RANGERRAB

The other thing I think worth pointing out from last night is that Aris Limassol are probably a better side than anyone we face domestically apart from maybe the yahoos. I think too many of us expected an easy game last night

What’s worrying too is Sima and Danilo have gone off the boil the last few games. They were both pretty much non existent last night

8 minutes ago, Blue Moon said:

He couldn't be any worse than Lammers when he plays in his own position.

Which position does Lammers play?

Not sure. 

We were awful up front today. Sima is beginning to look like a luxury player & Danilo doesn’t have the stature to play thro’ the middle on his own. Difficult to see how we can resolve this with what we’ve got at present.

Their goal apart I thought we were reasonably good today against a team playing at home who just wanted to get 11 behind the ball second half but we do lack creativity 

We didn’t start well and conceded a poor goal. The two CB’s should have been capable of dealing with the knock on. 
Once again we’re huffing & puffing up front unable to find a breakthrough 

I suspect Clement has been assessing the squad he’s inherited & will move to make changes in/out in the next two transfer windows. Only after that can he be judged in my opinion. He seems to have already commented on the injuries which could be interesting 

Next up internationals fiasco is the 48 teams qualifying for the 2026 WC in USA, Canada & Mexico ( I can remember 74& 78 when 16 qualified).
Funniest bit I’ve seen is CONMEBOL ( South America) where traditionally the ten S.American countries contested a 10 team division playing each other home & away and the top 3 or 4 qualified automatically & the next team went into playoffs.

But with 48 teams qualifying the as I understand things, top SIX now qualify automatically & whoever finishes seventh goes into playoffs 😂

11 hours ago, alexscottislegend said:

Would it be anti-semitic of me to say that Israel should not be in EUFA as they are not in Europe?

Israel are a UEFA member and not in AFC Asia & Australia for obvious reasons 

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia & Kazakhstan aren’t in Europe either but are UEFA members. When the USSR was dissolved in 1991 the FA’s of the former republics were given the choice of joining UEFA or AFC

UEFA has I think 55 member countries and 24 of them will be going to Germany for the euros finals next year. Almost half of the countries in UEFA. Why do they need so many qualification matches if half of them are going to qualify?

On 17/11/2023 at 19:21, Bill said:

Anyone know what Beale's payoff amounted to?

I thought he didn’t get anything as it was in his contract if he was dismissed inside the first 12 months he got nothing. Same for GvB 

Perhaps Man City and Chelsea have better accountants than Everton. Or creative accountants. Both of them do sell a lot of players which may reflect in their annual figures whereas Everton don’t seem to. 
EPL clubs are allowed losses of up to £105m over a 3 year period I believe. Everton was £125m hence the points deduction 

Lessons learned by Everton hopefully.

Makes you wonder what could happen to Man City. Chelsea too maybe.

1 hour ago, CammyF said:

Thinking back to the game, and I could be wrong here, but it appeared McLean blew for a foul after the goal was scored. 

 

It was one of those decisions that would be hard to overturn, maybe explains McLeans apparent late "whistle"

 

McCauslands goal should have stood. McLean had a shocking first half. Wrongly gave a penalty & wrongly disallowed a goal 

1 hour ago, Bill said:

I enjoyed that less than any game this season. But only because I was driving and had to listen to it on BBC radio. I’d forgotten just how fucking awful Sportsound is. Hopefully it will be another 10 years before I have to endure it again.

And to think we’re supposed to pay a licence fee for that BBC PQ puerile drivel 🙄

1 minute ago, weebluedevil said:

After looking at the replays again at HT, I think Sima gets pulled first. That would be a penalty....or let the goal stand. 

Absolutely. Who’s on VAR?

The referee had a nightmare first half. Chopped off a good goal by McAusland and gave us a penalty which was a dive. Who’s on VAR?

11 minutes ago, Bill said:

I hate plastic pitches

They’re a lottery. Take any victory on them & fingers crossed, no injuries

Today’s Sportsound should be interesting. Hopefully 26th foot will keep us informed 😀

Good first half tonight but we faded badly second half. Goldson’s booking now means he’ll miss the Limassol game. Will Souttar be fit?

21 minutes ago, CammyF said:

Aye right up there with losing 2-1 to Raith in Scottish Cup and drawing 1-1 with Stirling Albion.

 

Did you sleep through the Super Ally managerial era? 

 

Don’t think ally was manager when we lost to raith in the SC 😋

18 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I thought Balogun showed his age a few times and was lucky to get away with it. 

Perhaps lack of game time a factor too

First half was flat but second half a vast improvement.

Bringing on Wright for the struggling Cantwell played a big part in the end result.

Would appear PC likes Wright just as GvB did. Beale was trying to flog him to Turkey.

Both Lundstrum & Jack are our best central MF pairing at the moment & both are out of contract end of season I think. Be interesting to see how that one plays out.

Raskin & Cifuentes need to get their finger out to be their successors

Were both pens correct decision? I had a poor view in the West Stand unfortunately 

Older Gersnetters will recall the mystery surrounding DJ at the 1978 WC in Argentina when he was part of the Scotland squad but never got a game in a struggling Scotland side which embarrassed itself.

After a treble winning season 77-78 with Rangers, in which DJ scored 25 league goals and got both Scotland’s goals in the home internationals before the WC,  he headed out to the WC finals where he wouldn’t play a single minute.

To this day I don’t think DJ has ever said a word about this but for whatever reason I don’t think he was ever the same player again after 1978. He’s been asked often but been declined to give reasons IIRC
 

Summer 78 was also when Jock Wallace left Rangers for Leicester City & was replaced by John Greig. Looking back it seemed Jock Wallace got a lot more out of DJ than Greig would be able to. And ultimately DJ would be part of JG’s 1983 clear out before he himself got cleared out later that same year

Unfortunately I don’t think Derek Johnstone ever became the player we’d hoped he’d be but I’ve always wondered if the summer 1978 was a turning point for him? 

3 hours ago, Scott7 said:

How far back, Rab? Derek Parlane, Jimmy Millar? Of course Millar wasn’t a six footer, he only jumped like one.

From mid 70’s to present day maybe