Tannochsidebear

From a Rangers POV, this move must not go through, as nobody else will pay anything like that for a talentless twat with no final ball or shooting accuracy. It must have been some DVD they sent the Russians to have him rated at that price, or anywhere near it. Without the income from this move, Timmy cannot buy any more players, and clearly the team they have at the moment is not one to have us too worried.

thanks for info guys. So it looks like they have only got big money in for 2 players, boruc and mcmanus, while getting another 6 off the payroll (including a fee of around �£650K for 2 kids to swindon) and bringing in murphy, juarez, ledley, mulgrew, du-ri, hooper, kayal. So 8 out bringa in around �£4M, and 7 in for around �£8-9M, or as much as �£12M if you believe some of the price tags. Given that Timmy made a huge loss last season (no CL, regular half-empty stadiums, mowbrays signings and fees, Keano's loan fee and wages etc) there is no doubt they are well into the red by the end of the season, possibly by up to �£8-10m. Clearly they have no CL income again, no guarantee of CL in 11-12 even if they win the title, pay-offs for Mowbray and staff, re-building again, still not sold enough ST's, and a much larger wage bill again, if they fail to get the Glaswegian irishman off to Moscow they are in deep deep doodoo, and it will almost certainly be the end of the buying for this season, and they dont still have a decent defence or keeper. Oh happy days!!

didnt think they had spent anything like that, net. Any figures for the ins and outs? Not doubting you, and will be delighted if they have indeed already blown �£5.5M on that shower of garbage they have bought so far, but I had thought they were not much past even so far.

This whole affair could be the key to the title this year. If the Glaswegian is bribed to go to Moscow (much like Hutton to Spurs) it could release funds for the WGB (wee ginger bigot) to actually buy one or two decent players which could be what they need to get ahead of us this year. If he decides not to go at all, I will be delighted and I will be far more confident of 54. Surely the English teams have seen enough of his final ball and shooting to kow he is worth nothing like that amount of money, perhaps the Russkies have only seen his agents dvd of that one turn v sheepy against a player making his first game back in 9 months.

There is no way we should be paying more than �£2M for a player going into the final year of his contract. If we cannot get more than �£2M for Thomson for the same reason, I dont see any reason this guy should be worth more. He plays in a similarly poor league to us, and has made only a handful of caps for an average international side, like us. I am disappointed all this is being played out in the media, as we are normally very careful with signing targets, which makes me wonder if we are seriously pursuing this guy at all, or "doing a timmy" by appearing to be trying hard to buy some quality, only to "just" fail and end up with mediocrity. I dont know anything about this player, so I am not biased one way or the other with regard to wether we sign him or not, but I certainly dont want to pay over the odds for him, I was hoping those days were long gone.

Cant see it this year Guivarc'h. We will certainly not be behind more than one team at the very worst, and I cant see timmy being worse than last year, which would need to happen to fall to United's level. The other teams have not really strengthened this summer either, so I am not really expecting any sustained challenge from any of them, but I would love it if the Lurgan Bigot's only race was for second.

Hope they all pull out, its only a friendly and we dont have enough players to cope with extra meaningless games at International level at this stage (or any stage) of the season.

Only a matter of time when Timmy is in distress that the papers target a negative Rangers story to take away their pain. So predictable is our journalistically challenged Timmy, but is saves them from having to admit that their manager and new recruits are all gash.

If you are to look seriously at the SPL title winners for 2010-11, it will again be a two horse race. I can think of no other 2 horse race where the horse that has beaten its rival the last twice, the most recent being by some distance, and where the second placed horse has weakened its side by the loss of its best players at both ends of the pitch (Boruc and Keane), has a rookie manager, has already been shown up in their (financially) biggest game they will play all season, ends up being odds on favourite and the Champion, while also weakened but still having time to make its purchases, has managerial stability, the nucleas of a squad that knows how to win titles, and is at 5/4 against. Of course we have no divine right to win the title (although we should have!) but I just cant see how the bookies are making them favourites. I said the same thing last season, and we were 6/4 against at one point early on, and we romped home easily. It will be more difficult as our numbers decrease, but they will struggle to keep clean sheets and to create enough good chances from what I have seen so far, so bring it on I say.

That was what I had thought the rule was, so yet again sloppy journos who cant be bothered to check facts. Basically if the guy plays in the qualys for the diddy cup with one team, then signs for the mighty to play in the big boys cup, he is eligable as long as his original team is out of europe. With 2 rounds to go before the group stages of both cups, there is obviously a chance that he would be eligable to play for the Scottish Champions in the big boys cup group stages. Dont know if the guy is any good, and was too busy laughing when his team scored against timmy last season to really notice one player, but as usual you read a story about a player we have bid for, with nothing but negativity surrounding it.

They needed to change a lot of the players from last season because they are changing their playing style for this season. Gone is Mowbray's beautiful football (no laughing at the back!) and in is O'Neills kick and rush land of the giants football where route 1 is often too expansive for them. Lennon obviously seen this work for MON in his playing days and thinks it will work again. What he fails to recall is that MON's team had Larsson to get them out of jail every week. Keane did the job at the end of last season, but he has gone and they have nobody of that quality in their squad now. I am beginning to believe that if we can avoid multiple injuries to our starters, we should coast this title even easier than last year. It may all hinge on what sort of start both sides get, and while we continue to slowly aim to peak towards Aug 14, timmy has his make or break game this Wednesday. I cant wait.

I may be in the minority here, but while I am far from happy about the loss of key players, the lack of new owners, the total mismanagement of the club over the last decade, I can think of nothing that would have made me NOT renew my ST for 2010-11. And that is part of the problem at the club is that they know that we are loyal supporters of the "club", not whoever is in charge, either as manager or directors or shareholders, but the institution that is our club, and of cour se we will will still be going to the famous stadium long after all those currently in situ there at the moment have all gone. I know there are bears who are so fed up with things they are considering not renewing, and i havr total respect for them, as that is what we should all have the guts to do to enforce change, but it is just not possible, emotionally, for a lot of others to consider this. Going to see The Rangers is more than about who wears number 9, or who sits in the Directors box, it is a calling, and together we stand through thick and thin, good times and bad, as our fathers and grandfathers did before us, and our sons and grandsons will do after us.

I dont suppose I will be the only one to guess that Wilson will be up the road within a year or 2 to his bhoyhood heroes. dum dum dum, another one bites the dust..... and another one gone, and another one gone another one bites the dust And we have still to wait for Boughy to get his act together and decide where he is going, and hope that Davis can remain undetected by EPL clubs. Why do clubs keep coming to Rangers and not putting in any bids for Miller or McCulloch?

I love playing this game every season, especially when we dont have to qualify! As I go to all the Euro away games, my choices are purely selfish for places I want to go and I would love to Draw Milan (AC or Inter), Real Madrid, and FC Twente. Nice wee trips to Italy, Spain and Holland would be very attractive. From a purely hypothetical "easy draw" POV, I would suggest Seville, Benfica, and Copenhagen would give us a slim chance of progress. I have no European expectations again this season, and while I dont want our home performances to be as dismal as last season, I dont hold out much hope that we can do something, however, 3rd place should be our realistic target no matter who we draw, and I would be delighted with that.

Rangers and tottenham are in the same pot (pot 3) but we could get Bayern and Marseilles. From pot 4 do you fancy Twente instead? The full pot lists : http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/seedcl2010.html

Novo was offered an improved 1 year deal, but, at 31, he wanted more security and a 2 year deal. I think we were right to stick to the 1 year deal. The wee man disagreed and found a 2 year deal elsewhere. Nacho often said he was club before anything Gribz, but the proof was that yet again a player with undying love for the club found it easy to leave for more money/security elsewhere.

Please please please give us Real Madrid. I have always wanted to go there to watch the Rangers play Real Madrid, where you would see the World's most successful Domestic club take on the most successful European Cup side. Western Europe please as well to make it easy for travelling bears.

Just seen and read this thread and thought I would post something similar to what I posted elsewhere on the same topic. I have had recent experience of these offshore employee benefit trusts, as I was attending meetings with clients who were interested in setting them up. Done properly, which I am certain a business the size of Rangers will have done, these tax avoidance schemes are perfectly legal and 100% HMRC proof. They tend to last for a couple of years until HMRC get round to getting legislation passed to close the schemes down, by which time the accountants and laywers have created the next one, and so it goes on. The one thing I remember being told at the time was that you WILL get an investigation by HMRC, as it is in their interests to ensure you have all the paperwork (and there is plenty of it for these schemes) in proper order, as the slightest error can invalidate the whole process. The firm I was using to set this up for my client had been doing them for 13 years and had won every single HMRC investigation to date, as they are extremely thorough with the paperwork. In short, this story would only carry any credibility if it came from the business pages and with a source from HMRC that stated our trusts were incorrect. A (discredited) sports reporter trying to tell us about offshore employee benefit trusts is laughable, were he not trying to be serious. We've all seen through your disgusting tactics Darrell, it remains to be seen just how many of these exclusives have to be wrong before you get your P45, or are your editors happy that at least they are all negative Rangers stories, so who cares about truth and credibility?

I would hope so, certainly for the game at Tannadice next Saturday. It would be unwise to throw too many kids in to an OF game, even a meaningless one. I feel Walter will want to play all his top players against Motherwell to give them their deserved bow in front of the fans on the day we receive the trophy, and therefore I fear we wont see too many changes for that game either.

It was a little bit flat all day yesterday, even at the game it wasn't quite as tense, and the feeling at the final whistle wasn't quite as euphoric as the previous 3 titles. I was saying to my mates it reminded me a bit of many of the titles during the 9IAR era, where the big games were won in the winter and we had a healthy lead throughout and it was only a matter of time. Even going back on the bus was very quiet and that was mirrored back in the pub as well. Yes, we all had a great time, a wee sing song and huge grins all around, but after the drama and tension of titles 50,51 and 52, Number 53 was never really in doubt and it is a different kind of satisfaction this morning. No dispute, no nervy ending, We are the undisputed top dogs, the worthy Champions, The People.

Today we were again in Glasgow Sheriff Court to take on Dundee United in our ongoing action against them over the abandoned match last November. We are delighted to report that DUFC's attempt to get the case thrown out has failed, and we now move forward to a hearing at a date to be confirmed. Also, for tactical legal reasons as per our lawyers, we have decided it would be in our best interests to take them on in Dundee, and this was also approved by the court today. We have also been advised that as this case is now looking as if it will go the distance, we can say nothing further about it. We will of course let everyone know how we get on, and we appreciate all the messages of support we have received, and we hope this is a great start to a wonderful weekend for Rangers supporters.

Yes we are, and it wont get anywhere near a capacity crowd either. Well one end will be full, and in a real friendly party atmosphere, but the rest of the ground..........eerie silence!!

Not sure where I stand on the 18 team league set-up. Adding 6 more teams of a similar standard to Hamilton, Falkirk and St Mirren and taking away 2 games against Hearts, Hibs and Dundee Utd does not improve the competitive nature of the league. It might have more variety and less repetitive fixtures, but will it improve the competition as a whole. But then I dont have the solution to come up with something better. The idea I have been suggesting for a couple of years now was to increase the league to 14 teams, and play each other twice, giving 26 games. The top 6 break away and play each other twice more, giving another 10 games for a total of 36 games, with each team having played the exact same fixtures as everyone else. Also the fixtures are pre-determined before a ball is kicked. All the remaining fixtures are based on the standings at the end of week 26, and for example week 27 would be 1st v 6th, 5th v 2nd, 3rd v 4th. That looks great for the top 6, but is unfair on the team coming 7th, who with a late run could make a Euro slot, but would be denied this and probably have nothing to play for, other than "winning" their own league of 8 post-split. 2 up and 2 down from the bottom 8 makes it competitive for the relegation slots. What looks stupid with this scenario is the fact that the bottom half of the split end up playing 40 games, while the top half plays 36. Some re-branding could be the answer, with the bottom half getting it's own title, trophy etc and with 4 more games to help with the finances as they are not playing with the OF for the second half, it could be palatable to them. So essentially you have one SPL from August to February/March with 26 games. We then have the Champions Race for the top 6 with the extra 10 games and the Relegation Race for the bottom 8 with an extra 14 games. The league is shown as 2 different leagues for the post-split. As I say not ideal and open to ridicule for some teams playing more games than others, and perhaps unfair to one or two teams who just miss out on 6th place, but I believe a 18 team league will not improve the quality, excitement, or competition of the SPL.

Today we were represented at Glasgow Sheriff Court in our small claims action against Dundee United, following their decision not to refund any part of the ticket price for the abandoned game last year. Only when our case was called did we, for the first time, see what defence Dundee United intended to carry out. Their lawyer asked for the case to be thrown out on 2 counts, one being that the case should have been made in Dundee and not Glasgow, and the other being a case of title, meaning that instead of the action being made against Dundee United Football Club, it should have been The Dundee United Football Company Limited. So there we have it, 2 technicalities is what their spokesman said was a ââ?¬Å?vigorous defenceââ?¬Â. They did not want to argue that what they did was right, or legal, or fair. They wanted the sheriff to throw it out without any consideration of the facts of the case. Rightfully, their sneaky ploy was unsuccessful, and our request that the case be continued for 2 weeks to allow us time to consider their defence motion, was granted. Dundee United have shown utter contempt for football supporters all the way through this whole sorry episode, and sunk to new lows today in their attempt to wriggle out of the action with expensive lawyers and sneaky last minute motions. We now know what depths they will sink to in order to avoid the arguments made against them that what they did was wrong and in 2 weeks time we will be more than ready for them. For anyone interested, the next appearance in court is another preliminary hearing to hear the jurisdiction and title legal arguments on Friday 23 April at 2pm in Court 12 of Glasgow Sheriff Court. We were expecting today to be a mere formality to set a date for the full hearing, but United's sneaky underhand tactics tried to catch us out. Next time we will be more than ready for them.

Looked great from the Copland, well done guys. I would go so far as to say that was the best thing TBO has done to date, I really liked it.