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Been watching a lot of old matches recently, and it reminded me how good Ferguson was. Easily the best Scottish midfielder of his generation and IMO a true Rangers great/legend. I know there are also a lot of negative things aimed towards him from Rangers fans however his Rangers career is up their with the best Rangers players, thoughts?.

Clearly such option would never have been on the table.

What we do know is that liquidity is essential. Companies across the UK were /are stretching every credit facility in an unprecedented way. The govt is bailing out to some degree businesses and individuals. Our liquidity which is non-existent is going to depend on operational cost reduction, loans, player sales and fans buying ST. It really isn’t rocket science. It doesn’t matter what blue tinted spectacles we put on it this is a real danger moment for us - and we still have Ashley court case to deal with.

You think you heard it all before? Think again ... 2 Auchinleck had NINE games in hand when the virus hit As outlandish as the table looks, the mathematics in Talbot's favour is fairly straightforward. Tommy Sloan's side have cut great swathes through the junior ranks in recent years and the fact they still had nine games in hand on Kilwinning gives them the title on the account of their average points per game ratio of 2.56, which comfortably outstrips Kilwinning's 2.12. In the last season before a major re-organisation of the Scottish game is set to place with the formation of the West of Scotland league within the Scottish senior football pyramid, Blantyre Vics and Darvel shared the Championship title. Vics actually had a marginally superior points per game advantage from their matches to date (46 from 18 = 2.55) to Darvel (53 from 21 = 2.523), but the league decided that a joint award was the only fair way to decide. ?⚽️ McBOOKIE SJFA WEST CHAMPIONSHIP | We are delighted to confirm that @BVFC1890 & @darvelfc have been declared as Joint winners of McBookie SJFA West Championship 2019-20. ??????? #SJFAWest pic.twitter.com/rYM66IIF8L — West Region SJFA (@SjfaWest) April 21, 2020 Elswewhere, Shettleston Juniors are the champions of West Region League 1. Johnstone Burgh get the honours in League 2. No fewer than 67 clubs from the junior ranks have an expressed an interest to play in the West of Scotland leagues from season 2020-21 onwards. https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/5517193/auchinleck-talbot-west-premiership-champions-third/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=scottishsunfootballfacebook&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1587501531

I meant to ask you how your new job with Hollicom is going, Bill. ?

If the roles were reversed and the circumstances the same. Personally, I´d allow them to make the noise up until the title is awarded, then as a club put out a statement saying that although we´d take the CL entry, we wouldn´t consider it a full title and the number going into a prospective 2020/21 would still be 8IAR.

I can honestly say I wouldn’t.

Barca have said they would give the proceeds from this to corona-virus charities, not for their own coffers.

Employees can only be furloughed if they agree to it. In most cases, people agree to it because the alternative may be redundancy. However that's obviously not the case with players. It needs to be public pressure for them to look to help, rather than them sitting back and collecting cash being paid for by supporters who are on furlough or reduced hours.

Cracking footballer. Media lapdog. To be fair, he surpassed his older brother in footballing terms (mainly because he put his career first) but they are both a waste of column inches.

IMO no sport that relies on mass spectators should be allowed until scientifically proved to be safe to do so.The importance to health totally needs to be foremost.

I can't believe Celtc fans seriously think the SPFL is pro-Rangers. ?

That isn't using the Ayrshire calculator though if comparing Rangers to Talbot. If Rangers win all their games they need Celtic to drop points elsewhere. Talbot could win their league with plenty of games to spare. Kilwinning COULD end up on 68 points if they win their remaining 5 games. That would leave them 27 points ahead of Talbot. However, if Talbot won their remaining games they would finish the season on 83 points - a full 15 points, or 5 games, ahead of Kilwinning. Your comparison is flawed compo, significantly. Either way, this still shows (despite me being a Talbot fan) how much of a farce it is to award team's league titles in this manner. Look at Raith Rovers getting promoted at the expense of Falkirk...1 point separated them and Raith still had to go to Falkirk yet. It is utter lunacy.

That is a very good question and I suspect you are right. There's a growing bandwagon to curtail social distancing measures and I'm unclear whether it's the usual sheep syndrome or just a reflection of the lack of stamina for anything in current society. I'm fairly clear about one thing though - if we lift restrictions to soon and too quickly, the repercussions will be a damn sight worse than persevering until infection rates are much lover than they are today. People need to show some bottle and get through this, not f*ck it up at the half way stage.

We haven't seen an global economic complete shutdown lasting for multiple weeks before. We also haven't seen stimulus packages of the quantum or needs as this one. That is their point, they can't use previous trends because this is unchartered territory. I contend that it isn't common and hasn't really happened before either - even in the Great Depression, economies were still working. This one, globally, has ground to a halt. I am perhaps an optimist but I am with Bill in that I suspect that once things open up again I think that industries and jobless numbers will drastically reduce. My fear, though, would be a 2nd or 3rd wave - not so much as it could result in another lockdown but that the markets will react very unfavorably to that instance - I personally don't think a 2nd or 3rd wave, and how they are handled, has been priced into the markets yet. The lockdown is causing the economic carnage but it certainy isn't causing the wider health issue - unless you consider economics to be the only issue..... If governments don't get the "r" below 1 (average rate of contamination) then you have an expanding virus. Timing will be everything with this - herd immunity is not only a foregone conclusion but also essential to build immunity and build people to be asymptomatic. However, you and I both know that the markets don't work on common sense all the time. If, for example, the UK says in 6 months time that there is an increase in CV cases again you can guarantee that the markets will go into a frenzy, not matter whether it is short term or not. No matter whether a 2nd wave is a large, or small, issue. It is all very well to say stop the lockdown and get back to work, but that runs the risk of infections rapidly increasing again and even greater pressure on the healthcare systems around the world. As I said, timing is everything. Back on topic, yes Rangers must now tighten the belts - what will be interesting to see is what happens across the city - as I said earlier, everything is relative in Scotland, how we do is relative to Celtic - but their wage bill is significantly greater than ours and is largely dependent upon making the CL. Will they ultimately have to sell assets to a) cover wages b) get some wages off the books to lower costs and c) ultimately balance the books. This could hurt them financially far more than it hurts us, which brings them closer to us financially, which then MIGHT allow us a chance to challenge, even without the need to have a "war chest".

The buffs wont be to happy

Most footballers and their agents will be fully aware that the whole of Europe is affected, so pissing off a current employer probably won't bode well when looking for a new one. "You're skint so I'm leaving! Oh, everyone else is skint too.".

I have just read the comments on the BBC SPFL league reconstruction article. It's mainly infested by yahoos claiming this is all happening because the SPFL and SFA are staffed by Rangers people who want to see them lose out on 9 in a Row. ?

A good post is a good post. You are very capable of good objective anaylsis when it doesn´t involve politics of any kind.

@Craig will come up with one. I’ll start him off. The keeper’s McCloy. Eric Caldow. Sammy Cox. With Cox in the side you don’t need many more. Has Kevin Thomson got a granny from Auchinleck?

Grangemouth apparently. He’s in the east XI.

Mission accomplished ... seemingly. Season brought to an end after 75 % of the games and a rigged vote gained via harassment and coercion ... no matter the fallout. As long as Scum Fc can celebrate a title, all is fine. Should we get close to a title next season, strict liability will be introduced and points deducted, no problem.

Thinking back to Barry Ferguson, it re-enforces the old adage if you are good enough, you are old enough. Barry was a real player but also had a real attitude that helped him cope with the huge pressure of playing for Rangers. I think you need both at Ibrox. Regards youth development, if they aren´t good enough for the first team sqaud by the time they are around 19, I doubt they are going to be much practical use to Rangers. The economic fallout may mean more get a chance.

An unpredictable pandemic, economic chaos and the very questionable quality of political leadership around many parts of the world is a toxic mix. Who knows,...geo-politics might end up kyboshing any thoughts of a 2020/21 season.

I can´t think of a comparable precedent in terms of scale and unifomity throughout the world and industrial sectors and that´s not taking into account of uncertainty wrt to timescale/evolution of the virus ,..but that is drifting to Lounge territory. - Will the upcoming economic situation reduce ST/ other revenue numbers ?................Yes (will be the same for all clubs) - General downsizing will mean lower quality of squad as a whole - It will come down to good/bad management of what resources you have. - Going into next season, we already have player contracts to honour that must be at a level that any up to date projected budgets might struggle to cover. - Big cost cutting hopefully starting weeks ago - Should be wage cuts, not defferrals (needs to change) - We are accustomed to running at a structured loss but approaching the time when projections/plans pointed towards breaking even and not requiring shareholders to fill holes. - Are the major prospective investors (looking at proposed share issue) doing it for emotive or investment reasons ? We were in the process of making the club more professional at various levels (eg. commercial, youth development, etc) as well as edging towards on the pitch success and employ Steven Gerrard who adds glamour. What happens now is that the player trading market will bomb for at least the short term and in Scotland, may never get back to the numbers we were starting to see Celtic receive. That would severely restrict potential to make any money and discourage investors. Brings us to individual assets, eg. Morelos. Do we accept what would be a cut price deal to get some money in and his wage off the books ? I think the risk that he loses interest in a sea of red mist is too great and we sell, even if the fee is low. Needs be. In hindsight, re-signing Davis and Defoe was a mistake. McCrorie and Docherty should be kept IMO. They are the type who might excell at a Rangers forced to downsize. Gerrard might not be madly keen on them but SG is going to have to consider a practical Plan B or he´ll be for the off. etc, etc. Brightside is we have some decent youths coming through. I´d like to think players such as Kelly are ready for the step-up to a squad with what will have to be a significantly lower wage bill. ps. I apologise for the disjointed and rambling nature of the post.

It’s wasted on them. They don’t care.

Barcelona already looking to sell the naming rights to Nou Camp for a season to try to help them through it....

I think Barry Ferguson was summed up when he left Rangers at the top of his game to be an average player in England and return to rangers half the player he had been. The nature of his exit from international football and his conduct during the le Guen era further enhanced his reputation as a downmarket ned.

Let's be quite open about this, there is not a remote chance of a 50,000 strong Ibrox crowd watching a Rangers match this calendar year. Until such time as a vaccine can be found, mass-produced, distributed and found to be working, can we take the chance as a country of allowing such mass congregation of spectators to watch a sporting event. The best estimate of this happening is 12-18 months. So there might be football back on tv before then, but not with full house crowds. So as a football club, and a business, that gets most of its annual income from such crowds, then the sooner we cut our costs accordingly, the better the chance we have of survival. There is not one player, coach, manager or administrator that is worth our club going bust for. Our non-staff overheads are also enormous at our club, for ongoing maintenance, insurances, etc, and with nothing coming in, these have to be managed. I have yet to hear that by furloughing a player, that gives them any wriggle room in their contract to leave for free. Obviously if it turns out that this would allow the player to leave for free (i.e. breach of contract), then this wouldn't work, but as far as I am concerned, we should be putting every single non-playing, non-income generating, member of staff on furlough and not topping up their wages, or if we can afford to , top them up to a reasonable level that would allow them to live. As for players, slash all wages until such times as they can undertake their work again. A lot of our players aren't even in the country, but we are continuing to pay them in full (dont give me any tosh about deferrals, that merely adds a debt to be repaid down the line), despite them not being able to go to work or to earn their wages. Furlough them all, take the longer term view and safeguard our future. If it turns out that somehow a vaccine is found sooner, and we dont have this gap in our income for as long as I am predicting, then we an make it up to them and repay the wages they have lost, or at least some of them. But the safety and long-term future of the club has to be our Director's first and only concern at this time. Players will come and players will go, the club has to be kept safe to ensure it is still there for us to enjoy in the decades to come.

I can't understand why Rangers isn't already locking away the chequebook and taking every step possible to minimise cash outflow. More companies go to the wall in challenging times due to hesitation than the challenge itself. It's for situations like this that companies carry a cash reserve. Rangers, as far as I can see, has no reserve, other than soft loan commitments. Such commitments can no longer be guaranteed because every director whose wealth is founded on his business will also be under pressure. With no end in sight to current restrictions, what Rangers is effectively doing at the moment is bleeding cash. The danger is that, by the time it becomes clear how long it will be before income streams are flowing again, Rangers may be in existential difficulties. I have no insight into Rangers' operating finances but, if it were me, I'd be assuming no crowds (ST income) before (say) October and ruthlessly minimising outgoings between now and then, regardless of the emotional stuff about laying off staff. Any other strategy is irresponsible. I spent my business life in the oil industry, where there is a constant cycle of boom of bust and if you didn't make provisions for and react early to hard times, you likely went to the wall. Rangers don't normally operate in an environment like this and it worries me we may not have the required survival instincts. Far too much attention is being given to the SPFL and awarding titles. Of much greater concern to me is the condition Rangers could be in six months from now.

There's no war chest. The directors had to guarantee that they would put in £10m during the season just to keep us going. There's none domestically. We don't have any rights to show games in the UK.

There may be a government guideline which insists on social distancing.