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At least it wasn't Slavia

The big point here is how Rangers are exposing the SPFL how corrupt & incompetent they are, the other big thing here is how/why all the other clubs are terrified of challenging the bias corrupt cabal!!, Scottish football is fucked and has been since the attempt to kill Rangers and the witch hunt continues on Rangers. Since the day Rangers were voted out of the top division Scottish football was fucked, the only thing I kept saying is we need to start winning again, being successful, this is the only way we can change things! I still believe that, we have made astonishing progress under SG and that is killing all the Rangers hating Scottish clubs and Scottish gutter press!. Rangers FC just need to keep on winning, the more success we have the stronger we will be and the more pressure we can apply to the corruption that is rife in Scottish football and indeed Scotland including the Scottish gutter press. It is a wonderful time to be a Rangers fan, especially after what we have had to endure these last 10 years or so. Just keep being successful Rangers.

Tom treads a fine line in objectivity and, regularly falls the wrong side. Last year, DUP MP, Sammy Wilson appeared on Sportsound to explain his reasoning for laying down an Early Day Motion reference Rangers. As Richard Gordon completed the questioning, a pent up Tom demanded, "why is he on the show"? Compare and contrast with Tom's behaviour three years past. His home county, Limerick had made the All Ireland GAA Hurling Finals for the first time in almost half a century. Tom returned home to see his club win. Limerick play in green and white hoops. A breathless Tom appeared live on BBC Radio Scotland lionising his home town heroes, a triumph of the blarney. At the same time, those players were featuring on the front pages of Irish newspapers because they chose to celebrate the trophy by belting out a rendition of 'Sean South of Garryowen'. Sean South was from Garryowen, a district of Limerick. He was a member of an IRA column that crossed the border into Fermanagh on New Year's Day 1957. They attacked a RUC station, opening fire without warning. The column was fought off, two members of the IRA were fatally wounded, including South. The retreat led to a barn where a final shoot-out occurred and, a young RC RUC Constable, John Scalley was killed. The song was penned within a week of the proclaimed patriot's death. It was said the alacrity was necessary because of the failure of the raid and to cover up South's rabid anti-semitic views. We call that seizing the narrative these days. Sean South wrote numerous letters to the Limerick Leader(owned by Tom English's family) expressing his support for Fascism and conservative catholicism. He founded the Limerick branch of, 'Maria Duce'. He was a member of an Realt - Irish speaking chapter of the Legion of Mary and Sinn Fein. Tom totally ignored this awkward and unhelpful situation, although he did say, "I am not aware the GAA has received any complaints".

Fivethirtyeight’s rankings have us in 49th and them in 54th, so really closely matched. Interestingly we have a marginally better offensive score and they have a marginally better defensive ranking. For comparison, Young Boys are 50th, Slavia 74th (strange) and RB Salzburg 19th. Fivethirtyeight give stats some weight as well as results I believe so are a much better gauge than UEFA rankings.

I think people are underestimating them. They won a much better league than ours by 26 points last season and made the UCL. They are very much on a high. Having said that I thought there wasn’t much between any of the teams we could have drawn, I’m glad we avoided Salzburg but Olympiacos were probably the 2nd hardest teams of the 4.

Could have been Slavia Prague for one. I think we got the best draw possible from the names I’ve seen.

It really does give me a warm feeling in my stomach, long may it continue

Robert Grieve 20:09, 2 Aug 2021 Updated: 20:11, 2 Aug 2021 SPFL chairman Murdoch MacLennan has written to Scotland’s clubs slamming Rangers over their cinch stand-off. SunSport broke the bombshell news on Sunday that the Ibrox club were at war with league chiefs over their £8million sponsorship deal with the online car sales firm. Rangers refused to display the cinch logo on their jerseys in their opening league game of the season against Livingston. They believe there’s a clause in the SPFL rulebook which allows them to snub any advertising which impact on their own deals. The issue has caused major ructions behind the scenes with Neil Doncaster under serious pressure to find a solution. And now MacLennan has told clubs they must show support to the SPFL chief executive in an email sent tonight. He wrote: “Dear all. You will all be aware that earlier this summer, the SPFL signed a title sponsorship contract with cinch. “This contract is, by value, the biggest single sponsorship deal in the 131-year history of the league. “In the context of what is, by any measure, a challenging economic environment, our Chief Executive and his commercial team deserve huge credit for delivering this deal. “It is therefore very disappointing that one of our clubs has not felt able to deliver inventory to cinch. “Your Board will be discussing this situation later this week. I will of course be in touch thereafter to give you a further update.” The SPFL insist there is a clear breach in “the fulfilment of rights obligations.” But Rangers are refusing to back down. And SunSport can reveal their argument centres around Rule I7 in the SPFL rulebook - which they believe allows them to snub certain terms of the five-year contract. It states clubs are NOT “obliged to comply with this rule if to do so would result in that club being in breach of a contractual obligation entered into prior to the Commercial Contract concerned.” Rangers are arguing they have various long-standing sponsorship deals in place which would be at risk should they display the cinch logo. Crucially, they also insist the SPFL failed to formally write to clubs before the deal was struck. Those are the fine details being argued over by both sides. The SPFL’s own lawyers are fighting their case and insisting the Ibrox club are out of line. And Scotland’s other clubs and waiting in the wings to see how the dispute unfolds. Rangers slammed by SPFL chief MacLennan over cinch stand-off in letter to clubs (thescottishsun.co.uk)

Routine victory provides early signs that Rangers have the Wright stuff If there is any truth in the old adage that a side who churns out victories whilst not at their best is a sign of a championship winning side, then Rangers provided strong evidence on Saturday that they will be the team to beat this season. On a day when supporters were allowed back into Ibrox for a competitive game for the first time since 12 March 2020, and the visit of Bayer Leverkusen, the hosts provided plenty of evidence that they will take some stopping, despite looking a bit sluggish for long periods of the game. The moment of the match came with twelve minutes to go when Scott Wright curled a sublime effort with the outside of his right foot past Max Stryjek in the Livingstone goal, to all but secure the points. The former Aberdeen player has impressed since his move to Ibrox in January, and much is expected of him this season from manager Steven Gerrard. "Scott probably deserved to start the game but we have got four games in 10 days so I am going to need him to be ready”, said Gerrard after the game. "He came on for Ianis Hagi, but we are hoping he is going to pull through and be okay, but Scott has taken his chance - I thought he came on, was direct, was quick, played a lot of penetrating passes and scored a wonderful goal and that is the part of the game we are on his case over as we want him to keep getting numbers in his game and be a killer in the box and he was today.” Hagi had come off after a crunching and rather naughty tackle from Adam Lewis, but the Romanian didn’t leave proceedings without making a huge contribution in scoring the opening goal after only eight minutes. The Romanian controlled a Tavernier free-kick superbly at the back post, as he shaped to shoot he took out what felt like the entire Livi defence before shooting high into the net from close range to give Rangers the early lead they and the 23,000 supporters had craved. The return of supporters at Ibrox could not be understated, and the frustration of the last few months during lock down was audible in the roar which greeted Hagi’s opener. Everyone involved with the club is praying that this is just start start of a more normal matchday experience. Prior to kick-off both sets of players took the knee in the continued fight against racism. On Friday afternoon, James Tavernier had written an open letter to supporters telling them that the players would "take the knee to stand against racism, nothing more, and nothing less.” That message appears to have gotten through with the overwhelming majority of the crowd applauding in support when both sets of players took the knee. There was also a minutes silence prior to kick off for former Rangers captain Ally Dawson, who died last week at the age of 63. Dawson made 315 appearances for the club, and captained the side for two of his six major honours. Dawson was the very epitome of a real Rangers man, joining the playing staff straight from school in 1975 at the tender age of 16 and staying with the club for twelve seasons. He was introduced to the Rangers Hall of Fame in 2011. The side selected by Gerrard suggested he had one eye on the Champions League qualifier on Tuesday, but it also gave a hint to the strength and depth of the squad he has amassed since arriving three years ago. There were no places for Alan McGregor, Filip Helander, Borna Barisic or Scott Arfield – with only McGregor of that group making the bench. When you consider that Ryan Jack and Alfredo Morelos are still to come back into proceedings, you can see just how strong Rangers are at the moment. Fashion Sakala was drafted in for his first competitive start, with John Lundstram having to console himself with a place on the bench as Rangers went with a midfield three of Davis, Kamara and Aribo. Davis, yet again, showed that he is ageing like a fine wine, with yet another man of the match performance. The Northern Irishman may be 36, but he shows no signs of dropping his performance levels just yet. Calvin Bassey was also impressive on the day, covering for Barisic superbly in a back four of him, Tavernier, Goldson and Balogun. For Sakala, however, this would prove to be a frustrating afternoon, with the Zambian unable to repeat his heroics of the previous week against Real Madrid. For large chunks of the game he struggled to get going, and was replaced by Kemar Roofe on 71 minutes. It was Roofe’s introduction which re-energised Rangers, and within six minutes of his arrival they'd secured the three points with that superb Scott Wright goal. Wright instigated the move with a cross into the box. Kent collected on the penalty spot and shot, but his effort was deflected up in the air and nodded on by Tavernier to Wright, who executed it superbly. Roofe added insult to injury in the dying minutes when he reacted quicker than anyone else in the six yard box and scored the third, which put a slightly flattering look on proceedings. But even if Rangers weren’t at their best here, they never really looked like conceding on the day, with Jon McLaughlin having what most of us would describe as an easy day at the office. For Gerrard and Rangers the focus now shifts to Tuesday night and Malmo. For Gerrard, the prospect of managing in the biggest European competition will be a huge incentive. For Rangers, it will surely mark the full recovery of the club after a decade of turmoil. RANGERS: McLaughlin, Tavernier (c), Bassey, Goldson, Balogun, Davis, Kamara, Aribo, Kent, Hagi, Fashion Jr. SUBS: McGregor, Lundstram, Itten, Simpson, Patterson, Wright, Roofe. LIVINGSTON: Stryjek, Lewis, Fitzwater, Obileye, McMillan, Holt, Sibbald, Pittman (c), Penrice, Forrest & Anderson. SUBS: Barden, Devlin, Kelly, Montaño, Kabia, Reilly & Hamilton. Referee: John Beaton Attendance: 23,000

A really good point. We are racing away from them while spending little or nothing on players. Celtic just continue to pour money into an incinerator. When all the money is incinerated then demand some more and do the same again. The current attitude reminds me of the stupid approach recommended to us several years ago: Rangers just need 100 millions to catch Celtic. It was a load of rubbish then just as it is now. All good though as focusing on money will prevent them from figuring out how to really catch us.

i hope our lawyers are in better form than the last few years here.

But if we beat them then I think we are guaranteed europa group stage at a minimum.

If we lose to Malmo we get Kairat (Khazakhstan) or Alashkert (Armenia) in the Europa Cup qualifier. So it's either a trip of 3,300 miles or 4,600 miles for the away leg. Not ideal, but should be winnable.

In that case, we should probably postpone match threads until kick off.

If we haven’t learned by now that rankings offer no guarantees then we never will. Unlike geology, in football the past is seldom a guide to the future. What matters is how two teams play on the day.

Rankings aside, are they really likely to be tougher than Benfica or Porto whom we have showed up well against?

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Rosseau for his administration of the competition. As I sit top of the table, I will contact Bearger to receive the trophy he hasn't received either. The competition is over, or is that just another notional thought?

Right, before people start to argue over their handbags full of sarcasm, the statement from our captain is clear. Taking the knee in this situation is anti-racism and anti-racism only so please don't equate it with anything else. FWIW, perhaps an alternative method could be used to avoid the BLM comparisons but it is what it is so let's avoid the name-calling, sanctimony and anything else for a few secs each match-day...