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Rousseau's reaction to this partnership...

This is an interesting philosophy, and one that I subscribed to as well. However, I was having beers with the former Watford Academy director last week (now the Wales women's assistant manager) and he actually disagrees with this approach and his reasoning is compelling. For a player, and even a team, having the same philosophy only works so long as the first team has the same philosophy and, when it doesnt, those players now need to be re-trained in differing formations and tactics. If you look at us, that is true because GvB's style differs from Gerrard's. And is probably true of all clubs. The Watford guys reasoning is sound in that players need to be flexible to different approaches and by not having that flexibility will hurt players when a change inevitably occurs. By contrast, my son's head coach at his Academy was brought onto the Leeds payroll by Bielsa to do what we have done, Leeds didnt have a consistent philosophy from Academy to First Team - so he was brought in to put into place a structure that saw the Academy play the same way, same philosophy as the first team. When Bielsa got fired, he got fired too because Marshe doesnt want that or isnt interested in it - the coach got picked up immediately by Peterbrough for the U18 & U23 coaching role. So it is clearly a subject which is torn, even within the pro ranks.

Nailing Jelly to the Wall. Yep, Kenny Macintyre has succeeded Reinhardt Gordon as the Saturday 'Open All Mikes' Sportsound Presenter on BBC Radio Scotland. Kenny is a self confessed Bluenose and, the usual suspects do not let him forget. His nickname at PQ is 'the Token' because they have to have one, to allow the Gang Hut to portray themselves as objective. Big Dick has become Cove Rangers PRO but, will continue to present Sundays and midweeks on BBC Radio Scotland. Dandy Don propaganda will fall more on the shoulders of Liam McLeod, Jonathon Sutherland, Rob McLean, Wullie Miller, ...................... etc. The most popular Rangers hating website and a constant reference point for BBC Scotland is, 'Pie and Bovril'. RAB Cosgrove is most fond of quoting the site. It has a Sportsound thread and since Macintyre's promotion has been announced, several pages of negative comments have been posted because, "he is a H-U-N". If you go through that several year running thread you find the comments on the confrontation between Kenny Macintyre and Michael Stewart a couple of seasons past. Just like Cosgrove and Cowan complaining about the stench hanging around the studio because Kenny Macintyre shat himself at being confronted by truth, Pie and Bovril cheered Michael Stewart to the echo. Of course, eighteen months down the line; what Macintyre said to Stewart that evening has rung true. Rangers, Rangers supporters and, James Traynor were NOT present to defend themselves from Michael's ludicrous accusations but righteous Michael ploughed on and, three months past he issued broadcast(on Twitter) apologies to Rangers, Rangers supporters and, James Traynor. You will not hear those apologies on the national broadcaster like, you will not read about them on Pie and Bovril. Inconvenient news will not be broadcast nor acknowledged. Kenny Macintyre has been boxed, the bracketing tightly applied. Consider, if Kenny Macintyre was to do any of the below substituting Rangers or Rangers player for any other club, how long will he last? Reinhardt Gordon broadcast live that Edinburgh Zoo have accepted the transfer of Rangers player, Filip Sebo they plan to exhibit him. Michael Stewart in that aforementioned incident stated, "I don't like how they do things as a club, I don't like Rangers". Chris McLaughlin began a match report with, "Police have arrested four Rangers supporters for sectarian chanting". Positive reporting of Rangers at PQ is akin to nailing jelly to the wall. "Aspiring small independent nations". Above is a favoured phrase of RAB Cosgrove. These last twenty years, RAB has been keen to relay every burp and fart that has emanated from Sri Lanka, an aspiring small nation state taking it's seat at the table of world affairs. RAB is married to a Sri Lankan, holidays annually on the island, owns a coastal villa with infinity pool, expresses his pride at his son's mixed heritage, ............... etc. Often, he concludes with something along the lines of, 'Scotland should similarly aspire'. Nationalism is a legitimate expression of politics and like Kenny Macintyre's football preference, RAB's political preference should be constantly flagged. Inconvenient news is ignored and what is currently occurring in Sri Lanka is being absolutely ignored by RAB. The President has fled the country, the whereabouts of the Prime Minister are unknown and, the residences of both have been invaded by the peoples of the island. the food and fuel situation is so desperate, they are appealing to Vladimir Putin to help out. Of course, those ruling Sri Lanka are a long established family dynasty. Similarly, in Scotland we have Nicola as First Minister for eight years, her husband, Peter Murrell has been SNP Chief Executive for 22 years and, RAB in his seventieth year continues to broadcast. I suspect we can draw parallels between the Establishment in both aspiring small nations? When RAB is not constantly waving the flag, he constantly self promotes. RAB has penned a few books and his Beeb Producer constantly allows mentions and contrived stories of visits to book festivals. RAB has a considerable property portfolio in the countries to be sustained. It is the Establishment way. Anyways on Saturday last, RAB and Tam's substitute, right on Partick Thistle man, Ray Bradshaw hosted a show that talked about football. Craig Levein and Craig Easton were the guests and take all the credit for the discussion topic. RAB was intent upon burdening the listeners with his impending visit to the Alma Mater, Hull University. They are awarding RAB with another Honorary Doctorate. In an establishment tone RAB told us, "this is my sixth Doctorate". At least he can nail them to the wall, or the door of his island villa to keep Sri Lankans from investing his infinity pool.

I think this is a little silly. If Ross Wilson is happy with the overall package, then I'm happy. The fact is, Aribo was in the last year of his contract; he can sign a pre-contract in January, and leave for nothing. He's a good player, but he's not vital to the way we play. Moreover, we have to sell players if we're going to get this selling model going. I would argue Aribo has worked perfectly in this regard.

If you have an injury prone Helander in the squad, you really shouldn't be recruiting another injury prone centre half #Souttar Asking for problems

100% this ^^^ I think more and more clubs are now realising this as among many other things, financially, its crazy

Yes, it's not a panacea; hence why not everyone has adopted it. I'm in favour of it. I think there's a niche that we can tap into. I think there can be a happy medium, whereby all our youth teams are taught to play in a certain style of play, that benefits them individually and the team, but without getting caught out by being too dependent on one specific tactic - if you know what I mean? Not sure I've worded that properly. Principles rather than specifics. The problem for Leeds is they don't have a DoF, so any manager coming in can rip up the system. This is not good. I agree there are differences with SG and GvB, but I feel there are enough similarities for it to work. In this day and age, I think it's ridiculous that a manager can come in and rip up a club's philosophy.

Interesting. Coaches like Gio though, flex their tactics depending on the opposition, so I'm not sure its so much that there are rigid playing styles throughout the club, more about the core elements of the club's philosophy being applied and adapted within different game situations.

Sounds to me like a manufactured job for a mate. Another £100K or so out the club we cant really afford for very little back. How much do you think the wage bill is now for all the backroom team? My guess would be bigger than the entire playing squad wage budget for each but one of our domestic rivals. You've got to ask if all this is really necessary for a club with our limited income streams?

Yes but understandable.

Is it weird that I'm more excited about this appointment than I am about the Tom Lawrence signing?

Yes ,the whole 6m plus add ons thing is a bit pathetic tbh, especially given that we're dealing with the richest league in the world. You commit to buying him and you either deliver the whole 10m in cash in a big fuck off suitcase to the front door ,or you can gtf.

Just hope we haven’t given Schalke 04 a large percentage sell on clause for Matondo. He’s only 21. Make no mistake if he does well for us he’s offski

Supporter Information: 2022/23 Season Tickets Sold Out | Rangers Football Club

Giovanni van Bronckhorst is understood to be adding another first-team coach to his Rangers staff this summer with City Football Group’s Ceri Bowley set to join in the coming weeks. Bowley has held his role as head of coaching support since 2019 and worked closely with Van Bronckhorst during the Dutchman’s six months at CFG. They have maintained a close relationship since and he has been recruited to join Dave Vos, Roy Makaay and Arno Phillips as his trusted assistants. His role at CFG covers coach recruitment, coach development and the overall football methodology employed by the network of clubs. Van Bronckhorst went to learn from their style of play after taking a sabbatical from management following his four seasons in charge of Feyenoord. Bowley was his main contact and it is understood his role will be a wide-ranging one at Ibrox once he arrives. Some outgoing members of staff at CFG are being made to work their notice in full so an exact timeline for his appointment is not yet known. He is expected to join in the new few weeks though as Van Bronckhorst looks to implement the building blocks for the season ahead. Bowley has an academic background having gained a PhD in sports psychology and coaching science from Cardiff Metropolitan University, before working as a researcher and a lecturer in sports science. Bowley was the central figure for coaches at City to liaise with, having spent time at the FA in a coach education capacity. The success of the CFG structure can be seen in the number of trophies and promotions won in recent years. Manchester City have won three of the last four Premier League, New York City FC won their first MLS Cup in 2021, Melbourne City FC won consecutive Premierhsip titles, Troyes won promotion to Ligue 1 in 2021, Yokohama F. Marinos won the Japanese title in 2019 and Mumbai City became the first Indian side to win a league and cup double. Meanwhile Uruguayan side Montevideo City Torque and Spanish club Girona have also won promotions, with the latter going up last year. https://theathletic.com/news/ceri-bowley-rangers-city-group-first-team-coach/Nh1rG1KY6JMO/

Swansea also did similar back in the day - didnt matter who the head coach was, the philosophy was the same - it can be argued that Swansea created the managerial careers of Martinez, Rodgers, even Laudrup

I believe that's where many of them actually come from.

That's the point. A club of our financial circumstances needs to do things differently. The reason Brentford are where they are is not because they happen to have a good manager and good players; they've developed it, despite having the lowest budget, not only in the PL but also low for Championship standard (I believe?). They developed their B-team, developed the moneyball approach to player trading, developed their playing philosophy, for their first-team and youth teams; they've got an army of coaches and analysts to facilitate that. If we can apply some of those principles, we'll do well.

That was my reading of it, or at least my reading of at least one aspect of his role. Teaching the coaches how to be better coaches, as well as ensuring they have a consistent outlook in terms of the football philosophy of the club.

They all come across like characters out of viz

NERD! So this guy is going to coach the coaches or something? Where does he fit in specifically?

He sounds very well connected, perhaps that could bring a lot of indirect value to the club too.

i wish it would hurry up and get under way , mon the toffees

Almost agree 😉 I'd take a CL Semi Final over a EL Final

Had a wee look at Caskie’s stats report on Matondo and Kent and thought I’d do a comparison, as they look very similar in style from Youtube. In short, Matondo seems to have played much more as a wing forward for Cercle who wants to be in the box, whereas Kent sees himself as a winger. Worth bearing in mind, Cercle Brugge finished 16th out of 18, so comparing stats here is very hard. - Matondo’s goal threat stats are far better, and he actually outperforms an already high xG. Presumably, he was encouraged to get in the box and score goals whereas Kent has been asked to create goals, but even if you assume that is the case, the stats are very impressive. - Matondo’s crossing stats are very low in comparison, doesn't cross often and when he does they aren't that accurate. Hard to know how much team set-up affects that. - Dribbling stats are remarkably similar, basically they both attempt dribbles all the time but have a very low success rate. To an extent, you can understand low success the more attempts you make, but it suggests to me that he relies on pace more than close control, which I have always said is true of Kent too. - Similar attacking movement stats. Accelerations and progressive runs are very high. These things are important as you are constantly stretching the opposition and making runs. - Received passes is very low for Matondo and very high for Kent. Explained partly by the fact Matondo seems to have been playing as more of a forward whereas Kent drops deep quite a lot and builds attack. Slight concern of lack of involvement in play maybe. - General passing stats are very low for Matondo. Partly explained as above, but a slight concern at very low no of passes to the penalty box, suggests to me that vision and through balls could be a weakness. Kent has high stats for all those, but of course he's had the advantage of playing for Rangers and not relegation strugglers. More encouragingly, the most important stat, xA, is almost exactly same despite all of the above. So Matondo seems to be creating chances at a similar rate to Kent despite having these other low stats. Worth noting that it seems Kent got very lucky with assists last season and is a due a major correction down as his expected assists were far lower than his actual. You'd need to check his assists one by one to see if that is the case though. - Attacking passing stats are actually very decent when you consider who he's playing for. - Defensive stats are generally poor for Matondo. Very low no of successful defensive actions, very low possession adjusted interceptions and very low aerial duel success. One encouraging stat is a very decent duel success percentage. Perhaps surprisingly, Kents stats are all very low for all those too. So it is encouraging that Matondo’s duel success % is good bit higher than Kent’s because he looks like a wee guy. My verdict would be that this looks a very promising signing at the fee quoted. 4 years younger than Kent with loads of scope to improve, especially while playing for a team who dominate the play. Seems like he could help us add goal threat to our front 3 which has been a major problem. Question marks over creativity/end product, but absolutely worth the risk.

Nice sign off. Best of luck to Aribo, he's got the potential to be a top class player and I hope he fulfills it.