Tannochsidebear

FFS the pigeon done more!! It is remembered as the cup final where Craig Thomson cheated and lost the plot, and the pigeon! Nobody I speak too ever refers to that game and think of Miller first and foremost. Take the Laudrup Cup Final of '96, where even though Durie scored a hat-trick he was a distant second in the MOTM stakes. If you want to bring out a video clip of a cup final for a club legend, that would be an appropriate starting (and ending) point.

If these are the values the much-lauded-on-here transfermarkt site place on our players, then I suggest any and all future mentions of this site in defence of an argument is hereby null and void. To answer the OP, the worth of our squad is nowhere near enough as a result of the damage done to us from (at least) 2011 onwards. Given MW's policy of buying (mostly) players with a development and sell-on value, I would say he has done his job quite well in his first season. Wes, Tav, Waghorn, McKay, Holt, Halliday are all worth in excess of £1M at the moment, and hopefully by this time next year are worth a great deal more. He has shown that, generally speaking, he seems to be able to buy a low 6 figure sum player and turn them into a low 7 figure player. The next big question is will he be able to buy low 7 figure players and develop them into being worth significantly more? We all hope so.

This sums it up for me very well. I thought I had fallen asleep and woken up on April 1st. I am all for these nice easy articles that stir debate, but this one is an absolute no-brainer. A mediocre (I know, i'm being kind!) player with a mediocre scoring record (one purple patch aside his record is actually woeful). I see since he started working with the Under 20's as a coach they dont seem to win very often either. Legend status should be treasured at football clubs. It does seem to be overused IMO. I loved Albertz, McCall, Ian Ferguson, but they were not legends. Laudrup, even for taking Pete's point about longevity, simply has to be classed as a legend as he is simply the greatest footballer I have ever seen at our club, and we got the best years of his career out of him as well. The player has to have the playing ability to get punters excited to watch, or such exemplary leadership skills (Gough, Greig) that the legend status sits easily on them. Guys I hear being called legends like Barry Ferguson, Jig, Ricksen, and now Miller, are simply watering down the title to an undeserving level. I dont even like what we have done with the HOF. There are far too many average players in there now, and some I would struggle to even call average. Although we dont have an official list of legends, I would hate this to go the same way.

If we get 3 wins in a week I will be very pleased indeed. Of course I am expecting nothing less!

I see what you did there Rousseau!!!!

Agreed GS. McKay has come on hugely this season. Will be challenging Holt for POTY and is a shoe-in for YPOTY. Unlike Halliday, Holt, Wes, Tav, he has been contracted for some time and it is right that we get him on a new deal before the summer.

The club has to jointly with Hearts take SPFL to task on this stupid appointment. Two of the biggest 3 clubs in the country are not represented at SPFL board level, but they see fit to appoint another Rangers-hater to join their cabal. One can only guess at her remit, but it doesnt take a genius to know we are not going to like it.

Sadly all too true Ian.

Been busy all day so not had a chance to come on for a peek. I must say I am disappointed that this has only reached a 6 pages at this point. I was expecting a ball-bursting 20 pager by now! I obviously need to read a bit about the candidates before commenting, but FWIW I share the concerns that some appear to be too close to the club and may have a problem should fans and club be moving in different directions again in the future. Gough could be good as a figurehead to speak out on fans issues that the club cannot speak about, but given he has pretty much had nothing to say these last 4 years while Sandy Jardine (RIP) and a small number of others were left fighting alone, it does seem strange that now his mate is in the Chair, he fancies being a fans rep. As Club Ambassador he surely cannot say anything controversial on behalf of RF that RFC could not be seen to say? Strange one that.

Disappointed to see another example that the Police rule the roost when it comes to football in this country. I hate these Friday night games, which leave you with the whole weekend with no footy, and horrendous traffic problems on the Friday night. What possible reason can PS have for not allowing us to play on Sunday? No wonder punters are stopping going to football in droves.

I dont understand why these three would want to be part of an independent fans group board. Gough is never here and is too close to King to be independent. If a scenario arises where the board needs criticised, Gough is not going to criticise King. I hope the joint RF/RST board are full of paying punters and not just trying to get in names that will get them column inches in the untrustable media. Neither RF or RST has done anything but good in the last year/18 months so they deserve some leeway here, not forgetting this is just rumour at this time.

You have misinterpreted my wording. Hooked, subbed, replaced, call it what you like. It wasnt intended to suggest it was for poor play. I would have taken the anonymous Halliday off before GZ yesterday in the normal hour mark changes. I have yet to see MW make a tactical change on the hour mark. It seems to me he just makes two changes as part of squad rotation and game time for players. The shape, formation etc never changes, just some people move about to fit in the players he has pre-determined he wants to bring on for 30 minutes game time. He does mention this quite a lot in his comments. Obviously sometimes injuries etc determines the changes, but most of the time I get it right with who is coming off and who is coming on when I predict it at kick off. It rarely takes into account who is having a good game and who is having a quieter game.

Showing your age compo! I have heard Allan McGraw was a fantastic player and I know he was a huge bluenose and was still seen at Ibrox cheering us on well into his 80's with two walking sticks to get him up the stairs. Thats dedication! Haven't heard of the other two. From a more recent time, and assuming you mean Scottish players and not foreign players that were massively out of our reach (Maradona, Messi etc), I always admired (grudgingly) the Miller/McLeish partnership at Dolly, and I thought John Collins would have been a good fit for us before he went to the tims.

While I have my doubts that Zelalem will ever become a top class midfielder as there are too many flaws in his game for his age, I am astounded at those who thought he didn't put in a good performance in the first half. Finally, we are starting to see the boy listen to the coaching he is no doubt getting, and realise he has to contribute more than he was doing in a game. He was regularly further forward than we have ever seen him before, and was trying to find a pass to create a chance. His creative passing needs a lot more work, but no lack of effort yesterday and was the best of the midfield trio. Unfortunately, like at Raith, his second half failed to live up to the first and he was hooked, although Halliday was again anonymous in the advanced role and I am slightly worried about that. Ball was much better today at DM, although it was an easy shift given Killies lack of forward play.

They are just being stubborn. I think only the passing of time and court cases will finally get them to wake up and admit to themselves they got it wrong. They will still buy the record and listen to Clyde though!

I'm guessing it's the off-line, daily record reading, radio Clyde & Scotland listening minority that continue to do the opposite from the mainstream "cos they don't speak for me" !!

Does anyone have the stats for the amount of goals we score when Waghorn starts through the middle as opposed to out wide? I know he was poor today (wasn't alone) but I really don't think starting wide right suits him or our team. I am thinking our last dip in form/scoring coincided with the last time Waggy started wide right for a few games in a row. Moving to a wide position late in the game when we bring on another striker through the middle has worked well as far as I recall, but much less so in reverse. Might be wrong but would be interested to know if stats like that are available.

Spot on Ian. I can't believe any Rangers fan would walk past them and go in and give Ashley money, but it is still happening, albeit greatly reduced. Protest should be every single game until the contract is either ripped up or re-negotiated.

When I passed around 12.05 there was a fairly decent number standing watching. It looked and sounded like primary school kids holding the banner and chanting! Must be getting old!

Hard to make an argument for retaining any of the guys you mention, but we must bring in better quality than them and not more 3rd & 4th tier journeymen or unproven guys. With the mess delia is making over-by, it is likely they will bring in a proper manager (or Stubbs!) as they face up to our challenge again. We must have a core of players who can handle this unique type of pressure, not kids and loanees.

That is getting better now we are over 32K. Hopefully with walk-ups we get to 35K tomorrow which will be a good number. I was disappointed if it was only going to be 20-25K but these figures are much more like it. Bring it on!!

Are we seriously suggesting 20K fans can't afford a £20 cup ticket but they can afford a season ticket, a few beers at each league game etc? So how come if we had drawn the bheasts at Ibrox on Saturday and charged £30 a pop, it would have sold out in minutes? How do those people find the money for that but not to watch us play Killie? The simple fact is there is about half of our regular fan base who can't be arsed going and supporting the club when our income streams are down due to Ashley etc and we need it most. I'm certainly not getting at anyone in particular here, I respect supporters right to pick and choose their games, but it baffles and saddens me in equal measures the size of the cup crowds this season at Ibrox. The very same guys will be chasing for a cup final ticket if we make it (however unlikely that is).

He still has all his friends in the media I see!! I have never taken these awards seriously since well before they gave Hartson and Rickson the joint POTY award in 2005 when neither player was in the top 6 players for their club. The media make a big thing of them to try to boost circulation numbers and fill their pages with easy stories and pictures, but in reality they are about as useful as a Ronnie Delia team talk and about as accurate as an Efe Ambrose tackle. I see Ronnie won the award also, so go figure!

Spot on Bruno! I just don't get that 45K can turn up for a league game but only 20-25K bother with a cup tie against a much better side that should be a much better game. I don't buy this scheduling nonsense, if we were playing Killie in the league at the same time live on to on Saturday the crowd would be 40-45K. We clearly have around 20K fans who believe their ST money is all they want to spend on our club. However if we had drawn the bheasts and the game was scheduled for the same day/time, it would be crammed full, so does that mean our fickle fans are only drawn to certain opponents and if so, why? As a Rangers supporter it matters not a jot who we are playing, it is OUR side I go to see, not the opponent. I have been to many games over the years where I can't remember who we are playing as I go through the turnstiles!

Thanks for the very detailed reply R. My main gripe with the metronome role is that it may be of tactical and positional importance to some sides like you mention, but none of those sides play against 10 man defences in over 80% of games. That is why I think it unnecessary for Rangers, and I believe we would have greater succes with more creative midfield players. Just my opinion. I would argue McKay is already a better all round player than GZ, Barry Ferguson was a fantastic rounded player at 19, so I don't give GZ an easy out by saying he is young as a cover for where his game is at. At 19 with the schooling he must have had to get the attention he had for Arsenal to invest so heavily in him, he should not have as many parts of his fairly simple game needing huge amounts of work. I was a huge fan of Makelele and he is a great example of how that position should be played, and it is nothing like what we are seeing from GZ at this level. I don't watch a lot of Barca, (Real Madrid for me!) so I don't hold Busquets in such high regard, so I am happy to take your word for it. Of course I was being obtuse in my last para, but when in your defence you say he shouldn't be judged on the list I gave, it didn't leave much to judge him on other than the very simple pass/move! I watched him very carefully last night, and as I said in the first half he was pretty much always open to receive the ball, looked to move it forward more than ever before, looked to get forward to support, and yes, kept it simple, very often simply passing the ball back to whoever had passed to him. But after HT, he was not available to receive the ball as often, didn't go forward, mishit passes, got into trouble on the ball. Assuming you agree with this assessment (not sure if you watched it from the ground or on tv - makes a huge difference to what you see a player do) what do you put this down to? Is he too easily put off his game by tight marking, doesn't have the legs for 90 mins, youthful inconsistency or something else?