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Aboot 2 months ago, it's wee Alfie that's in the park wi a carry oot at the moment

Centre backs? Man up, ffs! What happened to the hallowed fitba' philosophy of 'If they score four, we'll score five'?

I don't share the widespread pessimism about Balogun, who I think is excellent value for money as short-term cover. However, I'd be surprised if MB thinks we don't still need a more permanent CB, although he might be hedging his bets against having to wait until January if he's not be able to sign the right CB in this window. In any case, it was never realistic to think we could solve all our problems in one go.

Roll on Tuesday to we get a glimpse of his lineup against the magpies.

A warm welcome back to Leon Balogun, so at least that is two players I have heard of that we have signed this summer alongside the keeper! A decent defender who really got what we were about and, alongside Katic, should not have been let go at that time when we retained/recruited others, all of which have been largely unavailable and in most cases very expensive.

I'd sacrifice more than just the Euros for a salary of £35m a year.

I think strikers/forwards were top priority, then GK, then CB. We filled the forwards and GK, so we now need a CB, irrespective of Balogun, IMO.

No, it's to further emphasise why they're different from Ferguson. The team certainly didn't fail while Duncan Ferguson was with us, we won the league in 93/94 and 94/95 the two seasons he was with us. I'd also argue his signing spurred Hateley, the man he was supposed to succeed, onto greater influence, Hateley was our top scorer in each of those seasons. Duncan Ferguson is one of the great 'what might have been' of the last 50 years. He was the victim of David Murray's ego, SDM was angry that Jim McLean was reusing to sell him to Rangers. He should have bided his time, perhaps arranged a 'Gough' and got someone down south to buy him for a season then sell him to us. We were powerful enough then to do that. But instead he arranged for friendly journos to write stories about how hard done by Ferguson was and ramped the pressure on Dundee Utd until eventually they agreed a very acrimonious sale for a then British record fee. That simply put enormous pressure on Ferguson from day 1. For all his undoubted talent Ferguson was a big daft lad, and the glare of publicity and expectation that came with the move wasn't a great mix with a young man filled with confidence and bravado. With hindsight I think Ferguson should have gone to Bayern Munich, who apparently made a bid for him after he'd terrorised the German defence in one of his few games for Scotland. What a player he could have become with the level of coaching and technical input they had. He's still have to come to us eventually, but he'd have been older, wiser and a better player. Anyway, there are number of labels that could be justifiably put on Ferguson, but a dud most certainly isn't one I'd use.

If true certainty adds credence to Danilo rumours.

£6.5m for Colak and Sakala? That would be bloody good!

Name three ... well, two of my choices were effectively "failures" rather than "duds" in terms of return compared to fee involved, namely Rozenthal and Salenko. Obviously, both also suffered from injury and having quality players around them who hit better form and thus played more often too. The one guy who really f@cked it up was Carlos Pena, who IMHO showed signs of his quality in the few minutes that he did play. A few others IMHO simply suffered from our truly woeful tactical approach in so many games these last ten years or so, but that would lead too far. Likewise, dozens of mediocre players never hit the heights that you would expect from a Rangers team, but came when a club in need called them. That all said, given the signings we made these last six months or so, I'd rather look to the future and the season ahead, who promises to be one of the finest in years - if these players step up and fulfill the expectations.

I’m very much on the other side of the fence with Kent and always have been. Not a dud by any means, but £7m was daylight robbery and I said so at the time. Celtic got Jota for £6.5m who was a far better player, everything Kent was made out to be. There was something about Kent that caused people to believe he had far more potential and ability than he ever had. Probably because he produced flashes of brilliance occasionally. It was a very popular belief initially that he would be sold for £20 and was destined for the EPL. Couldn’t believe how many people said that when we signed him. The result was that a lot of people turned on him a bit and felt he was never fulfilling his potential, or worse, not trying. The irony is that because I didn’t rate him that highly from the start, I never doubted his attitude and effort and his performance rarely surprised me. He was fine at our level but not a star, and he was capable of very good performances but simply not capable of that weekly in our league.

I fear that you are in breach of Patient Confidentiality requirements, under the NHS Act, 2006, and, of course, the Data Protection Act.

Fenerbahce

Katic? Christ, not this again.

Hear hear

*cough* "excluding the good.......players" *cough*

I played D-line and LB in HS (American FB) I had these ugly high top things. I think they were Nike? I remember the coach telling me that I wouldn't get a high ankle sprain in them. He was right...separated shoulder, clicking knee, a couple good concussions...sure...no sprained ankles though! Thanks Coach Chapman!