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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.

I never thought that i'd see the name "Hagi" on the back of a 'Gers tap. Has Hristo Stoichkov got any male children?

This is a good signing. We've been crying out for a creative, playmaker for years. I'm very excited. I'm pleased with the profile of the player too: He looks like a key piece of the puzzle, but is a good investment too. Clearly a Wilson signing.

With regards to Kamberis level and current form, I'm sure there would have been the same concerns about a bench warmer arriving from Dundee for 50k. Let's wait and see

Oh.... balls

As was said, this isn't true. He has "only" 3 active bookings and is "far away" from a further ban. Tom admitted his mistake the following day.

The existing board members should not be backing anybody apart from themself. To actively endorse another candidate smacks of cronyism and shouldn’t be allowed. A timely example of the reason new blood is required to keep C1872 from getting too cliquey.

Voted. Good luck to those standing, especially Christine.

From live 4LHAD podcast: Confident of getting both Vydra and Kamberi, Vydra dependent on Burnley bringing in replacement. We have first dibs on Hagi for the summer. Docherty in Edinburgh, expect to complete loan to hibs. Middleton likely to go out on loan. Jones trained this morning so nothing imminent regarding him going out. Scouts have watched Goldson, Katic, Borna, Aribo and Kamara this season but no first team players leaving today.

Good news is that Tav is expected to make the bench tomorrow...

Stumbled upon this great article about Rangers European Cup Winners Cup run in 71-72. Apologies if it's been posted before https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/sep/04/forgotten-story-rangers-1972-european-cup-winners

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.

“Always been a dream of mine to play for Rangers”. “Rangers fans are the best in the world”. “Ibrox has the best atmosphere I’ve ever played in”.

not true. tom miller admitted he made a mistake the other night.

Some of us are lnterested in keeping an eye on the opposition ! very simple, if you don't then fine, but then I'm sure you knew that before posting! if you have no interest in a thread you don't need to open it!.

Jury will be out until the seasons end before delivering their verdict ,but let's hope .

All in all, shaping up to be a very decent transfer window. Good start by our Sporting Director.

I’m buzzing for this one. You have to wonder if Wilson has called in a favour or two here because we seem to have jumped a queue. The fans will need to be patient with him but the best thing about him is that he is genuinely different from what we already have. It’s been a long time since we have signed a player who’s style of play is totally different to anyone already on the books. Looks like a set piece specialist and long shot specialist too, lots of qualities we haven’t had much of before. Also don’t underestimate the importance of having a guy like this for the kids to idolise. A bit like Morelos he will have a huge pull for kids in a way that most players won’t.

No, I only took League games. It's 8 goals in 27 if you want total goals. (I tend to skip Cup goals because it is against those types of opposition.)

Kamberi has often been playing in a deeper, wider role when used so that explains his lower goal tally this season. He's a player I've liked for a while, he's fairly quick, skilful and a good finisher. He's also somewhat lazy and rather inconsistent. However, I do think he can improve further and would be a useful option. A loan deal may be fairly sensible.

I doubt very much we will here much from the Scottish gutter press on this?

Absolute legend already - get it up ye ya spoon burning bastards

I've apologised for a silly post but let's not kid ourselves that anything matters other than how they play in two games against Rangers.

They probably reset the voting. One would hope so anyway

You're right. What am I thinking of. Apologies. ?

Barcelona have just signed their striker, Trincao, for 26 million.

Yes, see post 6. Not 100% sure, but think they are an approved partner of Hummel, but not sure what came first.

Worth noting that we're going to be live from 10pm tonight with a transfer window special. @Govan Rear Bear will be keeping myself and @Stevie - 4lads Blog in check as we get excited about all today's comings and goings. And who's not to say there may not be a late surprise before the window closes at 11pm? Grab a beer and join us folks!

I thought this transfer window was going to be uninteresting, from a Rangers perspective. Looks like that may not be the case... The last few matches have shown we need some other sorts of players.

Vydra's history from Wikipedia: They don't waste any time. Burnley[edit] Burnley signed Vydra for an undisclosed fee on a three-year deal from Derby on 7 August 2018.[42] Glasgow Rangers FC[edit] Vydra signed for Glasgow Rangers on loan until the end of season 2020. He stated that the lure of playing against top drawer players such as Vassoun Bayo and Boli Bolingoli -Mbombo was a deciding factor. He did express his sadness of not being able to test himself again Eboue (next Kante) Kouassi.

As always, a splendid piece of writing. I'll get it on the main site shortly...

It's better! ?

Can admin please move this to the right board? Sorry chaps!