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A little surprised how downbeat so many seem to be. Not buying someone in the last weeks of the transfer window doesn't mean we don't have any money. We have been planning for this transfer window for months, it might be that everyone was happy with the business we did early and only if we were forced to sell someone were we likely to look at bringing someone else in. I think the people in charge of the club currently have shown they're not incompetent, quite the opposite. Maybe we need to have some faith. As a support I feel we've long forgotten that the youth and B teams are there to supplement our squad. That's quite literally the point of them. For a club of our current size, playing in the league we are, it's essential we're able to bring through our own players. Some will flourish and bring us big transfer fees, some will simply provide cover and not make the final step up. But we need to realise that's a large part of the future for us, if we are to have a future. We have to expect players like King, Lowrie, McCann, Devine and Ure to play 10 to 15 matches this season. Sometimes as subs, sometimes in cup matches and sometimes in our biggest games because senior players are injured or suspended. Rangers have to become a club that's recognised for developing and promoting younger players. Now that Patterson is starting regularly at Everton and Bassey at Ajax that will help build that reputation. We need more of them and perhaps we have them, they just need a chance to play. I don't know if Ridvan can speak much English, but I do know he's not long turned 21 and is living in a new country that's culturally very different from everything he knows, playing for a club with high expectations. That we're breaking him in gently smacks of good management to me. The Govan front can destroy the confidence of even the best fullbacks, two misplaced passes in a game we're struggling in and they'll be on his back. Plus, Borna is playing relatively well currently. Again, have a little faith. Lastly, I fully expect to see Morelos back to his best in the next few weeks. His public telling off and the side progressing without him will have provided some incentive to sort himself out. He wants to play in the Champion's League, every player does. Oh, it goes without saying that should we lose our next two matches I reserve the right to revise all of the above and berate everyone at the club for not splashing the cash.

Matondo is 22 next week and, like Kent, has moved about too much in recent years to find any sort of consistency in his play. I'm confident he'll find that given some time.

I think the opposite of a Panty Wetter is a Happy Clapper. Two (insufferable) cheeks of the same arse.

I can imagine the inflated energy prices are also impacting our spending. How much energy is used to keep grounds operational? It must be substantial.

Short of abandonment, compo, you’ll get a result. The only questions are will it be crippling, acceptable at best or delirium inducing?

We are hopefully getting back to adding quality rather than quantity regards signings. Gerrard didn’t half sign some dross in his final year at Rangers

Everyone seems to think we should have bought, but that belief is entirely based on the assumption that there are quality players available, within a budget, that are an improvement on the current playing staff. Tbh we've bought far too many players in at the last minute over the years, I'd rather we had some faith in our own developing players, and actually play them, than buy someone else's problem player. And while we're on that, when we get injuries, play the boy that plays that position, a lowry, mccann, devine, instead of shoe horning a sakala or a sands in there.

And that's the real ball buster about this. Its our European efforts that keep the co-efficient high enough to get a Scottish club auto CL qualification. But we cant be good enough domestically to take advantage.

Looking at the pessimism and vitriol generated by our participation in this transfer window, it's clear a lot of fans think we are at the end of our rebuilding mission. I think the truth is we still have some distance to travel before you could say the job is anything like done. Recent income has certainly helped but the club remains relatively weak in financial terms and you don't improve the situation by being profligate in a transfer market that offers absolutely no guaranteed return on player investment. I think the club has over-performed in the last year or so and left the door wide open to continue our progress. Happy days.

I quoted Han Solo before the PSV game as I genuinely had "a bad feeling about this". Oh ye of little faith. That being said, I have a similar bad feeling about tomorrow however that's more an irrational OF thing. If we had just won the treble and the Champions League and the Tims were struggling at the bottom of the league, I would still be anxious about going to that dump.

Ach, sorry I missed this chat. Love this kinda stuff. And I get exactly what you mean: It's like all three times we've played Sporting in Europe, they've come away with a decent result from the Ibrox first leg and then we've won the tie after some serious drama in the Lisbon return - and that's three ties taking place over the course of forty years: in 1971, 2008 and 2011. As you're saying above, we've now met PSV Eindhoven four times in Europe since 1978-79; they've only lost once at Ibrox: we've never lost in Eindhoven. Nuts. Last season Borussia Dortmund became the team we've played most often in European competition: five different ties (if, that is, for the sake of this argument, you want to treat the home and away meetings in a group stage as a "tie") and, from the 1966-67 Cup-Winners' Cup - when they were holders - to last season when they were the second-best side in one of Europe's top five domestic leagues, they've never won at Ibrox, we've only lost once in the Westfalen, and the only time they've put us out was on penalties after a last-minute equaliser. Bayern: Five ties but one of them was a final (so only a single match, meaning we've played them in nine individual legs as opposed to ten versus Dortmund): We've only eliminated them once (arguably our greatest ever result, in 1972) but twice they've had last-minute equalisers to snatch a draw at Ibrox and we've never conceded more than once in Bavaria... and had three draws over the 90 minutes there, including the one where we didn't concede until extra time, in the 67 CWC final in Nuremberg. Inter we've met three times, them always doing better over the two games but without ever winning at Ibrox (this includes our pre-Souness Revolution mid-eighties team up against an Inter with two strikers who had/would scored/score in the World Cup final!) and, as ye say, the parallels in our two ties with Villarreal - either side of us being bloody liquidated - are frightening. Of course, there's plenty evidence to say it's all bunkum - off the top of my head, Standard Liege, Gornik Zabrze, Leeds, Sevilla and Saint-Etienne are clubs we've lost one and won one tie against over the decades so no "historical pattern" there. But, like how the fact we ARE a European trophy-winning club definitely effects our mindset going into European games (as a team and a support), I think there is definitely a belief formed (negative or positive) by the prospect of playing a club you have famous previous with. So, like you're saying, Buster - with Ajax we're done but with Liverpool and Napoli it's time to set the right tone.😄

Many would contend that one Alfredo is enough...

Bummer about Lawrence, he's had a cracking start to his Rangers career.

"From the first time I walked out on the pitch and heard Tina Turner's Simply the Best, I knew this was something big. What a club! There are no words to describe the size of Glasgow Rangers, you just need to feel that to understand what I am talking about. There are also no words to express my love for every part of the club. Since I arrived four Years ago, the love and support I received from the fans was unreal. We shared a lot of good and bad moments, from the wins in big games to the bad injury and long road to recovery. All ups and downs but the support was always amazing. Although I'm a very emotional person, I always manage to control my emotions and stay calm. "But yesterday once it became official that I was leaving and I started to receive messages and phone calls from many friends I made here, I started to cry like a baby. I just couldn't help myself. That club shaped me into the man I am today and I am extremely proud of every experience I had there. "The show must go on, that's life. No-one apart from God knows how things will go in my career but I can always say I played for one of the biggest clubs in the world and I helped Famous Glasgow Rangers to be back where they belong. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to say a Massive Thank You to both managers, their staff, all my teammates I shared the dressing room with, every employee at the training ground and Ibrox, and to every single fan who made this journey unforgettable. It's definitely not a final goodbye - I will continue to follow and support the club, and I will definitely be back! With love, your Niko.”

I honestly have no idea what that means.

It comes from decades of inept management in all aspects of the club but you're right about short-termism. No clear vision, confused and often conflicting objectives. You might say that for a long time the club reflected perfectly the panic that typically afflicts the Rangers support. As a distant but interested observer, it seems to me the current regime is the first in a long time that has actually treated the club as a proper business, particularly in respect of a clear but flexible road map. To see some of the criticism being directed towards people who are largely succeeding in their work is a bit dispiriting if I'm honest. It would be a far better thing if we focussed on where we want our club to be 5 years from now, instead of knee-jerking about this weekend or this season.

I think Matondo will prove a very useful player over the course of the season, and hopefully for seasons to come. But the fact remains that after spending £12m or so and making the Champions League, our strongest 11 has a central attacking mid playing in the right forward position (Tillman or Lawrence), which is a bit disappointing given it seemed to most of us like the top priority position to strengthen.

More money would be great but firstly it should be and has to be about spending the money you do have in an optimal way. No football club won't make mistakes or have an injury list/players unavailable, but again you can do things to make it less probable. Examples Medical/football mgmt. You shouldn't keep Morelos on the park when it is so obvious he is playing through a muscle injury and not able to do much. Result: badly torn thigh muscle, out of cup finals/pre-season. Recruitment Trying to squeeze quality out of relatively small outlays. You shouldn't accumulate so many injury prone players. Especially when more than one player is in one area of team. I mentioned this in February, it isn't hindsight. Result: Helander, Souttar and Roofe missing for start of season Combine Morelos and Roofe. Just as well they got it right with Colak. No centre forward for Cup Finals/business end of season. Etc., Etc. We can rightly say 'but we got to a European final and the CLGS'. However, I think the biggest negative effect is on our title prospects.

I really wanted this guy to succeed at Rangers. I hope he does so at Zurich.

I expect a difficult match. A draw will be good enough under the circumstances.

Big test for us tomorrow, but arguably a bigger test for them. They seem to have flown out the blocks this season but let's not forget, we are not just on a different level but on a different planet from what they've come up against so far. I was expecting we'd strengthen after reaching the groups, and tbh slightly disappointed we didn't, nevertheless we should be fearless of them and if we perform at our best, we will get a result.

We will have a good team on the park Tomorrow. Perhaps even great. One that will have done some epic things of late. We may be a bit lighter then we would like on the bench but lets see how it goes.

Gio is happy with the squad so not just the board in the firing line.

Yes, he was.

Does anyone really believe that though.

Simms (Everton/Hearts) rummling up Championship defences for Sunderland and Stewart clipping in the goals. I wonder if either of them was on the list of possibles at the start of the window. Neither good enough for Rangers, of course but the same would have been said about the boy di Stefano. Now under the direction of Tony Mowbray, I should add.

Was thinking that too. No inclination whatsoever to go. Mind you I've never seen us win there so maybe a bit of a curse anyway!

If this is accurate, thank goodness we made the Europe league final, the CL group stages and sold Bassey, Patterson and Aribo for big money. And the money for Gerrard and co. Where would we be without that?

Get intae them Rangers!

Just hope we don’t regret letting Katic leave as we’re a bit thin on the ground at CB

lets have a go at being fair to the board. They deserve that much from us at least. While I don't accept the fact that player sales will be paid over years as a reason not to buy we do have to realise that Agent's fees taxes etc eat heavily into fees received. Free transfers like Lawrence often cost millions. Indeed he likely cost us 3 million ish. Loans for Tilman and Sands no doubt are costing us. Our wage bill is no doubt on the rise. Re signing Goldson probably cost Millions. We may well have set aside the money for Tilman and Sands. two ways to look at that. Celtc clearly didn't set aside the money for Jota and CCV but spent it instead they reaped the rewards of that and won the money to buy them. No guarantee we would do so and we will want to buy them. Our overdraft facilities are limited and no doubt costly. We may have decided to put cash aside to negate their use. i do hope we have been cautious rather than this is us spending all we can and are taking risks but this is it. We may get some idea from the accounts. I do think the board owe us some answers here. Especially while charging 60 quid a ticket for the CL.

Centre halves have featured prominently. Goldson with a rare brace comes to mind. Sands must be due a goal.... All the best to Big Niko

It did seem from Gio's post-PSV interview that he was expecting some movement in.

All the very best to Niko. Not many in recent years can say they scored the winner at Parkhead.

The management appear to have a fair amount of confidence in the young players. That's helpful in terms of depth. We are not really short in that regard. People are complaining because we expected to improve the first eleven after qualifying.

We haven’t signed a clear starter who is natural in the right forward position. Both Tillman and Lawrence look best centrally. Matondo doesn’t look to have the quality to be a clear starter who we can rely on week in week out. Question marks over style of play too, why didn’t we go for a left footed wide forward?

Pending seeing the accounts, I tend to agree with most of that. However, the issues are 1. How we've spent the money invested this summer 2. How we have recruited over a number of windows. These issues throw up questions/answers that suggest it no surprise we have reached a point where we start a season with so many players unavailable and the money invested this summer isn't bringing the immediate benefit required. IMO, it is more the Football Operation that has questions to answer, rather than the board.

I think the board will disagree - £16M for 2nd choice right back and £20M for 2nd choice left back (a player who was written of by a large section of the Rangers support some months ago). Ross Wilson has to work with a budget that's dictated by his bosses, maybe he'll feel as hacked off as Gerrard and Gio. After all he has to ballance new contracts and new signings within a relatively small budget. After all his signings won us 55, progressed brilliantly in Europe, got to EL final then qualified for CL......

It's the company that employed Spiers for many years, and supported his campaign of lies and bitterness against us, plus it helps subsidise the loss-making The National, so it's a no from me too.

I don't particularly like it. The song is celebratory in nature, which doesn't give the support any credit, given the nature of the subject matter. I also feel it allows some to use it to ignore the issues. It's an important subject that needs highlighted in the best way possible, but singing BJK isn't it, and does more harm than good, in my opinion.