Darthter

seen a similar one where the specialist subject was "Corporate Tax law"

I think based on MW's signings last season, it does increase the excitement somewhat. A lot of fans were unsure/nervous about signing unknown players from the lower leagues, but ultimately those signings proved to be VERY successful. For the past few years, we have brought in mainly known names - folk had seen them play & were aware of their capabilities. It is refreshing that MW & McPartland are going out & identifying potential talents once again, and not relying on past reputations etc.

Think the appearance stats tell a lot about Templetons time at RFC....been here a year longer than law, yet has 30 less appearances. Has he REALLY been that unfortunate with injury, or is it a convenient excuse??? Disappointing as the lad had a lot of potential.

Generally, the brands that SD sells were struggling....Ashley buys them over & sells them through his retail network. Puma are far from a struggling brand.

Ashley/Sports Direct have no control over what the team wears on the pitch - they are only involved (via Rangers Retail) with the distribution.resale of merchandise. I can't see ANY grounds by which Ashley/SD could force the team to wear a particular strip.

Have those strips been confirmed as official yet???

from a legal stand point, this isn't a move by RFC against Sports Direct.....it it 100% between RFC Int & Rangers retail (it just so happens that Rangers retail is directly connected to Sports Direct) Rangers retail is a stand-alone company in legal terms, and I believe it's Rangers Retail that has the agreement to sell exclusively through the Sports Direct stores - this agreement is still 100% in place.....it's just that Rangers Retail no longer has any official merchandise to sell..... RFC IP/Trademarks -> Rangers Retail -> Sports Direct now becomes Rangers Retail -> Sports Direct

I would imagine we will be free to either sell directly or via a 3rd party, any item with the official trademarks on them - Rangers Retail will not be able to do that. Rangers Retail will still have a contract in place with Sports Direct - exactly what the contract stipulates we don't know. If the contract specifically states the provision of Official club merchandise, then Rangers Retail & Sports Direct will have an issue to address.

I would assume the latter..... It would make sense that negotiations to improve the deal were failing & RFC threatened to pull the IP/Trademarks (possibly)....they have now simply made good on their threat. Alternatively, it may have come straight outta left field. According to the STV web report, Rangers Retails accounts are overdue @ companies house. This may be used to justify (amongst other reasons) the withdrawing of IP/Trademarks ie. the company is not being run in a suitable manner etc.

Shares are shares.....but I'm sure there was some stipulation that in financial matters, the SD vote counted as double. My understanding is that the club have removed the right for Rangers Retail to supply any items covered by RFC IP trademarks - ie official merchandise. This is 100% between RFC Int Ltd & Rangers Retail Ltd - it does not involve Sports Direct ltd/plc. Any agreements between Rangers Retail & Sports direct over the sale of goods is still in place. It will get VERY interesting if Rangers Retail is contracted to supply Sports Direct with Official RFC Merchandise.....with the removal of the IP/Trademark license, Rangers Retail can no longer meet it's contractual requirements & will probably go bust, redering all contracts null & void.

difficult to call, until he actually plays.

Alan Stubbs.....play & manage "The Celtic way"....

Stats are only as good as the parameters/datasets used. What are the parameters/datasets that you used in your calculations??? Did you use results from McCoists entire time as manager?? If so, is that a fair balance compared to MW??? The most accurate comparison would be to take only the games the AMc was in charge of in the Championship, compared the same number of games for MW. You can't compare AMc's win stats against the lowest 2 tier teams against MW's performance against those in the 2nd tier. AMc's resources vastly out-weighed those of the opposition. The reality is that as soon as AMc came up against half-way decent opposition, he struggled.

I don't think there will be a lot of pre-season games - probably a couple at most. MW doesn't seem to favour that approach.

The most important stats: McCoist/McDowell/McCall Season 14/15 P36 W19 D10 L7 Warburton Season 15/16 P36 W25 D6 L5 Based on that, how could ANYONE argue that McCoist had a higher win percentage than Warbs??? Stats can be "massaged" to give certain outcomes, depending on the calculations/formula used. The base figures my be undisputed facts, but it's what you do with those figures that counts.

This was the bit that REALLY got me...... True our game isn't amazing, but surely they can afford to pay the Scottish game more than one presenter in Engerland. The BBC receive approx £325m per year from Scottish license payers. BBC Scotland receives approx £102m back from HQ. (source) Yet the most they can afford to Scottish football is £2.8m???? As someone said previously....the more money that is invested into the game, the more money clubs should have to spend on better players, producing a better product on the park and therefore boosting attendance/viewing figures.....

as opposed to the unionist propaganda one that we have now....(but that's a debate for somewhere else.. )

I think it will be interesting to see how many (if any) of the loanees, MW deems ready to make the step up to the 1st team.

I think this highlights (again), the turnaround in the team..... We have a team here, with multiple candidates for POTY - McKay, Miller, Holt, Tav, Wallace, Waggy. These are the main front runners, but you also have guys like Halliday, Ball & Kiernan who have also been fantastic all season, A couple of seasons ago, it would have been a real struggle.

Barrie McKay for me....He has been a completely different player to what we have seen in previous season.

I would LOVE Lemmon to come back & fail miserably!!!! (which is a very real possibility)

The most glaring omission from the article is....How much has DK already put in??? Most articles like this tend to assume that the £30m that King spoke of was to fund players. However, DK never specified how it was to be spent....he also DID specify that it would be over a 3-5 year period - not all at once, which again the article is hinting at.

The whole competitive nature is being driven out of kids now a days - they are being taught that failure is acceptable, as long as you try. The result of that is an acceptance of mediocrity. They need that competitive edge, that desire to do what is required to win - something that had been missing from the RFC squad for several years. We have seen all too often, players who are content to take a wage, while sitting in the dugout/stands etc. That when given an opportunity, fail to take it. Players who lose interest in a game, and "disappear" for large spell, that job about 1/2 heartedly. Youths coming through the system, need to fully understand that failure to achieve/win is not acceptable & if they don't perform 100% there will be consequences. There will no doubt be many very talented players who will fall by the wayside as result of this, but technical ability goes for nothing if they can't be bothered applying it.

It doesn't matter where it starts.....it's about getting a figure out there.

I think if the club start hearing whispers of other clubs being interested, they need to go public with a valuation - and make it a ridiculous figure....£10-15M. Yes they will get some ridicule for it in the press, but the more it's mentioned, the more it gets about in the media & the more folk down south will hear about it and the more it becomes the accepted figure. In essence, that's what Ceptic tend to do - put out a vastly inflated valuation, then settle for a highly reduced but still over-priced fee. The boy has been outstanding this season.....Coisty must be wondering where it all went wrong with McKay.