ascender
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Everything posted by ascender
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Until the case runs it course the truth is none of us know what's going on. I've heard so many rumours from sources over the last couple of years and have lost track of how many have turned out to be taken from forums. The internet has made it possible for everyone to claim they have an exclusive and then go on to spread that exclusive by word of mouth to the point where it grows arms and legs and becomes gospel within days. Whyte was right though, until this gets resolved, I'm not sure how the club can really go forward with any sort of plans for the future.
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Taking the tax case out of the equation for a while, would you trust Ally to spend that money wisely if Jelavic does go? What does Whyte do from here? Give him a lump sum to make a couple of signings, or perhaps put a couple of million aside for wages to sign a couple of players like Boyd who we could get for free or for a token fee? BTW, Jelavic is still clearly a quality player, but he's not getting the service he needs and because he's not a grafter I think he's being singled out unfairly. All strikers go through rough patches and miss chances, but given our thin squad, he's the main man even when in a run of poor form.
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I still think we've been riding our luck to a degree over the last few seasons and from a layman's point of view there's still some glaringly obvious problems that need to be fixed. This isn't the first time Davis has disappeared match after match for weeks on end. We've lacked a truly creative midfield(er) for some time now. I know McCoist (allegedly) missed out on many of his first-choice signing targets, but why then go ahead and strengthen the squad with guys like McKay, Ortiz and Bedoya if you're not going to give them a run in the side. Especially when that side is struggling, even when winning games. I know that can be the sign of champions, but we've not been grinding out results in the same way as we have done under WS, we've been looking much less assured. What's the point of playing a 4-4-2 if we don't have a settled front pairing and resort to long and high balls from the back? Is it a case of a lack of leadership and organisation on and off the park this year that's making the small albeit crucial difference? No Smith on the sideline and no Weir on the park? And yet some of Ally's traits seem to be direct from the WS school of thinking which is fine and to be expected, but maybe they're not working simply because he isn't Walter Smith?
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Gersnet has always been a site where posters offer constructive criticism rather than knee-jerk reactions or just giving individuals pelters for the sake of it. A common theme on here for as long as I can remember has been the feeling that we as a club have been papering over the cracks for years by nature of our SPL title wins.
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We've been linked with O'Connor and Riordan for years and thankfully neither have come to fruition. I might get pelters here, but I do think O'Connor had a great deal of potential when he was at Hibs but he's pissed away his career. Someone with his natural build could have made a great target man in the SPL given the right service.
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I think this season is going the same way as the last 3 or 4 have to be honest. Neither us or Celtic are anything to write home about and I really do wonder what Whyte's long-term plan and goals are. I've pretty much lost interest to be honest and can't remember a season where I've not listened to or watched so few of our games. For the money we're spending, the gap between the OF and others in the SPL should be much larger in terms of the quality of football being played. We seem to be spending a disproportionate amount of money compared to the end product we're watching and that's been the case for a while now. There also seems to be a stubborn refusal to address some glaringly obvious problems in the squad that have been there for years. But we've been winning the SPL so we can't really question the methods can we? I just think that either we set higher standards for the playing and coaching staff based on the funds available, or be a bit more realistic about the league we find ourselves in and start to really build for the future with a more forward-thinking signing policy, budget and a coaching team who can take us forward on the pitch. There are many other clubs out there in Europe who play a more attractive game and reap the rewards for it especially in Europe without breaking the bank. Unfortunately though, in a league where its deemed failure to finish second, I can't see how the situation will ever change.
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But the reality is that we probably do need to cut our cloth and reduce the wage budget over the next while. And you know what? Even with that reduced budget we should still have a team that's more than capable of winning the SPL. I like the fact he brought up the subject of just how much our squad are getting paid compared to the teams who punted us out of Europe. It needs to be said and some fans have been saying that for years, so hopefully he's going to do something about it. Unless Celtic go absolutely mental in the transfer market, which they probably can't afford to do, let alone attract top grade players in the first place, I see no reason why a mix of homegrown players and a few imports at Ibrox can't be winning the SPL every season. With the right manager playing the right football we should be more than good enough. Maybe Whyte really is in it for the long run and determined to set us up for years to come both on and off the park?
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There was clearly a storm of discontent brewing, not sure how big it was and whether the papers were exaggerating it, but Whyte brought forward his next-planned press briefing and seems to have spoken fairly candidly about the situation. Surely this is exactly what we've been wanting from our owner for the last however-many-years so must be seen as a step in the right direction? As for the rest of it, its no real surprise but at least he's come out and confirmed the situation, setting the record straight as far as he can do in his position. As to what he actually said before the takeover as opposed to what was said by "sources", I don't think he's contradicted anything has he?
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Some of our fans are lapping up the media circus and applying their selective "don't believe anything the papers say" rule to suit their agenda/moaning. I also can't believe some of the postings in forums being highly critical of Whyte. The guy has only been here for a matter of months and has inherited a club on its knees thanks to David Murray. What exactly did they expect him to do in such a short timeframe?
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Is any of this stuff really news or even unexpected? The tax bill hanging over our heads has been there for years. Although I see Spiers now has it at 50 million! At this rate it will be at a trillion dollars by the end of the month.... As a result, the threat of possible administration has also been there. The manner in which Bain left was always going to mean there would be some sort of legal proceedings. I'm not sure why journos like Speirs are creaming themselves over this stuff. Craig Whyte would have been aware of all of this before he even made an initial enquiry for the club, so he will have plans in place for the different eventualities.
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One question that's been on my mind for quite a few years now is that for the money we're spending, even in recent years, compared to the majority of the SPL clubs, is it unreasonable to think our management should be getting more out of the players than we have been? Obviously we've been winning the title so that's the bottom line, but we seem to be struggling to beat teams, throwing away leads, dropping points and not really playing with any flair a lot of the time. Couple that with the fact we do seem to have some good young players coming through, where else do you look but at the management? Not a direct criticism of McCoist's tenure as he's only just started in the job, just thinking of the bigger picture. Like Gribz says, we have a good squad of players and if we are missing a creative midfielder and striker, maybe its time to look within the reserve squad as the younger guys coming through haven't let us down over the last while.
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But if we have added seven new players, a number of them full internationalists, who will be challenging for a first team place, while not spending a lot of money, I think that's a good thing to be honest. Even if Whyte was absolutely minted with spare money to throw at players its a very short-term view to take, particularly when the rewards are relatively low in the SPL.
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I still think part of the problem is that we've not exactly been playing brilliant football under Smith, so McCoist or anyone else, would need some time to turn things around if they're going to put their own stamp on how the team plays. Don't get me wrong, the team has delivered some amazing results and trophies under Smith but I think we rode our luck massively at times and just scraped wins in many games where we really should have won more comfortably. I've been encouraged by the signings we've made, our squad looks stronger than it has done for a while and we've not been drawn in to paying over the odds for players like we have done in the past. Its a bit worrying though when you see us punting the long ball up the park as we did under Smith when we seem to run out of ideas and his persistence to play some players who have clearly under-performed in previous games. Having said all of that its very early in the season although I do wonder why some of the players have looked unfit when we knew we'd have an early start with the CL games. Problem is that obviously in the SPL second is seen as failure and with it being a two-horse race, if we do drop points against other teams, we could see ourselves in the position where its only Celtic's title to lose, so McCoist will be well aware he needs to get things right soon.
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A loan deal could be the making of him imo.
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Given the Malmo game I don't think a couple of reds over a season should concern us too much. Eremenko has looked good in spells and I think he's the type of midfielder we could do with as he'd offer something different, but he's also very typical in his consistency that you get with this sort of player so it would be a measured risk I guess.
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Lee Wallace will join today: OFFICIAL Wallace signs five year deal
ascender replied to Frankie's topic in Rangers Chat
I think that's a good signing and like I said in the other thread, I don't think the fee is that big a problem given his age and SPL experience. Fairly low risk signing and I think we do need "proper" full backs as its an area where we have looked exposed in the last while. -
Getting a proper/natural LB in makes sense as I think it is a position that we do look exposed in when we play Papac there in the CL for example. But then the same is true of RB in my opinion and we've just re-signed Whittaker. 1.5M seems a lot for someone in the final year of his contract although I guess given his age, potential and current level of play its not a massive risk.
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Credibility, that's the word I was looking for. I don't understand how he can have any credibility left given his track record of "exclusives" and generally poor standard of articles that he's been producing for as long as I can remember.
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Chick Young is a horse's arse. How he is still employed, let alone taken seriously by anyone with half a braincell is beyond me.
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I think we all know that until we get concrete information about any of these signing targets buying a house in Scotland or being spotted in a local supermarket that its all just rampant speculation.
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Gattuso? Really? I know Cuellar is 30, but what's to say he couldn't play for 5 or 6 years at least? That's the kind of stability you need at the back, just look at how Weir has done for us. Assuming his knee surgery was routine, healing well and he's progressing through his rehab i'm sure they can make a call on that in a medical although there will still be some risk there I guess. Gattuso? Really?
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Great news for 'Gers fans - Blackburn want Edu
ascender replied to 54andcounting's topic in Rangers Chat
I'm still not sure what Edu brings to the team or what sort of player he is tbh. Yes he is young, but apart from a handful of games he's been largely anonymous for most of the season. Not sure what the point is of having players like that in the team. And yes, I'm aware we won the league, but maybe we'd have won it more comfortably if we'd given some of the other guys a chance instead of persisting with those who weren't playing well. Of course, he might not be in Ally's plans. But there's also a balancing act in there, if funds are limited and we have 2 or 3 players who can play in a certain role, maybe selling Edu to generate some more money for transfers is a sensible move. -
He's a strange one though because for all his faults I still think he's one of the most skilful players we have who is very comfortable on the ball. Look at some of the goals he's scored and some of the individual moments of skill he's done. He can be a real joy to watch so its frustrating that he can be so inconsistent. I do wonder if we'd benefit from a more traditional full back as part of a settled back four though.
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Apart from the source, clubs have been queuing up and falling over themselves to watch and bid for mcgregor for years now without (apparently) a single bid coming in for him. I won't be holding my breath. FWIW if a great offer came in for him (12M seems like the stuff of fantasists though) I think we should consider it if the money will be used to strengthen the team. McGregor is obviously worth points to us, but with a new centre half and Alexander, I don't think we'd be any worse off without him.
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Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo?