craig

Fair point - and if so I retract my statement. However, even if it is the case we should not be leaving ourselves in the position of potentially losing players for nothing given the financial situation we seem to be in.

Aye..... not a problem my man - I still owe you those couple of pints, hold me to it ! Funny how it all panned out, and not a worry as the odds had slid to 4/1 by the time I got to trying to put the bet on - even so 100 quid at that would have been nice ! Wish the big fella all the best from me !

I think we should be looking to sell Burke in the next 18 months - strange thing to say after he has just signed a contract I know - but the fact he has only signed a 2 year deal doesn't inspire me that he wants to be here for the long term - and if that is the case we should be looking to get a fee for him.

Not sure I agree with you both. In WS last stint at the club he also had an endless supply of cash in which to bring proven players in. That is a glaring difference, we obviously don't have the funds to make that happen so we will have two options - either get players nearinbg the end of their careers or utilise Murray Park - it might be that they will go with the former but I suspect they will go with the latter. I think the signnigs of Ehiogu and Weir have thrown up alarm bells - but it is only a few short weeks ago we were screaming out for some experience at the back - we now have it, although hopefully it is only a short-term fix. Weir strolled through the game on Sunday and if that continues he will be a very good addition to the team. Ehiogu is proven too and we now actually have strength in depth at that position - I would hope that WS will play ONE of Ehiogu and Weir and partner them with Svensson or Webster - and have the other 2 partner each other - basically rotating your CB's as a unit. Who knows......

Frankie hasn't even posted in this thread, lol I am with you though on having WS make us more competitive domestically. I think many of our fans have dilusions of grandeur - saying that we should be competing better in Europe is one thing but if you can't compete domestically you may not even get the chance to prove yourselves in Europe. We need to be more competitive in the SPL and pushing the Tims all the way, and actually beating them, making us a more attractive club to join once more (I don't think it is too much of a coincidence that the quality of players being signed by them vs us has happened during this period of dominance that they have - there are other factors but that is most definitely one too). If we make ourselves the #1 force in Scotland again then there will be more of a willingness for players to sign for Rangers and we can hopefully consolidate our position and THEN look to Europe for progress. I just find it strange that we have fans that expect us to be challenging in Europe when we, right now, can't even challenge in the SPL. Maybe it is downsizing of ambitions - but I am a believer in setting the foundations right, and that starts at home in the SPL.

The article about Weir wanting to extend his stay is already a good indicator that WS is looking for players that WANT to play for the jersey and our great club. And if Weir wants to extend then why not - as long as his wages aren't astronomical then he will be good to have in the dressing room - if you read Stubbs' comments about him when he left Everton it seems he commands a lot of respect from his fellow players - we could be doing with that.

I just don't see why the departure of Clement should be the catalyst for new signings - DM said when WS joined that there was money available so why would we need to wait for Clement to go. I would like to see Brown come in as he is versatile, not seen much of Culina so couldn't comment. Would like to see a forward and another LM in there - as we presently lack depth at LM.

I think the latter. Jason Culina is being touted as a signing for us.

Tam Burns said he had served his apprenticeship and wasn't interested in being second fiddle to someone else. He wanted the manager's job, not the assistant - so even if they offered him the assistant's job he would turn it down.

Not so sure about Arsenal Gribz - I would normally agree but they have just picked up a couple of injuries to important players (RvP and Hleb) and they don't have the same depth in the squad as the others. Man U should be AT LEAST 10 ahead so Chelsea will think they can nick it - however, Man U have not really looked like dropping points for a long time (other than against your beloved West Ham....) and even against Arsenal they looked good for the 3. I think the title is Man U's to lose.

But they never ground out the result they needed against Liverpool Jon Actually they could have been pumped by a few more. And they only beat a lower division team which should be expected. They won't win 4 competitions - and I am willing to bet you on that one Jon !

Do we get back our compensation we had to pay for WS to come to Ibrox ? After all the SFA said they needed compensation to get their next manager out of his job, and I presume that the only compensation they will need to pay for Eck is his brew money !

Well done the boys, hopefully this is no false dawn and that Wattie can get the consistency that we need. But a great result and also nice to see the sheep dropping points !

Bill Plaschke is well respected in the US as well. He knows his sports and is often on US ESPN.

Agreed, he is gash ! Watched him opening game of season and he had no pace, poor awareness, not strong in the tackle and for a guy who is 6ft 7 is pretty poor in the air. BIG NO THANKS from me.

Seems this is now how it is being reported - the fact the tribunal hasn't set the fee would mean Hearts WOULD retain his registration until they get what they are due for him. However, Webster made use of FIFA regulation to leave Hearts, he is now being prevented from playing again because of FIFA regulation - so watch just how fast they now act on this - otherwise their whole legislature loses credibility.

I think if WS had been manager at the time that Pressley would be in our line up this weekend

I wonder if he had to sign over his image rights for that amount ? I would reckon he wouldn't want to but at the same time the MLS is not known for throwing silly money around. I believe as well that the contracts are not held by the clubs but by the MLS themselves (may have changed in the last couple of years). Beverly Hills is quite nice but most of the public stars, I think, reside in Malibu - funny thing about Beverley Hills is that you see a place which you wouldn't give a 2nd glance and you can almost guarantee a "star" stays there. One property we saw was what looked like a downstairs flat, not a big place and David Schwimmer (Ross from friends - hardly a star I know but rolling in it nonetheless) had recently paid $2 million for it. If you do a trip to the West Coast os the US you would be well advised to just skip past LA - start in San Diego and head up to San Francisco - beautiful places - whilst LA is a concrete jungle.

He isn't moving permanently to another Scottish club though - he is on loan. The player registration is what I was questioning - he signed permanently for Wigan so Hearts surely cannot be holding his registration. The rule you state is correct but I don't think it is specifically between teams from the same league eg, Sebo came from Vienna but until the summer can only go back to Vienna and no-one else on a permanent basis. I don't think a loan is affected the same way, but could be wrong. Either way, the registration being the reason for him not being able to play for us makes no sense to me.

When you look at that reported amount of money you can bet it would also be his first choice too. I know not everything is about money but 128 million over 5 years ? He wouldn't get anywhere CLOSE to that elsewhere IF true !

Reports are saying Beckham will sign a 5 year deal with LA Galaxy in June. 5 years ??? Holy shit that is a long contract for him.

Exactly Calscot - and if he was still a Hearts player then he would only have been on loan at Wigan, which he wasn't.

I saw Whittaker in the season opener - only time I have seen him this year - and he was shite. As calscot says, he got stuck up the park a LOT that day and ended up requiring his CB's to cover for him. His distribution was poor and he didn't defend particularly well either. It was the 1st game of the season though and I have only seen him once so I will bow to those who have seen him more often.

Can you explain this Mike ? How can Hearts hold his registration when he was on the books of Wigan ? I always thought one of the processes with transfers was the transferring of the player's registration from one club to another.

Already looks like a happier place to be - hopefully we see that in the coming weeks