ascender

WS said this week that he and Buffel are expected to be back by September. I know he said that he had a double hernia, but also some other things which I can't remember. Very worrying though given the length of time he's already been out and his age.

Strange one this. What could we have possibly done wrong with the Boumsong deal? He came in on a free and stated he wanted to move to the Premiership and got his wish. We did a good bit of business here IMO.

Its all speculation, but it was suggested as soon as he signed for us that he'd be off to the EPL very soon. Suddenly the player's value rocketed and some people mentioned at the time that we didn't see much of the cash for his fee.

Just been emailed this at work by a "hilarious" Hibbee.

Police raids carried out on two top flight football clubs and Rangers F.C. sparked a frenzy of speculation this afternoon. It was initially believed that the raids, which were carried out at the request of the City of London Police force's Economic Crime Squad, were related to the Stevens investigation into corrupt transfer dealings. However, police sources this evening revealed that at least one of the clubs, Rangers, are believed to be the victims of a crime rather than the perpetrators.

 

It is believed that the police investigation is centring on the transfer of Filip Sebo, who arrived at Ibrox in a £2m transfer from Austria Vienna in July 2006. "We believe that Rangers have been defrauded on a massive scale", a source close to the investigation commented this evening. "Filip Sebo isn't fit for purpose. Whoever sold him to Rangers is clearly a con-man, and a good one at that."

 

Police removed twelve boxes of material from Rangers stadium Ibrox Park earlier today. it is being widely reported that they contained DVDs of last season's fixtures, which the police consider to be "damning evidence". "All you need to do is watch a couple of these games," our source revealed, "and it becomes painfully clear that whoever the mysterious Mr. Sebo actually is, he's not a professional footballer."

think it will be more to do with the agents. not too bothered personally.

Yip, that's what I'm thinking. Interesting to see what comes out about this one though.

As for the title, I just saw a wee bit of it in the preview "We've been raided by". I thought it was maybe some club had come in and given us cash for Sionko & Sebo. Unfortunately not.

And to think that yesterday I posted about how great the official website was doing. Not a peep on it about this while Newcastle have already issued a statement clarifying that the club itself aren't the subject of the investigation.

Fuck me, talk about a shock!!

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6901085.stm

Or not, as I'm assuming this is to do with the Boumsong deal.

DM will be squeaky clean no doubt as he's not that stupid.

Nice report Pete.

I wonder what position McCulloch was playing in? Good to see him getting on the scoresheet and a header from a corner? Hopefully he can give us some sort of aerial threat which is something we've missed for a while now.

I was about to say the same, I can't believe how on the ball the official site is for once.

Pre-season games are notoriously difficult to read anything in to. It really is just a case for players to try and get match fit and for the management team to try things out and get a look at players. I've seen us have some amazing pre-season results followed by a bad year and vice versa.

Good to see Sebo scoring.

So, will Naismith be here by the end of next week? Starting to look like it might happen again after all.

Like others have said, the back 5 is sorted. You can also probably say that Boyd, Fergie and Hemdani are definitely going to play. So that leaves 3 positions up for grabs and that's the big unknown just now.

TBH I don't know enough about any of our signings really to say where they will play or where they can play, not even what side they prefer. I think our squad is a lot stronger than last season which is the main thing, but its going to be really interesting to see who plays and who is left out.

There's also probably 3 or 4 players who will have to make the most of pre-season if they want to be involved I think. Sebo, Burke & Buffel come to mind with guys like Burke also needing to pull their finger out.

Definitely encouraging to have a larger squad at last.

I was thinking about Beasley and McCulloch out wide with Ferguson and Hemdani/Thomson in the middle.

Novo is a trier with great workrate, but he just lacks the composure to be a real threat whether playing out wide or up front. If the new signings play well, he'll be a squad player at best.

Up front I'd have thought it would be D'Archeville and Boyd. Boyd is a stick-on to be in one of the positions, so its a case of who plays with him.

I'd hope that one of our signings could give given a chance on the right side of midfield tbh.

There's certainly options now which is a start. I think whether Sebo starts or not will depend on how he does in pre-season matches. McCulloch is also right footed, so could slot in to a few of the positions.

TBH I don't know enough about our summer signings to say where they might play, so its going to be a very interesting pre-season seeing how they all fit in.

I have to say that its disappointing to see the reaction to this signing on other forums. Even on the BBC News page about it, the current comment from their debates is "I can't believe we paid 2.25M for this donkey".

I really hope McCulloch is given a chance to prove himself by the fans.

I know its a minor thing, but there's been lots of really positive comments from the new signings. Morale and expectations seem to be really high at the moment and I can't remember that in recent times.

Ponroy has gone.

Squad is looking a lot better, but, and i'm going to sound like a stuck record, I still think our centre midfield is far too defensive looking and just not creative enough.

LM seems to have been one of WS key targets, so it'll be interesting to see where he plays him tbh.

Im happy with this signing and would think he will be a first teamer. If he was a foreigner the transfer fee wouldnt get a mention.

 

He has always done a good job for Scotland when ive watched him and he has held his own no problem in the premiership.

 

Welcome to the Gers Lee

I agree Gribz. Even though the fees in England have gone bonkers, McCulloch seems to be getting a lot of flak from Bears because of who he is. He's been a regular in the Premiership and at International level. He's reaching his peak (in theory), so I think we're just paying the going rate.

At least this is a player WS knows, so its more of a low risk deal for us than many we've done in the past.

What is his best position anyway? I'm confused as I always thought he was LM, but I've seen people say he can play in the centre and up front. Seems to be a threat from set pieces though which is something else we've lacked for years. Now, all we need is someone who can actually take a decent corner kick.

Apparently we're still interested in Whittaker and another forward if we can't get Naismith, so our squad could be looking much stronger come the start of the season.

WS must see something in him and he's worked with him enough to know, so that's good enough for me. He's also a big lad, which is something else I think we've been missing recently and can be a real asset in the SPL.

Welcome to Ibrox Lee.

Lies I tell you, damn lies!

Unless WS pulls a rabbit out of the hat or identifies someone similar to Faubert, any more signings will probably be from McCulloch, Whittaker and Naismith. Has he not said he was looking to sign 3 more players, Carroll being one of them?

I know I've said it before, but I'm still most concerned about our lack of creativity and attacking flair in the middle of the park. I think those players above will strengthen our squad and I think a couple of them might well surprise us in terms of their contribution to the first team, but we're still lacking a special player, someone who can turn games and win matches for us.

Wigan have had an offer accepted for Koumas, so I'm guessing McCulloch will be signing for us shortly.