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And the owner of the Phoenix Suns would want to own Rangers why? Rangers going back to the 'sugar-daddy' model is a retrograde step. I know of no supporters who think the majority of our players 'play for the shirt', they're professionals in a professional era. The thought of an American 'sports entrepreneur' buying Rangers is utterly depressing. We're not a franchise.

We can only hope that we see a reaction to our last 2 games. The Ajax non performance, coming on the back of a heavy OF defeat suggested something isn't right. We were told Tav had been carrying an injury but what else led to a pathetic display when it should have been about determination and pride to put things right. Did Gio tell the squad that they couldn't compete before KO. ...No, but it looked that way. The starting XI need to put everything into the 90 minutes on Wednesday and regardless of the result, send our fans away unable to complain about effort.p Gio and staff need to improve our defending and not concede goals so easily. I could see this going two ways and although very different, can't make up my mind as to what I think will happen.

The economics of Football have changed hugely over the past several decades in line with what is happening in the wider economic environment. Neo-liberal economics or we can call it extreme capitalism introduced little by little with the result of successfully boiled frogs. The basic result is a disproportionate amount of money, power and influence flow to the top. eg. The elite clubs are now disproportionately able to accumulate and hoover up elite/potentially elite footballers. They force UEFA to make up rules and regulations around their competitions that see the cash distribution heavily skewed in their favour. Compare the old European Cup and today's CL. So, with regard to Rangers. We are currently on a path that will gradually see the environment in which we ply our trade (Scotland), become relatively poorer and unless we move, we will go the same way. Re. The speculation about X or Y interested in investing/buying Rangers. Some of our support equate the reported wealth of X or Y with what they will do for the club. Perhaps they see it as a financial bridge to a diet of interesting transfer rumours, better squad, lots of trophies, etc. X was once Sir Duped Y could be Mike Ashley Rangers were basically on offer in 2012 and no-one could come up with the money to trump the 5.5M offered by CG&Co, locked in to the CVA process. Now, a large book could be written about the surrounding circumstances to my previous paragraph but the take away for me is that when it comes down to it. There doesn't exist people who would be able to provide the game changing finance and not be concerned about a real return. The people who have invested heavily, some of whom are currently on the board, are as good and safe as it will ever get. Mistakes will be made. To transition into a self sustainable club will have many painful moments. The past is gone.

Apparently we can't compete in the CL. Feels like £165 wasted at this moment in time.

Having read this whole thread I think most of the Bluenoses who have the contributed to it have made fair assumptions regarding Gio’s statements. But as we are not in the know concerning his contract, and the possibility of a non disclosure in it, we don’t know if he is free to speak his mind, so they are only assumptions. Thanks to the European success we know Gio is no fool tactically. Is he responsible for the lack of form/effort from the majority of players, or are they inconsistent players. As we have seen their form/effort go up and down before Gio came in I will assume the players are just inconsistent. I support Gio as he is our manager, and I don’t see that changing soon. Changing managers & coaching staff again would only set us back. Imo we are far off being anywhere near the standard of my favourite Gers team, and much more hard work is needed.

Looks like a woman. I don't trust her. She has a man's name and foxes are cunning.

Maybe he didnt know the truth?

That being the case it will just be full of rangers fans anyway but in a far more dangerous fashion.

Can I just stick up a wee bit for Tannochsidebear here and say when UEFA/authorities suggested banning away fans at both fixtures, I'd definitely wager that our board did absolutely nothing to change this and try to get our fans, most of whom will have already booked flights and accommodation, into the match in Naples. They tend not to stick up for the average punter.

SPFL confirm fixtures will be played next weekend... https://spfl.co.uk/news/professional-game-to-resume

Was the bid not made during that awful season in the Championship when we didn't get promoted? I think it was during the period before King and the 3 bears too over, when the Easdales and Llambias were on the board :shudder: The bid was reported as being for £20m, which undervalued the club. It did? Did Rangers pay dividends to its shareholders in the past?

I really hope this remains the case.

In the financial aspects of this great club, Park and co are only really caretakers. They are not cash-rich enough to make a go of this however, their ego fits the bill. They will hang on till the Rangers receive a bid and will be reluctant to make said bid public. The club had such a bid previously when they first came up to the premier division. It was from the owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team. The owner has personal finances of £800 million; why he was discarded has never been explained. You do not need hundreds of millions to compete. However, in today's modern era you need to increase the salary cap. E.G. When Tierney left Celtic he was on 20k per week now he is on 150k + bonuses. This is where football has gone, playing for the shirt is a thing of the past, as most of the monies taken 100+ years ago went into the shareholder's pockets, not the player's. So unless a suitable buyer is found status quo will remain. Who knows how long?

You're right, it was a God awful thing to say, an act of pure stupidity. It was also a manager scrabbling around for something, anything to excuse his feckless players. The manager is only one part of this defeatist equation and the players take most of the responsibility. The idea that the team underperforms because the manager has the wrong response to a humiliating defeat is unacceptable, as are the idea that the players should hide behind our discontent with something GvB said.

A substantial chunk of money was reinvested. The issue is that it isn't giving much short term value. A player trading model is supposed to create a surplus, not break even. What Gio says on finances in a post match interview shouldn't be taken too seriously IMO. Perhaps he should have been told not to broach the subject in any detail because it'll nearly always pose more questions than provide answers that you can be sure about. On financial details, we'll have to wait for the accounts (including notes post year end).

That really needed saying. Far too many fans are living in La La Land.

I would like to select Bullshit for $1000 Alex. Summer 2022 inbound transfers For Rangers 14.2M For 105M... More like for every 1 Rangers spend...Ajax spend 7.3

Borna hasn't deserved to be dropped as of late though, probably been best of a bad bunch

A new manager might have a bounce but it wouldn't last. The problems run deeper.

SG arrived in 2018 and was allowed to build his team/squad over several seasons. We did progressively well in Europe and eventually won the League in his third year in charge. We didn't build on that success and develop the team/squad as SG wanted. The budget within a harsh economic enviroment (pandemic) was limited. Could we have made more of an effort to wheel and deal (ie. sell then buy) ? Would it have been cheaper to do so than let it get to this stage ? Hindsight but probably. So the team pretty much stayed the same into a 4th year which should have been a year of consolidation as Champions (given state of Celtic and their bad start) and automatic qualification into CL. Gio was appointed after SG left in the Autumn and started well. The same team blew the league, just as they habitually blow the league, post winter break. They could still get motivated for Europe and got to a European Final. Many assumed a summer of rebuild that Gio would bring in players that suited his way of playing. Freshen things up, time to call a day on some Rangers careers. No, it didn't happen. This isn't hindsight, said it months ago... We have continued with broadly the same team and it has become stale. We have forced this by allowing the squad to become a home for too many old and chronically injured footballers. We have poured fire on it by signing the likes of the injury prone John Souttar, who is injured. Having an unbalanced and semi-effective squad will be a challenge to change, in more ways than one. We also have a manager and coaching team who have shown themselves to be occasionally brilliant but generally, insiped, uninspiring and unable to find solutions. Communication between squad and mgmt doesn't seem to be working as it should. Despite what the manager says about what they do in training, not learning from the mistakes. It has become a pattern and now is accompanied by a lack of desire, hunger and energy. A bad mix, that tends to lead to the manager being changed. Can a new manager come in and do better with the same squad ? In the short term, yes.....not difficult really (see when Gio arrived) But medium to long term, same problems will emerge until the squad is purged and SG's team is moved on. One last point, those in charge of the football operation should have seen this coming and acted accordingly.

It's the same malaise we saw under Gerrard last season before GvB arrived, the same loss of bottle we saw the season before 55 when they came back from mid-winter break and threw the title away. I honestly thought we were beyond that under GvB but obviously not. Is it just the manager?

Somebody in America has been running round saying they can buy rangers if you give them money. Darius seems to have blabbed that to his cousin in Glasgow and the club found out and are now suing said person.

Even with backing he still takes the Villa job, IMO. I was wanting him gone anyway; we were stale.

Havent read the full thread yet to get an idea of the overall opinion but I would say Gersnet over the years has always been more reserved and not so much knee jerk reactions. Gio seems a bit of a tactical genius in the Europa league but there is a pattern being created domestically of not changing it. On Saturday after 15 minutes I was screaming he needs to make at least one sub else it would be 3-0 by half time but he tried to ride the storm hoping we would come in the game. Its been seen many a time by the likes of Mourinho that he doesnt care how many minutes have gone in a game, if a change is needed then do it for tactical reasons at a minimum. FWIW I originally would have very slightly preferred Gattuso with his mass passion but overall thought Gio could perhaps be better for long term building - and it hasnt been one year yet so its to early to make a change now for me.