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The Football Operation at Rangers is a mess and the current situation is very much a result of it. You could argue that Youth Development is one positive area and it is just as well, given how the future is shaping up First Team Mgmt It just isn't working, is it ? The manager seems unable to motivate, organise or show leadership. It seems to be the players that choose their games or moments to perform (or not). It wasn't that different at the end of Gerrard's time, so as Goldson tried to articulate post League Cup semi-final defeat (between SG and Gio), there is some kind of faultline in the squad. Gio enjoyed a honeymoon period up to the end of 2021. Thereafter it has been a rollercoaster. Squad Mgmt Frankly awful. A willingness to collect older and/or chronically injured (CI) players whose gametime needs to be managed. Morelos, playing him whilst injured = worse injury, out for months. Back up to Morelos, was a CI player (Roofe) who couldn't play two games a week for very long. Further back-up (Itten)wasn't in UEFA sqaud because of lack of home(grown) based players. Result was Roofe got injured, we pushed him out of necessity, haven't seen him since (apart from 2 minutes at EL Final). The centre half debacle. Souttar signing on top of Helander status. @craig ITK(?) tells us Souttar signed to replace outgoing (at the time pre extension) Goldson. Was the plan to have a Souttar/Helander partnership ? WTAF We let Balogun go (another one who neede managed) We saw the problem late and bring Davies in.....that goes wrong early doors for either one thing or another (?) The goalkeeping situation It wasn't joined up thinking and has us between a rock and a hard place. It looks reactionary. McGregor is going, no he isn't. Looking less than good, lets give McCrorie an extension. The Midfield High average age, CI players and a predictable energy shortfall. Recruitment Mixed bag and in part, reactionary. To be fair, that often happens. But the short term balance is poor with Colak the notable exception. I would highlight the fact that when the balance is poor for several consectutive windows and it has been, then problems will follow. Medical There just seems to be too many unfortunate things going on for it to be coincdental. @forlanssister has already suggested that the medical department may not be all that they should be. That is a lot of problems to solve and we'll see shortly how the accounts are looking. Talking accountability, somebody (persons), needs to be held to account for the above.

Must be nice to be able to laugh about it all, sitting in an armchair. Worst ever European result at Ibrox and one of the biggest hidings in our 150 year history isn't surprising or mortifying - low standards for a Rangers man.

Prodanitis. Affects all the joints of the lower limbs sequentially. Underlying Websteroma can be a complication.

I’m of the opposite opinion. I think Ross Wilson is simply not cutting it here. I’ve always been someone with a cynical view of a DoF. Do they have too much say when signing players? Do they sign players without the managers consent ? Do they research players backgrounds enough? Some of signings this year have been horrendous. With one injury prone CB (Helander) on our books we go and sign another-Souttar. Didn’t take long before the inevitable happened did it? Whose decision was it to sign Souttar ?? Not only did we sign Souttar but we let a perfectly good CB( Katic) leave for a modest fee to FC Zurich where I’m led to believe he’s doing well. Now Goldson’s out for months we’re really struggling at CB. (I won’t mention the Ramsey signing or diallo loan. Least said the better) Then there’s the Ridvan signing. He may well go on & become a great signing but for us to pay out the high transfer fee(by our standards) & have him benched makes no sense to me and is not good business. But for me there are two main issues regards our DoF:- 1) why do we continue to sign so many players with a bad injury history ? Helander,Roofe & now Souttar to name 3. 2) why have we got a situation where we have so many key players out of contract at the end of the season? To me that’s bad planning. Kent,Morelos, Jack, Arfield, Helander,McGregor all out of contract. Presumably they’ll all need replaced but will there be resources to do so? Not saying it’s all Wilson fault but questions now need asked about his role & its influence in my view

I think overall our transfer business this summer was good. I look at each signing in isolation, and i like them all. The problem seems to be getting these guys in the team either through fitness or form (bar Colak). My biggest issue with our business this summer is still we didn't bring in enough. We have needed for some time some CM/#8 presence in midfield. I'm not so concerned by the RW conundrum. Between Matondo, Sakala, Lowry and Wright we have enough bodies to throw at it for now. How we have went on for years with guys like Jack, Davies, Arfield who cant play every week, and Kamaras complete loss of form has left Lundstram and our defence extremely exposed. Our injury list as another poster has said is too much to be coincidence. Do we need a conditioning coach (similar to Millsom). Are we not warming up/down correctly. Are we pushing players with knocks too hard? Lots of questions around this.

I genuinely don't think we are an attractive option and our profile will be younger guys like Gerrard needing a chance or older guys like Warnock.

Whatever the problem is he ain't the solution.

I'm assuming there will be a presser this afternoon as usual but in the meantime here's a wee plug for our podcast tonight which should be a goodie! PS: It may actually be Colin hosting so tune in for a surprise!

Apart from a couple of results in qualifying for CL we haven't just been well beaten when facing tough opposition we have, like on Weddesday night, been trashed. I hate critising the manager but something ain't right and i put it down to him not being very good tactically. The other night 5mins into second half he should have freshened the midfield by changing to a 4-4-2 by removing either Kent or Sakala but did nowt.

Cannae promise you, I like a good analytical moan. Edit Not forgetting a regular bit of trumpet blowing.

Of course, the harsh nature of the scoreline was a surprise. The reaction, like Ajax, generally takes into account the gulf but rightly doesn't like it when we seem to be folding without much of a fight.

Just to make things even more bizarre, I pretty much agree with this and also agree with alot of the faultlines Buster is identifying which look to have been brewing for months. Its what always happens in football, perspectives are altered quickly based on results and performances. Had we only lost narrowly in the 4 x UCL matches, would we be having the blood-letting that we are? Saying that, I said after the PSV 1st leg defeat that we were a bad OF defeat away from a crisis. UCL group stage qualification avoided that scenario, but now we are merely a couple of league draws away. Similarly, if Celtic drop points too then it wont seem so bad. Its a funny old game.

I'm not convinced. I think Brugge/Porto is our level, or should be in time.

Can I add a 'Sack The Board' in here, just for completeness.

Wait until gisabeer or Tannochsidebear post.

As usual, you can't really win with the Rangers support.

Its ok buster they will know what they are doing. They will have a plan. We must be reading it wrong.. A polar opposite to the fabled 'player trading model'. We are at a point now where no one could tell you who our biggest asset is. No one is paying big money for Goldson, Tav, Lundstram or Colak our 3 best players right now.

Adi Hutter is still without a job. Pedro Martins' move to Hull fell through, after recently leaving Olympiacos (he won a lot with them). Bielsa is still without a job. Villas-boas is without a club. Joachim Low... Ok - some of these are (highly) unlikely, but with just a quick search I can find several exciting names. Your Ferguson's and Thomson's should really be nowhere near our manager position.

Brave cunts Staying that late.

It's worth noting that the two teams we eliminated from the CL qualifiers are both sitting pretty in the Europa: unbeaten, will both very probably progress beyond the group stage, and have a set of results we'd all be content with. Would Gio be getting it in the neck if we were in USG's current position in the Europa League? Would USG have fared any better than us if they were in our CL group? There's a gulf in prize money between CL and EL, but there's also a converse gulf in enjoyment that makes it barely worth it.

Everybody wants King to play until one day, quite suddenly, something changes.

I'm probably in a minority in thinking Ross Wilson is doing a decent enough job over all. However we probably lost the league last season because we signed to many players who simply weren't ready to play when they signed Ramsay being the prime example while across the city they signed players who were fit and ready to play (the Japanese contingent etc) and yes you can perfectly reasonably attach blame to Wilson for that. Also we need to note the difference between projects i.e Tillman and the finished article Colak while you can argue Tillman may have long term value to us (should a permanent deal arise) there's little doubt Colak's current value to us is many,many times that of Tillman's even if at his age any sell on value will be minimal. Perhaps a better balance between those 2 categories needs to be found I really think we have a decent of squad size wise and quality wise, certainly good enough to win the SPFL and have a decent crack at the EL, however much it hurts we really have to admit we're simply not currently good enough for the CL no matter how sore that is to accept. Everyone points to Club Brugge but seem to forget they took their fair share of hidings for a number of years before finding their feet. I certainly think questions need to asked on the medical side not only in regards to the unusually high number of injuries but also why the recovery times seem to be so long. We certainly don't appear to be as fit as previous seasons but I'm at a loss at the reason for that if it is indeed the case. I can only put that down to application or perhaps a change in brand of coffee at Auchenhowie. I'll refrain from making a managerial comment there's plenty other threads for that snd don'twish to derail this one.

Who the hell is he never heard of him?.

Ajax always beat us, we were fcuked at the draw. Just like we never get beat at PSV, always going through.

Very true, written into European footballing folklore. I'll let Gio off the hook for the Ajax result

Player Acquisition- I agree, recruiting has been suspect...for a while. Historical research is key to asset acquisition. Would you buy a home with a history of foundation issues? A car with a history of maintenance issues? Players are no different, and we have failed as a club in that respect. Every single player on our squad with injury issues has had a history of them. Especially players like Souttar...I mean...really? The guy blew his ACL out twice...and he is like 22. Epic fail. Management- Gio is not a strong personality, however that EL run last year showed he has tactical acumen. I think it boils down to this, Gio is a manager, not a leader. Successful teams need both. Tacticians are a dime a dozen, leaders, are not. All said, if he keeps it together in the league, his job is safe. He drops another point...that fat lady is gonna be warmin up.

waaaaaa-throws-toys-out-of-pram . . . . . Ha Ha . . . . dry yer eyes

One thing I will give credit for in terms of transfer strategy is the loan to buy deals. Initially with Hagi but then Sands and Tillman. Its a good approach that reduces the risk around transfers. The profile of these signings is good too.

Yes... I'm not convinced he's on a lot. Certainly less than our first choices.

If the pessimist thinks I'm being pessimistic then surely that's a double negative that cancels itself out? I'm taking the win on that one

Always enjoying listening to these on a Friday/Sunday night. Keep up the good work.

The average age of my team posted yesterday was 23, but you dismissed it as "the stuff of nightmares", that it "[w]ouldn't be fair on King" (a youngster), and that it would "work out badly". Hmm...

You look through the squad and nothing stands out. Hagi is a possibility but he has to get fit again and his contract is running down. It is the likes of King, Lowry and other youngsters that we need to hope get a chance, take it and attract interest. Although, we also need to build a team and losing your better prospects before they can do much in a blue shirt won't be good for results. Football no more It is all about money Sad

Possibly. But I think we're in the mix, financially - outside the top teams (Brugge and the big three in the Netherlands) in those leagues. And, we have the added bonus of having a better pathway into England.

Possibly. I don't want dinosaurs like Warnock - that's a huge 'NO', for me - but younger guys is fine, as long as they have an ability to implement a certain style. Salzburg can appoint youngster after youngster (Marco Rose, Jesse Marsch, Thomas Jaissle all come through their academy) because they are able to implement a certain style. We should also be able to attract managers from smaller leagues, like Knutsen - unless his status is higher now after their European exploits. I know our finances are limited, but they're still higher than many clubs.

Kjetil Knutsen is the obvious target. I would expect Ross WIlson to have a permanent shortlist that is continuously updated.

Rushed ? He is the only fit centre back we have. Not having an experienced operator beside him makes it much more difficult and almost certainly some harsh lessons will follow. However, he is a solid young player and has a rare opportunity in front of him. Davies has looked ok when he has played but you have to wonder about his medical condition and how he has been used. Week after week we wondered why he was sat on the bench and then when he did play, why he was alway substituted. The Liverpool game was his first 90 minutes for 6 months. Maybe this current injury was inevitable. Is a bad injury for Tav inevitable, it was for Morelos last season. Do we look to collect crooked centre backs to play alongside Goldson ? Now that Goldson has a bad injury, we are badly exposed.

Europa League is our level football wise, but financially we require the CL. So we'll take the circa £30M for 6 x drubbings. Gio would have been crucified by large sections of our support if we didn't qualify for CL, just as SG was last season.