RANGERRAB

I think improving the style of play has generally been a fans requirement, and has been a massive failure.

Promoting youths to 1st team - success

developing youths - generally a failure. Are the youngsters in the team improving with match experience???

you have to ask if the young players playing in the first team this season are really good enough to start with. I'm not convinced very many we've seen this season will make it. McLeod & McKay have the potential to go far but whether they do or not remains to be seen. The rest are a 'no from me unfortunately

Nothing or no-one seems to be able to stop them!

The reality is they're everywhere in Scotland. They're over-represented in politics(councillors, MSP's, MP'S & MEP's), the mhedia( BBC Scotland, Radio Clyde, Daily Rebel etc) and various professions such as the legal profession where just about every solicitor/lawyer seems to be one of them nowadays.

Not bad for a section of the Scottish population which is supposedly less than 20%. Small wonder they're now more or less running Scottish football's governing bodies too.

One of the problems we need to understand is that the youngsters who have come into the first team this season aren't as good as we think. From those we've seen I'd say only McKay & McLeod have a chance of being here for the longterm.

To coin a common phrase from McCoist...."We are where we are", and we have been for the last 7 months approx. The only negative factor that has had a direct result on the playing squad in recent months is the transfer embargo, and in truth how many decent quality signing could/would we have made in January if possible???

 

From the information present, the club is financially sound and being run in the proper manner. There is the league reconstruction thing, but that effect every team in the league, not just us.

 

The fact is, we have a squad of players who are costing the club the 2nd highest wage bill in the country - we have individual players who's weekly wage is probably more than some of our oppositions entire monthly wage bill. Yet we are struggling to dominate these teams.

 

I think it is fair to say that the majority of the Div3 managers now have the measure of McCoist & his team - they know how he will set the team up to play, and they know how they should play in order to make it difficult for us. You could argue that all these teams raise their game against us....What's new in that??? The big question is "Why aren't our guys raising their game??"

 

The lack of pre-season excuse has long since lost any meaning, we are 3/4 of the way through the season. I also believe the novelty for the opposition of play us has long since worn off - we've played nearly every team at least 3 times now.

 

I have said before, I believe we have the makings of a good team, but something is just not right somewhere.....it's like have a 6-pack of beer, but missing the plastic bit to hold them together. I'm believe the manager is that plastic bit....

we'll only have the makings of a good team when we add to the squad in MF & CB where we're seriously short at present

Like I said, I don't get it. Just like I don't get why of all the forum topics you could choose to go on the defensive about, you pick this one.

 

Since your interested though - a little more info on the 3 players mentioned:

 

- Bryan Figueroa. 20 yr old defender. 9 appearances for Montagua.

- Junior Padilla. 20 yr old midfielder. 9 appearances for Montagua.

- Omar Elvir. 23 yr old defender / defensive Left-Mid. 21 appearances for Montagua.

 

Didn't take me long to spot this lad while I was browsing. I wonder if our scouts will have had a peek at him yet. Apart from seeming to be a real talent, he's only 17 so we could at least in theory sign him in the summer.

Not exactly played a lot of games for their club have they?

I think CG is playing mindgames with Liewell here. Liewell is(or should be) our public enemy no1 just ahead of Rhegan & Doncaster. We should all know that. Liewell is involved in just about everything to do with Scottish football(including the mhedia)to the detriment of Rangers wherever possible.

Everyone knows Desmond would like Ra Sellik to play in England if there was a way to do this. Now here's CG coming out & claiming he has a means of doing this for Rangers via these 2 financially-strapped un-named clubs. Normally there would be a response from the east end of the city aimed at ridiculing him(via the usual mhedia patsys) but what have they said so far ? not a lot. You can be sure Desmond has been on to Liewell about this. It's been an attempt to provoke a statement from Liewell or one of his cohorts knowing full well they'd have difficulty saying anything as he's caught them on the hop so to speak

McCoist must be watching a different team - it's grossly unfair of him (IMHO) to lay the blame at the feet of the younger players!!!

 

Cribari, Shiels, Black, Argy, Sandaza, Kyle - how many of them have been shining lights this season??? McCulloch & Little had bagged a sackful of goals between them, but their general play hasn't exactly been electrifying at times. Alexander has been OK, but not outstanding.

 

The vast majority of excitement this season has come form the likes of McKay, Temps & McLeod - The younger players!!! Encourage them, not put them down!!!

McKay & McLeod have got passmarks. Nothing more. Will they cut it higher divisions ? that remains to be seen.

I reckon CG/Ally might offer him a payment in order to terminate his contract. He's been a dud & offering him a 4 year deal was a big mistake

Totally agree. However, a standard system/way of playing should be instilled AT ALL LEVELS within the club. Get the 12/13/14 years olds playing in a similar manner to the first team.

 

Once a way of playing is established, it then makes is easier to spot who will make the grade later on etc.

won't happen. You'd need to totally overhaul everything to do that from top to bottom. We can't even get the first team doing basics as we saw yesterdayFFS

the unfortunate truth is that the majority of these young players won't be with us in the long run. They won't be capable of the standards required for where we want to be. The sooner everyone understands this the better for all concerned

Great post but we do need to bring in new players, especially in MF & CB. What CG will need to decide is whether Ally is the man to do that. Unfortunately it's a no from me

Malcolm Murray was in Bar 72 after game and (i don't agree with him talking out in public) but he wasn't happy with yesterdays performance neither was board, Ally had told them the team were up for it and they would see an improvement on previous displays/results and it didn't happen. He said some more stuff which i wont put on here but the jist is Allys got next season to improve and if fans don't start turning up due to watching dross Allys job will be tenable.

a change needs to be made before the new season starts. Like many, I really don't think Ally's up to the job. We can't allow Ally to make new signings for next season then discover things don't work out then ask someone else to come in. That must not be allowed to happen

If Sandaza has breached his contract we either sack him get nothing for him, or we have suspended him on full wages so we can punt him and get what we get for him whether Sandaza likes it or not.

Who'll take him ? he's only scored 2 goals this season. We're stuck with him unless he's breached his contract, which I'd doubt

'IF I get a better league and more money I'll go'

He won't get a better league & won't get more money. We're stuck with this striker who's only got 2 goals for another 3 seasons

Been saying this for years with regards to free kicks. How many years did we persevere with the pointless floaty high ball to the back stick? Feekin awful. Just awful

we need decent quality midfield players playing in midfield for a start. We'll need 2 or probably 3 for next season. No idea where we're going to get them from. When I say some of the out of contract SPL players being mentioned I'm not so sure they're the standard we need

We need 2 or 3 midfielders for next season. Midfield is where we're weakest at present. Constantly giving the ball away there & no creativity. Also can we get the likes of Aird & McKay when playing wide to try & get good quality deliveries into the box. Otherwise no point in having wide men on the park.

And the deliveries from freekicks & corners were the usual awful standard again today. Does anyone practise them in training ? doesn't look like it to me

We also need to understand that almost all of the youngsters who have played in the first team this season aren't good enough for where we wish to be. Today showed that.

There was a time when I never missed a Scotland home game but my current apathy I think stems from the national team's shocking record in not having qualified for a major tournament since 1998. They could & should have had second spot for their 2010 WC Qualifying Group & 2012 EC Qualifying Group thus getting into the play-offs. The fact they didn't shows how standards have fallen & just about all the blame should be directed at the SFA in particular their choices of national team managers i.e. Burley & Levein neither of whom had any great managerial record at club level. They only got the job because they were Scottish which shouldn't be a determining factor in the selection of the national team manager. Despite the Vogts fiasco, appointing a foreign manager shouldn't present a problem as many countries do it quite successfully. Scotland should be no different

if he wants a move then don't let the door slam on the way out then Fran. Bye..............

It is a very strange situation all of this. The Green brigade are as far as I can see an organisation who show blatant support for banned terrorist organisations and use Celtic as their vehicle for this. Is that correct ? Then why have the police taken so long to do anything about this ? Did it really take an unauthorised march to at long last force them into taking action against this organisation?

Excellent article as usual from VB.

does anyone know if he's still at the SFA? Remember last season the likes of Naismith & Aluko getting bans?

Yet this season we've hardly heard a word from Lunny. Why is that ? has the SPL in particular become a great bastion of good sportsmanship since we left?

or was Lunny's real job at the SFA just to persecute Rangers at the insistence of Regan & his pal Liewell in order to help Celtic

Whatever happens in the summer regards the Rangers Manager position CG cannot afford to get it wrong. If he sticks with Ally (which I doubt) then he'd need to allow him to bring in new faces and there would need to be immediate & substantial improvement on the park. I'm not sure Ally could guarantee that which is why I suspect he'll go.

Any replacement for Ally must have a proven track record in management and be capable of turning things around in as a short timescale as possible

Like I said - If you focus on the negatives....

 

If you looked at it as - Docked ten points and still comfortably win 2nd place in SPL despite the turmoil of administration and as a result having a team of players who were clearly desperate to leave. Be a central figure in holding the club and support together during it's darkest hours. Have no pre-season and have to build a whole team in less than a month with next to no transfer kitty and without being able to tell players what league they'd be playing in until mid July. Comfortably (at least in terms of points on the board) win the league title at first time of asking with aforementioned patch-up job of a squad.

 

...Doesn't look so bad then does it?

look m8 I fully understand where you're coming from regards Ally. No one wanted him to succeed more than me but it just hasn't worked. It would be a massive risk IMO to allow him to bring in players during the summer and it doesn't work leaving a new manager coming in to try and fix something which many would say was obvious from the start.

I know he was a magnificent ambassador for the club during its darkest hours and we should all remember him for that.

But things have moved on now and the club is in a much better place financially and will fully recover sooner rather than later. The only part which hasn't recovered is the product on the park & that will be CG's biggest decision he'll need to take this summer. Sadly for Ally I think a change would be best for Rangers and no one person is bigger than the club.

If you only focus on the negatives his track record is poor. The same could be said for any manager.

 

If you only focus on the positives his track record is excellent. The same couldn't be said for any manager.

 

If you look at it objectively his track record [might be] decent with room for improvement and I agree with the OP that Ally should be given time.

He's had plenty time. He's been manager almost 2 seasons now. His record prior to administration last season wasn't great i.e going out of 4 cups and blowing a decent lead in the SPL. This season hasn't been great either. Even allowing for the players we lost it's been poor to watch mostly and been put out of 3 cups, twice at home. I genuinely believe a better manager would have got more out of the current squad. For me we need a change at the end of the season. Football can be cruel and Ally will always be remembered as one of the all time Rangers greats but just didn't cut it as manager I'm afraid to say