Gribz

I think the defence isnt far off from being complete. Personally I think we only need to buy cover for Hutton. We have Smith, Papac and Murray who can play LB but only Lowning as RB cover after Hutton. At the centre half position we are fine as long as we get the Webster deal completed. Agreed about Svensson, he still has potential if he gets his finger out. But we have Weir, Webster, Ehiogu and Broadfoot in there all next season anyway. So defence is pretty much covered. Id buy a keeper as first choice and have McGregor as the back up. McGregor has done just ok. But to move on we need a better keeper, IMO he is miles behind his predicessors. If Smith decides he is our No.1 then surely he must look at taking Goram in as his daily coach. Midfield - this is where it gets fun. Lee McCulloch is a must as he will improve the left side and can also play upfront. He is no world beater but he will certainly improve us and should shine in the SPL. Agree with Juff about Buffel, he has to play but play him as the attacking / creative midfielder. Id like to see another midfielder come in from the EPL. The likes of Michael Brown, Claus Jensen or Hayden Mullins would do a fine job for us and are affordable. R.e. Ferguson, if he just gets on with playing his own game at a consistant level then he stays, if not then punt him. Upfront, We should never have let Lovenkrands leave, id take him back. Our team would look strong going forward with him, McCulloch, S Brown, Koevermans and Balaban with Buffel in behind them. But IMO we need: A keeper A RB 2/3 midfielders 2 strikers

Yeah its definatly an age thing, no doubts about it. But it will be interesting to have a Gersnet hall of fame and its likely many players from past generations will not be it. But the club has its offical hall of fame where these guys will be properly honoured.

Vewy Pwoud of Wio, Wyan, Wonaldo... but Wooney should be there also. Pwoud!!

Yeah plus it benefits the team, there performance and extends there playing career. Yet these guys just seem to want to take the money and live the hotshot lifestyle. That would be ok if they were winning football matches on the weekend but they have been rank rotten and left us trophyless for 2 seasons now

Agreed, having a bit of silence is also another way of learning. Just look at class rooms in schools all the attention should be listening to the teacher. What does the teacher say if little Davie at the back is taking the piss out of Stevie at the front???

I just cant agree Mike. There is absolutely no way (IMO) Kris Boyd is a 3 million pound player. He has not improved his game 1 bit this season. You would think with McCoist on board a few signs of improvement would have been shown but after 3 months but there has been nothing. He needs to lose a few pounds, work on 90% of his game and start doing the simple things. Juff, The new and improved signings who are better than the average run of the mill SPL players will score the goals against Dunfermline, St Mirren etc

Id say Sir Alex on your first point mate. But on your 2nd point there, i cant agree. I think the 2 situations are different. Le Guen was coming in during a summer and started well enough but was up against a player revolution. Smith came in when it couldnt get any lower and being Scottish and knowing Rangers he picked up the short term problems and fixed them. But how far can Smith take us?? He has already given us so much domestic pleasure in the 90s but running Rangers is a different ball game now. He wont have an open cheque for starters and with the Scottish game going backwards fast and the european game going forwards, we could find ourselves strugglong to compete against the average Euro sides from Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania etc never mind the Italians and Spanish. Yet it was Le Guens european approach that served us well in the UEFA this season but as soon as Smith comes in we are out straight away. I also think Smith steadied the ship because he was allowed. The likes of Ferguson and Boyd who turned against Le Guen knew Smith is a Rangers man and one not to be messed with. They are also going to respect McCoist as he was probably both players idiol. Dont get me wrong Im a Smith fan and he will do the business for us domestically again but I still cant see a long term plan, but this is down to the chairman etc. And because we are going backwards we maybe needed PLG's different approach to change us long term. Its still something we will never know.

What Rae doesnt say is when PLG said this (or does he, the article didnt open from me). But what Im saying is he problem took the first few sessions and was totally fed up with the Scottish backward mentality of the constant moaning, slagging and swearing. So he wanted silence so it was done right and he could maybe assess players etc..

Lol, the start of another Boyd debate!! But i agree id take the cash and run. IMO he is over weight, slow, has a terrible touch, misses more than he scores and is out of his depth unless he is playing the bottom sides. The only problem is Prso is gone due to his knee, plus it doesnt look like Novo will be offered a contract and Sebo may leave aswell so thats leaves us with no strikers. But all 4 could leave and could be replaced by some of the following: Koevermans Balaban McCulloch (can play left also) Gow (signed anyway) Fowler O Connor Lovenkrands (id welcome him back) Rasiak

James has been good but Jaaskelainen (sp) and Friedel for me. Cech deserves a wee mention for coming back from that injury and playing to his best again. Carvalho wouldnt be far off Rio aswell. And Stuart Taylor of Newcastle has been good at the back, he was terrific yesterday. A few others have done well in defence like Warnock of Blackburn and Campbell has done well at Pompey on occassion. But my team of the year would have been: ________________Friedel_____________ Neville_______Vidic_____Ferdinand_____Riise Ronaldo____Gerrard___Scholes_____Giggs __________Drogba_____Berbatov______

His methods worked wonders at Lyon to deliver 3 titles for them, so he must have been effective there. Yes he maybe should explain his reasons. I dont think many of us on here are stretching experts but we all know its important to stretch properly. But if someone is pointing and having a laugh with a teammate its obvious concentration levels will be down the job may not be getting done right. Also, i dont think he would have minded a laugh and a joke, but I can just imagine PLG coming in and trying to install a professional attitude but all he would have heard was F*** this and F*** that and probably couldnt understand anything except the F*** word. This is an assumption. Some people are morning people while others are night people. But young fit atheletes should have no problem getting up at certain time in a day when they are being paid 1000s of pounds a week and doing a job they love and a job everyone envys. Personally Im not a morning person around 8am, but i find if im up around 6am taking a nice walk or run I find it pieceful and refreshing. Its something we will never know. But there is a saying as you need to take a step back in order to go forward. And who is to ever know how far forward it may have been!!!

In one word the answer should be No! But not only are we 2nd best out of a 2 horse race, the others almost caught up with us this season. If Hearts werent ran by a mad dictator then we would probably be 3rd best. But over the last few months this is turning around ON the park. I dont see a long term plan, but I see us being much closer next season. Smith was here for 9 titles last time round but I cant envisage him being with us for the same amount of again. I saw his appointment as good in some ways but bad in other ways. It looks like he is grooming McCoist to be our next manager but where will we be when that time comes around!

I would say the banner is getting at a few things but mostly Labour. Im assuming its a Labour slogo with the "except Rangers" bit added on - but I might be wrong. But if this was removed for sectarian views then that says everything thats wrong with the running of our club.

This summer will be huge in terms of the title next season. If Smith improves the midfield and forwardline in the same way he has done the defence then we will be a far better side. If he can go one step further and find a creative "gem" then who knows..... To ask if we will be the first to 60, Id seriously fancy us to do that. You have to remember they need 19 titles and we need 9 - now thats almost 30 years of football - crikey, thats a lot - I havent even been alive for 30 years of football yet - Who knows things an happen in football and neither could reach the 60 as we could end up being in an Atlantic League or something!!! Anyway, Im not blind to the fact that The Club also needs surgery, its not just the team! Personally Im looking forward to seeing what happens in the summer and who we bring in.

What went wrong?? Many things, but from the fans point of view I think we maybe expected PLG to wave a magic wand and deliver us the title - myself included. I watched the opening few games of the season, at Fir Park we played some great attacking stuff, but the next game against Dundee Utd was a freak scoreline. We battered them yet they scored twice, although we fought back and got a 2-2 draw, yet it was 2-2 going on 8-2. At this point I thought we were going to be unplayable in the SPL but..... Then Ferguson came back in the team and the nice football went out the window and the dressing room split took over. Le Guen's approachs could be argued right or wrong (its all about opinion) but he was the manager and he ended up being undermined - bottom line. We will never know the real truths of this story and we wont know if PLG would have went on and turned it round, but IMO he didnt get the chance. He lost the dressing room but you have to ask why and how he lost it - simply by sulky overpaid players. He should have had a full season but thats not allowed at Rangers, and his good start probably ended up being a bad thing. From beginning to climb the ladder at the start of the season, it was pulled and we went in freefall and ended up being even worse than the previous season which nobody thought could happen. It was a situation that couldnt be repaired. The fans didnt help as there was a split. Some backed PLG and some booed him and then the peaceful demo about SDM after a game at Irbox was ruined by Murray supporters turning on their fellow bear!! So following all this and with SDM seeming to take his captains view, PLG HAD to go at this point. Yes his recent results and performances were shocking but we dont know the reasons why. So on the park those are the things that went wrong. Anyway, since January we have been stronger. The gap was simply to big to catch Celtic but we closed it and beat them on there own patch. We are still playing ugly football but we are winning games with the same team who couldnt beat Dunfermline - so thats a good sign. Onto the summer then.........

Well done the Geordies!!! I would have loved to have seen Sir Awex smile after that game. Chelsea just didnt get out of 1st gear, i dont know if Man U's result went against them or not! If I didnt have 50 quid on Man U at the start of the season then would like to see the game between them on May 9th being the decider, but 50 quid at 5/1 wants me to see Man U wrap it up early

It was over long ago but we can take something from the fact we practically halved there lead since January and they have "stumbled" over the finishing line. You have to wonder if they stumbled due to the fact they saw us coming back strongly and beat them at parkhead. Yet again, its an "if only" situation - if we could beat Inverness this season then you wonder what the situation would be like just now. Anyway, I dont know if Nakamura will be there next season, but even though he is I dont rate him that much, he has got a crackng free kick but thats it. We all said it this time last year but i say it with more confidence this year - We'll be back next season!!!

Well done Ronaldo, that was well deserved!!! I cant believe team of the year though: Not sure if Van Der Saar would be the best keeper or if Neville and Evra should be in it, but no arguments about Vidic, Rio, Giggs, Scholes and Ronaldo.

Bit of a damp squid as a game, if Newcastle players had better first touches they could be ahead.

I was meant to go back and edit my post to add Cooper in my list.

Should be a great game this lunch time. Chelsea will be all fired up knowing they can close the gap to a point. Hopefully Newcastle can nick a draw but cant see anything other than an away win

Man U dropping points at home to Boro - I didnt see that coming and Chelsea have a chance to chop the lead to 1 point if they win at Newcastle. Run-In's Man U: Man City (A) Everton (A) Chelsea (A) West Ham (H) Chelsea: Newcastle (A) Bolton (H) Arsenal (A) Man U (H) Everton (H) Its 50/50, I think Chelsea could be favourites if they win today.

Nice to hear that!! Its a goal that I cant remember (dont know if i was born)!! But thats what its all about!

West Ham to stuff Everton Charlton to beat that fucks Sheff Utd 11/8 Sunderland to win at Colchester Evs Dunfermline to beat Dundee Utd 11/8 Dont say im not good to yous :cheers:

I got this wrong! Its David Dein who wanted the Yanks investment and Peter Hill Wood who says fuck off you wanky yanks!!! I get a good program on a friday night which is repeated on saturday with Richard Keyes giving us loads of footy info from behind the scenes that he wouldnt repeat in UK, and he says Wenger is close to leaving. He also say Mourinho is a banker to leave Chelsea in the summer - but even i knew that!! HOWEVER ----- HIS REPLACEMENT ---- Roman wants Sir Alex and is prepared to offer him 10 million cash in hand as signing on fee!!!!!!!!!!!