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This is my favourite thread in all of Rangers messageboard-dom, I look forward to 26th’s posts, they are invariably witty, prescient and well written. I don’t know 26th, I’ve never spoken to him far less met him, so like so many people you see online you create your own impression of them based on what they post. These assumptions could be well wide of reality of course, I suspect most of us are a lot more nuanced in real life than online. Anyway, for what it’s worth I don’t think 26th of Foot is anti-Irish, but I can understand how a new poster only reading posts 2149 and 2150 might think he is. I’d recommend a wider reading of 26th’s posts PoohBear, they’re usually pretty good. I too have an Irish wife, (and will soon have children sporting Irish passports, thanks for that Brexit…) and spent a few years living on that side of the Irish Sea. It certainly gave me a different perspective on things, particularly on the nuances we all have. I don’t know what ‘anti-British’ actually means. Do we mean the Irish government is ‘anti-British’? Is it the Irish people? All of them? Most of them? Just a minority perhaps? And are they anti everyone and everything in Britain, just the government perhaps, or maybe certain politicians and policies? It’s a difficult thing to define, isn’t it. So here’s my experience, others will have had different ones. Ireland has a complicated relationship with the UK. The war of independence and its precursors and aftermath still play a big part in the culture of the country. This year has already seen controversy as we approach important centenaries in Irish history. But in the 25 years I’ve been visiting Ireland it has changed enormously. Ireland was a very conservative country, wary of change and slow to adopt many of the things other European countries took for granted. There is no way an openly gay man of half Asian parentage could have become Irish Prime Minister 25 years ago for example. The influence of the Catholic Church is diminished to be almost irrelevant now, certainly in terms of governmental policy and wider cultural norms. From the top down it’s a very different country to the one I first visited. In terms of their relationship with the UK it’s fair to say it’s complicated. Almost everyone in the Republic of Ireland has family in the UK, they’ve all visited, they’ve all consumed ‘British’ culture from the day they were born, be that music, television or, to try and get relevant again, sport. The best supported football team in the whole of Ireland is Manchester United. Second best supported is Liverpool. Very few people take much interest in ‘local’ football, both north and South of the border. It’s not a great standard and English football has been available to watch live for decades now, long before the advent of Sky. Most Irish I speak to treat Scottish football with a mix of curiosity and disdain. Most will ‘have a Scottish team’, this normally takes the form of a side they’d rather see win but wouldn’t actually cross the road to watch. In the North this is usually Rangers, elsewhere Celtic are more popular. I’ve pointed out the error of this many times, but it can be hard to argue when one side is flying Irish flags and, well, the other side isn’t. But in actual fact most of them couldn’t care less who wins in Scotland, they’d rather talk about Rashford or Mane. I’ve met bigots in Ireland. Small minded, scared people incapable of seeing the other persons point of view. Some of them were inconsequential and easily ignored, some of them, unfortunately, were harder to ignore. But Ireland is complicated, its history has created things that are hard. I’m not Arlene Foster’s biggest fan, but I can see why seeing your father shot outside your house and having your school bus bombed might colour how you see life and the compromises you’re willing to make. Likewise I can now understand why someone from the Creggan might not see the Poppy symbol in the same way I do. We don’t all have to see the world the same way. For what it’s worth my Irish wife has been largely made very welcome in Scotland. She considers Glasgow her home, we chose to raise our children here, almost everyone is friendly to her. But, on rare occasions there have been snide remarks, the occasional insult, sometimes not intended, but felt all the same. Someone recently was incredulous that she got to vote in the General Election (she’s lived in Scotland for 17 years and the UK for 25) and told her she had no right to a say in what happened ‘here’. There are morons everywhere, Ireland has some, Scotland does too. Don’t judge an entire country on them is my one piece of advice.

Fantastic news

My wife is South African and South Africans are a set of b@stards (apart from Johnny Hubbard). Just thought I'd mention that, whilst we're on the "my wife is..." topic.

At some point in his celebrations it is going to dawn on @Rousseau that this means Windass won't be re-signing for us in this window.

Bring a striker in on loan... Given the gaffers contacts and the state of the EPL currently, Mo Salah doesn't seem to have a whole lot to do any more this season...

His wiki page says: "His father Gheorghe Hagi was a footballer." Did anyone know that?

The late Jock Wallace is often characterised as the archetypal old school manager; gruff, authoritarian, intimidating, bellowing orders and ruling through fear. Some of that might be true, but it’s also true of many football managers of that era. What’s so often overlooked about Wallace was his subtle use of psychology. Wallace was faced with a daunting task when he assumed the mantel of Rangers manager. Not only was he in direct competition with Jock Stein, a manager of incredible ability, but also a Celtic side containing hugely talented and experienced players who knew how to win the league. Wallace’s first season in charge saw Rangers finish 5 points behind the champions and one point behind second place Hibs. Wallace knew that Rangers had good players, we’d won the Cup Winners Cup only a couple of years before, and any squad that contained Greig, Jardine, McLean, MacDonald and Johnstone was as good as any in the league. Wallace understood that what was missing was belief and a mental toughness. Wallace needed something that made his players believe they were unbeatable, something that gave them a psychological edge over their opposition. Wallace found the answer on a beach overlooking the Firth of Forth close to where he was raised. Murder Hill, as it came to be known, is simply a long, steep sand dune. Wallace knew about it from his childhood, local sports clubs, including Hearts, had trained on the Gullane sands for years before Wallace took his Rangers side there. But most of the Rangers players didn’t know about it. The squad were made to run up and down it, sometimes carrying medicine balls, sometimes teammates. The mix of the coastal wind and the sand made the players thirsty, the sand would get everywhere making them uncomfortable and the gruelling nature of the training exhausted this band of fit young men, as all pre-season training does. Wallace was able to convince his players that this pre-season work had made them fitter than they had ever been before. He convinced them they were now the fittest team in the league, that no other side could live with their strength. His final masterstroke was telling the press about it. Not only did the Rangers players believe it but so did the support and, importantly, the opposition too. We welcome, if that’s the right word, Aberdeen to Ibrox this Saturday. Unusually for a match between the clubs it takes place at 3pm on a Saturday. Aberdeen arrive in poor form with only one win in their last four, a scrappy 1-0 over Dumbarton in the cup. Their support are restless, the turgid, pragmatic football Derek McInnes sets his side up to play can be tolerated when it brings victories but finds you friendless when it doesn’t. It’s almost surreal to think 24 months ago we were still smarting from being unable to prise him from Aberdeen’s grasp. As Ross Bennett on the Gersnet Podcast quipped it’s the greatest bullet dodge since The Matrix. I expect Aberdeen to bring a defensive mindset, giving us the ball until the final third, then filling it with bodies and closing the space. They’ll aim to frustrate our players and perhaps our support. Prepare for a physical match, lots of niggles, off the ball stuff and gamesmanship. We enter the match still missing our captain and first choice right back and our most influential midfielder in Jack along with Helander and Defoe. At the time of writing we look to be signing Hagi and possibly one or two others. I wouldn’t expect any of them to start though our bench might contain some new faces. Polster should retain his place, personally I think anyone looks good when compared to Flanagan, but in the case of Polster he does seem to bring something to the team. Aberdeen will be a test of his attacking ability, he’ll spend most of the match in their half, so his passing and crossing will be vital. I expect Arfield will also retain his place in midfield, along with Davis and Kamara. Whether Ojo has done enough to keep a starting spot is harder to guess, I suspect not and think Aribo with start along with Kent. Defoe’s absence is lessened by the return of Morelos. Morelos will be targeted by the Aberdeen players and probably their support. A support who think nothing of singing about the 66 football supporters who tragically died whilst at the site of that disaster are almost beyond redemption. I suspect Ian Durrant will get a mention too. Morelos has more reason than most to be fearful of opposition supporters. Already this week police are investigating an incident with his car and intruder close to his home and a man called Sean Baillie appeared in court charged in relation with throwing a cup of scalding liquid at Morelos during a recent Motherwell match. Morelos has to face this whilst living thousands of miles from home and with his wife expecting their first child. Gerrard has played down the incidents and their affect on Morelos, as is Gerrard’s style, but I’m not sure if I believe him. The hatred Morelos faces has long ago crossed the line from supporter rivalry and into something altogether more sinister. The man in court this week is 30 years old, he’s not some daft teenager. For me this is the culmination of years of public demonisation of Rangers. The neanderthal narrative some love to peddle stops being banter and turns into something much darker when it fuels the kind of incidents we’re seeing now. That we face Aberdeen this weekend, one of the more enthusiastic participants in the denigration of our club and our support, is fitting. That they went to the bother of creating a banner, in Spanish, aimed squarely at Morelos tells you all you need to know about the mindset of some of their support. This act by their support was ignored by the SPFL and the police, but hey, it’s only the funny wee foreign lad after all. It’s been open season on the league’s top scorer for a while now, players, managers, referees, supporters and the media have all been complicit in this. As for the match itself we should win comfortably. But then we should have won our last encounter with Aberdeen comfortably too. Throwing away a 2 goal league was very disappointing, particularly after having dominated the match. We were mentally weak that night, unable to match Aberdeen’s rise in tempo and direct style. That weakness was evident again last weekend at Tynecastle. This will be our third league match in 7 days, surely we’re now over any rustiness that set in after the winter break. The clever thing about Murder Hill of course is that you don’t actually get any fitter running up and down sand dunes than you would running on a treadmill or round a track; you just think you do. Wallace understood this, he knew the dunes helped the side’s mental strength far more than its collective stamina. Gerrard needs to find his Murder Hill, the thing that galvanises the squad and makes them fully believe they are unbeatable. Saturday would be the perfect day discover it.

7 years' notice had to be given on the original deal. However the current board of directors negotiated a clusterfuck of a new contract which superseded the old contract. This is the one which has been subject to the ongoing court case where SD are kicking our butts. This court case is ongoing with both parties suing each other and won't be heard until 2021, and probably won't be finalised long after that. Separate to that, we entered into another contract with Elite and Hummel for this season, which Elite are refusing to pay us, which is why we were in court this week. It seems that we're going to have to deal with SD next season, I think. Confused? Yeah, me too. The only thing I'm not confused about is that the more we try and sort out our retail, the bigger hole we seem to get into.

Last evening, prior to the match and the Gang Hut are excited that Morelos has a calf strain, and starts on the bench. Pat Bonner offers the Columbian is a very good player. However, he is most dependent upon service, "otherwise, he is just an ordinary player". Here's me thinking that Alfredo was quite the extraordinary player, because he has an ability to tie up both central defenders with or without service. What do I know? At least, I expected one of four voices on mike to dissent on such a green tinted view? Post match and I climb into my car to drive home. I turn on the radio for the Gang Hut's coverage and discover David Currie hosting from McDiarmid Park. Liam McLeod has provided live commentary of St Johnstove v ra Sellik. Pat Bonner supplies colour commentary and Martin Dowden is on touchline duty. I hear the last 15 minutes of the show and all but thirty seconds is the foursome discussing ra Sellik's devastating crushing of the Saints. Our score is given once by Currie, no mention of scorers. Martin Dowden("a good Celtic man") interviews both Neil Lennon and Tommy Wright. The last thirty seconds are taken up by John Barnes, he is in the studio fulfilling 'being all across events at Ibrox'. He told us that Saints Keeper, Zander Clark had been the target of a thrown bottle, from the Celtic support; in the immediate of the third goal, it missed narrowly. Interestingly, none of the four BBC representatives at McDiarmid Park saw the incident. Further, the bottle throwing is not reported in BBC Scotland's match report, either on Ceefax or on the website. However, Sportscene are reporting the incident, including showing footage, but no discussion. I expect John Barnes to be called into the Gang Hut for interview without coffee, biscuits, and chair? John has strayed off message and must be subject to necessary conditioning.

sky are sayin kamberi from hibs on loan with option to buy. iv always thought he was a decent player

That's correct. It's the money for this season's sales. However there's a suggestion that Elite now have a partnership with SD and won't pay us without a struggle as they're being influenced by them.

More good work from Wilson. That must be a decent wage cleared.

This has the feel of a Wilson signing.

A very well written and eloquent post...

Why don't you ask him?

I don't think that's a view shared by Gerrard or his coaching staff. An integral part of the roles of our full backs is to attack and give us width, hence the change of our wide forward from wingers to be number 10s. Their attacking play is not just a bonus.

I only saw the Rangers TV highlights but sometimes you have a bit of an advantage when you see highlights because you see the players who created the real chances. Kent barely featured at all, he had one run at the defence when he got in a good position but hit it wide. All our chances went through Ojo, Arfield and Defoe if I remember correctly. Delighted that Polster has finally had a chance to show what he can do, I’ve said for a while I think he a very good player and an excellent back up for two positions.

All things considered we didn't play that badly last night in very poor conditions. I agree that we seem to have lost some sharpness to our play but that's unsurprising when we lost Tav, Jack and Morelos from our team - three of our best players. It hasn't helped that Davis and Kamara have lost a bit of form as well with the former struggling with his back last night before going off. In saying that the team continued to dominate last night without ever really playing well per se. County worked very hard off the ball and packed the half-spaces with 4 or 5 players meaning the likes of Kent and Ojo could do little on or off the ball. Ironically Defoe couldn't get into the game at all but his goal was a sublime piece of finishing: credit to to Scott Arfield. I said before the game he needed to step up last night and whilst he was hardly fantastic, he did well to create the first goal and linked brilliantly with Defoe again for the second which was a crucial strike. All in all a good three points and hopefully the return of Morelos will sharpen up the side further ahead of Aberdeen. A signing or two may also help fan morale.

I wish a window would be slammed shut on the fingers of the journos who insist on writing that.

Poileas Alba investigating, then. A pound to a peso that they "lose" the fucking motor.

Got the impression Jones was only signed as back up but Gerrard never really rated him. mind you it was him who crossed the ball in for Alfie to score against legia & get us into EL group stages...

Have not been impressed with what I've seen of Jones tbh.

I'm sure we BOTH hope I am right

Sorry but A + J not possible due to some clown upgrading a juv to adult for their mate but can do 2A together but they are £43 each, once again sorry. Incidentally the demand for this game is absolutely manic.

Really excited about the Hagi deal. A creative number 10 is definitely something we don't have in the team at the moment

Saw a rumour that they have had issues with the FFP rules

No-one particularly outstanding but a few players did fairly well. I thought Goldson again was very good at the back and Polster also gave us a better option on the right flank. Ojo also did reasonably well with minimal space but our best player was definitely Scott Arfield: mainly for his assist and goal but he did work hard throughout as well. Who gets your vote?

Now and again we have relevant book reviews on the site and I've been asked by our friends at 'In The Book' to discuss their 'Personalised Rangers Book: A Newspaper History' product. As you can see from their website, Historic Newspapers is a back-issue newspaper company that holds the world’s largest archive of original newspapers. Unforgettable moments from throughout Rangers' long history are collected in the form of the original match reports and headlines from the Daily Record. The book kicks off with the earliest Record sports reports from 1919, before covering many of Rangers' most memorable games and star players, leading right up to last summer. This wonderful leatherette/leather hand bound book (different presentation options and sizes are available) is given a quality finish so even the older article reproductions can be easily read. Each option can be embossed with the recipient’s name and/or message for a nice finishing touch when buying for that loved one (or yourself!). As you enter the modern era, the book also contains a number of colour pages, created from the highest quality digital editions. With 100 years of Rangers' history covered in the book: from the highs of treble triumphs and European success to the disappointments of more recent times as we recovered through the lower leagues, many of the best games and Rangers playing/managerial greats are featured. Legends such as Bert Manderson and Davie Meiklejohn help us begin our journey through the book right up until the modern day successes of Advocaat, McLeish and Smith. Each issue is brilliantly reproduced, complete with advertisements and cartoon serials of the time. These allow you to immerse yourself in the period as you remember our past glories. It's fascinating how enjoyable this wee extra is and I felt genuinely transported through the eras with every different match report. Talking point after talking point are found on every single page with a range of emotions elicited depending on the story. Take pride in our 1972 ECWC win, just a year after the tragedy of the Ibrox Disaster; relive the trebles of Jock Wallace and try your best not to get annoyed again at our eventual UEFA Cup Final loss in Manchester. The book's journey ends last year with a Rangers win over Celtic during the SPFL split. Let's forthcoming editions of this superb book contain new successes for us to enjoy above and beyond all the amazing history in this one. I can certainly recommend this unique book and it's also an ideal gift for the Bluenose in your life. You can buy the personalised Rangers Book from Historic Newspapers here. There is also a Deluxe Pictorial Edition available, telling the story of Rangers Football Club through iconic photographs.

Kich - well, he was our bastard.

Take a bow sir.

The manager's style was the other possible reason. I had a look and they seem to play a 4-3-3 with 3 centre mids similar to ourselves. It seems that he doesn't have a place for a central attacking midfielder in his team. He is left footed so he would suit the position Aribo currently plays. I think Aribo has played very well there but I wonder if long term he is planning on moving him back to centre mid.

Apparently we can get him for £4m in the summer. Not every transfer works out at some clubs. There's not always an obvious reason, sometimes they just work out, sometimes not. Let's hope this does!

I did too. I thought he added invention to a dull attack. I was also pleasantly surprised by his work rate and willingness to get the ball.

Or the kick-offs... ?

If he is anything like his dad, let's get him on our free kicks ???

What a great idea.

"we are not laughing at the incident, we are laughing at the smartness of the car"! I suspect the above is the result of a Producer intervening?

Jermain Defoe for me let's hope he makes a speedy return

Just glad to get the 3pts tbh. Considering the poor conditions and the fact that it came on the back of a rather dispiriting defeat, it was a job well done. Onwards and upwards to Saturday.

Mark Dingwall seems to believe it was an attempt to fit a tracker device. Which if true by who and why?

Afraid I have to disagree with that. We don't really have much to go on but I think Polster was frequently out of position against Hearts. Looks like he follows the ball more than thinking about the shape of the back line.

He has been spotted in Tribe 2 Tattoo getting the giant celtic cross on his bottom covered up. Done deal.

I have to agree tbh. As someone with an Irish wife and Irish grandparents from Dublin, I've spent a lot of time in Ireland. From personal experience, people are understandably very mindful of their own history but the overall mindset is one that is looking to the future rather than looking back. I've no doubt other people may have different experiences