amms

I understand what he's saying. He can't win the war this week, but he can win a number of battles that mean the war can be won in the next few years. As things stand just now it's stalemate. Everyone will get financially poorer, the 'product' will deteriorate and clubs will go to the wall. By agreeing 12, 12, 18 or 12, 12, 10, 10 as he suggests, the SPL clubs relinquish control and indeed the SPL ceases to exist. If they agree a 12,12, 10, 10 then we'll be promoted after all. Either way most SFL clubs will receive greater TV and sponsorship revenue and their votes will count for all Scottish football. But I don't think there is any doubt the SFL clubs are going to back this proposal in one form or another now.

No one is going to sue Leggat for liable because his allegations aren't libellous. It isn't libellous to allege someone is a Celtic supporter, it isn't libellous to allege someone held their head in their hands when they heard the the tax case news and it isn't libellous to allege someone uttered a profanity when hearing the news. It'll win them a few more friends in other areas though. The Daily Record is still an important opinion former in Scotland but not nearly as important as it was 5 years ago. Its influence is waining with every passing year. Newspapers have always been partial, they take positions on political issues all the time and sell themselves accordingly. That the Record has chosen to position itself as broadly Celtic friendly isn't a big surprise. It's a commercial decision and they are at the mercy of market forces. If they feel it is the right commercial decision then good luck to them. They won't get any of my money but I'm not their target market anymore so that's fine with them. Broadcast media are far more influential and in this country have always been impartial. That's clearly not been the case in recent years and that's what needs addressed. The imbalance in reporting in radio and TV needs challenged and the balance needs levelled again. Either that or they need to admit to their bias, you shouldn't claim impartiality whilst perpetrating the opposite. I wondered if the inclusion of the guy from the Rangers Standard on Radio Scotland the other week might be the start of trying to broaden their output. We'll see.

The French have a phrase that sums up Brian Laudrup for me; joie de vivre. The joy of living is what Laudrup brought to Rangers and to football. He was an entertainer, he was fast and skilful yet he was a team player, often happier to lay it on a plate for others. He worked hard, he scored and performed in big games and small, he looked like he enjoyed playing football as much as we did watching him play and he came across as a gentleman off the pitch. He was everything you want in a footballer. A career that took in clubs like Bayern Munich, Fiorentina, AC Milan, Chelsea and Ajax as well as two international trophies and a World Cup quarter final appearance with Denmark suggest a player who shone at levels far above mediocre in his career. We were honoured to watch a player of his talent at Rangers. Was he the best player in the world, was he even the best player in his own family? Does it matter? He was the best player any of us are likely to see in light blue. Think of him bursting past hooped defenders, sizing up whether to pass, cross or shoot all in a split second and making the right choice each time. Think of him and smile. Brian Laudrup was joy.

Interesting analysis, thanks. I see from your later post that this one is actually trying to demonstrate that our team on Saturday wasn't a young one and that youth shouldn't be an excuse for poor performances. I wouldn't blame youth so much as inexperience, the two aren't always analogous although often they are. In Hegarty, Perry, MacLoed and Hutton we had 4 inexperienced starters, we brought on another two in Faure and McKay. Even Andy Little has made less than 50 league appearances despite being an international. It's not an excuse though, simply an observation. Comparing us to Hearts is also interesting. Hearts are currently sitting 9th in the SPL, a position that would get any Rangers manager the sack. They are also basically insolvent which brings its own challenges. That they've made the League Cup Final probably says as much about Scottish football as anything else, I'd point out they only played 3 ties to get to the final and two of them they won on penalties. Being managed my McGlynn is probably a shrewd move by Hearts, his experience with and, I assume, faith in their younger players will be vital for them. However they are only one point off second bottom and but for the gerrymandering of Dundee FC into the SPL would be facing a relegation fight this season. I feel the purpose of our youth team is to provide players for our first team. I actually think it has done okay on that score recently. McKay, MacLoed, Hegarty, Perry, Crawford, Hutton, Little, Cole and Aird have all made appearances this season. I accept circumstances have brought this opportunity rather than it being strategic. Had things worked out differently in the summer we could add McGregor, Ness, Fleck, Wylde and McCabe to that first team roster. That doesn't feel like a bad return to me. On Saturday Hearts had Danny Wilson in their starting line up too. I accept your point your point that on Saturday our team wasn't as youthful as some might have thought, however it did contain a number of inexperienced professionals. Hopefully they'll gain experience in the coming months and seasons. Lastly, I really enjoy your blogs on our youth teams. You see far, far more youth football than me. I'm not qualified to argue with you on that subject (not that'll stop you understand!).

That's interesting, thanks.

Looking at the players that have gone on and made a career I'm curious where it's felt we're lacking. I've heard the accusation that Rangers only want big, strong boys and accepted it as true, yet a look at the players we've produced over the last 5 or so years suggests it might not be as clear as that. This season McKay, MacLoed, Aird or Crawford don't fit that bill, indeed they are the archetypal ball player types. Hegarty, Cole and Perry are bigger, stronger types and Kyle Hutton looks like a big powerful player, more graft than guile. Looking at some others Jamie Ness was a big lad but it was his ability that stood out about him not his stature, Rhys McCabe was a smaller guy and again a skilful player. Danny Wilson was tall but it was his reading of the game and his distribution that caught the eye. Going further back Hutton was a big, strong player but Stevie Smith wasn't, Burke and McCormick were smaller skilful players, Charlie Adam has a physical presence but he doesn't use it and instead relies on his passing, shooting and eye for goal. I'm sure I've missed a number but I can't remember the last player we produced who was a genuinely physical player. A player prized for his physical attributes over the more ascetic attributes. We could and should do better but we're very hard on ourselves sometimes when perhaps the evidence suggests otherwise.

Some posters are using it to validate their own opinions on McCoist. It's classic managerial deflection tactics, Peterhead have the second biggest budget in the league yet are sitting fourth, only one point ahead of Elgin who have a game in hand on them and four behind Queens Park who are amateurs and have 2 games in hand. See this for what it is, a manager under pressure pointing in another direction so no one will ask him any awkward questions. The hard-on some have for Ally borders on persecution, we're 19 points clear at the top of the league yet he's still criticised, you couldn't make it up.

Why does anyone give two fucks what Celtic reject & Dundee Utd fellatio Jim McInally thinks about anything? He's demonstrated he's a shit manager for a good number of seasons and now he demonstrates he has no class either.

I'll do one if you want. Either of the Stirling Albion matches, or whatever, I'm easy.

Kris Boyd scored a hat-trick on his Rangers debut although I suppose he could have been called an 'experienced' player by that point. Chris Burke had a great debut for us, the Willie Henderson comparisons were being made all around me that night.

Haha, Goian’s a failure and Cribari is a success! Seriously, you do realise you are saying this stuff publically right, this isn’t just the voices in your head anymore, we can all read it? You know Kuz if we’d done this, at this point of the season in say 1990, you’d be saying Mark Hateley was a failure, in 1991 you’d have said Andy Goram was a failure, in 1983 or even 84 that Ally McCoist was a dud too. In 97 you’d have written off Amaruso as “failure. waste of time and a waste of money. if he cant stay fit he is no use to us, if he cant contribute he is no use.” You’ve no interest in facts or objectivity, I’m surprised you don’t have mobility problems the way that knee of yours jerks so easily. No player signed in the summer can be properly judged yet, playing for Rangers is hard, made harder when the stability and professionalism synonymous with us for decades was so glaringly missing this the summer. Give the players a chance, try supporting them if you can, some of them just might surprise you. In the meantime accept that Ally is our manager and the players he’s signed are unlikely to go anywhere in the next 6 months and it’s even less likely we’ll have any new ones in for you to slag. We’ve got the other thread to read your views on McCoist and the failings of Rangers ad nauseam. Stella has gone, he didn't cut it. He had a chance and he didn't take it so he's off to play in Melbourne, no harm done and good luck to him.

You take all the time you need Kuz, although I'm surprised it'll take you so long to figure out how to type 'yeah fair enough, perhaps I've been over the top and a little hasty in most of my criticism'.

If we've decided not to take part in the 'case' what costs are we incurring? Is this on the assumption they'll be stripped and we'll need to go to appeal?

Oh I don't doubt you are being honest, that doesn't make you right though. Your one eyed hatred is blinding you to reality. Let's got through the list, I thought we were doing 10 years but if it's just Ally's signings then that's cool too. Lee Wallace - success Bocanegra – success Goian - success Bedoya – didn't play enough matches to judge Ortiz - failure M McKay - failure Aluko - success Celik - didn't play enough matches to judge Black - success Sheils - success Sandaza – hasn't play enough matches to judge Cribari – hasn't play enough matches to judge Kyle – hasn't play enough matches to judge Faure – hasn't play enough matches to judge Argyriou – hasn't play enough matches to judge Templeton – hasn't play enough matches to judge Stella - failure B McKay - success I'm not sure what issue you have with that list. Only 2 on it can be described as failures, Matt McKay and Stella, because they were released and barely played. I'll give you Ortiz who looked very out of place but again he didn't play many games. You can't judge any player signed this season really, we're barely half way through. But let's say playing 20 matches is a guide, only Black, Sheils and Barry McKay have managed that so far. I'd say each has been a success. I'm no fan of Black but he's got a job to do and seems to do it, Sheils frustrates but he creates things and score goals and young McKay has looked fantastic. But even for those three it's too early to judge them. As for the others, I'm fairly confident if they can steer clear of injuries Kyle, Sandaza and Templeton will prove astute signings, they've a pedigree in Scotland. At times Cribari looks good, sometimes not so good, the language barrier must be an issue, he could come good or he could become a bombscare, I can't say and neither can you. I really liked Argyriou when I first saw him but he fell away, but again he could easily come good too, likewise Faure. If you compare our signing's since Ally took over compared to that club on the other side of the city you admire so much they actually stand up very well. Celtic have signed guys you have literally never heard of again and plenty of them. When you consider what our club went through last season it's a miracle any of our players last season can be deemed a success. This season only one signing involved a transfer fee, all the rest were frees. Ally McCoist's a fuckin miracle worker when you get down to it.

Our debt was around the £20 million mark when Green took over. The transfer value of our squad, many of who we'd bought I'd add, more than covered that amount had we chosen to realise them. 'Things got so bad' because we had a trumped up tax case being pursued by unknown and unaccountable people for reasons that have yet to be clarified, these were then compounded by our charlatan, criminal owner. Nothing to do with player transfers. You have the oddest view of Rangers of any supporter I know, 1 good player for every 2 bad ones, really? Where do you even begin with that.

Wigan and QPR fans will, and some of the clubs around them in the league. Not every football match needs to be a blockbuster, super sunday, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious game of the century match. There are no meaningless games, they all matter to someone. Excitement and good football are not always related.

I'm really quite surprised at those results. Pleasantly surprised I'd add. I thought they'd be a lot of opposition from clubs who might not fancy a large, well supported, geographically distant competitor. It really does change the complexion of things doesn't it. The FIFA thing is still a huge stumbling block but it moves things on a step or two in some people's minds. I think SPL clubs will be secretly terrified by this development.

Ashley is no Geordie, he's from the leafy Home Counties, Buckinghamshire I think. His Newcastle love is a recent affectation. I've no idea if he's a prick, he might be.

Hello new member Greig Bell, and welcome.

It's an expensive place to have a shop, I'm not convinced it'd be profitable. Also if you are going to have a shop there have it on the 'air' side of security, that's where most people have to kill their time. I don't think we need physical shops anywhere but the stadium these days, let Sports Direct open one if it's that promising.

The Rangers Standard is excellent, hats off to all involved.

Let's see how season ticket sales go for them next year, I wouldn't be too confident they'll get close to this season and it was down on last. Even their support don't fancy this league set up they are championing. The Champion's League money has certainly prevented a melt down this season, but it's a hell of a gamble relying on getting it every season, even if they are getting a free run at it. I don't have a problem admitting they've been better run than us over the last few years, that's self evident, I just don't understand the awe that seems to engender. They are as culpable for the appalling state of the game in this country as anyone is.

I'm wary of replying to this because I seem to wind Kuznetsov up when I do, but this manlove for Celtic baffles me. They may well have a 60,000 seat stadium but they are struggling to half fill it currently. They may have announced a new sponsor but at the same time they've not announced the ones they've also just lost. They claim the deal is worth more than the Tennents one but won't divulge how much more; why? I'm the first to admit there are certain things they've done well, but when you consider where our two clubs were 6 months ago I wouldn't be handing out the captain of industry badges to them just yet. Through their own one-eyed hatred they are going to feel a cold draft in the next couple of years, it doesn't take a business genius to see that.

Not in my experience.

You can't blame the PR company or the marketing team at Rangers for the strategy decided by the owners, both current and previous. The strategy is set by the owners, the PR company and team at Rangers are then charged with implementing it, from my perspective it looks like a PR masterclass frankly, whether I agree with the strategy or not is irrelevant. My take on this is that Green wants to grow revenue from the club's own media. He's employed James Traynor to help him implement that strategy, I can see why that makes sense. Traynor's first article led to the Rangers website almost crashing under the weight of traffic. Whilst he won't be able to produce that level of interest every time it is a fairly impressive start. Drive as many people to Rangers 'owned' media, create content supporters want to read or view and find a way to monetize it, through either advertising, subscription or pay wall. That's the strategy here, that's what's being asked for and, it looks to me, being delivered. What Calscot and you are discussing is a different strategy. Winning hearts and minds and building bridges makes sense to me, but it is unlikely to add much to the revenue stream in the short to medium term. Our owners are in this for the short to medium term only, what happens after that is of less concern to them. None of this is meant as a criticism of you, Calscot or indeed the club, it's simply my take on the realpolitik.