Leaderboard

UFA v Rangers One of the biggest talking points of the last while is whether the Russians fixed the American elections or not. Did Putin play his Trump card you could ask? Well if they can put that kind of influence into the American presidential election then getting to a Polish referee would not be too big a problem for them. Now I am not going to say the Polish referee had been paid by the Russians but his leniency to UFA's constant fouling and his blindness at two stonewall penalties definitely casts a shadow of doubt at his standard of refereeing. Lets hope his poor refereeing has no negative influence in the outcome of the tie. Tomorrow we play the return leg in the far outback of Ufa in Russia. We will have to tend with the time difference of four hours so the game will be played at 3pm GMT so most people will have to take a few hours off work if they want to watch it. We take a 1-0 lead with us after the first leg at Ibrox which means if we can get a goal the Russians will need to score three to advance to the next stage. Judging on their performance at Ibrox then it would seem unlikely they can do that. Complacency is of course the kiss of death as we found out last season in Luxembourg. It certainly made us play well below our capabilities against Progres Niederkorn. Stevie Gerrard will have to get that drilled into the team. Our second-half performance against Motherwell on Sunday was certainly not a performance that would breed complacency right enough. It was a very flat performance to say the very least. We have not seen anything as poor as that from this Steven Gerrard team until now so lets hope it was just a little blip. One of the positives from the Motherwell game was the instant Man of the Match display by big Kyle Lafferty. He certainly looks a completely different player to the one that walked away in 2012. When we were actually playing football in the first half he was a huge thorn in the Motherwell defence. He did make his return debut in the first leg where he was on for about a minute before receiving a yellow card. If the referee was so quick to produce a yellow to the UFA players then we may have got a game without the constant fouling. What can we expect from this UFA team? I really don't think they will start much different than they did at Ibrox. I think they will try and keep it tight and try and get the goal on the break to level the tie . I think trying not to lose a goal will play more on their minds than opening up and playing more attacking. I think they will hope we walk on to their sword so to speak. I do think Rangers will come out and try to dominate the game. We all saw on Sunday that sitting defending our own eighteen yard box is not our strong point and we have shown that on a few occasions this season. The big question is how will steven Gerrard set up the team. Will he go for the 3-5-2 that we played on Sunday or will he revert back to his tried and trusted 4-5-1. Personally I think the latter as he will be trying to keep the defence as tight as possible. I think the starting team will be if Coulibaly is not deemed fit enough : McGregor Tavernier Goldson Kadic Flanagan Jack Ejaria Candeias Arfield kent Morelos I certainly hope that with the return of Candeias that Tavernier is more alert in doing his defensive duties as he cost us two goals on Saturday. Big Kyle will appear at some point but that will depend on the score if we need to go for two up top or give Morelos a rest for Saturday I think we will run out 2-1 winners. The referee is: Tobias Stieler (GER) Lets hope the Russians have don't have him running for president. Assistant referees Mike Pickel (GER) Christian Gittelmann (GER) Fourth official Patrick Ittrich (GER)

If all of these signings come to fruition I believe we have an excellent chance of winning the league this season. Winning on Sunday would be glorious in so many ways. Not only would it lay down a marker it would throw them into further turmoil and help alleviate some of the pain from recent results. But the Russia jaunt has come at just about the worst time it could have, our enemies couldn't have planned it any better. Given a choice of winning one or the other it's difficult to decide which match I would most prefer to prevail in. Probably Ufa since this is a one off and a path to up to £10 million. Lose it and that chance is gone. Lose to the yahoos and that doesn't mean the league is gone.

If only politicians of other parties were willing to support us ...and according to some the SNP aren't against Rangers,....

I'm so pleased to see the pressure mount on these people that appear to be allowing their bias to unnecessarily damage our club. I can accept that many politicians may not support Rangers. I can even accept that they strongly favour or support other clubs. What I can't accept is their openly hypocritical actions and statements. The focus needs to be on this perceived corruption because it brings their entire party into question. Hopefully with the support from Club 1872 and opposition politicians (who obviously have an agenda), we can get some traction around this. I feel that the tweet about the loving Cup ceremony could be the thing that forces him to withdraw from this fight because if that gathers pace and exposure, it could seriously damage his longer term career aspirations. These people deserve all the negative exposure that comes their way. They've been caught out. Scumbags, the lot of them!

But will anything be done about it? They don’t seem to think so or they would not be so blatant.

A nice big piece of land. Gifted to celtic. By celtic fans. From the public purse. Actually unbelievable. I hope that gets looked at and a lot of other recent activity.

The emphasis on the next two games is probably as big as there has been at any point over the last few years. Thursday is massive and represents a huge opportunity for the club to progress in Europe and would prove a leap in the right direction for everyone connected to Rangers. I’d also like to think it is a huge thumbs up to the management and the good work they have done so far, they deserve the rewards of progression as much as anyone Full article: https://fourladshadadream.blog/2018/08/29/busy-time-on-and-off-the-pitch-as-the-window-slams-shut/

Did he play against us earlier in the competition?...…………………………………...aye he is cup tied?

9 hours there and back JFK.

If this is true it would shame a banana republic. GCC should just paint the City Chambers with green and white hoops and be done with it. The bias couldn't be any more blatant.

Joe Worrall is due at Rangers for a medical on Thursday after the Ibrox side agreed a loan fee with Nottingham Forest. Steven Gerrard has described the England Under-21 defender as a “fantastic” player after watching him six times last year. The Rangers boss made personal contact with Forest over the weekend to assure the Championship outfit Worall will feature regularly in Scotland. Gerrard is anxious to bolster his backline after a 3-3 draw at Motherwell on Sunday. Rangers are now set to finalise a season-loan loan for the 21-year-old stopper before Friday's deadline and the defender travelled north on Wednesday. Rangers also considered free agent Gareth McAuley and Aston Villa's Tommy Elphick to shore up their backline. But Worrall, who has made 49 Championship starts, is Gerrard's first choice. Forest are trying to recoup cash after paying over £20million for 11 new players this summer. Worrall will be available for Sunday's clash with Celtic but is unlikely to feature after not playing this term having slipped to fifth choice centre-back at the City Ground under Aitor Karanka. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/joe-worrall-due-rangers-medical-13160867

Steven Gerrard says Rangers close to Eros Grezda signing Steven Gerrard has confirmed Rangers are close to completing the £2m signing of Osijek winger Eros Grezda. The 23-year-old's signing will come too late for him to feature against Russian side Ufa in Thursday's Europa League match, but Gerrard is excited about the Albanian's impending arrival. Speaking ahead of the second leg of the play-off tie with Rangers 1-0 up from the first match, Gerrard said: "Grezda is currently having a medical and I don't want to say too much until it's over the line. "But he is an excellent player and the fans will love him because he can contribute in the final third. "He's really quick, very direct and he comes in with international experience. "According to Borna Barisic and Nikola Katic he was by a mile Osijek's best player last season. "He is a very dangerous player and - while you never want to see anyone injured - we are thankful he wasn't available to play against us in the earlier round. "All going well, hopefully he'll be a big player for us moving forward." The 23-year-old has six caps for Albania, and would be a direct replacement for Jamie Murphy, who has been ruled out for the season with a knee injury sustained against Kilmarnock in the Betfred Cup. If the deal goes through, Grezda would be Rangers' second signing from Osijek, after his former team-mate Borna Barisic joined Steven Gerrard's side earlier this month. Rangers knocked Osijek out in the second round of Europa League qualifying but Grezda did not play in either leg of the tie due to injury. http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11788/11485186/steven-gerrard-says-rangers-close-to-eros-grezda-signing

All that without having to open the biscuit tin unbelievable collusion and corruption.

Obviously we and the other teams have a different opinion than the current NF manager. Why was coulibaly not first choice but third or fourth at angers?

The sale of the unadvertised land to ra Sellik is at the behest of the Contracts and Planning Committee. It has fifteen members, eight SNP, five Labour, one Green, and one Tory. The Convener of said Committee is Ruairi Kelly, Vice-Convener is Norman McLeod. The other thirteen members are as follows : Frank Docherty, Greg Hepburn, Cecilia O'Lone, Hanif Raja, Ken Andrew, Christina Cannon, Mandy Morgan, Robert Connelly, Maureen Burke, Stephen Curran, Russell Robertson, James Scanlon, and Jon Molyneux. The fore mentioned Convener, Ruiari Kelly believes he is in a fantastic position to help his boyhood heroes. A quarter of a century after another Committee, the Planning Committee of the then, Glasgow District Council decided to sell three streets,(Janefield Street, Kinloch Street, and Dalriada Street) to their beloved Sellik for a penny. We should note, this was after the Council incurred the costs of rehabilitation grants to all families, demolition, and land clearance.

Sir, That is an outrage, my Father, Grandfather, and Great Grandfather were all Commissioned Officers in the Cameronians. The proudest regiment to ever don the Douglas Tartan. The minor disagreement in West Germany concerned a number of surly barge owners. I have it on good authority, these bargees were intent upon high sea piracy. It required considerable foresight and penetrative thought on behalf of the jaked-up(Light Infantry term)Cams that decided to sink half-a-dozen of the barges. We cannot have Germans buckling their swash with impunity.

We can hope, too, perhaps, that Herr Stieler's family do not have less than fond memories of the BAOR, particularly of The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), whom I understand to have been less than popular in some parts of Germany. "Poison dwarfs", was one description.

Good preview Pete. I would prefer to have Ejaria closer to the front player(s) than having him alongside Jack in the middle. He has trickery, pace and quick feet and could do more damage further up the pitch IMO.

How quickly after FT is the full game uploaded to RTV? Could I avoid the result until after work and watch the 90 minutes "as live"??

There are a number of problems for PQ providing live commentary at Rangers away Europa Cup matches, all of their own making. They failed to provide live commentary in Macedonia and Croatia because the only flight in, was the team flight. Similarly, with UFA, they will not subject their staff to possible interaction with Rangers folk on a nine hour flight. The Beeb has put considerable effort into fifteen years of marginalisation, demonisation, and dehumanisation of all things Rangers. Why jeopardise all that hate? A Producer, or a Techie might return and think those he/she shared the flight with, were reasonable and rational people. PQ's real problem is articulating this particular reason for non-coverage, it's a hard one to explain sharing a flight with other Journos, Rangers staff, and team. They would appear petty doing so, thus ignore it altogether. They prefer to find refuge in the euphemism, 'we'll be across events in .....". Of course, there is an alternative in that they could send the commentary team and crew on scheduled air, very expensive including accommodation. There will be a bean counter denying that option, whilst smiling taking license fees from Rangers supporters. They are NOT interested in providing a service to a specific percentage of the population. I should add, remember ra Sellik are carrying the standard for Scotland in Europe. Two Irishmen and an Australian are at pains to tell us so frequently, on the BBC Scotland airwaves.

I don't understand how anyone in football can seriously think that Jack isn't one of the top three Scottish midfielders at the moment. In my opinion, he and Armstrong are the standout performers in the middle of the park. I'm looking at most of the others and wondering what the selectors see in them. Having said that, the Scottish national team means nothing to me these days (which is sad) so they can continue to make bad footballing decisions for all I care. I looked at a tweet about the squad but I couldn't honestly tell you why the squad was put together. Is it qualifiers for something, or a friendly? I've no idea, and couldn't care less.

Tell me about it! So annoying it's on at that time.

Jack's time will come, probably at right back. He's playing in a position where Scotland are well catered for (McTominay, McDonald).

We live in hope.................

It's a pain that it's not being shown in pubs. Was planning to take a half day and go to the Louden.

Horrid council full of horrid people with a horrid agenda against our club , absolutely horrid .

Normal day at the office then.