ascender

Like Frankie, I'd rather have seen change immediately after Kaunas. There's no point doing it now when we're still very much in the title race (despite us doing all we can to throw things away).

By keeping WS in charge, SDM has actually made things even more difficult for himself if Celtic win the title to make it 5 in a row. By getting rid of WS, he risks bringing someone in who clearly deserves time to turn things around. But by then it could be 6 in a row for Celtic. He could stick by Smith, but while the players clearly respect him, many are clearly under-performing and there's a definite "old boys" network in action around the club where favourites are picked regardless of form for example. Can Smith turn things around next season if we finish second again?

The other scenario is that we win the league and all will be rosy around Ibrox again. If that happens, all we're doing is papering over the cracks again. I'd love for us to win the SPL this year, but my worry is that in doing so, we won't get the wholesale changes which are clearly needed, both on and off the park during the close season.

Even taking Celtic out of the equation, we should have a good enough squad to beat all the other teams in the SPL, 9 times out of 10. There's always going to be freak results, tight games, draws when teams defend with 11 men, but for the apparent calibre of player we have, with what they're earning, there should be no excuses. With the way we've been playing for large parts of the last few seasons, we should have saved our money on big transfer fees and just bought up the best players from other SPL teams, supplemented them with our own youngsters and with the right management, surely we'd be no worse off than we find ourselves at the moment?

Let me clarify, I don't think finishing second is a failure if we're seeing progress on the park and moving in the right direction. But unfortunately we've failed to build on the momentum from last season and could easily finish trophy-less this time round.

Its been around for a while, but various radio djs and minor celebrities are creaming themselves about it just now for some reason. I wasn't being too cheeky above, its basically another system to let people know what you're doing every second of every day.

Are you going to be keeping us up to date with your every waking moment of the day Frankie?

At least according to the Daily R*cord.

KRIS BOYD was banned from Murray Park yesterday after a bust-up with furious Rangers manager Walter Smith.

 

And the fallout means the Ibrox club's top scorer won't play in Sunday's Co-operative Insurance Cup Final against Celtic.

 

Boyd was sent home as soon as he showed up for training but not before Smith had ripped into him over of his attitude during Sunday's Homecoming Scottish Cup quarter-final against Hamilton.

 

No one at Rangers would confirm the confrontation but sources inside Murray Park said the striker, who has scored 24 goals this season, looked stunned and was chalk white after having been called to the manager's office.

 

It is believed Smith was raging at Boyd's behaviour after the team to face Hamilton had been named. Boyd was on the bench and according to team-mates looked disinterested in the match. His behaviour was described as unacceptable as well as unprofessional.

 

It is believed he lashed out at a pile of boots in the dressing room when he found out he wouldn't be starting the tie. It is also understood that while the other substitutes warmed up at half-time, Boyd stretched out on the treatment table and lay there with his hands in his pockets.

 

Smith allows his right-hand man Ally McCoist to deliver the team talks for cup ties but the manager wouldn't have missed Boyd's display of petulance.

And when the players, who were given Monday off, reported for training yesterday ahead of the Old Firmfinal Smith was waiting.

 

No one needed sophisticated listening devices to realise Boyd was given a verbal working over. He left without a word and although no time limit has been set on the length of his ban, he is out of the final unless Rangers suffer a series of injuries between now and the Hampden showdown.

 

Even if Boyd swallows his pride and makes a grovelling apology the best he can hope for is a quick return to training. Even that won't happen until he learns to accept managerial decisions.

 

Greater respect for his teammates and much more effort are what he will need to demonstrate if he wishes to force his way back into Smith's first team plans.

 

Debate has raged over Boyd's merits ever since he signed from Kilmarnock almost four seasons ago and clearly the player believes he should be an automatic choice.

 

Smith, on the other hand, would like to see more of a contribution from his striker, who has also upset the Tartan Army by his refusal to play for Scotland while George Burley remains manager.

Yesterday, Smith faced the media for a pre-cup final briefing and revealed he would have no problem leaving out either Boyd or in-form striker Kyle Lafferty.

 

He said: "It won't be hard to leave out either player if it has to be done for the good of the team.

"Boyd's not an enigma in my eyes. He gets goals but other aspects of his game don't reach the same, high level as his scoring ability.

 

"Lafferty's ratio of goals to appearances is good and, given time, he can be a good centre forward for Rangers."

I'd go for Beasley or Aaron for the simple reason that its their natural or most preferred position and I think they're the only two in that list who that can be said about. Maybe McCulloch at a stretch?

I think LM is like any other position, we need to find a player (and backup) to be given some time to settle in to that role and see how they do. There's no point chopping and changing things constantly.

If Novo is fit, he could obviously play there, but I still think he's best coming on from the bench unless we play him through the middle as playing from the start seems to highlight the weaknesses in his game.

Is Walter watching the same games that we are? Really?

Thanks for your ratings BD, certainly ties in with what I was hearing from the commentary. Trouble is, your descriptions of how the players performed could have been copied & pasted from any one of a number of games this season.

Apparently we have a big squad, one that's too big to sustain in fact. So why aren't we using all these players we have? Maybe if a player got dropped after having a couple of bad games, he'd work harder in training to regain his place and then start pushing his replacement to better himself etc.

Of course the league's not over, but I totally agree with MF when he asked, "is anyone surprised?" That sums up where we are just now for me and the direction we've been headed over the last few years.

I'm not at all surprised by tonight's result or performance. I'm still absolutely gutted though as we could have/should have had the title wrapped up by now.

We appear to be leaderless both off the pitch and on the pitch, not to mention totally lacking in ideas. Assuming our players are simply carrying out the instructions of our management, I find it amazing that WS thinks the long ball is the answer when we're struggling to beat a team.

I also find it depressing just how low expectations our management team appear to have these days, summed up by us going to Pittodrie and playing for a draw.

We have to get behind the team 100% and some will say that comments in this thread are knee-jerk after one result. I say they're anything but reactionary. Check back on this board over the last couple of seasons and you'll see the very same complaints about our performances being made time and time again. While it may not have appeared to be the case, I think we've been riding our luck for some time now and while on many occasions things would go in our favour, its really been a close run thing and that's why I'm not surprised by results like tonight.

I'd be up for this too Frankie if you're still looking for anyone.

I know there's some who rate Levein highly, particularly as he stands up for his team and speaks his mind, but come on, his latest tirade is so hypocritical its incredible. I've lost count of the number of times his side play against us, taking their time over every by-kick, throw-in etc when the score is in their favour. But as soon as they go behind its a different story and then they have the cheek to complain there's not enough added-on time at the end.

Why did the journo not pick him up on this?

CRAIG LEVEIN last night launched a scathing attack on Hearts for "conning" their way to victory at Tannadice.

The furious Dundee United boss blasted his former club for faking injury and resorting to time-wasting tactics in the controversial 1-0 win at the weekend.

Levein, who watched a rerun of their weekend's game on video yesterday, singled out Jambos midfielder David Obua for some stinging criticism for pathetic play-acting.

And he has pleaded with referees not to allow a repeat of Saturday's scenes that enabled the third-placed Tynecastle team to chalk up a vital victory in their quest to qualify for Europe.

Levein said: "Hearts conned the referee. I think with Hearts particularly, referees have to be alive to these kinds of tactics.

"I just want referees to watch out for them doing the same sort of thing again.

"It shouldn't be allowed.

"David Obua was comical and there were other players who were pretending to be injured when there was nothing wrong with them."

My biggest problem with Setanta is the poor picture quality and amateurish presentation & commentating. The fact you have to pay for it (more than once if you want multiroom) just takes the piss.

Woo-hoo! Another Boyd thread.

Just a few quick points without getting drawn in to the usual stuff which just ends up going back and forth.

I still think if we sort out our creative problems in the midfield, any pair of our current strike force would score a shed-load of goals in the SPL.

Boyd isn't a target man, so why do we persist with long balls, time after time, especially when chasing a game.

Boyd clearly wants to play for The Gers which is to be applauded. So surely that attitude alone should be enough for our management and coaches to work with in terms of improving his fitness and all-round play. Unless there's serious deficiencies in our coaching, I don't for one minute believe any of our players have an attitude problem and don't give a toss in training. If they do, then why are they still here?

He has improved in his time here, surely no-one can argue against that? If he hasn't improved enough, then we either ship him out or ask questions about our coaching methods?

Oh, and the "indiscipline" thing. Again, he should have been hammered for that, but there were a lot of strange goings on at that time and I still don't think we know the full story. Strong leadership from our esteemed leader would have helped, but we all know that's never going to happen.

The bottom line is that he is scoring goals which is the main point of having a striker. Play doesn't always break down when he's involved outside the box, but there's no doubt he'll benefit from a more mobile player up with him and also a regular strike partner alongside him to strike up some sort of understanding.

He's also criticised for not scoring against the "big" teams, Celtic and in Europe. The only problem with that is that he's not played much in Europe. He's also not started against Celtic much and when he has done, we've not exactly been firing on all cylinders. As for not scoring against the "big" teams in the SPL, that list of teams seems to change to suit the argument against him. Besides, we still have to beat all the other teams in the league regardless of how big or little we perceive them to be. I find it laughable that we're talking about (him & us) failing in Europe when we've not won the SPL recently.

Oh, and its also very suspicious apparently that we've not won the league since he's been here. Quite how that becomes down to Boyd is just beyond me.

I still don't understand all the criticism against him, that's my main problem. Whether we win or lose, there's always negative posts on forums about him, even when he's been nowhere near the worst player on the pitch. I don't know what he's done to attract such flak from his own fans?

I don't think anyone has ever said he's the answer to all our striking problems. But at least he's doing his job which is scoring goals. I've said for a while now that he's one of the few guys doing this consistently while we've got much bigger problems to deal with in our starting XI.

If he wasn't in the team, would we have played better football? Possibly, but its doubtful given that we'd still have the same midfield creating the chances.

Anyway, who cares, we're top of the league!!!!!

I take it they've also decided that "hun" is perfectly fine?

I really wish our owner and custodian would grow a pair and stand up for this great club and the loyal fans who follow it no matter what.

Well done everyone, great result, we're only two points behind Celtic now! Just think, if we'd been more positive against them and Aberdeen, we could have been 4 points clear at the top.

Like Frankie says, we've struggled to beat many of the other teams in the league, so I don't understand why we haven't gone for it in those two games. And like someone else pointed out yesterday, its very worrying that even with more attacking and creative players in our team now, WS seems to be doing his best to shackle their creative urges.

I think WS should have come in, steadied the ship last season, then stepped aside in the summer for someone else to take over, especially as there was money there to rebuild.

Well there's a shock, nothing in the papers at all about him, but a story about Fleck's uncle.

If this was true then surely he'd have been dropped by now? If there was anything serious going on off the park I'm sure the club would have found out about it by now and taken action. The football world in Scotland is so small that you can't keep anything secret for long.

Just can't see it, I think he's just not as good as he thinks he is. Although you have to wonder if there's not "something" off the field affecting his concentration.

It was shocking defending all round. It was hard to tell what James was doing at a couple of the goals, not sure if he just saw them so late that he literally couldn't do anything in time as they were hit hard too.

What a shocking display of defending, no wonder Tony Adams was raging. I have to say I also thought that the backpass ruling only stopped a keeper picking the ball up, for some reason I thought it was OK for him to just parry the ball away.

Solve our lack of drive & creativity from midfield and our width and any pairing from our current strikers would score a shedload in the SPL. Been saying that for years. I think its amazing Boyd has scored as many as he has given his limitations and the fact we seem to be creating fewer (good) chances per game than we have historically done.

I've never understood the argument about how we've never won a title with Boyd, for me that just goes to show how much of a scapegoat he is.

Its the same with the one about him never scoring against the "big/better" teams ad games in the SPL. The criteria for judging what constitutes a big game or team has been changing to suit the argument depending on what he does.

He also never scores in Europe or against Celtic. Well, he needs to be playing in those games in the first instance to have a chance of scoring in them.

I'm not saying he's the answer to all our problems, I think its clear he has limitations and needs to work harder in training, but I think the criticism he gets is way OTT and get the feeling that no matter what he does, he'll always be the first to be blamed when things aren't going right for us. Which is really disappointing given he's a Bear and there's far greater problems in our team at the moment.

So why is our support fascinated by Boyd so much in the first place? Whether we win or lose, he seems to be one of the first players singled out for criticism. Its not as bad on here, but on other forums, its incredible how many threads there are from supporters about him and how many other threads become a chance to have a go at him too. Just don't understand it really.

They could have had the league sewn up by now if they hadn't dropped so many silly points. All they've done is managed to leave the door open for Man Yoo imo.

Good to see one of our players talking about how much he loves the club.

As regards his attitude and fitness, do you think that's just symptomatic of Scottish players and that will never change? On one hand, you'd hope that the club would be trying to change things, but surely a young player like Boyd would be doing all he could to improve his game? He's got a short career in the game and there's so much good information available now on how to train smarter, surely its in his best interests to reach his full potential?

Good luck to him! Maybe he'll rediscover the promising form he showed here during his first full season.

Off on his holidays ? Collecting family that are returning from holidays ?

...working at Costa Coffee?

Who knows.