ascender

58 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Very much so. As you see above, quite a few posters go into board-room problems et al, when the most obvious and the most grievous thing clearly were injuries to a host of players, especially our central defenders. IMHO, this is what Gio refers to ahead of anything else.

 

We've not seen Hagi this season, neither Helander. Souttar has been missing since 1st of August, Lawrence since 29th August, Goldson since 12th October, Roofe has played 26 mins this season, Morelos being a bit-part player too, mainly due to lack of fitness and form. Jack missed 12 games and didn't average more minutes than Morelos on the park.

 

If fit, Hagi, Helander, Lawrence and Roofe would start every game for me, maybe even Jack.

There's no doubt we've been unlucky with injuries. Especially given how absolutely bullet-proof Goldson has been up to now.

But... playing devil's advocate... I thought we should have cut our losses/moved-on/neogotiated an exit for Roofe, Jack & Helander during the close season. We just can't have three first XI starters who have continual issues.

I thought Souttar was worth a punt - but by signing him and keeping Helander we've effectively doubled our risk exposure in that position.

If you look on those three first team wages, plus the contracts given to McGregor and Davis, that's a big chunk of money from our budget which could have gone towards other signings.

I still think there might be a way back for Kamara under Beale, but who knows.

I'd definitely take whatever we can get for Morelos in January and finally move on from that chapter. I saw a couple of articles over the weekend saying that Kent really loved working with Beale, so not sure if that means he might be persuaded to stay?

There's no way any manager would accept a situation where they come in to a club and are told the DOF will just identify and sign the players they want and the manager will just have to deal with it.

I'm assuming, but happy to be corrected, that the DOF will constantly be looking-out for players who they think are realistic signings, a good fit for the club, the league, good investments etc and then sit down with the manager to discuss them along with any players the manager thinks we should be looking at?

4 hours ago, RANGERRAB said:

Lack of investment in squad?

not having full control of recruitment?

There's been a decent amount of investment in the squad though and before he signed the contract he would have been aware of the budget and what the responsibilities of everyone involved-in transfers would have been.

I'm going to assume its the injury situation until we hear otherwise from a source which isn't just a WhatsApp message from their mate.

Let's not forget that he was happy with the squad we have and presumably sanctioned some of the contract extensions which have used up some of the budget he could have used elsewhere. 

Everyone is back for training on Monday, so it might be nice if we had a manager in place for then....

Just now, Sutton_blows_goats said:

I'd personally be listening to offers for anyone, that includes Tav and Goldson. I'm not sure the player trading model works having your highest paid players having little resale value. Letting him go and get his own players in. The dressing room needs gutted.

 

This is the hill I'm prepared to die on... I think Tav in particular is great and his contribution has been incredible, but him and Goldson have been key first team players under multiple managers now and those teams have exhibited the same weaknesses, flaws and character traits time after time.

I wouldn't be gutted to see them both move on as its the very definition of doing the same thing time and time again and expecting a different result.

At this point I'd take a dream team of Gattuso and Ferguson. Can you imagine the press conferences/touchline bans/supporters getting chinned/players getting chinned etc. All infinitely more entertaining than some of the football we've been playing under Gio and we'd still finish second.

In a lot of ways Beale makes sense and you could argue he's shown under Gerrard that he's well aware of the importance of having a very fit squad and wants to play attacking football.

I guess its like signing players... unless you can afford to shop at the absolute top-end of the market, its always a risk.

Beale's low risk in terms of knowing the club, the pressures, the players, the league... but higher risk as he's unproven as a manager.

Something like Dyche is lower risk in terms of his proven ability as a manager, but more of a risk in the other areas.

1 hour ago, craig said:

Board would need to spend money - it can't be said we didnt spend money in the summer window, we just spent it either poorly or in areas we didnt need to.

I still there's players we've signed who can come good if we play a system which suits them; if we have a system in the first place and also in a team which is more confident.

But like @rbr says, we should also have a good chunk of wages coming free which will help out. Even if we don't use all of them, McGregor, Davis, Helander and Roofe should all go and we are probably going to lose Morelos and Kent too.

54 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I'm hearing we've had talks with Marcelo Bielsa. 

 

I've just made it up, but take that for what it is. 

I'll now go and post that on another forum as a rumour I've heard.

That's exactly how it works these days.

I'll be honest, I don't know enough about any of them.

I can see why Beale is being mentioned as he knows the club, the expectations etc and was highly regarded in his time here, but is he good enough to step up? Its also difficult to judge some of these guys in their current jobs because as we know, managing Rangers is a very unique position.

Its going to be silly season now for managers being linked with us and giving exclusive interviews about how they've always preferred us over them and would love a crack at Europe etc etc.

The fact they've done it at all and waited until now would suggest they at least have a plan which is good.

A new manager is just like signing new players, there's always an element of risk and we also have the unique pressures of managing Rangers and the expectations that brings. Not to mention the, um, unique landscape which is Scottish football.

5 minutes ago, stewarty said:

I think the hits to confidence that we’ve taken from our UCL group games, coupled with the injury list, throw in some poor squad and contract management across recent transfer windows, and I think you’ve got a perfect storm where we are shit out of form, confidence and options.    
 

A team lacking in form can look a million miles away from one that isn’t.  Even if the relative underlying quality isn’t that different.   A new manager could change us around quite quickly but I think we really could do with some new voices in the changing room. 

Agreed. What's really pi$$ed me off is that we have all of this going on and then have fans slating guys like Tillman & King struggling to find their feet. Rangers are not an easy team to come in and hit the ground running... When you add-in the ongoing issues around confidence in the team, we really should be cutting them some slack.

I'd really like to see someone come in and start making changes now instead of waiting until the summer if possible. If anyone isn't in the long term plans, they should go now rather than prolonging the inevitable.

4 minutes ago, stewarty said:

If the players really had downed tools for Gio, which I’m far from convinced about, it’ll be interesting to see if and how many of our long term injuries start clearing up in short order.  

I was thinking about this yesterday. I don't know whether he's "lost the dressing room" in the traditional way or is just out of ideas? Or struggling to get his ideas across? There's clearly something not right, but like Gerrard's last season, nobody seems to be able to fix it.

Wow.

The last few weeks, every time I get a notification on my phone or watch from BBC Sport I've been hoping its this one... But I was resigned to him not being sacked  so have been paying far less attention to the notifications. And now they've done it.

He's given us some great memories, but clearly his time was up. I'm genuinely surprised the board have made the decision though, so that has to be a good thing. Hopefully we can get someone in quickly and get the players motivated again, along with some planning for next season because I think we need to start making some changes now to get this squad refreshed.

An organised protest aimed at stopping additional income to the club would quickly be felt. i.e. fans agree not to purchase anything in the stadium on match days; programmes; boycott merchandise etc, but we all know that would be impossible to organise with a fanbase like ours. Other than protests, that's the only influence we as fans really have now once season tickets are sold.

I thought at the end of last week's match he looked like someone who knew his time was up... You'd have to hope there would have at least been a chat about expectations etc. I can't see how he survives this weekend's result and where that leaves us in the league.

I thought the 12 o'clock announcement had been rubbished yesterday by the Heart and Hand folks?

Just now, Rick Roberts said:

Surely this is because we want to see accountability? We have had some shocking stuff on and off the pitch in the last wee while and no-one is accountable. The only example I can think of is Morelos not going to Amsterdam.  

 

One point Gerrard always made was ensuring players really wanted to be there and play for him and getting rid of passengers early on. I dont think anyone has asked Morelos or Kamara that for a while? Whilst Gio seems happy to just bumble on with what he's given. 

 

 

But Gio has been in for long enough to ask that question and he's not just bumbling on with what he's given - he could have made bigger changes to that squad whilst operating within the overall playing budget if he had concerns about certain players fitness, attitude, capability, suitability etc.

I guess for the board, they'll point to the success on the pitch and off it last season to say they did their job and did it will. I think every supporter I know was willing to take second place in the league for a chance at the Europa League final for example.

The board have made funds available to Gio for signings (and on paper, I still don't think it's a bad set of signings) so they have backed him. And he did more than enough to justify it, but it was apparent early-on this season that our league form was looking patchy at best and its now got worse to the point where the league is effectively over by November.

It is telling (and baffling) that Gerrard and Gio haven't made bigger changes at the end of seasons where it seemed like the core of the squad were finished. Not sure how to explain that when we have also been spending money.

2 hours ago, Gonzo79 said:

He has to go or this season is going to be a shocker. 

Today has to be the last straw right? Surely he can't stay after that? Although I thought that about a week ago too so who knows.

They've actually done something about it?!

I think we've had this chat before - it was quite normal within my circle of friends that the terms "hun" and "tim" were used as good natured banter between both sides, but society has changed a lot and its really not difficult to see why so many Rangers fans feel like we've been unfairly targeted over the years by various individuals and organisations when it comes to use of Sectarian language, images etc.

So all in all, they look very encouraging and next year's should be similar. Does feel like they are the first ones since being back in the top flight which show we're nearly in good place, a solid footing which we can build from.