Gribz

Yeah it certainly makes the squad look a lot more beefy. I cant believe we have 4 options for left midfield

SURELY this has to be another http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/sheff_wed/6912404.stm I think only Anelka has probably earned more on signing on fees.

Shock horror

He did take that well considering it would have been his first touch!! Can he do a job on the right??

Saw this on BBC aswell, never heard of the guy though. Smith must still be on the hunt for a striker, but I actually think we are well covered upfront. Boyd, Sebo, Darcheville, McCulloch, Novo, then Buffel, Lennon and Gow can play up there aswell.

Werent the first 2 bids under 500k though?? I can see Killies point of view from there, IIRC the first bid was laughable. But after that we met there valuation of 1.5 million and they started to play funny buggars.

Friendlies are shite but they are important for players to get to know each other. But its good to see us playing decent opposition. But the club should have invited 1 more team in and made this a tournament over the weekend and would have probably sold out both days if the tickets were at the right price. Linfield would have been a good idea as a 4th team. I think Smith may play half his intended team tonight and the other half on Saturday or play his preferred team in the opening hour of both games. Im hoping its a 4-4-2 as we should be going into the CL qualifier with 2 upfront.

I have a bit of fear that West Ham are doing a Leeds and paying there new signings silly wages. But the chairman wants to take the club up to the top level and to do that he has to attract better players and pay the money. Signing the likes of Bellamy and Ljungberg will do no harm and may attract the next level of players but they HAVE to perform on the pitch. There is no reason why West Ham cant be a top 6 club this season. If they play like they did in the last 10 games of last season they will be there no problem. We did the double over Man U and Arsenal last season so the potential is there. The Tevez one is going to be interesting. Id love him to stay but he wants to move to Man U. But its players like Ljungberg Rangers should be going for aswell. We could easy have put up 3 million but the problem would be the wages. But give me Ljungberg over Naismith / Whittaker ANY day. If Dyer is available for 4 million we (Rangers) should go for him aswell.

Top 4 still means top 6

Great signing for West Ham if Freddie gets back to full fitness and stays clear of injuries. he is certainly capable of 12-15 goals per season and this makes up a little for Fauberts Injury. Id still take Kieron Dyer aswell then West Ham are ready for a top 6 challenge. C'MON YOU IRONS

Anyone going along? I saw on the official site individual tickets can be bought for 18 quid each or the pair for 34. Id sure be going along to the Chelsea game if I was over and id get the chance to sing at Fat Frank Anyway, Walter has now said pre-season is effectively over after the Falkirk game and now its all about getting a settled team in place for the Champions League qualifier. So these games will be interesting to see who Smith picks and what formation he goes with. Also if he sticks with the same team for both games. I noticed Sionko was the only sub not used against Falkirk so I think we can effectively rule him out!! But with McCulloch banging in a few goals I will be interested to see if he starts upfront or on the left and if so where Beasley plays.

No probs, but its good to discuss

Jonc beat me to it!

Similar to this one http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VfJitVzzzak&mode=related&search= SOme bounce the fans have after the first 2 goals

Contradiced yourself here have you not? One minute you say you cant pinpoint the demise yet then you suggest it was the foreign flops. Yet its only me who gets stood out for picking out the SPL players even though I say they are part of it. At the end of the day its a mix of things and our buys whether foreign or scottish just havent been good enough over the years. Im all for scottish players if they are good enough but the ones we are linked with have been a joke - I mean FFS Jamie Langfield, 1.5m for Whittaker........ Id rather see us going for the BEST scottish players like, Gordon, McFadden, Anderson (ahead of Broadfoot), McCulloch (which we got), Quashie (not so much now), O Connor and blend them with S Smith, Hutton, Webster, Ferguson.

YOUR being too picky. SPL players are not the ONLY reason but certainly part of it. Of course foreigners who havent performed are the reason aswell. But signing average run of the mill SPL players is easy one of the reasons. I could pick out a few but I'll go for the most popular - Kris Boyd is one of the worst footballers ive ever seen. He goes 4 games without touching the ball then bags a couple of goals and is everyone favourite son. When he plays upfront on his own we may aswell have 10 men on the pitch as he brings nothing to the team. Its during that 4 games when he isnt scoring that we are dropping points and falling behind in the league. Again YOUR being too picky. If you ask me the direct question who / what is responsible then we'll be here all day discussing things from bad tactics, poor players, bad management decisions and the chairman and his puppet. Kinda answered above, but on the park, everything you have stated in that paragraph is responsible. Im glad you think its a mix of them all as we can agree on that. But previously YOU said it was purely the foreigners but you didnt see me pick this out and take it for gospel. If you read some of my other posts ive said i have a feeling Gow could be a good squad player for us, so i havent been concentrating on him at all. The thought of him and Broadfoot doesnt excite me but i wont pre-judge them, its more the players we have bought or been linked to that I'll have my opinion on. They may be proven in the SPL but once again the SPL is a poor league. You just have to see any of the SPL teams up against foreign opposition from lower countries and realise that the standard is probably on par with Estonia, yet because we see Motherwell battle with Falkirk on a regular basis we cant see how bad the scottish game is. The scottish viewer is living in the past imo and in a perception that our league isnt too bad a level. Yes the best of us can give teams a game on there day but on a week to week basis its poor. How can you say Sebo isnt a good example? How can he not warrant getting a chance? What does he have to do to warrant a chance except knuckle down in training, show a good attitude and work hard - which he does. I dont buy this comment on him running around like a headless chicken. He was playing upfront on his own, but i suppose he could have done the Boyd thing and stood about waiting for the ball to come to him rather than getting stuck into 4 defenders and try to win us the ball. That was in the game at parkhead - yet at Ibrox he came off the bench and had 3 one-on-ones in about 20 mins and came clse to scoring on each occassion. I wasnt saying we were embarrassments in europe above - I was getting at the other SPL clubs when they play in europe. This was when i was making referrence to how bad the SPL is.

Yeah Thomson out for few days until he takes anti-biotics for the ear infection and its nothing serious. Agreed about the game, I know its pre-season but I hope this isnt the sign of things to come. I just dont see this 4-2-3-1 working away from home in tight little grounds like Falkirk.

Awesome stuff. How good was Hateley BTW!!!

This is up there with the best http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3MBue0f97M&mode=related&search=

Thought that but needed clarification - cheers. Id say Dundee Utd are a decent outsider.

Does someone want to clarify this bet for me. Does it mean we just have to win the league but get a 5 point head start or do we have to clear the rest of the teams once there tally is added up with there head start?

As the new season approaches we will hopefully start to get busy again. It hasnt been that bad a summer as most regulars have continued. But i thought id see if there is any changes / suggestions that anyone would like to put forward? Then with Frankies approval we can get them in place for the new season. I know Juffery mentioned he would like a sports room on its own. This could be a good shout but I dont want it merged with football chat. Weekly collums is another thing that will start in the season. Im sure Frankie will keep up his Gersnet analysis and post-match ratings. I will look after the Pre-match preview and will be assisted on this by asking 1 or 2 to do this for me if Im not around. Hopefully we get "Cammy Rants" back aswell plus another from elsewhere. I think we should bring back "Donkey of the Week" for the new season and this could be anyone from a poster to a player or pundit.

As the new season approaches we will hopefully start to get busy again. It hasnt been that bad a summer as most regulars have continued. But i thought id see if there is any changes / suggestions that anyone would like to put forward? Then with Frankies approval we can get them in place for the new season. I know Juffery mentioned he would like a sports room on its own. This could be a good shout but I dont want it merged with football chat. Weekly collums is another thing that will start in the season. Im sure Frankie will keep up his Gersnet analysis and post-match ratings. I will look after the Pre-match preview and will be assisted on this by asking 1 or 2 to do this for me if Im not around. Hopefully we get "Cammy Rants" back aswell plus another from elsewhere. I think we should bring back "Donkey of the Week" for the new season and this could be anyone from a poster to a player or pundit.

Im not denying some of the foreigners have been absolute gash and part of the downfall, but we still won trophies up until 2 years ago. But half of the foreigners entered a split dressing room and were played in baffling positions. A few of them come in with good backgrounds but it we turned them into bad players. And the management have to take responsibility for their signings. But its not just the foreigners, its most of our signings whether foreign or Scottish. They are all just becoming a lower standard so the foreign v scottish argument goes out the window. Again, cant agree with this, its a combination of both. McLeish and Watson are Scottish, they are responsible for season 05/06 same as PLG is foreign and responsible for 06/07. Players like Gavin Rae and Ian Murray are Scottish while players like Sionko and Svensson are foreign. So for everyone to just turn round and say its purely the foreigners fault is way off. There has been 4 or 5 players who have stood out and carried Rangers in the last few years and made the difference between being 2nd and average - Ferguson, Hutton, Hemdani and Prso - a mixture of Scots and foreign. Its the STANDARD of player at fault and NOT there nationality. We all know how bad the standard of football in is Scotland and we are signing them. Christ Dunfermline got knocked out of europe by nobodies from Iceland or Latvia last year. (cant remember they were that bad) Gretna (now a SPL team) got thumped by Derry. Hearts were an embarrassment in Europe. Aberdeen have sold a regular player to Yeovil Town this year. (Is that the same standard to SPL?) I dont the the figure but about 1 out of 25 SPL players move to the EPL these days and they are probably foreign. I think it will be Smith and McCoist who get us competitive again or more to the point make an effort. Had the same group of players been under Le Guen then Im not so sure. They have installed morale and confidence into the team and bought players who know what playing for Rangers is all about.

He plays behind the strikers in the supposed Buffel role And can play left aswell. Id take Dyer for the Hammers in an instant if he is fit.