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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.

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.

For the first 40 or so years of our existence Rangers were no more Protestant a club than Partick Thistle or Falkirk or Arbroath were. The later arrival of that Protestant identity was down to a number of factors. Rangers rise from being simply another football club to being recognised as one the most attractive to watch and the success that brought. Queen's Park's decision to remain amateur and not embrace professionalism. Queen's Park were one of the most famous clubs in the country, hugely influential and successful in football's formative years. By the turn on the 20th century they were already struggling to attract the calibre of player they were used to and losing support. Partick Thistle moving from Partick to Maryhill. Glasgow was a city of 'incomers' in the early 20th century. Family allegiances to clubs didn't yet exist in the way we see them today. Men, and it was almost exclusively men, would finish work on Saturday and many would go and watch a game close to them. Maryhill was a lot harder to get to from Partick and the west of the city, Govan had great transport links and an attractive and successful football team. So thousands of men went to watch Rangers and a habit was formed. Rangers started to attract supporters from all across the city. Not being Celtic. Celtic were successful almost from the day they first played. They had lots of money and were clearly looking to attract the Irish Catholic population of the city, something they did successfully. Many of those not from that background didn't see Celtic as the club for them. Irish home rule became increasingly divisive politically and increased a feeling of 'them and us' in cities with big Irish populations, like Glasgow. Protestant immigration from the north of Ireland. Around a quarter of all the Irish who came to Scotland were Protestant. Many brought with them their culture, for some that included Orange institutions, with numbers swelling during the late 19th and early 20th century. So Rangers changed as it's support changed. We became the 'Protestant' club and the unionist club. We didn't set out that way, it was simply that the city changed around us. The city is changing again, those of us who live in Glasgow can't help but notice. At the same time our players are changing too. My formative years watching Rangers the entire starting 11 were Scots. Robert Pryrz and John McClelland were seen as exotic. My son's heroes are Columbian, Moroccan, Nigerian and Cameroonian. Whether some like it or not our support is changing too. I know supporters who have no religion, indeed strongly dislike organised religion. I know supporters who are strong Scottish nationalists. Supporters who are Marxists. I know practicing Roman Catholics who support Rangers, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and or course Muslims. Many of these people have no attachment to loyalism, Orangism, even Unionism. But I've yet to hear one of them say they want to see Red Hands and Union flags banned from Ibrox, or loyalist songs banned. If your culture is so threatened by our club welcoming a small number of its supporters to enjoy a cultural and religious ceremony then maybe it's got bigger problems.

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!

Correct. celtic opposed an extension of the season because they claimed to have arranged a tour of Japan early in the close season. “Sporting integrity” they called it. There was no such tour. That’s celtic integrity.

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.

Would it be bitter, twisted, and downright cynical to suggest that this change comes in when Pederasts FC has to play a qualifier in CL for the first time in a few years ??

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.

If I was him, and I actually won the Europa League as interim manager, I would refuse the permanent post. Wouldn't get any better for him after that.

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.

He's had his head turned by the Famous.

Think we should consider a player-manager .

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.

Re offence: you know there is tv programme I absolutely love called "Rumpole of the Bailey." Because it is from the eighties before each episode they give a warning that you may be offended by discriminatory language and views which reflect the times. Every time I am baffled by what is 'offensive' in the show. You know what, I am more offended by modern tv adverts which show women waggling their backsides and talking about their 'pee.' And it's a product called 'Discreet'. Anything less discreet I have not seen.

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

I've taken bits of open source code from different places, sourced the data and assembled it myself. It's now an original Rousseau.

The share issue is likely to be the tidy up of the balance sheet pre-sale, converting existing investor debt to shares. It'll be done with the knowledge and agreement of the proposed purchasers, and included in the share purchase agreement.

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.

The result tonight was for Christopher Potter. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. https://x.com/ottawascot/status/1897654870221463957

He was by Donald's side all through the match

Call me Nostradamus.