der Berliner

Probably the best options we can get. AFAIK, Kevin Thomson is already there, isn't he? Good luck especially to Neil McCann. These guys - bar the Moroccan - all know what is required, both on and off the pitch. Whether they can work something out with the players we have right now is anyone's guess. We'll have to wait and see what develops on and off the pitch in the summer.

Regarding new managers and coaches. Failure at other clubs, big or small, is no real criteria when it comes to us (or any new club). Every club provides a different challenge, has different resources in money and players, has different demands. Sir Walter would probably never be considered by Barcelona or Dortmund, AC Mian or the like. But he knew how to play the game in Scotland, knew what sort of players were required, where and when. If the 49ers send us a ton of nuggets and we get Guardiola and 10 superstars that wipe the floor with everything in Scotland, fine by me. If we get Vinny Jones* and he gets enough hard guys and Scots in who rip themselves a new one to get the results required, fine by me. The current status quo simply can't continue. *You know what I mean.

True enough. My remark was more about him actually trying to do something, rather than the quality of his play. Others were simply "playing along". One just has to look with one open eye to see why this current team, injury-ravaged or not, is simply not clicking. Hagi is being played on the left. He hardly ever played on the left before, is according to his stats an attacking midfielder (95) or right winger (77, of which were 53 with us). Bajrami is being played on the left. He hardly ever played on the left before, is according to his stats an attacking midiflieder (145), or playing centrally (69). Enter Tom Lawrence, whom we primarily played as an AM (34 out of 60), but hardly ever on the left (3) He is according to his stats a left winger (191), who can play through the middle (110, including our 34). Obviously, the right-winger slot is taken up by Cerny (and McCausland, who can actually play on either side), and our prime left wingers, Cortes and Matondo (now off) were injured for ages. While Hagi is versatile enough to whip in enough crosses, Bajrami is obviously not. Both are better more centrally, preferably behind two attackers. Albeit being injured quite often, Lawrence is hardly ever used in his prime role though. Maybe he's been a touch too slow for some, but given that we camp in the opposition half most of the time anyways, spee is not exactly a factor. I do remember that Hagi was getting slaughtered for not being fast enough to be a right winger ... even though "speed" was not really needed. It's not like we were or are playing fast counter attacking football. Being set up with the wrong players filling wrong positions and poor tactics is asking for trouble. It has been the case for the last 9 years now, and we don't have people at the helm able to understand this. Trying the same thing over and over again hoping for a better outcome is sheer stupidity. PC has limited resources in terms of players, and fair enough. But even with a full squad he's not changing things. ... and on a semi-related note: if there is an order to "play out from the back all the time" (even if we crumble under pressure and players are well covered), whoever gave that order should be excorted to Erskine Bridge ...

On a wee sidenote ... every single one of the Saints' players looked up for it today and knew what they were doing. They needed points badly. Goalie and centre-halfs aside, only Hagi and Cerny looked to run themselves into the ground, Dessers got next to no balls and Igamane, much like Jefte, are a long way from the finished article. Raskin got bullied out of any wish to play early on and Diomande was exactly the bit-part player that in the end didn't do that much. The lack of cohesion oozes out of this side right now. It's like 7 or 8 strangers walk onto that pitch and try to work out what they are doing.

You get a glimmer of hope for the season, but this team manages to roll a tsunami over it. Truly shocking ...

Play out from the back time and again ... this is a pure horror show.

Hagi has every right to walk away from the dross he has top cope with ... ... and he even gets subbed now.

The time Tavernier goes into the AM role gives me the creeps ...

Didn't Mandron hit Nsilia's legs so that he stumbled over his own?

Like it or not, but Gogic would be exactly the type of defender we need for most of our Scottish games ...

Wouldn't be surprised to see Lawrence for Igamane in the 2nd half. We need someone to pick a pass, as we have no-one in midfield to calm play down. Hagi again wasted on the wing.

... which means, we need investment and are easy to deal with?

BTW, I blame you for the US-take-over attempt ... with all your stats-mumbo-jumbo ...

Raskin's taking the brunt of their attention ...

Saints do the usual physical approach and we don't really cope, for obvious reasons. Need to make our chances count.

Typical Buddies game so far. ... never knew Declan John was back in Scottish football, snapped up by Saints on a free.

The Eisbären were playing Augsburg Panthers last night in a very similar situation like we face St. Mirren today. While the former are sitting firmly in second place (and well-placed for the playoffs), Augsburg were just above the Playoff zone and needed a win - game 47 of 52 of the regular season. Much like St. Mirren needs points to stay in the top 6. Despite a fair amount of regular players missing, quality proved the key and the Eisbären ran out 5-0 victors. Over to you, Rangers!

Anyone checked what belongs to this 49ers enterprise and how they fare?

Last time I played Fantasy Football was 10 years ago, after that, my interest in what is going on in the EPL essentially vanished. Hence, I am mildly shocked and surprised when I do see the odd highlight from England: teams like Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth, Wolves, and dare I say it Forest and Newcastle are challenging for Champions League places. Teams which I associate with 2nd to 4th tier in my memories. Their supporters probably live the dreams of their fathers, grandfathers and even great great grandfathers. Maybe we should ask them whether they lost any of their traditions and histories, their rivalries etc.? The simple fact is that we are still caught in our goldfish bowl that won't get us much revenue, or the revenue required to play with the sharks out there. It is highly doubtful that any US or other cash will change this in the foreseeable future. What it can change is the current plight of not being able to overcome the Scottish clubs to get us straight entry into the CL riches. IMHO, we are actually not that much worse than them, yet we don't play to our strengths and/or don't have players that give us continuous level of the performance required. Hence, we do need investment. It is quite bizarre that Rangers teams who can't beat Scottish dross on a regular basis can beat multi-million teams on their way to the EL final or the last 16. One might even be willing to give credit to them for taking BL leaders Bayern almost to extra time. Might. The foundations are there, yet we need some change to the status quo, or the attempted skyscraper will just remain a nice detached house ...

Better this than any one single billionaire / US-oligarch type of chap with only business in mind. Mind you, my local ice-hockey team is owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which in turn owns all these Uber / Barclaycard Arenas and O2 Worlds in Europe, as well as the L.A. Kings, L.A. Galaxy, Hammarby IF, Los Angeles Lakers etc. ...

... while writing this at HT, before my inner eye, I saw the final result as it is now. You somehow knew that Hearts wouldn't score, and that we'll grab a few more, somehow. More paper over the cracks, though. NB: No, it is MY inner eye, it's mine, my treasure ... you won't get it. (Unless we share any instant bet profits!)

They should be fined for sloppy and dangerous passes from the back ...

Butland without doubt the best man in Blue out there ... well, Rangers colours. Our team-play is as bad as it was against Queens Park. Bad and sloppy passing, shocking decision-making. Hearts are flying, formwise, and we toil along. For some reason, Hearts always gave us a fight over the last decade ... let's hope the end result will be similar as before though.

Cerny's passing is awful so far, and he'S not alone.

We start playing out of the back again, against a team that does the press well. That's twice Hearts have wasted super positions now. BTW, where's Raskin? Only saw him at our corners.