ascender
-
Posts
4,088 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Everything posted by ascender
-
Thing is though Gribz, Walter used him sparingly at the best of times, so I don't think it made sense to either party for Novo to stay. He's a luxury we simply can't afford at the moment.
-
Hodgson has got him on a 4 year deal with 90K a week or thereabouts. I think he could be a very important signing for them, but it does remind you just how mental things are in the EPL with that sort of money being thrown around.
-
What doesn't kill you can only make you stronger
ascender replied to Frankie's topic in Rangers Chat
I think its a realistic model/way for us to run the club, make money and continue to be successful, although we might need to look at the longer term view/bigger picture for a few years to get things up and running. The support (or otherwise) of guys like Adam has been a problem for a while. Hopefully the current problems will galvanise our support and see that now more than ever we need to get behind the younger lads. The other issue I can see is that our scouting network has been derided by fans and those "in the know" for as long as I can remember. Have there been any signs of an overhaul of the scouting side of things? Mike. -
Thanks Frankie, will get right on it. For some reason I just couldn't find it no matter what search I tried. Cheers!
-
I'm sure I've seen this message here when I've not logged in, something along the lines of "thanks for browsing, but please register to continue". I'm trying to setup this for another forum but can't for the life of me find out how to do it - is it a setting in the admin control panel or is it a modification? Thanks, Mike.
-
Sorry, didn't explain myself very well. I thought he looked poor at times, but also showed he had something, just not sure if that something is anything special yet. You're right though, they hype was ridiculous and he needs to play regularly in his strongest position. Trouble is, I can't see him being selected to play there unless he's given a chance to stake a proper claim for the place.
-
I thought Fleck looked very poor at times to be honest, but its hard to judge him given he's not really played that much in his preferred position. Its also hard to compare him to someone like Danny Wilson, because he came in and played alongside Weir whose influence is there for all to see. I think there's a big difference between giving younger lads the occasional run out from the bench or in the odd league cup game as opposed to having them playing regularly from the start of the season, either as backup (instead of moving other players around to cover for missing players) or in some sort of rotation system. We still have a core of good players in the squad, so surely the only way we're going to see if these guys are good enough is to start playing them more. Certainly in the SPL I'd say we could play more of the younger guys and still be expected to beat most of the other teams assuming our players turn up on the day. Of course, its not as simple as that and there's two big problems with the ideas I'm encouraging. One is that over the last couple of years, we've struggled to beat teams who on paper, we should be doing so with much more ease. Of course, on paper counts for nothing, but often we've huffed and puffed our ways to wins, or taken the lead only to struggle to capitalise on it. In that kind of situation, would too much pressure be put on the younger ones? Or is that the sort of opportunity where younger players energy and enthusiasm might actually pay dividends? Linked to this is the pressure on players from fans. In recent times we've been too quick to get on the back of certain players instead of getting behind them. We all know there's more pressure to succeed here as 2nd place is considered failure, but if we are going to rely on youth more then we need to get behind them 100% as a support and perhaps take the longer term view that while the football on display might not be the best and we're not thumping teams 5-0, we're building for the future? Having said that, we've not exactly been playing attractive football for a while now apart from a handful of games each season, so do we really have that much to lose?
-
So, the Daily Record today are claiming that Thomson is wanting a pay-off from us as he's being "forced out".
-
Piece today with quotes from AJ in the Evening Times.
-
In some ways it might make the selection process easier for Walter and he can give Edu a run in the middle with Davis alongside him. Edu needs a good run of games to establish himself and improve. I always got the impression that Walter didn't quite know how to fit everyone in to the midfield without playing one or more out of position. Like Gribz says, the squad is dropping in size, as many have rumoured would happen for some time now. I can see both sides of the Thomson argument and obviously we don't know all the details, but it still smacks of short-termism to sell him for 2M given his age.
-
Will be interesting to see if we go for someone like Eagles, or someone from another Scottish club instead which would surely be a cheaper option.
-
Not sure why that would be the case, unless we have been told a lot of shite by all involved tbh. I thought that we had money to spend and there was no pressure to sell anyone, from a wages or fee point of view. We should be well under with the wage budget as well. Someone's telling us porkies, but I think we all suspected that.
-
That's depressing news if true. 2M is a ridiculous fee given his age and potential, even given his recent injury problems. I suppose its more indicative of the SPL than anything and our well publicised financial problems aren't going to help us in negotiations. I thought he was happy here though and looking forward to a contract extension? So either that's bullshit or the bank are still forcing us to sell.
-
The other thing is that I'm sure all our players have been "available" for about 2 years now. Its nothing new to suggest that suddenly we're being forced to listen to offers for our whole squad, its just sensationalist nonsense imo. Don't panic!
-
I think Thomson is the best we have at the moment and given his age and apparent happiness here, is one we should be looking to keep. Like Frankie says, his inconsistency has been very frustrating, but you have to wonder how we'd replace him for that kind of money. On the other hand, would it make Walter's team selection a bit easier and give a chance to someone else to establish themselves in there? 4M would surely be a minimum for him and they can keep Lee Miller.
-
Daily Record are running a story today saying Strachan is interested in Thomson and will offer Lee Miller as part of the deal. Of course there's no quotes whatsoever, but the worrying thing is that its one of those stories that keeps coming up.
-
I predict if he does poorly we'll see "told you" and if he does well it will be "he's found his level".
-
They've been saying the deal is nearly completed for about a week now. Jambos certainly don't rate him at LB, but he appears to be a physical, no nonsense centre half. The only reason I can see us signing him though is if Bougherra and Wilson are away and as usual, there's lots of conflicting reports about that pair in the media, so all I'm sure of is that I've no idea who's going to be staying or going.
-
I have a couple of concerns about Lafferty. One is that he seems extremely naive, which you could put down to his age, but some of the ways he goes down trying to get other players booked or sent off is embarrassing. Its not like he even learns his lesson from previous incidents. If it was an opposition player we'd be up in arms about some of his antics. And secondly, no matter what position he plays in, for every time he does something good, he'll do something laughably poor. He seems to look ungainly and uncomfortable at the best of times, but just when you think he's improving, he'll go and blooter the ball towards row Z or manage to tackle himself when trying to beat an opposition player. And that's fine, all players have moments like that, but he seems to have more than his fair share. Don't get me wrong, I really hope he comes good, but I think a lot of people got over-excited by his end to the season and glossed over the negatives in his play which were still there for all to see.
-
Its another WS baffling decision in how little he used Novo. But then he's just delivered the SPL again, so who are we to question him?
-
Not quite sure what you're getting at tbh. Anyway, I was wrong it seems. I remembered the quotes from WS, just had them completely the wrong way round it would seem. Or was I? Feck knows, but he looks like a really awkward, gangly player who doesn't know what he's doing for most of the time when played out wide. But then....
-
Straight through the middle. Not out on the left.
-
Lafferty isn't a wide player, but was deployed in that position by Burnley. However, when we signed him, Walter said that we wouldn't be playing him out of position. Lafferty is still young, but my problem with the signing was the fee. We simply can't afford to be spending big fees on players "for the future" unless they're something really special. And if they are going to be used now, then at least play them in their preferred position.
-
Maybe his bluff back-fired on him? He was waiting for a big increase from us or for Birmingham to come back in with a 30K a week offer and neither happened? Not only that, but Smith comes out and says he's leaving before any deal is in place, so he's no option but to go.
-
Of course it can be difficult, but unless you give it a go, who's to know how it will turn out? it doesn't have to be like that scenario either, but there's always been stories from the start that Boyd didn't want to move far away from home. Maybe its one of those things that he may regret passing over when he's older.