ascender
-
Posts
4,088 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Everything posted by ascender
-
Sold!
-
I can only remember a handful where he played up front and a number of them were from the subs bench. Strangely whenever he did play up front with Boyd their interplay was quite good, but it was never a partnership given a chance.
-
Both are young players still, so its not exactly a bad position to be in. No pun intended with that, but I think both have had a hard time trying to establish themselves as they've been regularly played out of their preferred position, well, certainly Naismith has. Naismith looked like he had great potential when he signed and I'm a bit said he's not had more of a chance through the middle. Anyway, I think I've said enough on Lafferty elsewhere, I just don't think he's good enough for us unfortunately and while the stats for Naismith are poor, I don't think they tell the whole story. If we go on stats alone, then why did Kris Boyd come in for so much stick?
-
He's just never looked good enough apart from some very brief flashes towards the end of the season. But even then, it wasn't brief flashes of something special like you'd see from a typical flair player, it was brief moments of him doing what you'd expect from a striker. I still think the guy needs to grow up a bit both on and off the park. He is young and we've paid a lot of money for him, you also have the problem that he was possibly playing out of position (or was he, as no-one seems to know what his preferred position actually is). He looks awkward with the ball at his feet, especially running at players, but I guess that's typical for such a tall, lanky guy. So why is he playing wide then? I don't think he's been a scapegoat at all, I think he's just been really disappointing and I really don't like the way he goes down so dramatically at the slightest of touches, or no touch at all. If it was an opposition player we'd all be up in arms about it. I know we're a fickle bunch, but after his goals at the end of the season, it was as if we'd forgotten just how rank awful he'd been leading up to that point in how many more games previously? It was also a bit weird, because as I said before, its not as if he'd suddenly transformed in to some amazing striker. He scored some goals. He was also still seen to blooter the ball in to row Z just as many times as usual or mis-control it or give possession away. I hope he comes good, but on the evidence so far its going to be an uphill struggle for him. We've not signed anyone yet, but we're being linked with strikers which makes me think he's going to drop down the pecking order further this season.
-
Rangers agree fee for Tommy Smith with Pompey!!!
ascender replied to gavin3084's topic in Rangers Chat
Apparently he can also play wide, so maybe there is some truth in the rumour. -
Keep Webster. That is all. We have enough players who can play at CB as it is.
-
Herald reckons we've increased our bid and FF says Bain is in Austria today.
-
So, apparently we've increased our offer for the lad and someone on FF says Bain has flown out to Austria this morning.
-
Has this guy got one or two years left on his contract, I've seen both mentioned now?
-
Up front I've no doubt that any two from our strikers can score regularly in the SPL. The problem for me is that they need good service which comes back to the midfield and also our tendancy to hoof the ball up from the back if we're struggling to break teams down. Like Frankie said, if we're looking at two strikers, then maybe someone will be moving on. Lafferty and Naismith haven't really had much of a chance through the middle and with our lack of funds, maybe they're destined for another season playing wide. Velicka is here, so assuming he gets fit, I'd rather we keep him and give him a chance, his record suggests he's at least score goals for us so is maybe a better option than someone who's untried in the SPL.
-
What's strange is that we seem to be seriously interested in Georgie Welcome and Nikica Jelavic. Both play up front and Jelavic is going to cost 2-3M by the look of things. Does this mean we're looking at another season with Naismith and Lafferty being asked to play the wide role again? I hope not.
-
Usual thing in this day and age, a single newspaper runs the story and it spreads. Even rumors from forums do the rounds this way now before being posted back on the original forum some days later.
-
Can see both sides to this. On the one hand, surely we should have done our homework on him by now, but on the other its good to see us being cautious.
-
The fee's never irrelevant though, not only does it mean more money going in to the club, but the higher the fee, the bigger the chance (however remote) that some of that money will get invested in the team.
-
Its not about his ability, but his attitude (see last season) and whether he actually wants to be here or stay here. Webster had a fantastic season with United last year, so if his injury problems are behind him, then he's the sort of player who we should be looking to be a first pick for a good few years to come imo. Especially if he wants to stay here and play for us. While Bougherra isn't as transparent as certain others have been in the past (Cousin for example), all the usual, predictable signs from an unsettled foreign player are there. Although I'm not sure if we've had the mis-quoted article from a foreign newspaper yet.
-
I'd have thought our strongest CH pairing would be Bougherra and Webster, but I can see the logic of letting Boogie go if he we get a decent offer for him. If the stories about him wanting to go, his mystery fitness problems etc continue, then I'd rather he just went. We want a solid CH pairing who could play together for a good few years rather than chopping and changing every season or so.
-
My contribution.
-
I thought this might be the case, shin splints can be a real PITA to get rid of, but I swear I saw some article in the last week or so saying it was no longer a concern which was strange.
-
There's nothing like being damned with faint praise!
-
Strangely, I think we were looking more vulnerable due to his lack of pace a couple of seasons back. Then we really did seem to play a lot deeper to compensate for him, but I didn't think it was as much of an issue last season. I think this is the season where he'll step aside, although I'm sure it will be a gradual process. I really hope Webster comes in, stays fit and shows just how good a player he is because he's really impressed me every time I've seen him play. I guess then it comes down to whether Walter plays Weir alongside him with Bougherra at RB (if he's still here) or maybe makes Webster first pick and rotates someone in the other CB spot. Given Weir's clear influence and his abilities, fitness, respect he commands etc, it would be a real shame for me if we didn't try to get him to stay on at the club in some sort of coaching capacity when he does hang up his boots.
-
Beattie? He's been linked with us on more than a few occasions in the past. No way he is going to take a massive pay cut to come up here.
-
Thanks Gribz!
-
Part two of that Q&A.
-
Here's the full text which I think is well worth a read. I might be in the minority here, but I think Bain should at least get some credit for giving such an honest sounding interview. He doesn't appear to try and dress anything up in the way some others would and is quite straight to the point in so much as he can be given he's a paid employee of a company going through tough times. A few things have really changed my mind about Bain. One was the change in his statements when Murray took a back seat in the day to day running of the club. Don't get me wrong, I know he still ultimately calls the shots, but almost immediately it was like the chains came off Bain. And secondly was the way during the title celebrations that Bain was in amongst it and was welcomed by the players and staff. I just get the impression that he's regarded as one of the close knit team we seem to have at the moment and genuinely believe he is doing his best under trying conditions. I agree, actions speak louder than words, but the big problem for us is that we still don't know exactly what the hell is going on behind the scenes. We don't know who's running our club, what their intentions are or just how bad things are with the bank. We've been fed so much bullshit from all sides over the last 4 months in particular, that its difficult to take anything at face value any more. We just need to have faith that Walter's management will get us through this season and deliver three in a row. Its easy to look at Celtic spending money, but their current strategy seems to be very short-termistic and expensive. No club can afford to do that in the SPL and while times are tough for us, if we come through this, we might emerge from the other side with some extremely solid foundations both on and off the pitch which we can then build on.
-
49? Wow, didn't realise it was that many. I just seem to remember game after game where I thought Novo would have been a better option than maybe 3 of the starting XI but he still got nothing more than a late appearance. I know there's a contradiction there as Novo is a better impact player than a 90 minute man, but some of the performances on the wings in particular were dire and Novo never seemed to get a start ahead of them.