolute meltdown. 

Might happen, but very unlikely. 

[The Dude 20,026]

6 hours ago, Sportingintegritymyarse said:

I agree, wanted but not expected.

We're on a positive footing now, no doubt about it, but have shown nothing on the park to justify such an expectation.

And I've no doubt the bheasts will also react to our strengthening with substantially more than Johnny Hayes.

My concern is the expectation to win leads to recriminations if it's not met, ie folk wanting PC sacked if we don't. That whole circus leads to instability, possible change again, and would undoubtedly lead to them getting 10.

Our support really do go to extremes on the flick if a switch. 

A bit of objectivity and realism is very much needed right now whilst remaining positive.

 

I'm not so sure. Every name they've been linked with bar hayes has said no. Rodger isn't exactly renowned for doing well anywhere in his second season and their new head of recruitment is a dud. If they lose the likes of Dembele, Armstrong, Sinclair they could face a struggle to replace them with similar quality. 

There were Rangers fans who wanted Pedro sacked before last season was finished. I've backed the guy from day one and, barring a Warburton-esque failure next season,  I'll not be calling for his head any times soon. If we finish second but remain within touching distance of them then it would be unneccessary to sack him imo.

In terms of objectivity and realism, it seems many read the headline and not the actual article. I fully acknowledge we might not win the title and, in all likelihood, it'll take things out of our control for it to happen. None of that means though that, come May, I don't want to see Rangers lift the title. Football can change very quickly, and sometimes with very little rhyme or reason, and on that basis I'll not be writing us off on the basis of them being good last season. Mind we went from a UEFA Cup final to losing to Kaunas in 10 weeks. They went from losing to Lincoln to going undefeated domestically. 

[The Dude 20,026]

5 minutes ago, MayboleLoyal_atb said:

I expect us to win league every season a wouldn't go shouting about it in a national paper though as it could come back and bite you on the arse 

Meh. If they win Celtic fans will gloat, I'll still get paid and the world will keep spinning.

[BridgeIsBlue 66,671]

Just now, graeme_4 said:

Why though? On what basis are you expecting us to win it? Your just not being objective.

If we're not expecting to win the league every season we'd be better off just packing it in altogether. 

[Gman36 3,460]

I want us to challenge, get a bit closer to the top. I don't think it's realistic to expect a 30 point swing though, we just aren't making the signings that are going to do that.

If we'd signed a top level manager, and given him a huge wad of cash a la Advocaat era, then aye anything other than winning would be unacceptable. But we have to understand the reality of the situation. An unproven manager with a large number of new signings who haven't played in Scotland before. 

[The Dude 20,026]

1 minute ago, Gman36 said:

I want us to challenge, get a bit closer to the top. I don't think it's realistic to expect a 30 point swing though, we just aren't making the signings that are going to do that.

If we'd signed a top level manager, and given him a huge wad of cash a la Advocaat era, then aye anything other than winning would be unacceptable. But we have to understand the reality of the situation. An unproven manager with a large number of new signings who haven't played in Scotland before. 

See this 30 point swing nonsense, it's meaningless. We all start on 0. They have no points advantage over us and 'all' we need to do is get one point more than them. We dont need a 30 point swing plus 1, just plus one. 

SAme with this "they've not played in Scotland before". They have as much chance of flopping as Ryan Jack does and he's spent his entire career here. Plenty foreigners have come here and not put a foot wrong depsite having never played here and plenty scots have signed and been fucking woeful.

[thebooler 4,509]

5 minutes ago, The Dude said:

Meh. If they win Celtic fans will gloat, I'll still get paid and the world will keep spinning.

Ive gotta be honest - that's a dream job mate.

Getting paid for making a cunt o yersel. ?

[The Dude 20,026]

Just now, thebooler said:

Ive gotta be honest - that's a dream job mate.

Getting paid for making a cunt o yersel. ?

Worked as a holiday rep, it's nothing new, although given the reaction to the stuff I've had on the record's website so far I prefer to look at it as being paid to write about Rangers and wind up Celtic fans.

[With Heart and Hand 8,951]

I'm not expecting a win, definitely expecting to see the gap close by a great margin

I'm much more confident now that I was 6 months ago, but the taigs are miles ahead of us and have more money than we do,  they've been together a long time and no were starting from square one again.

It's not like we've signed any superstars either,  the only ones most of us have heard of are Scottish or Alves who's nearing the end of his career

I'm feeling  lot less negative  than I did last season but can't help but feel some are setting themselves up for disappointment. We're at square one and there's no way to know how this team will pan out

[With Heart and Hand 8,951]

10 minutes ago, The Dude said:

See this 30 point swing nonsense, it's meaningless. We all start on 0. They have no points advantage over us and 'all' we need to do is get one point more than them. We dont need a 30 point swing plus 1, just plus one. 

SAme with this "they've not played in Scotland before". They have as much chance of flopping as Ryan Jack does and he's spent his entire career here. Plenty foreigners have come here and not put a foot wrong depsite having never played here and plenty scots have signed and been fucking woeful.

Yes but they have already proven themselves more than capable of beating every team in Scotland

[The Dude 20,026]

1 minute ago, With Heart and Hand said:

I'm not expecting a win, definitely expecting to see the gap close by a great margin

I'm much more confident now that I was 6 months ago, but the taigs are miles ahead of us and have more money than we do,  they've been together a long time and no were starting from square one again.

It's not like we've signed any superstars either,  the only ones most of us have heard of are Scottish or Alves who's nearing the end of his career

I'm feeling  lot less negative  than I did last season but can't help but feel some are setting themselves up for disappointment. We're at square one and there's no way to know how this team will pan out

If you're expecting the gap to close by a great margin, and given they wont carry an unbeaten run the entirety of next season, why couldn't we win the title?

 

I'd be disappointed if we didn't win the league regardless of me putting it in a paper. I think we'll be pleasantly surprised by some of the signings who people don't know much of.

Just now, With Heart and Hand said:

Yes but they have already proven themselves more than capable of beating every team in Scotland

Correct me if I'm wrong here but so have we (other than them and maybe Ross County)

[With Heart and Hand 8,951]

Just now, The Dude said:

If you're expecting the gap to close by a great margin, and given they wont carry an unbeaten run the entirety of next season, why couldn't we win the title?

 

I'd be disappointed if we didn't win the league regardless of me putting it in a paper. I think we'll be pleasantly surprised by some of the signings who people don't know much of.

Correct me if I'm wrong here but so have we (other than them and maybe Ross County)

I don't think we can't win the league

But I think the ball is more in their hands

We've got a brand new squad and they've got a team who went unbeaten, that has to be taken into consideration

I don't think it's impossible for us to win,  just unlikely. 

I'm not going to say it's theirs to give away but I think we are more likely to slip up

Would you not be a lot more surprised if we came out and won our first 8 games than you would be if celtic did it? I think you would

I think if we gel together quickly it could be a close season,  but I don't expect celtic to be a lot worse than they were last season,  it was a bit of a fluke as it always would be,  but they played well and deserved it

We need to focus on all aspects of our game as we were beaten by nearly every team last season, all the taigs have to do is keep doing what theyve been doing

We didn't even finish second last season

I'm looking forward to the season and have high hopes but I think it would be a bit silly for someone to put their money on us winning the league at the moment

[The Dude 20,026]

Just now, With Heart and Hand said:

I don't think we can't win the league

But I think the ball is more in their hands

We've got a brand new squad and they've got a team who went unbeaten, that has to be taken into consideration

I don't think it's impossible for us to win,  just unlikely. 

I'm not going to say it's theirs to give away but I think we are more likely to slip up

Would you not be a lot more surprised if we came out and won our first 8 games than you would be if celtic did it? I think you would

I think if we gel together quickly it could be a close season,  but I don't expect celtic to be a lot worse than they were last season,  it was a bit of a fluke as it always would be,  but they played well and deserved it

We need to focus on all aspects of our game as we were beaten by nearly every team last season, all the taigs have to do is keep doing what theyve been doing

We didn't even finish second last season

I'm looking forward to the season and have high hopes but I think it would be a bit silly for someone to put their money on us winning the league at the moment

 

Tbh, I wouldn't be too surprised if we won our first 8 games. Its the exactly what we should be doing. We're not Hibs where winning two out of three games is considered a successful run of form. They signed 6 players last summer (we've signed 7 so far) and had appointed a new manager. They didn't do too badly out of it.

I honestly wouldn't be shocked to see them finish 20 points off 2016/17s points total. If it was as easy as just keeping doing what they've been doing we'd be as well bolting the doors and finding something else to fill our time.

[NixonRFC 1,476]

52 minutes ago, The Dude said:

Looking back over previous seasons, somewhere in the mid-high 80s is more likely imo.vIf we can turn stupid draws against the likes of Hamilton and Ross County into wins the points quickly start adding up. We drew 10 games, Aberdeen and Celtic both drew 4. Get anywhere close to that and that's 12 points made up off the bat. Chuck in an OF win or two, and them dropping more points elsewhere and it's already MUCH closer than it was.

they've won the League 8 times since the turn of the Millenium when we've been in the same League as them and from those 8 wins they've broke the 90 point barrier 6 times - the lowest winning total they had was 84pts in our PLG year and they basically had their feet up since bonfire night.

We need to be realistic here and say they'll likely break 90pts again so that's the benchmark we need to aim for, if we get 85pts we'll absolutely have given them a challenge but they'll still win the title with a good bit to spare, we need to reach 90 points to get us to the party

[graeme_4 35,555]

46 minutes ago, BridgeIsBlue said:

If we're not expecting to win the league every season we'd be better off just packing it in altogether. 

Your not answering the question though, on what basis do you expect us to win the league? What makes you think we will? 

Better players? Better manager? More established squad? 

Aside from 'we are Rangers', what makes you expect that we'd win? 

Hoping / wanting, and expecting are totally different. 

[The Dude 20,026]

1 minute ago, NixonRFC said:

they've won the League 8 times since the turn of the Millenium when we've been in the same League as them and from those 8 wins they've broke the 90 point barrier 6 times - the lowest winning total they had was 84pts in our PLG year and they basically had their feet up since bonfire night.

We need to be realistic here and say they'll likely break 90pts again so that's the benchmark we need to aim for, if we get 85pts we'll absolutely have given them a challenge but they'll still win the title with a good bit to spare, we need to reach 90 points to get us to the party

How many times have they broken it in the last five years? They won the title a few years ago with less than 80 points.

[NixonRFC 1,476]

2 minutes ago, The Dude said:

How many times have they broken it in the last five years? They won the title a few years ago with less than 80 points.

they only broke it once in the four years we weren't in the League but thats because they didn't have to, like the PLG season they had their feet up domestically for four years, judge them on how they perform when we're in the League, that's when you know they'll up their game

[The Dude 20,026]

3 minutes ago, graeme_4 said:

Your not answering the question though, on what basis do you expect us to win the league? What makes you think we will? 

Better players? Better manager? More established squad? 

Aside from 'we are Rangers', what makes you expect that we'd win? 

Hoping / wanting, and expecting are totally different. 

Our squad is just a good as theirs. One or two of their standout players look like theyre off and their new head of recruitment is a dud who may struggle to replace them with similar quality. Their manager has a track record of failing in his second season and they won't carry last season's form throughout next season. And to be quite honest, they are nowhere near as good as some want to think they are.

We've brought in a good manager who has massively improved our squad with his signings. Brought in players who have won titles elsewhere (Alves, Pena) and others who are highly-rated, not to mention the captain of 'Scottish football's new second force'.