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Some snaps from the Hoffenheim website (machine translated): Albertz: "Glasgow was the best time of my career" Between 1996 and 2001, Jörg 'Ali' Albertz played for Glasgow Rangers and achieved cult status in Scotland. Ahead of TSG Hoffenheim's friendly against Rangers (Saturday, 3:30 p.m.), the 52-year-old talks about his time in Glasgow, the special atmosphere among the Scottish fans and his role as ambassador for Global United FC. Jörg, you played in Glasgow for five years. How do you think back to the time? “That was my best phase as a professional soccer player. We've had great success, winning titles and playing in the Champions League. The team was sensational. The cohesion was unique and one of the reasons for our success. I only have positive memories.” What is your favorite experience with the Rangers? "I can't break that down to one thing. The whole five years were a single highlight. Of course, a lot of people initially think of the championships, but I found it incredibly impressive as a young player to meet stars like Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne. The mood in the dressing room was always positive.” How often are you still on the island? “Probably five or six times a year. Glasgow Rangers organize evenings for former players with fans and sponsors several times a season. There you eat together and have a good time. As a result, I never lost contact with my former team-mates, and I'm in the stadium from time to time to follow the current team." Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow has cult status for many football fans. What makes the mood at Rangers so special? “The fans live for the club. In Glasgow you are born a Celtic or a Rangers fan. That depends on the family. There is hardly anything else. I get goosebumps when I enter Ibrox Stadium. The spectators identify with the club and give their all in the stands. But the spark has to get across. When the fans realize that the players aren't giving their all, they quickly let you know that." Some Rangers fans will come to Sinsheim. What can we look forward to? “Scottish fans love to travel with their club. It doesn't matter whether it's a test match or a game in the European Cup. They will also celebrate properly and create a great atmosphere in the PreZero Arena. I'm sure it will be a celebration for everyone involved." https://www.tsg-hoffenheim.de/aktuelles/news/2023/07/albertz-glasgow-war-die-schoenste-zeit-meiner-karriere/ Glasgow Rangers: Back in the duel A turbulent decade lies behind Rangers Football Club from Glasgow. After being forced into relegation to the fourth Scottish league, the traditional club fought back and even celebrated the championship again in 2021. Now the club is preparing to be on an equal footing with arch-rivals Celtic again in the long term. The duel with TSG Hoffenheim (Saturday, 3:30 p.m.) is the final endurance test for Rangers before turbulent weeks of competitive games. Exactly ten years ago, Rangers had something to celebrate. But it wasn't a championship that the club has now won 55 times. The Rangers celebrated promotion – from the fourth division. Following bankruptcy, the club was forced to start over under a new operating company in the depths of the Scottish league system. The club rose three times in four years and returned to the Scottish Premiership, where the club have finished five times since then and were crowned champions unbeaten in 2021. In 2022, the club reached the final of the Europa League, where the Scots lost to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties. Rangers Football Club - the name of the city does not appear in the club's official name - are back at the top, although arch-rivals Celtic have kept them at a distance in the table for the past two years. But the Scottish league is again essentially just a duel: 26 points separated Rangers in second place and Aberdeen in third place in last season's final table. The Scots are traveling to the game on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) in Kraichgau with three players who have Bundesliga experience. Rabbi Matondo made 30 appearances for FC Schalke, Sam Lammers has 15 Bundesliga appearances for Frankfurt. Leon Balogun, who collected Bundesliga minutes for Mainz, Düsseldorf, Hanover and Bremen, played 75 times in the German elite class. After the season opener, TSG will play against Rangers at FC Fulham on the following weekend (5 August). For the Scots, everyday life in the league will then begin in Kilmarnock, only a few days later they will face Servette Geneva in qualifying for the Champions League or the KRC Genk further. The club was still a long way from European nights ten years ago - now they have long since become everyday life again in the legendary Ibrox Stadium. https://www.tsg-hoffenheim.de/aktuelles/news/2023/07/glasgow-rangers-zurueck-im-zweikampf/ (Well, they got most of it correct, but sure didn't read the German Wikipedia entry that I wrote re our admin event.)

Plot twist. It's actually 666. All hail Magus Beale!

Beyond a few zoomers on Twitter I've not actually read anyone sane suggest Beale might be the problem. Until this thread. A couple of defeats in pre season friendlies, one to a sports-washing financially doped PR vehicle who'll spend more on a back-up full back than we'll spend on our entire squad and the other to a club we'd expect to be on a similar level to ourselves. The Olympiacos performance was really disappointing and our next match away to a Bundesliga side will be a challenge too. Another defeat wouldn't be a big surprise. But ultimately it's about beating Kilmarnock, then Livi, then Ross County and then Celtic. I guess we'll know more by then.

Judging by the other night and the reaction on here - myself included - 999 might be more appropriate

Sad to say we will now struggle in the fifth round of the Scottish cup. Assuming that we even reach the fifth round we will be missing Danilo while he attends the carnival in Rio de Janiero.

Another piece of the jigsaw arrives and with Cifu apparently due to come in next week, we're not far off having everything to complete the puzzle. A case of moving players on now with perhaps one more central defender an agreeable option depending on Ben Davies' future? All things considered, this has been a fascinating summer from the club. A fair amount has been spent and the manager certainly backed. I'm somewhat surprised we've brought in as many players in this window and now the act of blending them all together successfully begins. BTW. We'll be back this weekend with our popular podcast to discuss all the transfer business, all the friendly results and just where we stand going into the competitive stuff. Join @CraigR1972, @CF3 Loyal and newbie @Bobtap live at 9.30pm on Sunday night!

They all flop like fish...every single one of them. What difference does it make if he is 50 or 10 yards from goal...still fake. Every game, a guy brushes another guy's shoulder and he falls grabbing his face like a took a black jack to the eye socket. But it's not only expected, it's encouraged and rewarded. It offends my inner American to the root but the overall game itself overrides that pitiful aspect of it.

I don't care about pre-season results. We could get pumped 5-0 every time for all I care. I just want to see something on the pitch; some hint of what what we're trying to do. You can show that without being the finished article. I used Tottenham as an example elsewhere: they were beaten by West Ham, yet their fans were raving about the style of play. It's nowhere near the finished product, yet they are excited about and can see where they are going. I was unhappy with Beale's appointment. The football generally doesn't excite me and I have concerns about his ability to implement a style of play in the same way a Rodgers or Ange can. However, that doesn't mean I want him sacked. He's done nothing to warrant that, other than not matching up to my ideals. His results have generally been good. Even then I was quite excited about the diamond approach last season - even if it was filled with poor players just filling a hole, i.e. Tamundo. I thought, 'let him get some players in who actually fit that system, and let's see what we can do'. He's had a training camp, a bounce game and three competitive matches. I expected to see something by now. That doesn't mean I expect our players to have a psychic connection, just some idea of what we're trying to do. Even against Newcastle, who I didn't expect us to dominate, I wanted to see how we would defend against them. Are we going to draw them on to us, press them, are we going to sit in a low/mid block and counter, will there be a counter-press? It was disjointed, lacking vision. We pressed at times, but it was poorly executed. I don't think it's insane to suggest the coaching team is to blame. Hopefully we see it in the next game. (I've said that in every pre-season game so far.)

Chris Sutton having a go at someone for diving Oh the Irony

sutton dived incessantly

Barisic, Davies and Tav can't defend. Sweepstake over.

Beale dropping clues before the official announcement - tut, tut. Looks like Danilo might be playing tomorrow 😀

Yeah, we really need the likes of Hibs to put away teams like this. It's bad for the coefficient.

Not a good result for Hibs or for the standard of Scottish football.

Of course it is but this game has added significance due to the glut of new players, Beales first pre season, the proximity of the CL qualifiers and OF game et all. I've said it before but if we can get through the CL qualifier and get to the OF game with 9 pts I'llbehappy. I genuinely don't care how we do it.

Totally agree with the rest of your post but you've omitted the rather important fixtures against Genk or Servette, which will have rather significant financial implications.

The Euro Conference Cup match is currently being broadcast live on the BBC Scotland i-Player. The Andorran minnows are striving to take the Hi-bees scalp on their open bowl of a ground. The Pyrenean Principality has a lot of topography and the far side of the ground has a thirty foot high retaining stone wall. Atop is an olive grove containing a motorhome park. There are two late middle aged guys standing up against the wire fence, hands in pockets watching the game. One is bald, wearing glasses and, looks well shifty. The other is a grey haired bespectacled even shiftier character. When the Andorrans scored on the 15th minute, the actions of both suggest Happy(unhappy) Hibbys. When Polis Scotland arrested and interviewed Peter Murrell, they took his Passport, didn't they? Similarly, Susan Aitken's husband, Gordon Archer was banned from holding Directorship office for six years last November, after £400,000 was transferred out of his green energy firm days before it went bust. Maybe, they have got a couple of those Humza citizenship burgundy passports? Anyways, it looks like Rangers will have to sail(not Cal Mac) the Scottish coefficient ship alone again. Hibs have not created a single chance and at half-time it remains Inter d'Escaldes 1 Hibs 0.

Never noticed the 9 and 99 on the pic before. Looks like it was always on the cards as he posted that ages ago.

Unreal. At some point these diddy teams need to start putting something up.

Isnt he on about 80k at Chelsea?

I'm disgusted by talk of a new manager. Yes, we face challenges but to suggest crap like this before a competitive ball is kicked is deranged. By all means criticise what we saw last night but show some composure ffs.

Do we need a new manager? 😱

Perhaps we’re reading too much into last night’s result which was,after all, a meaningless friendly. Hopefully Saturday there will be an improvement

To be fair, I always got the impression that the players couldn't grasp what Gio was trying to do with them. Not fully at least anyway. That could be a communication issue but I reckon it was more of an understanding with how he wanted to play, that kind of Dutch/Guardiola/City group inspired football. Unfortunately Gio wasn't Guardiola but there were players at Bayern who have been on record and said how they just couldn't grasp his football for months.