Scott7

Sent unexpectedly this afternoon on an unexpected, tedious errand, I thought I’d give Sportsound a go to follow the fortunes of the Famous. The last time I heard a fragment of a commentary was December 2019. Today was just dreadful. There was no bias against Rangers. Indeed from time to time the summariser, Craiggen? Craggen? - him, anyway - remarked that Rangers were playing quite well but whoever was doing the commentary was hopeless completely failing to describe play as they chatted learnedly about this and that. e.g. the summariser in all seriousness told me what St Mirren had to do, was get the ball, keep it and get it up into the Rangers box. I could work that out for myself. They rarely bothered to say where the ball actually was unless there was a likely shot at goal. My mission accomplished, I did not remain with them for the second half. To find out if I am living hopelessly in the past when Peter Thomson liked to give what he called a sound picture of the game, a tradition ably carried on by Francey, Alexander and Begg, I listened to a bit of the R5 commentary City v Leicester. There it was. The sound picture. The commentator telling me where play was, who was in possession, the markers, runners, tacklers, the whole lot. Sportsound is useless. Never mind the bias, the snarkiness and the bheggar adulation. They can’t even do the basics.

Baron Samedi strikes twice.

To be fair to RW, crock-signing was a perfected art at Ibrox long before he arrived.

Yup. Couple of successful seasons in Gorgie - third place in the league by a distance, a cup win and semi-finals - then he’s ready for the big step up to somewhere.

A nicely presented argument. I’m leaning to an acquittal while not greetin’ about his departure.

As long as three years? We salute your optimisticability.

Davis here in spirit but not in whole body. Kamara here in body but not in spirit. Jack’s doing fine. A question: why compromise the midfield to accommodate an attacker with a nominal position in defence?

I believe the word is “hoodwinked”?

Rod had some pedigree, though.

Salenko and Guivarc’h on paper were Rangers class. Billy Dodds wasn’t. Who of the three scored the most?

Might I mention Tommy Gemmell? ok, I’ll take the ban.

Yes, I get that. Fine if you’ve got the man who can do it namely a defender who can attack. John Brown and Davy Robertson could do it. Neither as good as Tav going forward but both much better defenders. @Rousseau has clarified this above. I think.

Well, that clears everything up. Tav’s been a winger all along. The defensive feebleness of the team isn’t his fault. How to un-feeble the defence?

Wes sent off after 17 minutes as Sheffield Utd lose 0-2 at Burnley. Burnley 14 points clear of Blades at the top of the Championship.

Clancy denied Alfie a goal because the defender while trying to push Alfie back, tried at the same time, to lean forward to head the ball and so fell down. The Alfie of even a season ago would have justifiably gone mental. This time all he did was scamper up to the ref with an enquiring look on his face and then turn back immediately without a word. Has he been to behavioural coaching? Too late, unfortunately. Anyway, well done for keeping the head. The question is, should he keep his place until the end of the season or, at least until the semi final?

The thought has often entered my head, compo. The right half was supposed to do his bit in defence and carry the ball forward to pass on to a forward player. If you want the template for right half play, look at Ian McColl and no further. Tav couldn’t play old fashioned right half. His defensive work isn’t up to it. His attacking play, however, is outstanding. His talent is bombing up the right flank opening the opposition defence for a strike at goal. It seems that the further back he starts his run, the more effective he is, i.e. starting from the right back position and apparently coming from nowhere. Could he play as a right winger? He would be more closely marked there which would reduce his effectiveness. I can’t believe a succession of managers haven’t thought about playing him further forward and putting a defender in at full back (There’s a novel idea) Maybe they’ve come to the same conclusion, that he’s best attacking from a distance. The folk who know about these things will tell us.

I believe they were teaching that at Jordanhill 1956/57.

He would have been carried off shoulder high, given both a gold watch and a purse of One Hundred Guineas and awarded a life pension of One Thousand Pounds per annum. Papal Knighthood too most likely.

Why would he be available? Is he Neilson’s bondman? Maybe this is the market we have to shop in.

What’s happened to the Hearts? They cuff Aberdeen 5-0, a few weeks later the manager’s binned and Aberdeen are third. Robson for Gorgie?

Arsenal not exactly fallers at Liverpool but a heavy landing at the last fence and heavy going on the run in. Their next fixtures should be winnable without much problem.

Hodgson a better option than Moyes to be fair.

Far too much on the evidence so far.

Long experience has proved that, so you’re right. True, though. Moyes is not the worst option of the range of available managers with some sort of pedigree. I don’t think Potter would get the time he would need to improve the team and he would cost more than Rangers would pay. Having said that, some managers can bring about immediate change and even success.

I’m struggling to see where Gonzo’s wrong.