Darthter

I did, and said so. But the point being even though it was made up, it is not inconceivable or unbelievable..... If someone could point out ANY bit that might NOT possibly be true....

Let me be clear here....I don't think this is an issue specific to Rangers or Pedro Caixhina. It is more of a reflection on modern society etc. A manager is trying to enforce certain discipline, but as soon as someone ain't happy, the story is all over the press and putting managers a VERY difficult situation. If the manager caves in to the media pressure, he is weak and opens the door for more problems. If he sticks to his guns, he's a dictator, a bad man-manager & has "lost the dressing room". The player's part in in it is virtually forgotten. They just sit back & let things play out in the public eye. As for PC's comments on MOH....he didn't just randomly blurt these things out in conversation - he was asked specific questions & regularly pushed for answers. However, people seem to forget that MOH struggled to get a game under the previous manager - PC at least put him out on loan, rather than sitting in the stands every week, which would most likely lead to a transfer offer being made from somewhere.

Also, what happens when the next manager comes along & (potentially) has issues with the SAME players....is it the new managers fault???

Couple of points: You mention PC alienating players, yet you/we don't know the full story behind it. One thing of note, PC remained pretty tight-lipped about most of the players you mention. Lets looks at some possible scenarios: Krancjar: Regularly injured & struggles for fitness - possibly told he has no future at the club as a result, goes in the huff & talks to media Wallace: Injured - possibly told or realises that Declan John is performing better, possibly been told he's no longer captain, goes in the huff & talks to media Miller: Dropped from team due to poor performances, goes in the huff & talks to media O'Hallaran: Struggled to get a game under MW, couldn't get a game under PC, no buyers so goes out on loan, goes in huff & talks to media McKay: Couldn't agree new contract, too greedy Forrester: Didn't impress manager, sent on loan, no buyers so sent on loan, goes in huff & talks to media Hill: Contract ended, manager didn't want to renew Halliday: Told he'd probably get very few games (not good enough), no buyers, sent on loan, goes in huff & talks to media I have absolutely no knowledge of what went on in ANY of these cases, but not a single one of the scenarios stated above is beyond belief.....and every one of them makes the manager look bad, through the players own actions. How is ANY boss supposed to combat that??? With regard to Miller....exactly what did PC say to publicly humiliate him??? I actually don't recall PC saying ANYTHING about MIller - it was all dragged out & discussed in the media.

I do agree (to a point) about the respect side of things....however, in football the manager is the players boss. Than in itself should hold enough respect for the players to act responsibly. In any normal place of work, if you'r line manager tells you to do something (maybe in a particular way), if you refuse to do it, or do it wrong repeatedly, chances are your gonna get a talking to or some kind of disciplinary action. If you then start bad mouthing your boss to all your colleagues, again your opening yourself to disciplinary action. If your boss tells you not to come into work, do you still go in??? Do you go running to the media to tell them your side of the story?? You may approach your union rep etc, but who will discretely advise on the way forward. How often do we hear of the players reps getting involved BEFORE the media??? What is essentially happening nowadays, is that the players are complaining to the media, who then apply pressure to the manager to reverse their decisions. The managers really have a VERY difficult time with regard discipline. They can't actually take a hard-line approach incase they upset the player in question.

but the point is that the Managers decision should be final......it shouldn't come down to a falling out or anything like that. The manager, and not just PC, makes decisions that they feel are correct and in the best interests of the team. However, all too often the players believe they are bigger than that or more important and suddenly the "story" is all over FB, twitter, forums, newspapers, phone ins. The manager falling out with players should not raise a problem - they're not there to be pals. If a player doesn't like a managers decision then they should keep their heads down & train harder....not throw their toys oot the pram & go squealing to the the media. Note: This is not a dig at any particular player or situation, but more of a general observation with recent examples. I see it as a problem that affect the whole of modern football & in many cases beyond football.

Managerial Discipline.....what does it really mean?? My understanding is that the Manager is the man in charge of the team....he trains the players, develops tactics & selects the team to play. The manager's word is final...or is it?? We have seen several examples over the years, most recently with Kenny Miller & also Michael O'Hallaran, whereby the Manager apepars to make a decision - for whatever reason - but that decision gets questioned by everyone with the ultimate outcome being that the Manager gets the sack. Taking Kenny Miller as an example - this is just MY view on how things proceeded. - Pedro made a decision to drop Miller from the squad - Info is "leaked" via social media & mainstream media about the managers decision & how it is disrespectful etc to a player with Miller's experience etc. - Miller's agent makes several comments via social media about how badly his client has been treated - Several weeks of discussion follow on forums & radio phone-ins As a result, the manager receives constant questions about the situation, resulting in increasing irate, flippant & deflective answers, for which the manager gets more flack for avoiding or refusing to answer question on the matter. All the while that this is going on, the manager is standing by his decision & trying to enforce his discipline on the squad - trying to show that if you step out of line, there will be consequences. Eventually other members of the squad are allegedly told to stay away....yet it is the manager that gets the flack for again (I assume) trying to enforce some discipline. Ultimately, the manager is sacked & the players return to the 1st team, and all carries on as "normal" So how can ANY manager properly enforce discipline, when players & their agents immediately run to the media etc when something doesn't go to their liking. The Manager's decision should be final, whether it is viewed to be right or wrong by the fans or media. It's like a young wean getting dropped from the local team, runs home greetin' "Mammy....the coach isnae letting me play this weekend...", the Mammy then storms up to the coach shouting & screaming as to why her Son (who's already better than Messi & Ronaldo put together), ain't playing this weekend. I believe that the players nowadays get everything too easy.....they get paid huge wages compared to any other professions and generally work considerably less hours - they believe that they are better than the rest. They believe that no-one has the right to drop them from the team or criticise their performances. They they should get constant contract extensions & juicy bonus'....but when someone tries to tell them otherwise, they go greetin' tae Mammy (agent) about how badly they've been treated. Remember the hooha when players were told to report for training early doors?? Remember the hooha when previous managers tried to run double training sessions?? Remember the hooho when players were dropped coz they were playing poorly?? How many players have been sacked in recent years due to disciplinary issues??? How many managers have been sacked for "losing the dressing room"???

He looks VERY assured of his abilities....calm on the ball & does what's needed to be done. I think he will learn a lot from Alves - similar to Wilson & Weir. Hopefully he stays & learns unlike Danny Wilson, who wasted several years of his career.

Seen McCrorie play a couple of times now, and have to say, I've been impressed with the lad. First off, he "looks a player".....Tall, fit, athletic and ain't afraid to get stuck in. Performance wise, I think he's done really well, been thrown in at the deep end a couple of times, but came through. Given that he's only 19 & he hasn't looked out of place in the team, what does the future hold for him???

Is there any real indication that this is inevitable??? As you say it all comes down to how the manager views the current players & how they fit together into a cohesive unit - Pena may be pivotal in a new formation...

BEHIND the scenes at Rangers, Director of Football Mark Allen has been hard at work creating a brand new scouting department to ensure the Light Blues recruit the best talent to return them to the top of Scottish football. Allen has deliberately kept a low profile since his appointment until such times as his new setup was finalised – and he has made a number of appointments to his new team to assist him in improving the club’s recruitment process. First, Allen has appointed the experienced Andy Scoulding as his Head of Scouting. Attracting someone of Scoulding’s calibre was vital to him, and he explained: “If you look at Andy’s track record, he has been involved in forming high-level scouting networks and has over 15 years of footballing experience. He comes with a track record of working in high-performance arenas. “He is multi-disciplined. He has worked in England at Fulham and Liverpool and he worked with the England National Team where he was responsible for putting together their scouting network which looked at potential England players. More recently, he has worked in Spain with Valencia. “Andy was the candidate who stood out as he had a clear understanding of what this club is and the opportunity to take it to the next level. I think that is a very attractive proposition in itself, coupled with the ability to start with a clean sheet of paper. ‘’The real positive is you get a chance to put your stamp on it and put your team in place. You don’t often get that opportunity of a blank canvas and I think that was very much a positive in terms of Andy looking at this role.” RTV SUBSCRIBERS CAN WATCH AN EXCLUSIVE ALLEN INTERVIEW HERE Since his arrival, both Scoulding and Allen have been working out the best path forward for Rangers and have looked at a number of different areas in terms of recruiting players for the club. Allen continued: “In the modern game, as it stands now, I think you need a strategy for how you are going to recruit, where you are going to recruit and why you are going to recruit. “I think Andy brings experience in all of those areas in addition to my own background previous to Rangers. ‘’In today’s game you need strategy, intelligence and eyes. You need to know how to build databases, how to build dossiers on players and be looking at what they are doing on and off the pitch etc. The final and most critical part is you need the eyes to be able to go out and watch games live to confirm what the intelligence and video scouting is telling you.’’ As part of the ‘eyes’ aspect discussed by Allen, he and Scoulding have made three appointments to search for the best talent for Rangers. First, they have recruited club icon John Brown and Allen believes bringing him on board was a no-brainer. He pointed out: “When you go back and look at some of those characteristics I mentioned in terms of the player profile, John is well-known to have had that history with Rangers Football Club and will know what a Rangers player looks like. He will be able to identify those sorts of characteristics. “He has a track record in scouting previously and he was an easy choice for me and one I wanted to make almost immediately. “John will head up the domestic side of things and look at Scotland and the rest of the UK. However, the great thing about this department is it is inter-dependent. “John was an easy choice for me in that respect. He knows what it is like to play for this football club and he knows the types of players who will succeed at this football club in terms of characteristics and he is also able to ascertain and know whether a player can cope with the intensity.” Dave Swanick is a name which will be less well-known to Rangers supporters, but Allen believes he will add plenty to the club. Allen said: “I know Dave from his previous role at Aston Villa where he was European scouting manager. He will drive the European element of this, and we have got to be prepared in terms of looking far and wide for the right players for Rangers Football Club. “Dave has a very good knowledge of all the markets in European football and has worked extensively throughout Europe. The intelligence might point you to certain leagues where players would have the correct profile and characteristics to play for Rangers Football Club.’’ Finally, Billy McLaren, who has headed up the club’s Academy scouting system for a number of years, now comes under Scoulding and Allen’s control. “Billy provides experience and continuity,” explained Allen. “Billy has worked in the Academy arena for many years, and the Academy transition is very important. Identifying young, up and coming players is very important in terms of the overall philosophy of the football club. Billy has all the domestic knowledge and he has the link with the Academy. “Dave Stevenson, who will replace Billy in the Academy setup, will join us from the SFA and Rob Clarkson, who is going to come in late November from Manchester City, will take the responsibility of coordinating all the planning activities around the scouts. He will make sure they are going to the right games, identifying those games and following upon player reports for those games as well as scouting himself. “So there will be six or seven pairs of eyes – myself and Andy included – that will be out there at different times making sure we are scouting potential Rangers footballers for the future and making sure we work together window by window, season by season.” In addition to those positions, Katy Lamont, the club’s Player Liason Officer, will have a major role in the department in terms of logistics and looking after any new arrivals. Player scouting, as Allen alluded to, doesn’t just involve going and watching an individual in person – it can take the form of watching them and their specific attributes on video here at the Rangers Training Centre. Allen explained: “Again, a lot of analysis comes in in terms of recruitment and, as I say, you can’t just take one discipline in isolation In my opinion, you can’t have a department which is just full of eyes if you like. “You need the technical skills behind it to make sure we are cutting the right clips on players so that when we are presented with potential players we can see what players are like in possession, out of possession and all of those things I have spoken about. “The analysis guys can pull the clips together, they can cut them and we can present them as part of a review prior to recruiting the player That is a vital part in terms of your intelligence gathering and building of your database.” https://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/allen-unveils-scouting-department/

Saying Scottish football is rubbish is certainly one way of putting it.....I was thinking more that Scottish football is unwilling to evolve. Until clubs across the board acknowledge that the game must evolve more inline with the rest of Europe, I think we will struggle to do well with foreign managers. Brenda is doing well at the moment, but when up against Euro opposition, at times they look like neanderthals (granted some of the players are...). Too many teams focus more on the physical aspect rather than the technical, as a result we see players getting booted up & down the park for 90mins (unless yer one of Brenda's mob). In that respect, the boar have a tough decision....do they stick with what they know works in Scotland, but not elsewhere, or do they keep trying to lead/influence that change. McInnes would most likely do well in the former, but I think our success outwith Scotland would be limited. People like Preud'Homme would offer the latter...but so did PC & PLG.....

I don't believe that McInnes should be the next manager. I DO think he could do a decent job though....I think he would consolidate our position in 2nd place, but I don't think he offers enough to actually take the club forward to bigger things. I think we would get a bit closer to Ceptic, but I don't think the likes of Aberdeen with a new manager would be too far behind our heels. If we want to try & catch Ceptic, we MUST get into the Euro group stages - that's where notable sums of cash are available, even the Europa league would bless us with a hefty windfall. McInnes has done nothing in Europe with Aberdeen - not even a sniff of the groups stages!!! 3 domestic finals out of 8, yet no wins. We need to aim higher than 2nd place. Over the course of a season, it's safe to say that Aberdeen/McInnes haven't really challenged Ceptic over the past few years, so why is that suddenly going to change when managing us??? Folk are saying that he does well on a tight budget, which is true, on a domestic front, not on the bigger stage. What happens if he is handed a bigger budget to buy players??? What happens when he starts dealing with would-be Prima-donas??? Managing a club like Rangers is about more than putting together a decent domestic team - we desire euro competition. We need a manager that is not afraid of going toe-to-toe with Brenda either tactically, physically or verbally. Someone who can whip the current team into a formidable force - especially when playing @ Ibrox. Someone who isn't phased by the bright lights of Euro competition, someone who is used to progressing past the 2nd qualifying round. Who that person is, I don't know - it's not my job to know or make that call. The Board need to identify that person first & foremost, find out if they will take the job, THEN find the cast to make it happen.

Going by his reaction to being asked that in the press conference, I don't know if he'll jump at the chance. He's more than delighted to stand in, but don't think he'd relish the constant focus/pressure.

Excellent answer when asked about his previous OF game....

Whats McCoist up to these days

We're 5 points behind Aberdeen & 8 behind Ceptic.....not insurmountable by any means. We should have finished above Aberdeen last season, but we collapsed, while they maintained. Ultimately, we should be aiming FAR higher than McInnes.

If you look at the wording of the notices.....PC was immediately offered a one match ban & accepted it. It would appear that Robinson hasn't been offered anything.

No idea where the cash will come from, but they need to find some. We simply can't afford to take another gamble or cut-price option. If that means less to spend on players initially, then so be it. Any knew manager should be made aware of recent spending & told that any more cash will only be available if the results improve.

McInnes, Walter, McCall: No, No, No We need to look beyond our own walls. McInnes is doing a decent job at Aberdeen, but they ain't challenging Ceptic - seeming demolished the other night. He might get us a few points closer, but nothing more Essentially they are on the same level as us. Done nothing in Europe, and little domestically - how is that an improvement???

This is a no brainer. They MUST find the cash require to bring in the best candidate they can, no if's, but's or maybe's. The Board cannot cut any corners with this.

Appointing a manager from the same league, will not allow us to improve IMHO.....The likes of Wright & McInnes are doing well at their respective clubs, but neither are receiving massive plaudits or interest from other/bigger clubs. IF we are to replace PC, the board MUST follow Ceptics lead & splash the cash on a manager with a good rep from a better league ie. EPL.

That's the whole point....there were 10 Rangers players on the pitch that failed to prevent Killie scoring - would an 11th player have made any difference, I don't think so. The remaining players were caught on the hop, yet Jack is the one getting all the blame. If he'd been sent off in the 1st 10 mins then a lot more understandable, but there was only a few minute left to hold out & they failed. Remember, their goal was setup 100% by KIRK BROADFOOT, who ain't no Messi/Ronaldo, yet he was able to run (with the ball) the length of the pitch & put in a fairly unremarkable cross which our defence completely missed, to be met by a Killie player at the back post. Yes Jack's dismissal caused confusion in the ranks, but these are highly paid, professional players and they couldn't prevent their goal. As I said initially, Jack's absence will be most felt if he is either banned or dropped as a result of his actions for the next match(s)

What about the defenders....or the other 10 players on the pitch???? Jack's actions were stupid....but we were 1-0 up at the time - WINNING the game. As a team we were unable to hold onto that lead for a few minutes until the whistle. Killie never even had time to capitalise on having the extra man - they just ran up the pitch & scored.

point of note....'Well won last night against Dundee (presumably with Robinson in the dugout), which lifts them into 3rd above Rangers......:whistle: