craig

I doubt McGregor will get another chance though Gribz - it is obvious that he can do no more to win the keeper's jersey so he will only get a chance through injury - and as he is confident in his abilities he will take them elsewhere to command a regular game (rightly so). Klos I don't believe will play in a Rangers jersey again. Which leaves us with Letizi and he isn't the youngest guy around either. I think we may have to look for another keeper at the end of the season.

Come on the Utd's Gribz. Plenty of time in the Wigan game yet and hopefully the good old Dundee Utd can hold out !

Just been confirmed that Mowbray has joined WBA.

It is a difficult one to determine -"damned if you do and damned if you don't". Neither keeper is at fault but IMO McGregor is the man holding the gloves and until he gets injured or loses form should remain between the sticks. It isn't Letizi's fault he got injured, but he did, and with McGregor playing so well, Letizi should have to wait for a change in circumstances to get back in. McGregor has been playing consistently well and is fit so, again IMO, doesnt deserve to be dropped.

Which is a HIGH number as there were "only" 8 in the squad in total.

Are you saying the smiley will be back ?

Personally I now think that no matter what Letizi does McGregor will have made his mind up to leave, and in my opinion, quite rightly so. What more can he do Pete ? He has played very well in an under-performing team - I can't see a whole lot more he can do to prove his credentials. Why should he stay and fight for a place when he has done a very good job of fighting for it already to be dumped as soon as his competitor is injured. I rate PLG very highly but this decision just reminds me of some of the mistakes of "loyalty" that Eck placed in some of his players.

Can't blame him and Norwich hardly have the profile he would want do they ?

I dont think his recent outburst (if you can call it that) had much, if anything, to do with it at all. Seems to me that PLG knew that Letizi would be brought back in regardless if McGregor made that statement the other day. Ricksen rocking the boat was a completely different scenario - just where has McGregor broken PLG's rules of conduct ? That is a poor comparison in my opinion calscot (aside from PLG exerting authority). I doubt it would have been different had he kept his mouth shut - but I guess we will never know. The driving factor for me (and I may be in the minority here) is FORM - if a player is playing well enough to be in the team then he deserves to be in the team - and McGregor has played well enough to retain his place. Whilst we want to play players who are in it for the long-term we are in a results driven business and McGregor has contributed more than Letizi thus far this season IMO. Also, while you have the argument that you play players who are not on transfer requests there is also the opposite issue, as stated earlier, of now having fringe players who may not care less about continuing to make an effort at getting into the team as they could see this situation as PLG favouring players regardless of form and that, IMO, is more of a concern than playing someone on a transfer request.

From the main site. Have to say that PLG drops a bit in my estimation. I know that Letizi is his man but McGregor has done nothing to warrant being dropped. PAUL LE GUEN has announced that Lionel Letizi will return in goal for Rangers tomorrow in place of Allan McGregor. The Frenchman has missed the last seven matches with a calf injury, but played the Old Firm reserve game on Tuesday and has been recalled. McGregor was an excellent replacement during this period, especially in the UEFA Cup matches against Molde, to the extent that he won the Bank of Scotland player of the month award for September. However, Le Guen has decided that his first choice keeper will return to the side. The manager explained: "I talked with Lionel and I talked with Allan and it's my job to make this decision. Lionel will play against Inverness. "I have three very good goalkeepers, if you also include Stefan Klos, and there is no way I can keep them all happy. "I knew that Allan was a good keeper and I was not surprised with the way he played. However, it's a choice for me. "I spoke with Allan and he is not happy but I hope that he will stay respectful because he knows it's an honest decision." The manager revealed that the game comes too soon for Lee Martin, Libor Sionko or Jeremy Clement but he may have Martin available for next week's UEFA Cup match in Livorno. He said: "Lee will start working again next week so we will see. We will check on Jeremy too next week but we think it will be the end of the following week before he is fit again. Libor is still missing for another couple of weeks, we think."

Got it from the desktop alerts (that Fraser posted earlier this week). Should be on main site

3 goals against Man U don't count then ?

But there are some wonderful keepers who have neither played for a big club NOR been capped. Those traits are not always an indication of a player's abilities. Granted it would be a definite positive indicator but by not having those traits doesn't mean he can't say "told you so" - there are quite a few Gers fans that would have preferred having Smith to Letizi - and not everyone wants to chase after the big clubs (ambition is a whole new debate though). But yes they CAN be both right calscot. This debate inherently stems from McGregor believing that he should be #1, as did Smith. They can both be right because they BOTH believed they were the best keeper at the club in thewir own mind, it is called confidence in your abilities. Obviously they both can't be but that doesn't mean one, or both, of them are wrong. Under Eck's stewardship not necessarily so. Probably a good reason doesn't also mean there IS one.

Hope you didn't back the aways Gav. England down and Portugal looking like going the same way.

2-0 with Pressley sent-off with 4 mins to go. Oh well, 3 pts from those 2 gmes isn't bad

I only needed to read the headline calscot to 100% agree with you. Not only does he have the team playing in a way that makes us hard to beat and also with confidence, he seems to have truly brought the life and soul back into the fans - the famous Hampden roar was evident on Saturday.

This thread should probably be merged with the other one as the debate/topic, whilst starting out as different, have now become the same debate

Klos has never been capped for Germany, pedantic I know but sadly true. IMO it makes no difference what the credentials are for any player, no player should be able to be automatically picked on past reputations. Also just to cut McGregor some slack how many of us have been faced by the media, given a question we weren't expecting and then provided the PC answer ?? I would suggest that most of us would be stuck on what to say and it may indeed have been the case with McGregor here. It is all moot anyway as we don't make the decisions. However, he has done enough to ensure Letizi stays out the team until he (McGregor) makes a mistake which he hasn't really done yet. He DOES deserve to be #1 based on the keepers we have at the club (and bearing in mind Klos is still injured), but NO player should be assured of a place in the team...... and I am pretty sure that even McGregor doesn't mean that (what player honestly should expect ASSURANCE to be #1 ?). Calscot, just because Graeme Smith is at Motherwell doesn't mean he couldn't do a job for Rangers. Antti Niemi left for the same reason Smith did (couldn't break into the team), went to a much smaller club in Southampton (albeit in the EPL, but always going to be in a relegation dogfight) - are you saying you wouldn't have taken him back ?

I dont think he made a stupid threat though Pete. All he did was say that hopefully his performances would put him in the shop window if he didnt get some kind of commitment from the club. You can call it a threat but it could equally be argued that he was saying he is confident that he is the best keeper at the club and that if he shows it and keeps his place in the team then he would be delighted to stay (OK, he didn't say it quite like that but it could be what he actually meant......). Two ways of looking at what he said IMO - you either think he tried to threaten PLG or you can look at it as him saying he is the best at the club and deserves his chance.

Long story short Barry, it lost. Apparently it went lame (lost its shoe) as it was going behind and they couldn't pull it out of the race - finished in a creditable fourth place but when you bet to win 4th, and indeed 2nd, is nothing Back to winning ways last weekend though !

Welcome back Gribz. Re Papac and Svensson surely you have them the wrong way round with Papac being left footed and Svensson being right footed ? I would go with similar formation except Adam in for Rae

I think he would have been, for this season only, a better option that both J-Rod AND Svensson

I would still play Martin and Adam

Maybe Gavvy boy - but what foot does he hit free kicks with ? Yep, his RIGHT foot.... taking free kicks with a certain foot is usually a good indicator of which foot he prefers. Me, I can kick with both feet too and am pretty good at it - just a shame it is usually someone's leg I kick.

Yep, I think Martin will play on the right side and Adam left - I have thought Martin would be more productibve on the right anyway being right footed. Time will tell I guess