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There's a story, perhaps true, who knows. The season Goram joined us (replacing the very popular Chris Woods for nationality reasons) we were put out of the League Cup by Hibs, the club we'd signed Goram from. At training Goram joked that he 'joined Rangers to play win trophies but if he was still at Hibs he'd be in the cup final', to which Ian Durrant quipped 'if you were still at Hibs we'd all be in the cup final'. Goram definitely took a few months to settle and come to terms with the demands of being the Rangers keeper, but he more than made up for his slow start.

Ach, he's nowhere near as bad a defender as some folk like to make out. Yes, he's had a few high profile errors over the years and his form earlier this season was woeful but as long as we cover him effectively with Barron or Raskin, then we should normally be able to cope. Spurs are a different proposition to Scottish teams and will be the best EL team we've faced this season as well by quite some distance (despite their recent patchy form). If I had to pick one game for Tav and one for Sterling it would probably be Spurs for the skipper and Celtic for Sterling.

I think that it is an absolute stick-on that Danilo starts and Dessers will be on the bench. I don't really understand the apparent uncertainty on here.

It happens some players take time to settle early McCoist days weren’t pretty neither was early Alex McDonald days but they became really good players at Rangers.

The way I read it CF is not comparing the players’ abilities. The comparison is to the fans’ disregard of these abilities.

That's masons for you.🙂

Some stupid questions from the old guard press. One walloper asking the manager if this game has more pressure as its a battle of Britain. Red top rubbish no one cares about.

Hateley needed a full season. (I would have sold him at the end of that season) The Goalie only needed a few games.

I think you're conflating appreciation and assessment of quality. I do appreciate Dessers' contribution, but I do not rate him.

I'd be surprised if Danilo doesn't start on Sunday. He can't play on Thursday so he'll be the freshest of the 3 strikers, assuming both feature at some point against Spurs. If both are fit then I'd be surprised if Igamane also doesn't start against Celtic. He's shown enough in the last few weeks to demonstrate the potential that first attracted us to him, and that frankly I couldn't see in the games prior to Nice. He can hold the ball up, he's a nuisance for defenders to play against, he's got a trick and isn't scared to have a dig. He's still raw and inexperienced, but on current form he's our first pick I think. Dessers has scored goals, some important ones too, but I wouldn't start him on Sunday. I think he does offer something coming off the bench though. If everyone is fit then I expect Danilo and Igamane to start, probably with Cerny, the only surprise might be Sterling starting too, along with Tav, to offer better cover and energy. Of course Thursday's match might change everything if we pick up knocks.

Looks like the bid for the 2034 world cup just needs to be rubber stamped and it will be held in Saudi Arabia there will be the usual bleating about human rights homos women drivers but that wont bother them because money talks and the gig boys in FIFA aren't going to give up a nice payday I wont be around to see it but if the top players refuse to take part it will be a disaster but if I were twelve to fourteen today i'd be training very hard to get in a national team .

Spurs haven't won the Challenge Cup. Score draw.

As long as they are fit for Sunday

Neither do I, however I appreciate that he was overly burdened at the start of the season as he was our only fit striker and he still managed to score goals that won us games. The same can be said for periods of last season (when Sima was injured). I appreciate that he scored 20 goals last season when we had all been crying out for a 20 goal a season striker. I also understand that despite the ridicule, we'd be in a far worse position if he hadn't/didn't score goals.

No, we should appreciate them both, but McCoist is on a different planet from Dessers (and any other striker currently on our books). Goalscoring is regarded as one of the most difficult skills in football and whilst Dessers isn't everyone's cup of tea, he scored 20 goals last season and is on course to score 20 again this season. We'd be in a far worse postion if he hadn't scored those goals, so yes, he should be appreciated. What I meant was if some fans didn't rate McCoist then they're never going to rate any striker he have (as we're unlikely to have one as good as McCoist for a while). There is also a lesson in the fact that McCoist was written off, booed and ridiculed by fans at the beginning our his illustrious Rangers career.

Ability wise? Off course not, don't be silly. In the fact that some fans didn't rate McCoist as a player, then my statement stands, what chance have our strikers got, then yes.

Hahaha. I'd forgotten about that.

I think someone on another site did

Are you comparing Dessers to McCoist?

Igamane 9/1

In the case of Dessers it decreases his chances down to zero from a little bit more than zero.

When your team has been on a decent run of games but you've got Spurs and Celtic on the horizon

@CammyF your role as pantomime villain is secure!

I was there with Frankie & wee John, well briefly as I recall due to a certain Mr Hastie having a wee bit too much ale! 😉 Can't believe it was that long ago!.

In October we lost at home to Lyon and lost away to Killie and the sheep. In all three games Dessers and Lawrence started. The facts speak for themselves , though Dessers could have an impact as a sub like he did last week against Killie.

What a load of tosh. If there is a chance, by definition, it has to be realistic. I have never stated that we are favourites but we definitely have a chance to win a cup-tie against Celtic because we have started to create and score goals. You are free to more or less write off our chances, its only an opinion. You asked who would I bet on. Looking at the odds, Rangers is where the value is.

I would argue the formation and tactics haven't changed all that much; it's the personnel that has changed, making what we were trying to do more effective.

The manager changed his formation and tactics, which meant dropping Dessers and playing 4 players that can interchange with each other. If you want him to keep the formation then it means dropping Dessers as he isn't as mobile so the formation won't work. You can't have it both ways. 😁

Spurs were a supreme team back then and like most top English teams they had their share of good Scottish players all who’d walk into the present international team

I remember the game at Ibrox very well. The result was close but in truth Rangers were well beaten by an outstanding side. One of the best goalies I’ve seen, two competent tradesmen at fullback, bruisers at centre half and centre forward, at wing-half one architect and one game dominator, at inside forward one goal-maker and one goal-taker and a Welsh wizard on either wing. Perfectly balanced

Like Scottish referees, another honest mistake 😉😀

We have been paying players off for decades. It is part of our 21st century DNA and is reflected in our financials. We buy players for top dollar. We expect immediate performance. We too often don't get it. We want an immediate replacement but forget the financial implications.

The Lammers figures given to the media (or at least allowed to propagate through them) would have included the money saved on wages to try and avoid embarrassment over any fees (or lack thereof). Same would have been the case with Goldson and I'd fancy the same will happen again across the next two windows as we look to get rid of more surplus talent such as Propper. Effectively we'll be agreeing to release players as we can't attract suitable offers and will agree termination deals with other clubs to effectively take on their wages. Some of us may have been blindsided with this fiscal strategy in the summer. We won't be again.

No, it isn't the case. Read the accounts, it is actually worse than what I have seen reported since the AGM. Worse, because it also includes 4 outgoing loans, eg. any loan fee for Ben Davies. When you compare the 810K to the over 13 million figure spent in the summer window (Connor Barron fee still TBD and paid). Add in the lack of the 5M€ CL play off loss comfort for 24/25, further payments to Hampden, no COVID insurance payment or sale of car park....then the next set of figures 11 months down the line are shaping up to be another major loss.

They are, they should be. They took in more for a Korean guy none of us have ever heard of than we did for 2 of our best players and some other decent talents. Unreal.

The most worrying aspect is the complete and utter apathy towards, and acceptance, of this contunied gross mismanagement from the majority of the fans. Impatient and unrealistic they scream, give them a chance to get things right they say. No thanks, times up. There's more chance of them closing us down than there is to make us a force against.

How these people succeed in business is beyond me

Wow. No words. The same board that said during the AGM they are doing an excellent job. Deluded doesn’t cover it.

Generally it was the usual AGM fare of some interesting questions (more than usual) but few credible answers. Plenty mea culpas from the board but difficult to have faith in their future actions when their past ones have been so poor. A new makeup with NED element to the board may help but finances a bigger challenge than ever. Best example is moving from a sporting director model (and back again) across the last 2-3 seasons whilst allowing a novice manager to spend huge sums on players and only bringing in less than £1m in the summer. That's mismanagement at any level and someone like Park should be resigning not hiding in plain site at the top table whilst refusing to answer questions directed to him. I don't know what the future holds for Rangers but apologies from Gilligan (well meant or not) don't make up for years of clear failures. We can only hope lessons have been learned and board changes allow us to compete going forward. Unfortunately, our finances remain poor, expectations low and the gap widening with every passing year. We continue to live in difficult times.