UCF2008

To me it says his mind wasn't on HIS TEAM getting to a European Final.

Would that not say something about his character/attitude though?. It's all speculation in the end & like you say we might never know the reasons behind Gow being frozen out. At the end of the day, it's not something that bothers me. He's a good player, but he's not that great that I would use him as a stick to beat club & management with.

I didn't say that. I certainly wouldn't class them as heroes, just give them the respect they're due. I was simply comparing the attitude coming from some of the support towards them as opposed to Gow who did absolutely nothing for us in his time at the club. Well mine was afterwards . I was talking about Gow after the Fiorentina game though.

Neither were the likes of Stevie Smith or Andy Webster, but like the rest of us they were all smiles. I know I couldn't wipe that grin off my face for days following the Fiorentina win.

If his squad number is anything to go by then it's possible we're thinking about using him at the back. Think he might be able to do a job for us there as well. His injury couldn't have come at much worse of a time as it robbed him of his chance to win his first winners medal (don't think he played enough games for a league medal). More than likely it will also rule him out for our CL campaign as well. Barring injuries he probably will find it difficult to get back in the team, but for now at least we know he's a good option.

Both players may have been inconsistent, but they contributed to our best European runs in recent history. Speaking of which, if Gow was such a Rangers man, then (whether he'd be playing in it or not) why was his face tripping him when we reached the UEFA cup final?

The trouble is that on one hand, Rangers need to use the press for public relations and on the other hand, banning those responsible for this type of trash from Ibrox won't stop them from writing it.

He might have been a decent player for us, but in the end he wasn't. We got him on a free and for a squad player his wages probably weren't too high so there wasn't too much money wasted on him. No idea why he wasn't given more of a chance, but he's gone now so there's no point in dwelling on the what if's. Having done absolutely nothing for the club over a two year period I don't see how he deserves the loyalty shown to him by some fans, while others who have at least contributed something (ie. Adam & Burke) are cast out with no better than a 'GTF'.

Obviously that should be the priority. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be looking. The terms Asian and Far East are quite broad after all and the game in some nations is of a higher standard than others. The Japanese national side has some really decent youngsters coming through at the moment, some of which are already attracting interest from the likes of Madrid and Barcelona.

I think you're being a bit harsh on Serie A and La Liga there. Not to mention the Champions League. PS - I didn't know Scotland was in the far east

The biggest clubs in Europe haven't taken such a huge interest in the Asian market over recent years just for the fun of it. I've no idea how much Celtic have made from it. Probably enough to make the Nakamura signing and Far East friendlies worthwhile, but probably not as much as they were expecting. One thing worth taking note of is that you don't necessarily have to sign an Asian player to attract interest. Real Madrid probably made more than 100 times the profit we're talking about for Celtic from the Far East, through signing Beckham. Also, unlike Madrid, Celtic can't take advantage of sales of TV rights.

There is a lot of money to be made by attracting interest from the far east, especially for the bigger clubs. Outwith merchandising, there are sponsorship and investment opportunities a-plenty, not to mention TV rights. Unfortunately in our current position, the merchandising would be fruitless (JJB can't even properly service the local market) and we don't have any control over our TV rights, so it's not really worth our while taking part in the gold rush ...Unless we'd like to have Kim Yong-il as our new owner.

Where most players thrive on confidence, Lovenkrands was hindered by a severe lack of it for most of his time at Ibrox. One of the paciest players we've had in the past decade, but also one of the most frustrating. He looked different class when played through the middle - he always did have an eye for goal - but he made his decision to move on when we were generous / brave / stupid enough to offer him a new contract. Lovenkrands said he wasn't made to feel wanted by PLG. Maybe over-sensitivity was his problem all along. Good luck to him though. He should be able to score goals for fun in the championship.

And Stevie Smith when needed.

Hopefully, if we do get the finances we need a contract extension for Boyd will be top priority.

You're probably right. As much as it wouldn't be quite as futile as campaigning against the BBC or starting a 'Murray must go' campaign (for instance:devil:) there is that element of apathy amongst the support which would make something like a change of CEO difficult to say the least.

It wasn't one of his better games.

What makes you say that? OK, they did accept an offer for him, but was that not purely a business decision?

Agreed Like I said initially, if his performance is poor (which it has been) and the support let their feelings be known then just like the management team he CAN be replaced. Can we force David Murray to make decisions? - No, but we CAN provide an influence on them.

You would like to think so, but then when you go on some of the other Gers forums....

I wasn't suggesting an anti-catholic element, but much like Ross McCormack (and unlike Albertz and Amoruso) it was suggested that Burke was a Cel'ic fan as other members of his family were season ticket holders.

Have to disagree. MF was suggesting it was pointless criticising Martin Bain when we should be having a go at David Murray (his employer) instead. The difference between Murray & Bain is that we CAN force the removal of Bain.

Well my point was that it wasn't Burke himself who was a Parkhead season ticket holder, but speculation that other members of his family WERE, coupled with his being singled out as the "F'n-yin in the blue" didn't exactly endear him to the more hardcore bluenoses of the support. Couldn't agree more, but you'd find a large number of bears would say the same about you for suggesting it.

Celtic boss denies McDonald move Last I heard 'they' were reporting �£10m. Now according to monkey heed it's 12. I suppose with his value depreciating so much between the supposed Spurs and Everton interest...

As for Burke, let's not beat around the bush. His 'family ties' never went down well with the support and being so injury prone just exasperated the situation. That said, in my opinion he's by far the most talented player to come through the youth system in recent history and to be honest I don't think there was ever a real problem with his attitude. If he reaches his true potential then we might well regret letting him go, but all things considered we didn't have much option.