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Has he signed, or is he still in Transit?

Decent workout, we had the better of the first half, gave away two bad goals (great finishes by Kane though) and then should have equalised in later stages. Result not important, we looked fitter, sharper and closer to being ready for Livingston and Union, with no injuries picked up, and with more minutes for newbies and fringe players to come tomorrow we look right on track. I’m fairly happy with that. I don’t judge new players by a few friendlies so can’t really tell what we’ve bought yet but we won’t play sides with as many top players as Spurs at all unless we make the CL so hopefully they can continue to improve fitness and getting to know their teammates and our playing style and hit the ground running next Saturday.

Brilliant just like the team ,mon the toffees

Post lifted from FF: Thirteen years now I’ve been following Turkish football as an Ankaragücü fan. In that time I’ve seen some talented players coming though especially of late with the likes of Yusuf Yazici who Trabzonspor sold to Lille for £15 Million, Abdulkadir Omer also from Trabzonspor who is arguably more talented but had injury problems, Altay Bayindr from Ankaragücü who is now with Fenerbahce and worth over £20 million, and the best of them all Arda Gurler who is one of the best young players I’ve ever seen. He was playing with Fenerbahce last season aged only 16. Ridvan Yilmaz has the potential to be a top player, I would say only Arda has a higher ceiling. When I first saw him play I thought he was a midfielder because he played so high up the pitch and was so comfortable on the ball. He can also finish when he gets into the box as he is very calm and confident and doesn’t just blast the ball hoping for the best. People have questioned his height, but to be honest it’s never something I’ve noticed on the pitch because it’s not something that has been an area of weakness and he is very competitive. The way Geo sets the team up especially at home Ridvan is the perfect player to play at Left back. With the amount of possession we have Ridvan rarely gives the ball away, can pick a pass and his link up play with Kent should be very entertaining. If we ever went with 3 at the back he can play in that 5 on the left hand side as Besiktas played with 3 at the back. In the games I’ve saw him his crossing has been good too, but I know some of the Besiktas fans I spoke with said it’s an area he is working on and has been improving as it can be inconsistent. Defensively too he has a good football brain and although it’s an area of improvement he still has been playing at a consistent level on that side of the pitch. The Turkish League isn’t as physical as the SPL but it’s not far off especially in the derby matches where it can be pretty intense. He should be able to adapt to that but it will take a bit of time. Something I think Rangers have done very well with in recent years is signing likeable players with good characters that adds to the dressing room togetherness. Ridvan is a very nice young guy with a lot of integrity. He gives his parents his salary and takes pocket money for himself, he grew up a Besiktas fan and has been with them since he was a child. He told Besiktas he wanted to leave just now in order to allow them to receive a good transfer fee and tonight he gave an interview with the media where he had tears speaking about saying goodbye to the club he loved. I think most of use could relate to that if we ever played with Rangers and the day came where we were moving on (they would have to force me out lol). Turkish football is notorious for not giving opportunities to young players and a lot of youngsters aged 20-23 have hardly played any games. The Istanbul teams are even worse, but the financial climate has saw all of them starting to bring more players though. The fact that Ridvan broke into Besiktas team at 18 speaks volumes, and even more impressive is that he broke into national team at 20. You don’t tend to get players at that age playing regularly in Turkey. There will still be areas of growth for Ridvan and he will need time to come in and get used to a new culture, style of football, language etc, but he has come from another club where the fans demand success and draws aren’t good enough. He will be used to the pressure and atmosphere and I’m looking forward to seeing how he gets on. You also have to consider he has been impressive playing in Besiktas teams who aren’t at the level they used to be. Turkey has a lot of talent coming through and hopefully we look at the market in the future. I’ve recommended 2 young players to Ross Wilson and Ross Mulholland who are aged 16-17 and have big futures. Whether they look at them is up to them, it looks like their scouting strategy is getting better and we are in a good place. And I say that as someone who has questioned some of the transfer decisions in the past, maybe it was a case of working in an extremely difficult market with no money. Roll on the new season and hopefully Ridvan and the team have a successful one!

Two sides of PQ. Friends again is the message. The new found camaraderie took a BBC Scotland cameraman and Journalist up the marble staircase and into the Rangers trophy room. David Mason welcomed both, introduced the Walter Tull cup and, told the trials and tribulations of the life of one of the first black players in British football. Walter was raised in a London orphanage alongside his brother, Edward. At the age of 20, Walter began a professional football career that took him to three clubs in England. He had a season at Clapham, three at Spurs and, three at Northampton Town. Meanwhile, Edward had been adopted by a Glasgow family, privately educated, he attended Glasgow Dental School and, became(reputedly) Glasgow's first black Dentist. In 1914, Walter signed for Rangers because he wanted to be closer to his brother. World War One intervened, Walter joined the Middlesex Regiment and, Edward the RAMC. Edward survived the conflict and married a Glasgow girl. Sadly, the now commissioned Walter fell in the Spring of 1918, thus never played for our club. In 2003, the Rangers Supporters Trust put up the Walter Tull Trophy to be contested by Rangers and Spurs each time they played a challenge match. It is a story worth telling and remembering and well done BBC Scotland for helping get the story out there. Susie McCabe? Susie McCabe's name has appeared frequently on this thread, she is a most regular guest on RAB Cosgrove and Tam Cowan's Off the Ball. She ticks RAB's boxes, - hates Rangers and Rangers supporters, Sellik supporter, big supporter of Scottish independence, near Dennistoun neighbour, Lesbian, Stand Up Comedian .............. etc. Susie is under RAB's tutelage, just like Angela Haggerty back in the day. RAB will help make Susie mainstream. She has already appeared on BBC's Question Time. Like Angela, Susie has a social media sectarian past. Of course, Susie can be assured Angela will NOT 'Call it Out'. Susie is addicted to the 'H' term, her Twitter feed was littered with accusations. Her latest is that Murdo Fraser MSP is a member of the Orange Order and celebrates the 17th century. Murdo's crime was to celebrate Tuesday's pre-season win over West Ham. Susie's hatred is her comfort blanket; last year at the Euros, she was booked to do her routine at the Glasgow Green FanZone. It was midweek, a quarter-final not involving England and of 200 tables, only a dozen were occupied. Susie died, came off stage to the sound of her own brogan footsteps and, Tweeted - "hard gig, thanx H-u-ns". Susie does not care for the fourth estate, in justifying her refusal to purchase a newspaper she Tweeted, "the fall of Der H-u-n proves how sh1te the Scottish media are". However, we know BBC Scotland will persevere because Susie's hatred is in the right place. Susie's 50 H-u-n a day habit is no different from RAB, Angela, Chris and Connie, .............. etc; she will continue to get the PQ gigs to allow them to condition her to hate more carefully. If you are unfortunate enough to ever find yourself a victim of Susie's interpretation of entertainment, i suggest you make a determined effort to find something marginally more humorous such as Janey Godley or a burning orphanage.

I thought considering some of these players have only played twice together that we did really well today , what killed us was 2 slack passes and they totally took their chances . Say what you like about him but Kane is ruthless . We looked really really good in patches and domestically we will give some teams a right spanking if we can continue ating fast one touch football . Let the fun begin . Thanks again to Bluedell for having me along .

Can you and Bluedell go and get a table together. This is a fitbaw forum 😄

The Egon Ronay of Newton Mortgage should have a column in the matchday programme. I was hearing today, Black Rooster are intent upon taking a kiosk within the Stadium? Their Chicken Fricassee and Pol au Pot is only available to those with Kilmalcolm and Newton Mortgage post codes.

Spurs squad really is on a different planet when you consider finance and depth. At one stage, they had Kane, Son, Richarlison and Perisic on the pitch at the sametime !!! I hope your Father-in-law has now recovered @CammyF

Decent game against a very good Spurs side. Would also lile to thank the staff of The Louden who helped wirh my Father-in-law who took a wee turn after the game. Also to the police for letting me go get the car and pick him up outside of The Louden.

I didn't want to win the Walter Tull Cup anyway...

If we cant get Kent and Morelos renewed I'd be happy if Ridvan was the last player in and we kept some of the Bassey money to replace them next summer. No real gaps in the squad at the moment and if anything could do with moving a few on. Been a good window for ins and outs and should help our overall financial outlook. Champions League money a massive boost if we can make it. The money we received for Aribo seemed a bit on the low side, but the deal for Bassey was incredible. Well done to the club.

Talking of North east cuisine. Way back in the day, a fixture at Pittodrie meant arriving amid the grey granite at Noon. The Masonic club just off Union Street was a must and you had to be in early to get a seat. The freshest fish for lunch was available and I love fish; however, there was a member's wifey who did a pot of homemade stovies. They were served piping accompanied by a pair wholemeal oatcakes. A culinary triumph. In Lanarkshire, stovies are served with the outsider of a plain loaf. If Gordon Ramsay put Stovies avec oatcakes on the Amaryllis, I might give it a whirl.

Coming back to reality, I used to enjoy the pies in the restaurant at Lewis’s Argyle Street.

He is fine thanks - had an asthma attack and recovered once his inhalers kicked in

Teams know to put 2 or 3 men on Kent to nullify him. When that happens we need to switch to a plan B which we don’t always seem to have

Switched on at 1-1, so limited in what I have saw of the game. Various positives but the major thing that stood out as a real potential problem is finding it difficult to play out from the back and too often losing the ball in a very dangerous area. We are going to have to get much better at linking back to middle/half-turn and play forward. Then obviously, there is the question of McGregor's poor distribution (and apparent 'first choice' for Gio ??). Will be interesting to see if we have more success with it against lesser opposition next week (Livingston) .... but I'd bet Martindale will have his team doing extensive high press drills in the lead up to next weekend.

No wonder Lundstram was livid after that foul on him.

Kamara has been tremendous.

This bit is interesting. It is notable that both Davies and Yilmaz rate very highly for Smart Passes and Progressive Passes. Considering we already have Tav and Goldson in the back 4, that makes a full defence who specialise in clever passing to get us up the pitch and break through defensive teams. It has been a weakness of Helander, Katic and probably Balogun too, and has at times made us very reliant on the right hand side players. From the stats, I don't think Davies and Yilmaz strengthen us defensively, at least not from the traditional long ball and aerial form of attack we often face domestically, but we could be much more exciting to watch if these passing stats are anything to go by.

I'm not convinced either of them are. I'd still always rather have a settled goalkeeper and centre back pairing.

If they'd been a bit more clinical it would've been 3 or 4. Apart from our goal, I can't remember us having a single clear cut chance. I expected better.

A decent display and a victory and Emily Upjohn to win the King George VI.&Queen Elizabeth stakes

As an aside, I attended the Civil Service Strollers v Rangers B game last night. We lost 2-1 and it was a disappointing performance and result.

Gio said maybe, there is also a match tomorrow versus Queens Park

A good square slice between two ootsiders with a tottie scone just the job

I have to agree about the home kit. Didn't like it when I first saw pictures but on the pitch I thought it was excellent.

Everton just released their new "Punch Me" line of kits.

Excellent PR exercise. We need to be doing as much of these profile-raising exercises as we can muster.

Sands isnt an LB either

Frankie boy must be favourite for first PL sacking of the year?

I quite like it but the Boxt arm decal is really bad across the strips...

It might be just me, but i've never had a problem with the fit of previous shirts that I can remember and thats across all the brands we've had, Nike, Puma, Umbro, Hummel etc. Even the most recent Castore shirts, no problem... But the latest home shirt is an odd fit to say the least, its quite slim in the body, like I would expect from a sports shirt, but, the sleeves are as baggy as anything, feels almost like a short sleeved Wizard's top.