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Has he really declined a final offer from the Club? Or is it merely a case of player and Club in early stages of negotiations? In either case, I am inclined to trust the Football Department, which seems, at the moment, well, trustworthy. I quite like Bates as a defender, a stopper, but he's no Beckenbauer.

Cardoso is nowhere near the same physical presence as Bates, he is too easy brushed off the ball, IMO of course

Don't tempt me. Looks like Hibs are going to win. All the more incentive to get 3pts tomorrow.

Banish her

He’s a decent physical presence at the back but I’ll get excited by David Bates when he develops an ability to pass the ball. His distribution is truly woeful.

Good to see business is being conducted to ensure the most valued players are wanted and put on longer contracts.

Time to get Cardoso back in the team.

I always find it hilarious that that guy has an official role at Celtic. He is actually deranged!!

Probably because the article above is the truth.

An interesting point, which I hadn't considered - just how will Big Eck deal with the Chairman of Selectors, Scotty Broon, the man who pioneered the pick and micks strategy for choosing the National XI?

... had baws she'd be yer da! So the saying goes. Football fans love to speculate on alternative outcomes. How many times have we all said: "If we win the next 'x' number of games and our rival drop points here and there, we'll be only 'y' points behind with a game in hand." Or: "If player 'a' hadn't got sent off, we wouldn't have lost that game and we would be just 'b' points further ahead so only need to win 'c' more games to win the title." Its a little bit of fun and it plays on the emotional heart strings as fans, but often it just sets ourselves up for a fall based on unrealistic expectations. More often than not, the results you get are a product of the quality and consistency of your team. Take our current situation. Had our home form in particular been better this season and if we hadn't lost to the likes of Hibs, Hamilton and Dundee, we could have been, say, 5 or 6 points better off and within touching distance of Celtic who are trying to balance their European and domestic commitments whilst managing a squad depleted with various injuries. It would be game on as we move into the final third of the season. But we are where we are. Improving on out league position relative to last year is still the main aim, along with a real tilt at the Scottish Cup. Any talk of challenging Celtic this season seems fanciful, but the psychology of the chase can play a part in changing that. Yes we are behind Aberdeen and Celtic right now, but there is growing sense of confidence in the squad, the management structure and the promise of further financial strengthening off the pitch. The next 3 games you would imagine are therefore critical. Hamilton away, Hearts at home and then St Johnstone away all before the end of the month and ahead of the next Old Firm game. Nine points are therefore vital in order to put some pressure on our nearest rivals. We also need to see those same rivals dropping some points. Aberdeen particularly have three tricky ties coming up. Hibs away at the weekend, followed by Celtic at home and then Motherwell away. Celtic have St Johnstone on Sunday, Aberdeen away following their trip to Russia to complete the return leg against Zenit, and then Dundee at home. Crucially though, that will be a run of four games in eleven days for the injury hit Celtic. So, in true speculative style, I'm predicting that my maw may well get the sex change she's been promised. The next two weeks promise to be make or break for our season. If we are to stand any chance of putting in a league title challenge it really is now or never. If we can rattle in a big win at the weekend, I'll happily get the bandwagon started.

Since when did players accept a first offer? That is why they call it negotiating.

Hi again everyone! Latest article is out - a quick refresher ahead of this weekend's game away at Hamilton! As always, thanks for your support and readership, and any criticisms or discussion welcome (waiting on the Cardoso point to rile some up)!https://www.rangersobserver.com/views/2018/2/17/hey7tvne9ydg07ll7z7zjzl34o1pvb

No idea why I said that. It is difficult to find recent videos of Hardie, none of us have seen that much of him, but if Morelos goes then we should be looking to recall him and give him some game time.

Is there a reason we should not be okay with it Ian. It is a Rangers player. As long as the video sources don't turn into another sort of Ryan Hard ie.

My wife is working hospitality at the match. She has to wear a green scarf thingy...she'll need to shower in bleach when she gets in.

1-0 Hibs..................

0-0 suits me fine. Can't stand either side.

Chris Coleman is really struggling at Sunderland. Some put his name forward for the Rangers job! Sunderland is a bit of a basket-case, but I did expect him to do better.

Bring Aidan Wilson back from his emergency loan and have him replace Bates in the squad

I don't think anyone is getting excited by Bates, but he is currently one of our best CBs' and has a couple of MOTM awards in there, he is a young player who could develop into a very decent CB.

From what I have read it was a impact injury and nothing to do with his old injury.

Completely agree with you! if this is a real bear that's working in this manner it is shameful. This was done to ensure maximum publicity for the insinuations and for any decent supporter it now reflects very badly on the accuser. It's so disappointing that we have people like that associate director with our club. We have too many other enemies to deal with without nonsense like this within.

C****c fans don't love football, they hate Rangers, that is the reason for their existence! they will never know what it is like to just support your own team, deranged bunch of sectarian bigots with mad Joe their leader.

It's just an opt-in for members. Nothing to do with new membership.

O'Rourke really should get in touch with P&O Ferries if he hates it in Scotland so much. Or maybe a psychiatrist.

Was impressive. But Porto arent as good as they was. So far the 3 english clubs are in the better positions, City have done their job. Spurs have to be favourites as Juve have to score but that is still in the balance. Man Utd and Chelsea both have tough ones. Barca favourites for Chelsea but Sevilla will be a tough game for Man Utd.

You can have a debate about whether the hospitality expenditure is value for money but the subtext of the twitter exchange was clearly to have a go at the integrity of board members. The ‘shock revelation’ about something members already knew about seems to confirm this was about mischief-making.

Yes and yes. McCrorie was on loan at both Ayr Utd and Dumbarton and Aidan Wilson is currently at Dumbarton, also on an emergency loan too. Hopefully both can come back and push for starting slots the way McCrorie did - both have the talent to do so.

I just love stuff like this. What a club, what a pedigree, what a heritage. I've supported Rangers for well over 50 years and still learning.

From what they've said, it was part of the amalgamation vote, so something like that's not going to be focused on. It doesn't mean it can't be revisited now. I've done my time on one of the predecessors of C1872 so I feel comfortable in giving a level of scrutiny in respect of a 4 figure sum. If it's that irrelevant, why did they issue a statement on it? I don't have a problem with them allocating a % to admin costs and also carrying on the RST's (I think) initiative to give Erskine some tickets is also a worthy cause, but spending cash on hospitality isn't a good use of limited funds. We'll never reach the heights we want if we waste cash on relatively frivolous areas.

People are putting their hard earned into the organisation and some of it's being spent on entertaining members. Is a 4 figure sum really an amount that we can shrug off? Maybe you think it's a small amount but to me, it's a big amount for a supporter organisation.

That’ll teach Lawwell to criticise the SFA

Are the SFA trying to curry favour with us ? Or is it just me ?

Even so, C1872 should not spending a 4 figure sum on hospitality, even if it's coming out of their 5% admin costs. The rationale that it was part of the initial proposal doesn't wash. It's not been specifically voted on. I'd prefer that the cash went towards buying shares or improving disabled facilities or similar. As for emailing your concerns, I'm still waiting for a response to the last email I sent them.

Had to listen to see where you were mentioned. Always good to hear!