ascender

I'm a bit "meh" about the whole thing now, I just want it confirmed he's gone and for us to appoint someone quickly so we can get back on with the season. When I look back on his time here I think he will be a massive part of the final leg of our journey back to the top, where we belong. But it will leave a bit of a bitter taste given how quickly he's gone after everything he said after winning the title. I know there's nothing in it, but the timing of him leaving is a bit strange given the stuttering start we've had to the season both in Europe and domestically, with a few players looking well out of sorts and an apparent inability to sort out the defensive issues and basic mistakes makes me wonder if his heart was in it anymore or if he was just out of ideas.

We're a much different club on and off the pitch now than when we've had to consider a change of manager in the last, nearly 10 years or so. I'm sure Ross Wilson will have some names lined-up already as that's what he's there to do. I'd be really disappointed if we had to appoint a caretaker manager - I'd like to think the way this has come about means we're talking to someone and they'll be appointed quickly once SG goes. I think someone like Gio fits the mould of how we play football and where we want to go as a club, but there might be similar sorts of manager (which is maybe where the Russell Martin link came from) we have on our shortlist. I guess in the same way that some of the players we target are ones who fit our style of play and we think we can develop them. Lampard, Gio and Kevin Thomson fit that mould for me, but I don't know enough about some of the others on the list to really know. Rino would be hilarious though.

I don't think Raman Bhardwaj has tweeted in a while so that might be a fake account - loads of them spring up at this sort of time tweeting "exclusives".

I think he'll go if Gerrard goes - I think its a tricky one to offer it to him anyway as you then get in to him putting a backroom team together from scratch and anybody we may want to bring in as his number 2 might have their own view on things or might not want to come in as an assistant. Is he ready to be a manager yet? I don't think we'd offer it to him but I think he'll go with SG anyway so its a moot point.

I noticed on one of the FF threads that the user KopGer who was first to break the Gerrard to Rangers story posted to say that he was told on Monday it was a done deal. Make of that what you will.

Ahhhhhhh! Talk about one of those moments where I knew I was missing something but my brain was convinced the tweet was saying its not looking good for the journalists. Even this morning I read it again and couldn't work it out. Must need more coffee or something.

Michael Beale with someone coming-in alongside him (obviously), but someone maybe with playing & coaching pedigree. Otherwise, someone like Lampard or Gio would seem to be a good fit with what we're been doing although its hard to judge Lampard's coaching career to date given the roles he's had and Gio is the same to some degree. Any appointment is a risk as we all know its a unique job. McInnes had his chance though...

I didn't understand that tweet, unless David Edgar had some inside information about Gerrard himself? The fact Christian Purslow is at Villa is one of those factors which gives the story credence in itself.

Great performance and result, really enjoyed that, but bring on Saturday!

That was a lovely bit of play which lead to the penalty. This bloody pitch though, how on earth can we allow that in our top division?

Last night was just one of those games that we’ve all seen before. We’re not on top form, playing against a physical team who seem to get away with constant fouls and you can guess the rest. As for their goal, Roofe lost the ball down near their corner - could/should have been a free kick, but I thought he would just hold on to the ball and see it out - we were brilliant at doing that earlier in the season. Then, htf did we concede from that corner? The marking was amateur hour and while McGregor is one of our greatest ever keepers, he’s not great at commanding his area (or distribution) so that’s just one weakness that I guess we’re not going to change now. You’d still hope for something though, even if its a fist or a flap... anything tbh. I wonder how many opposition goalkeepers can say they’ve scored at Ibrox from open play? I’ll be honest, since we won the title, the combination of dead rubbers and international breaks have kind of made it feel like the season has been over for a while. Might just be me though. I know we’re going for the double and an undefeated league season, but once 55 was done, everything else seems like an anticlimax.

Its going to be an interesting summer to see what we do in terms of incomings and outgoings. I guess the only people who know what we have to do to balance the books are on the board. I guess in simple terms, will we need to sell one of our absolute top players (Kent, Morelos, Kamara) or could we achieve the same by selling a couple of our other players instead (Helander, Aribo)? I'm hoping that our refusal to let Morelos go last season for anything less than our valuation has set out our stall as to how we'll be this season. Like others have said, players have to want to go - I'd be surprised if many would be in that boat given they've got a real taste of success now and there's the potential of CL football next season too. Its an exciting time to be here and the whole club seems to be in a very happy place.

We'd be crazy to write him off and he's shown enough in flashes to warrant a chance, but I do wonder if now we've signed Wright he's missed his opportunity here. I guess none of us know what the summer holds in terms of comings & goings as things like the Euros and our finances may dictate what our squad will look like for next season.

Good to see this, but I do wonder if we need to sign long term replacement for him next season given the number of games we play and the recurring issues he's had?

I've never been a fan of the split or understood why on earth it was brought-in in the first place. I guess the argument to having more teams from the Championship involved is that there's negligible difference in quality between those teams in the bottom half of the top flight and those in the top half of the next league down. Would it improve the quality of football on show though? If there's less chance of being relegated, would teams try to play more positive football? TBH, I'm pretty down about the quality of the football on display as it is, so not sure what the answer is when there's such a gulf between the top two and the rest. I know most countries have a dominant couple of teams, but is the gap any greater in Scotland than those or does it just feel like it?

I agree about that lot. Even on social media there's frequent posts about Ricksen, Durrant, the Ibrox disaster etc. They really seem a hateful bunch with an inferiority complex.

I saw that on Twitter... certainly puts an interesting slant on their version of events.

I've long since given up any hope of having reasoned debate about Scottish football online with fans of other clubs. Twitter has long since been a cesspit, but any time I do have a look at other fan forums its the same story. Ironically, fans of other clubs are often all moaning about the same things - poor refs; the split; the SFA; the SPFL; plastic pitches; time-wasting; the overall state of our game - but because of the rivalries & hatred, will never come together to actually do something about it. I've absolutely loved this season (apart from not being able to be there), but it has also made me wish we could get out of Scottish football. The way other teams play has been thoroughly depressing at times and we keep getting told we wouldn't be missed, so I'd love to just leave them to it.

Well, it was one hell of a run while it lasted, I've enjoyed nearly every single minute of it and its really weird to think that the last time I was at Ibrox was over a year ago for the Leverkusen game. I thought we could beat Slavia after seeing them last week, but we just weren't at the races last night. Slavia were beatable, but definitely a step-up in quality from other teams - they were fast and not wasteful with the ball. Their tactical fouling to beak up play was masterfully done, but we did suffer from having a weak referee again. Team wise the game passed Arfield by but I can see why Gerrard started him based on last week. I'm just surprised a change wasn't made earlier and also that Balogun came out for the second half as we got away with one in the first half. I thought Patterson played really well, he does look like he has a great future with us. Just a frustrating night all round I guess and it maybe shows that with CL qualifiers next year we do need to upgrade on a few players. The Kamara incident left a really sour taste though - like others have said, what's the point of all the campaigns to raise awareness of racism in sport if things like this just get brushed under the carpet? I see Slavia have said the phrase was "you fucking guy" or something along those lines which seems incredible. I don't know if I should say this or not, but I loved seeing how Goldson reacted to being told what was said last night and I wish he had flattened the sneaky wee f*cker. Not just based on that incident, but the team spirit and "togetherness" amongst the squad seems to be at a level I can't remember seeing at Ibrox for a very, very long time.

When did they actually start singing YNWA anyway?

So, has there been any news at all today or is it still anybody's guess as to whether the Gerrard thing is happening or not? I saw a few posts yesterday saying it was a done deal, but its starting to remind me of the Mcinnes shambles.

Playing devil's advocate to the Murty v Gerrard thing because I see the questions are valid... Murty v Gerrard on paper, looking at their playing careers before becoming youth coaches are like night and day. Gerrard had 500 or so as captain of Liverpool over a 15+ year period and 100+ for England. On paper that would seem to suggest he'll be used to dealing with a wide variety of player styles, egos and foibles. He is used to the pressure of playing in a goldfish bowl city like Liverpool and the intense media attention you get when playing for England. But when it comes to managing he's clearly got as little experience as Murty has. But going back to the above positives, one of the most worrying aspects of Murty's reign is that he appears a fragile character close to tears with the pressure and attention - if that's representative of his character, you can see why he's lost the dressing room. Also, and i keep going back to this, many of the problems on the pitch and off the pitch aren't new problems. They've been there for all to see under at least three managers, so we need a clear out and a new firm line laid down to players who can't just down tools and get managers sacked when they feel like it. And yes, I realise i'm being hopelessly optimistic, but it could be an exciting time. Or an utter disaster. Or somewhere in the middle. Pretty much like every managerial appointment is.

We need to do something about the back line because I'm sick to death of going to games and seeing us concede the same goal over and over again. I'm a big fan of Wes and the blame doesn't lie with him alone, but honestly, its been 3 years of Groundhog day as far as our defence goes. Like with the Gerrard thing, we need to do something different, so I don't think this is too bad a move in the scheme of things if its not going to cost us money. McGregor behind a solid, experienced, leader of a centre back would give me cause for optimism.

Fvck it, i'm all in on Gerrard.... I think part of the problem is that where we find ourselves both as a Club and Scottish Football in general, means there's no obvious choice of manager for us at the moment. And you know what, he's more exciting than the prospect of someone like McInnes and I'd like to be excited again about something, anything going on. I keep going back to the fact there's no obvious other choice so honestly, what have we got to lose? Unless Walter came out of retirement, or we suddenly got some Saudi money, I can't name anyone out there who could just walk in to the job tomorrow with a real level of confidence in their ability to sort things out. Cons Lack of managerial experience. But there's no guarantees when it comes to managers due to the nature of the sport. Its another risky appointment. But I'd argue its less risky than Pedro, if only because of some of the pros listed above and because I do think we're in a better state that we were at the start of the season. There's some real problems amongst the players which need sorted. Quite a few need shipped out and we need to stamp out the on and off the field behaviours which have remained and plagued us under 3(?) managers now. Pros He's an ex-world class player who should garner immediate respect and has a profile and contacts which can only be good. I don't think he'd take any $hit. We now have a DoF in place which should lead to some stability and a consistent approach, regardless of manager. I think we've improved the squad after January, so the next manager has a better core squad at his disposal. Its exciting goddamit. He's not Neil Warnock. Who may bring organisation to the team on the park quicker, but isn't exactly inspiring or a long term solution.

Kris Boyd must be seething....