Tannochsidebear

I’m guessing zero, didn’t think he was taking a wage.

At those prices it is more likely that all the auld codgers are buying them to give to the youngsters!

And King and Nsaila or whatever he's called. But I agree we need more quality there as none of these (clearly I know nothing of the newbie so exclude him) are good enough to be first picks. I think of Souttar, Balogun and Davies as rotational players or backup, they are not of sufficient quality or reliability to build your base from. In fact I can think of only Helander as a proper first team defender from all we have had since SG arrived, and he was of course made of chocolate so failed the reliability test. Am I missing anyone? Our list of CH in the last 7 years must be remarkably poor and is probably the biggest factor in us winning 3 out of the last 21 domestic trophies.

Going back to Frankie's update post, I was thinking that £11M of commitments would include staged payments for the likes of Danilo and Dessers. It is normal these days I believe to stage payments across a year or 2, and I am sure I have read this is very much our club's way of dealing in the market too. So when JB talks of this high number that may include staged payments for previous purchases, not only the likes of summer 2024 buys like Cerny and Cortes. I thought the interview was pretty much as expected and not as bad as others have said, he explained a bit about the timescales for the steel, the process there going forward, didnt expect him to say too much about how it was allowed to happen to get to this stage. Like others though I was a little surprised he took the tone as if he has only just joined the board now and not that he has been there for about 5 years now. I appreciate his was not a hands on role day to day and that we had CEO and other board members more involved but he should have took it a bit more on the chin for collective responsibility. A bit more humility perhaps. Explained a bit more about what he and PC are going to be doing to change the squad around with no more buying non-resale value players and also cutting costs (the wage bill I suspect being the biggest hit which is why Goldson Tav & Cantwell are being punted as they are suspected to be the biggest earners) and bringing in more legs and energy as well as hopefully quality.

He's gone, he's finally gone. Halle-feckin-luyah. £2M a year off the wage bill plus a fee. I am away to bet on us winning the league now that this serial loser, big-game bottler and half-time chucker is history. Well done big Phil in getting rid as I know he wasnt keen to leave.

I agree with most of this but are we really a weaker squad than the one that crumpled and bottled it at the end of last season? While I don’t know anything about any of the newbies that have been brought in, to my mind unless I’ve missed something the only players to have left we needed gone, so we can’t really be weaker?

I fancy us to win the league this year. I believe the manager will sort the squad out by the end of the window and if we avoid defeat in first OF game we will push on from there. CL qualification may be too much too soon.

I only caught snippets of the second half but the amount of bed wetting both here and on twitter reinforces my long-held view that all pre-season friendlies should be behind closed doors with no tv coverage. The matches almost always fail to entertain, the second half is usually non-stop interruptions with subs, and it would be far better for players to find their feet away from the glare of supporters. Getting booed off at HT in a bounce game is a new low. What chance do our young and new players have when they are not allowed even a half a bounce game without such harsh scrutiny?

Don’t tease @Frankie that alone would give me belief for the season. Sounds too good to be true though.

I know what you are saying but we did get rid of about 8 players whose contracts or loans ended plus McCrorie so we must have reduced the wage bill a lot. With the expected departures of Lammers, Hagi, maybe Dessers that’s another chunk and if we can move on Goldson that’s the equivalent of another two.

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Hospitality back in the 90's was not quite the same level as now though!

I wonder how they are going to work the seating at Hampden for ST holders. I sit in the Copland Rear, a decent view near the pitch. At Hampden the similar seat in the Rangers end is an awful view and as there is no lower and upper I am likely to be right behind the Onions which is a problem. Will it be like for like so if you are in the Copland you will be in the Rangers end and the Broomie will be the Celtic end with main stand and Govan stands being similarly rehoused in North and South, or will it be a MyGers points style logon to get your seat for each game individually?

While I dont know any of the finer details, I have heard that this was a major stumbling block around the possibility of playing at Murrayfield. The stadium insisted on controlling the catering and hospitality and Rangers contracts with our partners wouldn't allow that to be possible.

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