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Many will pour scorn on this. I take him at his word and think it a contains a certain decency. Good luck to him in the future.

Classy statement from a classy guy. It didn’t work but for me he was hung out to dry by the board some players and keyboard warriors. Yes tactically it didn’t always work out but I thought he was a good manager. Certainly a massive improvement on the one before and after.

Last night saw Dessers play his 100th game for Rangers and score his 45th goal and he's not been here for 2 full seasons. Shows a few things; 1. He is always available. 2. He scores goals both domestically and in Europe. 3. He never, ever hides despite the despicable treatment he received fron our own fans. 4. We'd be far worse without him. 5. He's the best striker we have at the club. 6. Far more pressing issues with the team / squad than "replacing" him.

I sometimes wonder what might have happened if the support had actually backed the manager(s) and the players over the last 3 and bit seasons, instead of turning on them after every set back and poor result. I find it staggering that anyone would claim our support aren't impatient, that's a real lack of self awareness on display. There's literally a thread describing at least 10 of players as 'no hopers and non triers'. Six of those players are full current internationalists, but aye, no hopers. We are literally the poster boys for impatience, we will turn on players after a couple of poor games, a manager will get a month, maybe 6 weeks and if we're not performing the knives will be sharpened. Anyone who doesn't think we'll turn on these proposed new owners with a fury they can't comprehend yet if they fail to back a manager or sell a favourite player simply doesn't understand our support. We are passive in terms of wanting to actually get involved in running and making our club better, but very vocal in making our unhappiness known when those who do fall short of our perceived standards. The Rangers support, of who I am proud to call myself one, have many good points and are unfairly maligned by others, but let's not pretend we're a patient support, we're most certainly not.

A hotel, a school, a shopping complex and a car park? Are we moving to somewhere else then? I'll settle for a fit centre half and a left winger.

The truth will out Comparing a guy of 22 with a guy pushing 40, apart from anything else....

STAUNCH! Well, it has been just over a month since doleful Phil departed the Stadium and the interim management team of Barry, Neil, Billy and, Allan were appointed. There has been six games, four league fixtures against Killie(a), Motherwell(h), Sellik(a) and Dundee(a). A last sixteen Euro tie against Fenerbache was squeezed in between. There has also been a week long international break; thus, an unforgivingly hectic schedule. Time for rumination has been utilised for the higher priority of grabbing breaths. Inhalation over PQ way is more difficult, the collective airways are constantly blocked by bubbling hilarity. Over these last few years, I have provided dozens of examples of why BBC Scotland should be considered a Sellik state of mind. Where the ACSOM podcast leads, Pacific Quay is sure to follow. The kd lang tribute act and ACSOM main presenter, Paul John Dykes told his viewers, "Barry Ferguson does not have a brain, his team is all about spirit, spit and sawdust". An on screen contributor chipped in with, "Barry is being helped by a couple of BBC Scotland's staunchest pundits". STAUNCH became the defining word. Right across their football content, there was a compulsion at PQ to describe the appointments as STAUNCH. We are talking Sportsound, Sportscene, Off the Ball, A View from the Terrace, .............., etc. Wullie Miller, Chris McLaughlin, Tom English, Stephen Thomson, Stephen McGinn, the diversity twins RAB and Tam, Craig Telfer, Craig Fowler, ......... etc all uttered the word. Some mixed in the unappetising relish of jokes that implied 'thick with it too'. To reinforce the message, the mental imagery was related, the brown brogues on the marble staircase and Barry driving through the Auchenhowie gates in an orange Ford Ranger. It was a STAUNCH sniggerfest. We are all products of our conditioning and fifty-sixty years past in both Primary and Secondary school playgrounds, we told Pat and Mick jokes. You know Pat and Mick decide to take up fishing but quickly realise the cost of clothing and equipment could be prohibitive. Thus, Pat tells Mick to hold him over the bridge by his ankles. When he has his hands on a fish he will shout 'haul' and Mick pulls him up. After an hour, Pat hollers 'haul'. Mick asks, you've caught a fish to which Pat replies, 'naw, there's a train coming'. During senior school and University, we were told these jokes were unacceptable. The Irish are an erudite people, relating jokes confirming a lack of education was a device allowing easy and lazy hatred. RAB Cosgrove has an easy and lazy get out when he feels discomfort, he refers to, "cheeky football rivalry". Can he fit in the following jokes told on BBC Scotland in the last month to that three word phrase? Barry enters a restaurant with EBT Team and is presented with a menu. He tells the waiter, 'we will have the Pageone'. The waiter informs him that he is reading Page One of the menu. Barry approaches the counter and orders, 'a fish supper and a can of coke'. Lady behind the counter replies, 'Ah think you've got the wrong place, this is a Library'. Barry thinks and leans in to whisper, 'a fish supper and a can of coke'. Barry appeared on Countdown alongside Ian Ferguson and it was the only time the show concluded in a nil-nil draw. Barry has to be portrayed as both staunch and thick because it makes him easier to hate. The facts are unhelpful, he married his RC childhood sweetheart, their children were baptised in that faith and, initially their children attended denominational schools. The Establishment broadcaster ignores the facts and continues to pump out the staunch and thick line because they want to be seen as strict adherents to the narrative demanded by the Establishment club. Now, that is staunch.

👏 Immense prediction!

During the Battle of Aisne, on the Western Front of WW1, two men were given the unenviable task of capturing an enemy machine gun post. It was a suicide mission, nevertheless the soldiers followed their orders and attacked. One of the men was Private George Wilson of the Highland Light Infantry, the other man’s name hasn’t been recorded for posterity. Private Wilson received the Victoria Cross for most conspicuous gallantry, a medal you can still see today as it’s displayed in the HLI museum in Sauchiehall Street. Wilson survived the mission and the war. His comrade that day was killed before the enemy machine gun post was secured. Writing about the nature of fate and luck Sergeant Thomas Painting, who was present at the battle, retold the story “Private Wilson from the HLI and one our men attacked a machine gun. Our man got killed but Wilson captured the position. Wilson got the Victoria Cross and our man got a wooden cross, that’s the difference.” Luck, fate or whatever you want to call it is that most elusive and valuable of commodities in football too. Sure, you make your own luck. 30 years from now history will record that Cyriel Dessers scored an injury time winner in a classic 4-3 victory. It’s unlikely anyone then will care that he had 10 or so good chances to score before that. He scored the winner, that’s the only stat that counts. Lucky Cyriel. Lucky Rangers to have him. Unlucky Dundee to keep allowing him to get chances. Luck has been on my mind watching Rangers this year. Had James Tavernier not missed a stoppage time penalty against Queens Park we’d probably have gone on and won that cup tie. Lucky Rangers would have been the gist of the headlines. Clement would have hung on for at least another few weeks, almost certainly until the Fenerbace tie. Luck had something else in mind, no VCs for Phillipe. Barry Ferguson might just be a lucky manager. Certainly he’s incredibly lucky to actually be the Rangers manager. He’s not nearly qualified for the job, indeed I’d argue he would have been lucky to ever get another senior managerial job following his stints at Kelty and Clyde. Yet now he’s managing the biggest club in the country. Not only was Ferguson out of work and available, but so were Allan McGregor, Neil McCann and Billy Dodds, who along with Issame Charai have been unable to fix our defensive frailties but have found a bit of steel from somewhere. A lucky find. Incredibly, Ferguson’s Rangers have yet to win a match at Ibrox. The Fenerbace game was actually a horrible performance, lacking in everything we’ve come to expect from Rangers in the Europa League. Yet we’ve all forgotten about that because Jack Butland chose that moment to re-find the form that made him an England international once upon a time. A 2-0 defeat that felt like a win. We left Ibrox relieved and ecstatic, almost forgetting we’d carried a lot of luck that evening. Our support returned to Parkhead and watched Rangers deservedly go in ahead at the break, before succumbing to Celtic’s Japanese footballers once again. We know how this story normally ends, yet this time it didn’t. Celtic’s defenders decided defending wasn’t for them, Igamane got the break of the ball and delivered a finish so beautiful that should also be displayed in a museum in Glasgow for everyone to admire. Ferguson’s Rangers seem to have all the same weaknesses as Clement’s, yet somehow they feel different. I think, and I say this quietly so as not to break the spell, but I think we’re carrying some luck for what feels like the first time in years. The Dundee disallowed goal, their point blank miss in the second half, oh we’re definitely carrying some luck. It’s about time frankly. Napoleon was once criticised for winning battles through luck. He replied that he’d ‘rather have lucky generals than good ones, lucky ones win battles’. Is Barry Ferguson a lucky general? I hope so. Unlike 8,500,000 others Private Wilson VC survived the First World War and returned to Scotland to resume his life. However, Wilson was taken by TB in 1926 without reaching his 40th birthday. Everyone runs out of luck, eventually.

I don't think it matters whether fans agree or disagree with the banner. Either way, it was still extremely stupid to have at it a UEFA game.

The hysteria from a section of our support is depressing. It's the board's fault" - Lots online blaming the board for not fighting the charge, even though they don't have a clue whether they did or didn't. Not that it would have mattered anyway. UEFA can do what they want. The board can't be blamed for UEFA's decisions. "It's not racist" - nobody has said that it was. "racist and/or discriminatory". 'Or' being the important word here. "Free speech is gone" - sigh. What a crap argument. You can make the argument but just not at at a UEFA match. They have their rules. If they had said "coherent speech is gone" then I'd have more sympathy. "Support the fans" - which fans are these? The ones who didn't want the banner or the ones that did? Just support the fans that you personally agree with? Another crap argument.

I'd rather keep him too, but its unlikely he will want to stay. He will want a bigger league and wage. We cant give him either. We need to get out of this mindset of being scared to let players go because we cant replace them. Its held us back for years now.

...but their support's customary offensive rubbish will not be displayed..... which must surely hand us an advantage...... Frankly, that lot could give Trump lessons in narcissism, and self-importance. (To be fair, he's not a vicious antisemite.) "A football club held in the highest esteem". Indeed - presumably in pederast circles, as an example of how to abuse generations of children and get away with it. It doesn't seem to have penetrated the minds of this soi-disant intellectual wing of the fhilth support that Sunday's match will, as usual, attract attention from all over the globe, and that the Board will not wish to be embarrassed by the content of any display; nor will it wish to have to explain, or attempt to excuse, such content. Of course, in, mirabile dictu, an exercise in naked cynicism, refusing permission for a display means that it will not have to be seen to condemn it, afterwards, no matter how mealy mouthed, and insincere, that rebuke would be. Until the last rebel, indeed. God speed that day.

Need them to get in with the war chest. First thing they should do is empty the war chest to pay off all these loans. We won't have any money left for new signings but all of the finance chat will come to an end so that is something.

I'm all for caution but I think your concern is over the top. The shares issue is clearly turning existing loans into shares ahead of the 'sale', I really don't think it's anymore than that. The loan is for cashflow, we've relied on directors providing money at this time of the season in the past, we can't now, so we've borrowed. It's not ideal, but it's not criminal. I really think describing our current board as 'crooks's is really unfair. They've made mistakes, no doubt, but there is no comparison to Whyte, none at all.

A great result, and I am, quite rightly, delighted. When I think about just how pig-sick the rest of Scottish football -or, even, perhaps, the rest of Scotland- is with the result, my delight is magnified.

UEFA didn't say it was racist specifically, but a club either abides by the rules and their rulings or they don't take part in their competitions. It was clearly discriminatory, if your own interpretation of the banner is correct. If people want to do fight against UEFA then go ahead, but it'll fail, and fans shouldn't be selfish to use the club for their own individual ideologies when it's clearly going to result in punishment and threaten the attendances of other fans at future games. I don't see the relevance. Just because something isn't criminal doesn't mean it's acceptable to UEFA. We, as a club, aren't going to win any fights against UEFA. We're not from a big league and don't have any influence.

Once the new owners take control this will be a new Rangers a new start if anyone has ever been to an American game be it soccer or baseball they’ll know it’s a family day out and the crowds are made up of every race of people the sad thing about our support is they can’t move forward for looking back they go on about so many leagues and cups that’s the past get the heads out of the sand and move forward and enjoy the new Rangers .

That's as strong a sentence as I can recall the club ever making publicly. I personally wish they'd made it right after the match instead of waiting for a charge from UEFA, but better late than never. Whether UEFA should be sanctioning clubs for banners is moot, it's their competition, they make the rules, so if we want to play in the Europa League we need to adhere to them. As for what the banner meant, only the people who created it know what they actually meant. Of course what someone means and how it's taken are not always the same thing. We've been over this countless times before on forums and I suspect we probably will again. That's the danger with language, it can be misunderstood, or indeed understood all too well depending on who is hearing it. The term 'defend Europe' when playing against a Turkish club from the Asian side of Istanbul could be taken all sorts of ways. Likewise while playing against a club from a predominantly muslim country a message like that could be read in various ways. As for 'keep foreign ideologies out' how anyone can read that as anything other than racist is beyond me. Whether someone was trying to make a bigger social or political point or was upset at the LGBT flag on the Govan stand and the planned Iftar only they know. But I suspect any gay supporters or Muslim ones might have felt the banner was aimed at them, whether that was meant or not. I imagine personal politics will come into play on this. Often objections to 'political' messages depend a lot on whether you're in agreement with the message or not. Either way it's such a shame that we find ourselves talking about stuff like this again.

Cheers @Frankie - I think BP and heart rate are just about back to normal, and you had to remind me they we face them on Sunday 😁

Good to see Butland turn up, been a while. He deserves plaudits for that. Well done.

I'm not quietly confident, but then I rarely am. I don't think Mourinho is the manager he once was, since he left Man Utd I've never felt his heart was in it, it's been more performative than productive. Even his attempt at mind games yesterday felt like an after thought. That said if we lose an early goal, or two, and if the crowd get nervy and restless it could be a difficult evening for us. If the crowd stay behind the side, even if there are setbacks, we should be ok. This is a Rangers side that's mentally fragile, and a little physically fragile too, but with a rocking Ibrox behind them they are capable of achieving a great result. It's always worth remembering we're still in Europe in March, that's not something I'll ever take for granted.

This level of pre-match analysis and understanding of the professional game is further evidence of why everyone should ignore anything I post on football. What a result.

The offside law needs changed. If you have to draw lines, if it's that close, give the scoring team the benefit of the doubt.

Hahaha - hopefully gets more boring. Guy booed, ridiculed and abused b his own fans ramming their words back down their throats. If only we had more players with his attitude and who contributed like he does we wouldn't be in this mess. However, we'll still get fans (even on here) slate him. Chuffed for the Big Man and for those who defended him against the vitriol he has faced and overcome.

From what I understand, its done by percentage so we'll get more seats there, than they'll get at Ibrox Cynical side of me says that if there was a title race, there would still be no away fans

He is a very decent man and this statement shows it again.

I believe this to be an honest message and not just lip service from Big Phil. This seems very gracious for a man who was shown very little support from the board or fans not even half way into his rebuild. All the best to him in the future.

Butland’s form has nothing to do with Clement. It’s everything to do with Butland.

Like others have said , McCoist missed sitters every game but it never mattered because we didnt lose stupid goals that would cancel out any goals he scored. I think Dessers would be a hero if the clowns at the back stopped the calamities at the back every week.

We could always put it on a banner...

I don't think it's right to dish out lifetime bans for something that wasn't actually racist or discriminatory. UEFA didn't like it, so censor and ban those fans forever? At most, a ban from European games would make more sense.

Think we should consider a player-manager .

I have informed this forum before; according to the current MyGers accounts, I am within five points of being appointed Rangers Gaffer. I demand my moniker be included in your list.

We kept Morelos, Kent, Goldson, Aribo, Kamara, etc. long after their peak value. How much did we win? We're still counting the cost. We need to get the player trading model working.

And the more we're able to sell players for big money, the more attractive we become for other players as they'll see us as a pathway to a top 5/top 2 league team.

After seeing the level of opposition in this thread I will amend my position. I am now pretending to have backed him from the start. Oh Barry, Barry, ...

Andrew Cavenagh, and perhaps more telling, Gretar Steinsson at the game yesterday. Could the latter be our new DoF?

I don't agree that we were second best in the first leg. We played on the counter but deservedly won 3-1, going on 5.

First thing the 49'ers should do is ban that f*****g drum

Seems to happen with frustrating players and there is nothing more frustrating than sitters being missed. But his all round game has never been bad plus the sitter misses have dried up. He is also a likeable guy / player. And the other plus point is his injury record is good.

Dear 49ers, Please let us keep Cerny. Thanks. DA.

Funnily enough, Dessers was a Europe specialist at Feyenoord too. He's been better than Igamane lately though. Whatever anyone says about Dessers, he comes across as a model pro.

He was by Donald's side all through the match

Think we've had issues with injuries for a time before Clement so probably just a case of timing. Won't be long until the usual suspects break down again you'd fancy.