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Absolutely. Yesterday, the bigger picture could NOT be viewed by an element within our support. The St Johnstone SLO(Supporters Liaison Officer), a middle aged lady was attacked outside Hampden as she carried the 'away' supports drum. She was knocked to the ground and the drum was carried off. Today, a 22 year old Rangers supporter has been arrested in connection with the offence. I hope he is charged with both assault and theft(I have viewed the video). An element of our support is not content with shooting themselves in the foot, they insist on shooting themselves in both feet then, shooting themselves in the head.

As a support we've had plenty of recent experience of tankings, unfortunately. So accepting a season like you describe isn't something fans want, but they will accept it. Recently we accepted it with Gerrard. It took two seasons to build a title winning side, but we could all see the progress and development, so it was accepted. I think you could be correct about this season. I don't think there's any chance we'll sign players who are on the type of salaries quoted, our wage bill is coming down no matter what. Whether Clement is the alchemist required to create a team greater than the sum of its parts is still up for debate, but the board seem to think he is and I'd be very surprised if we change course this season. I don't think we're deliberately 'tanking' but I do think we're deliberately reducing our wage bill and so the type of player we're signing. If, say, Cantwell or Hagi leave, they'll be replaced but by someone on significantly less money. Time will tell how that will work out. Having players on lower salaries also makes them easier to sell, part of the difficulty in moving on the two mentioned above is the salaries they enjoy. In reality neither have shown enough to suggest they're worth them, and so convincing another club to pay it is a problem. Likewise Davies, no one else is paying him that on current fitness and form. It could be a difficult season. Our squad isn't currently strong enough to compete on 4 fronts. But football is a strange sport at times and events might just intervene and make life for our neighbours across the city harder than it currently is.

If they did their homework they could see they were tanking here before they left.

As we said on the podcast on Friday, this had potential banana skin written all over it. As it was we controlled the match, should have scored more than we did, created a decent number of chances and were only occasionally troubled by a St Johnstone side who are significantly better than last season and in good form. On top of that we were able to get some minutes into the legs of a few players who haven't played much recently. The downside is another couple of injuries, the extent of which is still unknown. We've had worse afternoons at Hampden in recent times. A regular criticism recently has been the lack of a style of play, I don't think you can make that claim yesterday. It was clear what we were trying to do and for the most part it worked. Jefte and Matondo linked up well, Tav and Cerny had moments but were less effective. Diomande supported Danilo and then Dessers and was as advanced as I recall seeing him. Danilo linked up well, his hold up play and lay offs are better than Dessers, but I'm still unsure if he's as good a finisher, he didn't look it yesterday. In fairness he'll need a month or so of regular games before we'll know just what Danilo offers, but at least having the option again was pleasing. Sterling played in bursts, then seemed to disappear. I suppose a player whose game is based around power will need a few matches to get back to match sharpness. Tav still looks a yard slow, I'm not sure if that's a match sharpness thing or simply his body ageing. He was again caught out more than once yesterday. Tav never hides, he's rarely injured and provides experience in a team still finding it's feet. I do wonder if there was another option at right back if he'd be playing as much as he is though. Baron, Davies, Dessers and McCausland all played well when they came on. Baron is already a first choice in midfield and looks to have been an excellent signing. Dessers scored, again. Whatever his failings, and he demonstrated some of them yesterday, he also never hides, gets into good positions and took his chance well, showing composure where previously other players hadn't when presented with chances. We need other players to contribute more goals, relying on Dessers solely to score is unfair and unrealistic, other players need to contribute, and that's still lacking from this squad. Overall more positives than negatives. We're a work in progress, but yesterday did at least feel like progress. We've got a week before we play again, Ross County at home, and then another week before the Tims away. I don't think we're as bad as some are making out, but we're still quite a distance from being as good as we'll need to be.

Butland - nothing much to do but some nervous moments Tav - mostly terrible Propper - OK then injured Souttar - hot and cold Jefte - excellent and MOTM Sterling - struggled and didn't look fit Diomande - same as Sterling Dowell - poor Cerny - poor Danilo - poor but just coming back from injury Matondo - decent Barron - very good again Dessers - as per Barron McCausland - good finish for goal but wasteful prior to that Fraser - tidy in what he done Davies - didn't do much wrong Overall a decent result and into the next round but I'd only be confident of beating Spartans. Jeftes, Matondo, Dessers and Barron only players who deserve praise/pass marks. Performance wasn't the best, our right side of Tav and Cerny didn't click at all and at one point Sterling was playing RB and Tav midfield and it still looked weak. Danilo just coming back and good to see him get minutes. Missed a few chances but hopefully his sharpness returns. Someone posted the other day that we are a Dessers injury away from being a mid-table team, it's hard to argue with that assertion at the moment. We are still 5 regular starters short - CB, RB, CM, CF and #10 and have 2 weeks to rectify the situation.

I'll be honest, I thought Matondo was poor as well. He can run fast with and without the ball, that's it. And that's all he did tonight really.

Matondo is good at running past someone...but then making an arse of it. We need to get him off the wage bill.

For his price tag and wages he brings nothing to the team! I just don't think he is a very good player!.

This is true, he works his arse off every match, that can't be denied! and he does score goals.

Bradaric sounds too much like Barasic. It's a no from me.

You know, I don't think we're as bad as people make out. Not 3rd place bad anyway - that's 70 point territory. We're not 90+ either. Probably between 80-85. But if we get a good wind behind us...

With no rebuttal, it is just taken that it is our fault. As a club we just score so many own goals.

Tanking in baseball is when a team, usually realising they're not going to make the playoffs, decides to intentionally lose games. Sounds weird, right? Why would anyone want to lose? Well, the idea is to secure a higher draft pick or develop young players for the future instead of putting in a half-hearted attempt to win now. Think of it as a long-term strategy, even though it might be painful for fans in the short term. A classic example of tanking is the Houston Astros in the early 2010s. They were absolutely dreadful for a few seasons, but it was all part of a plan. By losing games and focusing on acquiring top talent through the draft, they eventually built a powerhouse team that went on to win the World Series in 2017. Football and baseball are very different sports. But there's an interesting parallel when you look at how some football clubs are managed. In baseball, teams have farm systems—basically a network of minor league teams where they develop young players until they're ready for the big leagues. In football, the likes of the Red Bull group (which owns RB Leipzig, RB Salzburg, and New York Red Bulls, among others) and the City Football Group (which owns Manchester City, New York City FC, and several others) are creating something similar. They move players between clubs within their network, developing talent and building squads that can compete at the highest levels. It's not a farm system in the traditional baseball sense, but it's pretty close. Although we don't have a farm system or any way to develop younger players in a competitive environment Rangers seem to be taking a page out of the tanking playbook this season—though it's more of a wage dump than a full-on tank. They're not expected to be all that competitive this year by most supporters. We wont be intentionally losing games by any means, but the early signs are we have no way of being competitive either. Drawing with a poor Hearts side who had a nightmare pre-season in terms of results and were soundly beaten 3-1 by Dundee last week, and being knocked out of the early Champions League qualifiers by a very ordinary looking Dynamo Kiev side. There is a few weeks left in the transfer window and the manager has been clear we need to get high earners out before we can bring players in (who will probably be on less wages). The club's focus is on cutting costs instead of recruiting quality and I hope the plan is to save up a transfer kitty for next summer. So while this season will be a tough one to watch, is there hope that better days are ahead, with some new signings to look forward to once the club's finances are in better shape? While tanking in baseball is all about playing the long game, it looks like Rangers are doing something similar and although they would never admit it publicly its pretty clear we are not being proactive. Instead of losing games and getting top end draft picks, we are recruiting young cheap talent, developing them while not spending anywhere near what we have in the past in wages with the hope that these players will develop into quality players and guide is into a comfortable 2nd place league finish who, when the time is right will be supplemented by 'ready to go' more experienced pros who will demand a higher wage. Patience is key, but do we as a fan base have patience? Can we take a 'tanking' season and what would the fallout be?

No, Dundee at Hampden .😉

I named mine after Luis Suarez.

VAR really had to let that Eze goal stand for the good* of the game. * I have Eze in my FL team

Interesting. Another thing I often think about, not many of the players we sell seem to acheive much, most of them seem to 'tank' as well. Lundstram and Barisic seem to be getting Kent type reactions in Turkiye frinstance. Morelos has died completely. This will affect teams buying our players IMHO.

Yeah, don't take a man on when there's an easy sideways pass instead. Pep Guardiola football. Groan.

He has a bizarre reluctance to do it though - the amount of times you want him to leg someone for him to stop or cut inside is strange for someone that rapid. The Man City education has caused that imo.

I'm trying to be honest! I didn't see what Matondo did? flash in the pan is all I see with him! he can run fast, he can score the occasional great goal! but he is crap as a football player!.

It was St Johnston we were playing!. I didn't enjoy the match again! aye we were better than them and could/should have scored more! but we didn't!. The manager has a huge task to get this team challenging for the title! I just can't see it happening! unless we sign more quality players, and we all know we can't afford to! but if we can't then we are in for another dour/depressing season!. Jefte my MOTM.

@CammyF is having a night off.

Oh aye I meant outsiders. We've got a brilliant songbook but it's scrutinised to high heaven. Even by our own at times. Ibroxonia with the UB in the Copland is going to be some experience. Hopefully we get a big European game for it. We get 2 pot 1 teams in the group phase of the new revamped UEL so hopefully we get in for one of those and it's a big name. If not I'd take a Semi! Always a buzz after coming up to see the team.

They made their bed...

Spot on we have had a considerably higher wage bill than that lot since Gerrard first came in but they get more bang for their buck and sell higher just goes to show how poorly we have been operating, we should be casting our net everywhere really bar sub Saharan Africa and South asia. We should stop with the journeymen from the lower English leagues only lundstram worked out and that was only for half a season, the lower English leagues are still good for your young players you can snap up for free or compensation fees.

I’m also a Rays fan since going to a game in 2007 and have been a few times but not for a few years now. They operate in a really tough league with the 2 biggest teams in baseball and have still managed to be competitive in recent years. interesting theory re the tanking but it is probably more accurate to say we are trying to correct the errors of the last 2 years and just get the budget back on track.

Heres a decent post on it... Does read a bit 'ChatGPT'y though

Fair play but I would rather we were better at this PR game. We never seem to box clever and seem to excell at shooting ourselves in the foot.

We've been doing it for years, Joe Garner was on £18k a week in the championship.

I'm dreading that and I reckon Tav is too, sadly.

All this talk about players not being match fit I wonder it's not as if we play football at any real pace no lightning breaking from defence so if players are fit enough get them on the bench at least even depending on situation give them the last 20 minutes

Absolutely, he's been a superb buy over the piece. However, he's another one that we should have sold - I don't believe we never had offers. This will be even more evident when we come up against the reptiles and he once more shites it against a below average, workmanlike baldy winger. We need to learn when to move people on, not just to make money, but also when we've seen the best of them.

Yes, been following the Tampa Bay Rays since my first trip to Tropicana stadium around 15 years ago. Been to about 7 games since then and still follow them. Interesting team who manage to be competitive despite one of the smallest payrolls in baseball because they have an extremely effective player trading model. And when baseball operations staff leave they are quickly replaced internally with seemingly no real drop in operating quality. Caught a foul ball behind home plate v Oakland about 6 years ago. Every baseball fan’s ambition!

All goes to show that money does not guarantee quality.

I agree completely. But, unfortunately, we still have to pay these players!

No one else would pay these players those sort of wages. That is where the problem lies

That and that half of the squad aren’t capable of playing football at this level physically.

We’re not in a position atm where we can afford to leave out Hagi & Cantwell for whatever reasons. Our squad isn’t big enough and putting the likes of Dowell & Lawrence in the team ahead of them makes no sense to me.

I don't have a problem with Tavernier's wages, simply because he has been here so long and has been a consistent top performer. Davies and Matondo, though...

I don't think having Cantwell on the pitch magically makes the referee competent.

The wage thing regarding Hagi is a bit strange. We shed a lot of (supposedly) high-earners this summer, with only a few (if any*) arriving ... IN - Jefte IN - Oscar Cortes IN - Mohamed Diomande IN - Clinton Nsiala IN - Connor Barron IN – Liam Kelly IN - Hamza Igamane IN - Vaclav Cerny* IN - Robin Pröpper* OUT - Robby McCrorie OUT - Sam Lammers OUT - Connor Goldson OUT - Jon McLaughlin OUT - Kemar Roofe OUT - Borna Barisic OUT - Ryan Jack OUT - John Lundstram OUT - Abdallah Sima OUT - Fabio Silva ... and we don't want Hagi's increase till January or next? And thus kept him out even of important CL qualifiers and thus blew millions? Same with Cantwell. Yes, he wants to go, but where are we that we pay someone and do not expect him to be a professional still and do his job? And thus kept him out even of important CL qualifiers and thus blew millions? These are the questions someone needs to put in front of Clement.

The fans will have to realize the club is skint our biscuit tin is empty we are up the creek without a paddle.