Gribz

I was embarrassed enough typing Calderwood and Mcghee's names, Jefferies was in my mind but it would have ben for a joke! Thats worse than Robbie Fowler is having a medical at Ibrox! Fraser, Burley is 110% NOT the man for this job following that campaign. A change is practically in the minds of everyone, if he continues then the whole country will groan and be against him again. I think he is a decent club manager and will do ok somewhere else but he has to go now.

Its always best to have england at the WC to see them get knocked out, but I always say if they are in it they can win it! but they dont have the mentality to win it, they think it will come to them half the time through some devine right while the Germans, Brazilians, Italians etc just get on with the job. It was good to see Spain finally get past being under achievers last year at the Euro's and they will carry that onto the WC so at the moment id be backing them. As Gav says - no more than the Quarters for England but Portugal who regularly put them out of tournaments are struggling to make it aswell as Argentina.

Id imagine the N Koreans would have as much right to a missile proof vest seen as the Yanks fire more. But didnt Iraq play USA in a WC not so log ago and it wasnt a bad match at all. And you need to add Brazil and Paraguay to the list. Argentina are struggling but they should at least make the play off spot.

Folliwing the international disappointment in midweek, it will all be forgotten about this weekend as the club action kicks off again. Tricky away tie at Fir park for us. Im looking forward to seeing Rothen in action, I get the feeling he will be a good signing. Also looking forward to having Lafferty back should his injury clear up. I voted him as our 'player to watch' for this season - IF he is played through the middle. He was a different player in the 2nd half of last season and impressed on a number of occasions. I didnt realise he had a good bit of pace about him - he isnt Usain Bolt but he is certainly mobile enough and I can see him and Miller being a handfull for defences (Sorry Boyd fans ) Saturday will be the 1st chance I get to see us in action this season as I only watched bits of the Hamilton game so I cant wait.

Good shout, Ok I will let you know. Im heading over next week but staying back until the 29th plus another day is tricky.

Didnt see the game but for the praise Whittaker is getting shows what ive been saying for a while - he is better at LB than RB. When he filled in at LB last season I was impressed by him, at RB I thought he was just decent.

Overall this qualifying campaign has been a disaster from the performances on the park to the boozegate stuff off the park and the way that was handled. For us to not even get 2nd in the group reflects it in the end. I wanted to see us in South Africa but had we sneaked in the back door it would have been through sheer luck more than anything else. the likes of N Ireland have gave their group a real go and far deserve a play off spot more than Scotland do. The SFA dont help things, its now 11 years and counting since we were at WC 98 but we have a mess of a organisation running things who ban 2 key players and hamper qualification. The whole system needs sorted out in scottish football from top to bottom including those who attempt to run it and the structure of the domestic leagues. The Craig Brown days look glorious compared to what we have right now. How Walter managed to pick up us in such mess and put is in a great position is beyond me. We've falling like a pack of cards again since then. I think we have some good players that just need coached right. We have 3 quality keepers in Gordon, McGregor (has to be recalled) and alexander. Our midfield looks good if K Thomson comes in to play with Brown, Fletcher, McFadden and Commons. We just need a manager who will come in and get them playing well again.

Dissapointing but we were shocking throughout the campaign and didnt deserve to be near the WC. Oh well, back to club football this weekend. Im booking a weekend in Phuket during the the next international break as it will be too depressing. Fair play to the dutch, I hope they do well at the WC, Id like to see them win it.

I dont like posting such thread before its a definate, but its surely has to be time now to get rid of Burley, Butcher and Pressley. All 3 have been a disaster in the Vogts mould. If they arent sacked by the end of this week I'll be worried they will get the next campaign. Dont know what happened with Burley, he was a decent club manager but seemed to be permantly drunk with the Scotland job. Strachan would certainly be my choice but knowing the SFA they are bound to go for the likes of Jimmy Calderwood or Levein which would be a disaster. although John Collins wouldnt surprise me. Souness or George Graham would be my choice No.2 and id like to see someone like Joe Jordan, Gary McAllister, Stuart McCall or Paul Lambert involved in the set up who were a class act on the pitch and have a lot to offer. We wont get Sir Alex or Moyes so after Strachan and Souness id look to to a non Scot rather than any of the run of the mill SPL managers. An outside bet could be Darren Ferguson - although he is a Scot. Possible Scots: Gordon Strachan - Will likely be the bookies favourite and fans 1st choice Graeme Souness - Again, would be happy with that Kenny Dalglish - Not for me but will be mentioned George Graham - Yes id be happy with that Jimmy Calderwood - No thanks Craig Levein - No thanks Mark McGhee - Please no! Gary McAllister - Good choice for assistant Paul Lambert - Good choice for Assistant, and potentially future manager John Collins - Arrogant attitude but he would be a hit or a miss Darren Ferguson - Outside bet, did good with Peterborough last year but struggling this season so far. Alex McLeish - Return for Eck with the problems behind the scenes at Brum?? But not for me. - Sorry Harley. Non Scots: Kevin Keegan - Doesnt he spend most of his time i Glasgow with his academy? Terry Venebles - One of my fave managers of all time. Dick Advocaat - Quit the Belguim job Dick! Id take DA Others????

Your a bit keen are you not?

And i should be back for that game so will likely be searching for a ticket

I like the look of that also.

Bit dirty by McGhee saying it was financial reasons when he really just wanted his own people in there. IMO they would all have been better staying at Motherwell.

Making the play offs by Wed night would be nice, but I cant see it.

Better to get him back to Ibrox so he doesnt further injure himself playing in midweek.

Im looking forward to seeing Lafferty back as he looked a total different player in the 2nd half of last season, and I dont think it was a coincedence when he was finally played through the middle. I hope WS doesnt stick him out on the left again. Hopefully he comes back from international duty with no injury. Team selection for Motherwell this weekend should be interesting with Lafferty available plus the addition of Rothen.

Craig Gordon is a doubt. Burley is a limited manager and well out of his depth at International and he should be sacked after this Holland match. But like Fraser I will still get behind him for this match as first and foremost I want to see Scotland qualify. Ideally we will win this game, make the play offs but still get rid of Burley and Butcher prior to the playoffs and replace them with Strachan or Souness with Gary McAllister as the No.2 An assistant manager is sometimes as important as the manager and in Butcher we have totally went for the wrong choice.

And when you think about it every player in the world is limited on ability, just some players are limited more than others. Burley may have been trying to pay Broadfoot a compliment but he went about it all wrong. It is just another example of proving he is out of his depth at this level.

LOL, thats not exactly a reason, thats judging a book by its cover. You could look at Luke chadwick or Frank Ribery and say they look like bad apples but until they kick a ball we cant tell. Gow played what 2 games for Rangers? And he was them most impressive guy in pre season tour of the States at the time and this was following being Falkirks best player. So he was hardly a reject. Personally I dont care what a player has done at a previous club, Id rather see them get a chance when playing for us. Boumsong, Cuellar and Bougherra are perfect examples of players who were unheard of who turned out to be brilliant in the blue jersey, crikey Laudrup was struggling at Fiorentina prior coming to us. Of course it can work the other way with the likes of Jeffers, Maniero, Mlandovic but my point is a player should still be judged at the present and for Rangers. But for a football team surely its just down to what he can on the park along with conduct off it. Im pretty sure some of the 9IAR team got up to worse things off the park. It seems whatever Gow did was personal to WS and in turn he made sure the guy never kicked a ball from him. It was a personal thing from WS - IMO thats no reason not to pick someone especially when we were screaming out for a fresh pair of legs in 2 certain positions. Yip, and that goes back to my point about I dont care what other players do before they sign for Rangers. They may come with poor reputations but we shouldnt judge until we have seen on a consistantly basis. Ally McCoist used to get booed in his early days - I cant think of a better example on how to persivere with a player! Nobody is saying Gow would have won us the UEFA cup or the SPL, but he MAY have been the difference along with Buffel had they been given some games. Its irrevlent now but the question of this thread was 'should he been given a chance' - my answer is yes. You're the one who says an armchair fan shouldnt be in a position to decide, but IIRC your the biggest armchair fan on here and you have admitted that in the past that you prefer to watch games on TV - there isnt anything wrong with that. But I try to get to games whenever possible and if i make the trip home I always make sure I get to one game - for me you still cant beat the feeling of waking up and having a day trip to Ibrox. And I havent taken things personally or petty at all, if anyone has then its you as your the one who brought that up, but in no way have I thought you were being personal. You have had some cracking debates over the years so there is no way I would assume you were being personal at me. I just thought this was another debate thats all.

I dont think he has a problem with Rangers players that would see him not selectring them for the squad. In McCulloch and Boyds case it was the players choice to choose not to make themselves available. While Boyd splits the Rangers support, McCulloch was absolutely rank last season. With Ferguson and McGregor it was a decision from the SFA, again out of Burley's control - unless there is more to it than been revealed. But the fact is the SFA are shooting themselves in the foot here as both should be in the squad. Burley was clearly in the wrong with Broadfoot, he may have been right in what he said but a international manager should NEVER make that public.

Regardless if Thomson is not fully fit at the moment he should still walk into the squad ahead of Doorens - Ive never even heard of him! Experience cant be a reason, surely Thomson's OF matches, European games steads him in a better position in playing in big games more than half the squad. He is fit now and should be included and starting the Holland match. Its just another decision that shows Burley hasnt got a clue in general, and i dont think its anything personal towards Rangers. The Rae call up isnt a bad one. Rae isnt the most gifted player in the world but he will put in a good 110% shift which is exactly what we need in the middle of the park.

Should be an absolute banker, Thomson is ready made for that. He hasnt had much chances at international level, its time his Scotland career took off.

Got to be happy with a 2-0 win although I stuck a tenner on 3-0 so was urging a 3rd goal at the end. First half was average but we rolled up our sleves on the 2nd, there are a lost worse teams than Macedonia. But Holland are a different kettle of fish, they are quality if they field their U18s! I really struggle to think we can beat them but we have beat them before at hampden so we can do it again. Can we still sneak into these play off places??????

Ive no idea how this works and its a terrible rule in the beginning. Its disappointing UEFA will make 1 runner up lose out in a play off spot, there should only have been 8 groups from the beginning. We were drawn in the worst possible group as its a group of 5 and there is no whipping boys. A victory against Holland will be very unlikely IMO, we will need a top performance from the team and haing lost mcFadden our odds must surely be stretching.

France and Poland drew aswell so it was well short. I dont mind when mroe than 1 team lets me down, its frustrating as hell when its just 1 team.