der Berliner

Rangers in heavyweight chase to land Nicola Bertola According to The Daily Mail, Koppen has had his eye on a cut-price swoop for Spezia centre-half Nicola Bertola, however, the technical director has been dealt an early blow in the race for the towering defender’s signature. The report claims that Inter Milan are also considering Bertola and it would be an uphill battle to compete with the Serie A champions. At 6ft 4inches tall, the Italy Under-21 international would be more than capable of coping with the demands of Scottish football, even if his statistics suggest that he is more refined than that. Currently playing in Serie B, Bertola would jump at the chance of playing regular European football and in front of 51,000 fans every other week at Ibrox. He also ticks every box needed for a club trying to kick-start a player trading model. Moving on in-form Ben Davies, who was refereed to as a “brick wall” this week, on a permanent basis and then replacing him with Bertola is how it should be done. Yes, he is young, but he has played in all of Italy’s top three divisions and has been a near ever present this season for Spezia. Bertola is also out of contract in the summer which means that Rangers could afford a player who, under contract, would be out of their reach. If Inter follow up their interest, the giant stopper would probably be sent out on loan to start with and this could be Rangers’ best chance of nicking an unlikely deal. https://www.rangersnews.uk/news/rangers-could-replace-brick-wall-defender-with-nicola-bertola-as-nils-koppen-eyes-italian-transfer-swoop/

Given the draw and the injury situation ... some achievement. Tonight was not pretty, but we got through it. Hope we can reshuffle the squad for the EL phase now.

Someone needs to take a grip in midfield.

Any talk about Dessers shall be shelved till the summer ... 😎

Brilliant Dessers, holding the ball up and wins a corner, from which a well worked goal is scored. 😜 BTW, I think McCausland can do the wing back shift, he's often tracking back anyways.

Doesn't that also depend on who flanks and supports the respective centre-forward? Our problem nowadays is not Dessers, or any other single centre-forward, but the lack of support he gets from people. In terms of goals that is. For it is not that Dessers is not assisting his fellow players. It's 18 goals and 5 assists this season, 22 and 9 for last. 40 goals in 89 games for us, plus 14 assists. We can all argue about how he doesn't do this or that as someone else did, but as long as we don't have any answer to our main problem, it doesn't matter who we play as the lone striker. Perhaps we simply need to get Kent back, so the penalty-king can follow up on his mission? Speaking of which ... sort of curious, isn't it? The lack of penalties we get this season.

Snatched from FF ... 100% those criticising dessers missing the occasional sitter seem to go very quiet when he continually scores goals out of nothing. He's hardly picked up a knock since coming here and us numbers are very good cosnisdering Dessers - 53 goals/5200min - goal involvement every 98mins Igamane 16/1460mins - goal involvement every 81mins Danilo 20/1791mins - goal involvement every 90mins For added context Kyogo had 104 goals/assists i 10743mins - goal involvement every 103mins.

For those wanting to see the incident again, here's the clip from SS. The last 6+ clips shown are always the same from the angle of the ref, who make it look like the deliberate attempt that Walsh saw from his perspective. The one from the side showed that there was a push and Diomande's arm comes around flailing because of it. Did it struck him? The reaction of the player tells a lot ... since, in this day and age, he'd have gone down clutching his face in faux agony. I overheard the story told by the reporter that Walsh officiated the EL game of Union St. G, sending off 4 players, one/some will thus be suspended next week. He probably wasn't aware of this at the time, I'd assume ... While I can understand not wanting to risk the result, he might have subbed Diomande and Raskin off for Curtis and/or Rice for the last 10 mins. Lovelace did quite well when he came on, setting up Dessers for the deciding goal. These boys, much like Igamane and Nsiala, are not afraid of something spontaneous, and do things more instinctively. Our "veterans" like to think and keep the ball too long, hence, the oppositions can react much easier.

Davies and Dowell have contracts till 2026 and 2027 respectively. If someone in England wants them, they can have them for a decent enough fee. And not 250k or the like. Hopefully our new CEO sees to this. Speaking of loan-players, Cifuentes is due back this summer and has played quite a few games for Aris Saloniki this season. They have an option to buy (think I've heard that they don't want to take it up, but it is still 5 months to go). We paid some 1.2m for him, IIRC.

... and add the VAR lot to this. It wasn't even worth a yellow. Anyway, three points at a rather difficult venue, satisfying 2nd half, lots of chances (on either side), but those out there showed character. When the going gets tough ...

Well, that sounds a bit cynical and is premature too.

They hit the woodwork three times now? While we squander chance after chance ...

What a Pröpper time to score!

Top performance from Butland so far, or they would be out of reach. Those last few chances for us put some glimmer on a dire performance. Watching Hagi come to the field, he looked very much like someone not wanting to be there. Alas, he turned it on for the last 5 mins.

I hope you've got the sound turned off?

beyond parody again ... and much to do with no physical presence too.

Finally a clear 4-4-2 😎

You may sleep tonight below the stairs as penance, like Mr. Potter. On a sidenote, having watched a few clips from the Sir Walter era, it was quite sobering to see our squad sheet today ... with only 4 Scots, all on the bench.

Yilmaz is a name like Smith or Miller in Turkey, AND, more importantly, football was introduced to Turkey before they had surnames. Thus, by tradition, Turkish players use their first names on their shirts, much like commentators do. If there are more than one, the first letter of the surname appears too. Aside from this, the formal approach to a Turkish man would be "Ridvan bey", but "Mr. Yilmaz" in English. His wife would be called (i.e. don't know her name, if he has one) e.g. "Ilay bay". So it is quite normal that we call him Ridvan. On a sidenote, our Brazilian striker is actually Danilo Pereira da Silva, and we all know what is written on his and his compatriots' shirts. And I am quite sure that this is just a traditional Brazilian footballer thing.

We knew they would make a big noise, but it was unbelievable It’s the best support I have seen that’s for sure, I only wish we could be playing Ibrox next week. Christian Eriksen

Rangers are willing to sell Ridvan Yilmaz in the current transfer window with Besiktas holding a meeting over his potential signing, according to Mustafa Korkusuz. The TRT Spor journalist, based in Turkiye, revealed (24 January) that discussions have been held over a potential switch for the left-back who could join up with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side before the transfer deadline. Deals regarding players moving to Turkish clubs can be completed up until 11 February, giving all parties longer to make the switch happen, potentially recouping a tidy sum at Ibrox. Yilmaz started in an advanced role on the left-hand side for Philippe Clement’s Gers at Manchester United on Thursday night in the Europa League (23 January). “Beşiktaş will definitely make the left-back transfer. Rıdvan Yılmaz is on Beşiktaş’s agenda,” Korkusuz said, as quoted on X (24 January) by 1903 Digitale. LINK Well, he's an asset, if we want to rely solely on Jefte and ... ahem ... Jefte.

I'd rather hope we look at some harder guys than EPL/Championship fair-weather players. Right now, we need people able to hold their own against these "Scottish" hammer-throwers and fridge-jugglers. People not necessarily able to dance past five defenders and fail at the sixth, as well as having some muscle failure after 3 months in Scotland. In that respect, someone like Shankland wouldn't be a bad choice, since he knows the score, the league, and the demands. Like Boyd, he won't be the answer for each game ... then again, our manager apparently thinks that much change in terms of players and system are not necessary anyway. Last season, Shankland, much like Igamane does now, shoots from any angle possible, which 8 out of 10 others don't. Hence, both look rather prolific. He might not be as lethal this season, but a Shankland up front would always draw defenders to him and thus opening spaces for others to exploit. IF we manage to fill the slots of these "others" with people using these spaces and likewise are able to score. TBH, the last chap who did this admirably was Jason Holt, before he was placed further back in a more holding role. Plain madness back then, but there you go. Now, I am neither saying that Holt was a stand-out player, but he did well there. Nor that Shankland is the answer. Given our lack of strikers, someone like him for virtually nothing (and being a Scot) should be a given. An injury to Igamane and we'd be down to Dessers (if he's still there), Danilo, and Lovelace? With the latter two having regular appointments with the nurse (does she look any good, BTW?) too. Maybe there's a role for Tavernier after all ... if we get another fit (!) right-back. NB: I think we might deal in Cameron for the summer and snap him up late in the window, as Dundee sure wants some cash. Maybe PC has come to his senses about Rice and Curtis, and perhaps the odd other too, so we will use the rest of the season to settle a few younger players in the first team before the B team gets scrapped.

German Highlights Going by the video alone, Butland made some fine stops and was rather unlucky with that own-goal. That said, I see him as a sellable asset, since Kelly is a good keeper indeed.

I feared the worst, but Thursday night games have their own dynamic. Despite the superior quality and chances, we almost got a 1-1 draw. No matter the absentees and lack of depth in the squad. With the former, however, you have to ask yourself (and with little due respect) what has been brought in over the last few years. Injuries on the field are one thing, but it is amazing how people with the physique of Sterling or Danilo can last two or three games and then some kind of muscle problem arises. Cortes and Matondo are just such examples too. It is also annoying that we have to throw Curtis and Rice into such games practically unprepared, because we sent the same players out on the field week after week and month after month, whether they produce or not. Or replace them with "veterans" on a 1-1 basis. While it was a luxury in Walter's ways, now, where results have become truly essential, we still get the same dross every week.

Well, IMHO, Dessers is just a striker who hits the goal rather frequently, but also misses a few good opportunities. No different to any striker we had before. What makes people angry is that we do not score enough goals to put games to bed ... and our lone striker bears the most of that. No matter who he is and that he is not the actual problem. Yet, truth be told, every team will envy us for a 20-goal striker we have in Dessers. He still is but an international striker of Nigeria, not Germany, England, Spain or the like. That is where we are. Danilo is as injury prone as Sterling, albeit both looking like units you won't square up with in the street. Ridvan has a bad streak right now, he's much better on the left too, as we saw early on last night (though highlights might be deceiving). What would be a concern is that neither the B-team seems to have an adequate right-back to fill the gap if Tav is injured, and that the first team doesn't have a back-up to Tav either (even though he wouldn't play much given the penalty-king's fortitude). That said, Jefte, still but 22, set a few feet wrong in recent weeks as well. Of course, nothing of that should be put under the microscope, as many of the current generation of supporters likes to do. Bajrami, well, these players grow hot and cold, maybe he's more of a fair-weather player. But that's for the manager to see and react to. On hindsight, what sort of madness drove our high-ups to the decision to keep Hagi out of the team and EL squad?! Granted, Danilo was injured and UEFA created a right good mess with this super-large and long "Group Phase", with no option to put players in later on. But for the sake of some bonus money they essentially wrecked the season and denied us our most creative player for Europe. NB: I'm not talking the players above up or, indeed, down. It's just where we are right now in terms of quality. "Wanting more" will not change the reality we are in.