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Strictly Sevco. These last few weeks, the entertainment for Rangers supporters is in watching BBC Scotland framing the strict liability debate. It was easy at the start, Killie's Steve Clarke had been subjected to sectarian chanting at Ibrox, and Michael Stewart, DrStu', and Tom English demanded the Scottish Government step in and take appropriate action. Across both radio and TV, the big stick battering Sevco was presented as the only action. Truly, it is quite amazing how attracted a lot of Scottish football supporters and PQ journos are to such imagery. The Scottish Justice Minister, Humza Yousef liked the thought even more and began making noises. He was looking for answers as opposed to searching for lost evidence. Three days before Steve Clarke suffering vile sectarian abuse, Kris Boyd had been the recipient from Sellik supporters. Then, Steven Gerrard was the target of sectarian chanting by Aberdeen fans, in between a few songs about the Ibrox Disaster. The PQ Gang Hut retreated and decided to stay schtum, the imagery of fellow Dandies and Yahoos indulging in sectarian chanting is awkward for strict liability going forward. Bravely, DrStu' kept the charge going; he was prepared to compartmentalise any sectarian abuse of Boyd and Gerrard as, 'tribalism', Steve Clarke was the real victim of sectarianism. Cosgrove's concerns were both Boyd and Gerrard being abused was running interference on the real issue of Clarke. We arrive at last weekend's old firm game at Sellik Park, both Jimmy Bell and Gerrard are recipients of sectarian chanting from the jolly craicsters amid the Green Brigade. This can be conveniently ignored because there is too much fun to be had at PQ, getting after Morelos, Kent, and Halliday. In fact, Big Dick and Michael Stewart go out on a limb to clear Scott Brown of any wrongdoing. Of course, on Wednesday night der Broony stands on an opposition player and Michael Stewart tells the Sportscene audience, "where else could he put his foot"? There is dissension amid PQ ranks, both the commentator, Paul Mitchell and 'Thommo' decree Brown's actions as worthy of a red card. The strict liability issue arriving from the Yahoos visit to Paisley, is the detonation of a Thunderflash. Like any other pyrotechnic, it is initiated by a detonator and the minimum safety distance is thirty meters. On Sportsound, Big Dick read out a text from a Gang Hut staffer, assuring us that the pyrotechnic did not strike the St Mirren keeper, it had landed five yards away. Pat Bonner was allowed to talk about young teenagers and lack of responsibility. On Sportscene, Michael Stewart did not mention strict liability, and by the time we reached Thursday evening, PQ were talking about, "a firework". No one mentions minimum safety distance or that a thunderflash landing at such close proximity to the Buddies Keeper, could have blown his eardrums. Now, you would think Chief Sports Correspondent, Chris McLaughlin would step in and bring full gravity to this discussion point? No, we receive old buffer, Reevel Alderson. A safe pair of hands, an Old Aloysian can be relied to chair a debate between Jeanette Findlay and James Dornan MSP. Reevel was scrupulously fair in ensuring all sides of Irish Republican opinion were heard, reading out a statement from the Green Brigade at the conclusion. There you go, over a period of 4 weeks; Strict Liability equates to Strictly Sevco. Peter has announced this morning, "this stops now". It reminds me of fifteen years past when Peter also proclaimed, "no stone will remain unturned util the lighter thrower is found". Fernando Ricksen continues to await the identity of whoever struck him with a lighter at Sellik Park, obviously stones remain to be unturned. Perhaps, Humza Yousef could lend a hand, get out his comfy green leather seat in the north stand and search for lost evidence?

Paranoia includes being irrational Ian. Nothing you have said above is irrational therefore you are not paranoid. This shit is really happening!

No it wasn’t. Davis deal was 6 months and he’s out of contract at southampton at end of season. It was Defoe’s deal that was 18 months.

Any player who signs for Rangers needs to understand that the minimum expected is winning the league. Obviously we won't always achieve it, but that's what the support expect. We're the best supported, most successful club in the country, I don't believe we have a divine right to win it, but we do have the resources to win it and that should always be our expectation at the start of the season. Now, we live in difficult times. The last 10 years or so have seen the balance of power swing east, they've currently got more money, better resources, more power and, frankly, a better squad. But, as I said above they've got a managerial change, and whoever is in charge next August is starting afresh. Some of their better players will take to the new manager and continue to play well, but some won't. I tend to agree with you about trying the same thing over and over, however I don't think we are. I fully expect us to go into the new season with Gerrard still in charge. He'll have had a full season managing us at SPFL level, something no Rangers manager has had since 2007. There will be a stability and continuance about the side for the first time in a decade. Now is exactly the time to add seasoned quality over potential in my opinion.

Greg Stewart stuff breaking How many days they behind us?

Really is so blatantly obvious the bias towards Rangers FC! unfortunately we don't have any aggressive attack dogs on our board! if the board don't start to highlight the bias towards our club then it will just get worse!. I don't know what can be done but I do know we need to do something!.

SG badly needs a good transfer window and a team for next season that will quickly leave the also rans, sheep etc, trailing in our wake. He’s trying to build a reputation and he’s not there yet. Though his Euro run all the way from the first qualifier has to be seen as impressive.

Hopefully fully up to speed after a good pre season.

Report on today's U18's game v Aberdeen https://rfcyouths.wordpress.com/2019/04/05/u18s-put-four-past-aberdeen/

Has Peter approved these fixtures? I am sure I read ra Sellik are embarking upon an eleventh anniversary tour of Japan?

If we hadn't dropped so many silly points it could have been alap with the trophy

If that is indeed the case my view is that it proves they're fans just like us and not simply investors/number crunchers. That's probably a rarity in the modern game and would further suggest they're not going to jump ship and leave us in lurch.

If it was Colombia or Mexico, you would probably take it as normal. But what is happening in Scotland these days with the authorities is well and truly beyond it. And not only the SFA, SPFL and CO, but even the Police - despite saying in advance that players should behave and not cause public unrest, after the Brown goading they come out with a statement saying that what he did was "in the wider context of the game" and hand responsibility to the football authorities. You just hope that some US lawyer takes them to the cleaners about the child abuse stuff and wipes the smile of their grinning faces.

I agree with that generally. I think our best chance is to put all our money into 3/4 star players rather than diluting it across 10 players like we’ve done for years. Fans want it both ways, they want quality but they also want all the players they don’t like replaced. They forget we won the league with 97 points and 101 goals with Bob Malcolm and Maurice Ross both making circa 30 appearances over the season. Ronald de Boer, Ferguson and Arteta were brilliant enough that it didn’t matter. I don’t know what we could afford if we focused our budget on only a few players but I think the principle applies. On the the other hand, that’s easier to do if you have Hastie on the bench rather than say a Candeias who is older and likely on higher wages. Looks like Hastie is gone but I felt he’d be a great player to have as a backup.

The short-term approach hasn't done us much good recently. The logic about them having a potentially serious financial problem sounds good but as it stands, is a long way off. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. In gambling circles it would be chasing your losses. Bottom line is that Dave King, the board and perhaps other investors will decide which way to go. All the rhetoric that I've heard towards it suggests that stopping 10IAR is objective Numero Uno on the list of requirements for SG&Co. So perhaps talking about priorities and choices is a waste of time, unless SG&Co actually believed the best way to employ the budget would be to go heavier with younger players and put some experienced quality beside them. I'm starting to think that the weight of unreasonable pressure that is born out of the expectation / timescale / impatience becomes a lead weight tied to too many of our players. I say unreasonable because in many cases we are talking about fairly ordinary players compared with what we had back in the day and at a time when the respective budgets of the Old Firm have never been so different in scale. I don't really know enough about the respective players to preach the following but it's my general impression........ For me, I'd prefer we signed Hastie rather than Stewart. The former hasn't done so much in the game but is more fairly raw but with a dynamic potential that may see him go far in the game. The later is a creative player that has done a certain amount but appears to have a glass ceiling when it comes to moving away from more comfortable environments. What we need to look at is what a player could become and back ourselves to improve him rather than go for players whose best days are behind them. When we are linked with the latest 30+ veteran, we tend to think of the player they were, rather than the player they are going to be for us....or in Stewart's case, the support will be sceptical that he is of the level we need and it won't be long until the almost inevitable sequence of events follows.

Yeah I quite liked Cardoso, think he would have been good in a 3, I just don't think he was cut out for the physical side of the game up here and never got any protection, he was still young as well.

I'm not being specific, it is a general observation. Since we have had our troubles and were voted out of top flight football, I believe we are refereed/judged differently from any other teams, I also believe for us to win anything we need to put in a performance where we score lots of goals without any dubious challenges because of the Scottish gutter press, trial by BBC Sportscene for instance. As I posted earlier the Hearts player who grappled then threw Worrall to the deck went unpunished, nothing in it for me, but had any of our players did that you know what would happen. I need to get off this paranoia run I am on!.

I actually only found that out the other day RE the 2020 contracts. Hopefully we can still move some of them on this summer, but my point still stands. There is alot of wages going out which are doing nothing for us on the pitch, that has to change.

I think next season is our real opportunity to win the league. Realistically they've got more money and a better squad to start with, however they either go into next season with Lennon in charge or with a brand new manager, either way that will create some upset in their dressing room. Their players were signed by a different manager, one who largely got the best out of them. Their next manager might not. Either way there's a period of flux, settling in, and getting used to new rules, tactics and so on. When Gerrard joined Rangers really the only way was up, we were playing so poorly last season that as long as he showed progress he was going to get the backing of the support. It won't be like that across the city next season. They're a treble winning squad and they'll win at least the double this season, so any stumble or drop in that standard will bring criticism from the support, a drop in attendances and unrest. That's our chance. We've a season under our belts, an okay squad that needs strengthened, if we can get that right we can win the league next season. Their support will turn on their manager and their board if they stumble at all, for all their jubilation at the weekend I know a few who are far from happy with Lennon already. I'm not normally a 'short-termist', but this summer I am. If we can win the league we stop their Champion's League money and then they do have a problem, a serious problem. The playing field is level then.

I understand that Uilleam it would be nice if we did ban them officially though. Then others would ask why and this issue of bias and unbalanced reporting due to political reasons is highlighted.