RabiDuck

Pretty much my thinking. Does he have the tactical acumen for the job? Probably not. What he does have is the ability (seemingly) to get the team geed up and ready to go, instill a bit of the "Ranger's spirit". That can be done as an assistant. If he can learn from an experienced manager, he might be an option i the future, but if not we at least get some of the passion from him in the meantime. There's an argument that with the EL progression and the result yesterday, he's earned the right to have a shot. If we don't think he's ready for the big job (and I don't think he is) then AM seems a possibility.

Not sure he's what we're looking for short-medium term but as a long term prospect, perhaps? I don't see it happening but how about Barry as assistant to a more experienced, proven manager to hone his craft and moulded to take over as the long term appointment. Some sort of succession planning. Difficulty here is it would need Barry to accept a step backwards from manager to assistant (although that might not be impossible to see happen), it would also need the incoming manager to buy into the idea of the previous manager staying around....

The problem is, our performances against Celtic haven't been the issue lately. We don't need someone who can score against them (although obviously would be nice) if we'd done the job elsewhere (5 draws and 4 loses in the league not counting Celtic games) then we'd be a point clear at the top. Give me a Boyd who can score against the smaller clubs but doesn't do the business against Celtic and right now I'd take it.

My fear is that with the whole takeover and need for new management structure (both manager, coaches and higher up the footballing structure as well as the executive side of things) the chances of being prepared for the early CL stages are very slim. We're possibly hoping for a very easy lead into it and a bit of luck to progress the early stages and have at least some semblance of structure in place for the actual group stages. I hope I'm wrong but I feel that it might be a writeoff season from a European perspective unless we get lucky.

I'm still not sure on all the dual ownership rules. Given the success of Leeds this season, promotion looks likely. How does it work out if, in a couple of years, they qualify for the Europa League alongside us? Any issues?

On the one hand, Ferguson coming in could be seen as getting back some of the passion and playing for the jersey that has been sadly lacking of late... However we've gone down the ex-player\hero route in the not so distant past, I'm sure Ally can offer a cautionary tale regarding such a course of action... I do hope Barry fares better than Ally did, but I fear we're in for a repeat performance. That being said, with all the upheaval around investment, takeover, DOF, etc I don't think there would have been too many queueing up for a short term gig.

So Liverpool and Ajax likely group winners, between us and napoli for 3rd place and EL? Could be a good shout to drop down and another run to a European final would be a great result I think...

Fans celebrating and not socially distanced? 100point penalty to rangers!!!

Guard of honour at their place? ?

I don't think we really need them though do we? All done now right?

Ah, that makes it harder, but still as good as Albertz was (and I loved the guy!) I'd have to pick Kos. Leaves me a space for Gazza in midfield though, so every cloud and all that!

I was thinking the same. Niemi was great for us, but there's no contest. We've recently been debating the greatest keeper we've ever had, Goram, Klos and Greggs being three of the front runners, Niemi was good, but not in the same class as Klos! Edit - Hard to do with that midfield, but I'd try my damndest to find a place for Gazza too... can we play 2 at the back???

The big difficulty comes from the unique status of certain employees at a football club. I work for an IT firm here in Yorkshire. If I were to be guilty of gross misconduct, my employer would right dismiss me and not worry too much about it. I like to think they'd struggle to replace me immediately but am under no illusions that it would be anything more than a minor inconvenience whilst someone else learnt the finer details of the stuff I do on a day to day basis. In the case of a football club, however, the players are also assets. Could we replace the likes of Patterson on the pitch? Yes, we bring in a new player or find another in the squad (King?) who can fill the role and build from there. What we do lose though is financial. Patterson listed on Transfermarkt at 250k, hopefully with a bit of nurture and development he becomes a multimillion pound player in a season or two. Given our finances that's not money we can afford to just throw down the drain. Yes we hold our players to a higher level and are disappointed when they fall short (as these guys undoubtedly have) but there's also a business angle to consider and if we hang them out and make it known we no longer want them, their resale value plummets and that becomes problematic. It's been said before, but if it were to have been Morelos, Tav, Kent or one of our other high value assets who did it next, we'd have set a precedent that would be very dangerous. They need a penalty, even a draconian one, and an education on what it means to be a representative of Rangers, but pragmatically there needs to be a route back for them, if only to maintain their transfer value...

Don't let @Rousseau hear you talking like that...

Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten we could still end up third! Oops!

How does todays win have any bearing on that? It brings us closer to the title but so nothing confirmed...

7 points...

Ah, but a couple more should be enough, right?

At this point I've given up caring how many points they have. Eyes firmly on the in incible season and points record. Can't drop any more points now...

10 points now, but is it really? 6 should be enough right?

2 pens? Oh, there's some who are going to love that...

We all know it's going to be interesting (if that's the right word) to see how this is handled by the authorities compared to other breaches. Celtic and Aberdeen both had a £30k fine (£8k up front and the rest suspended) for breaches in September. But those were breaches of Football rules, not legal breaches. To my memory there was no punishment handed down to the players involved (officially at least, we know Bolingoli was moved on shortly after). I suspect penalties here will be harsher, how long until certain elements start talking about points deductions and the like? A move to prevent internation travel for footballers (which would only affect Rangers, thankfully we play Antwerp away first tomorrow so may be too soon to put that in place and force us to forfeit, but again I wouldn't put it past some to try such a move. The club will have to be quick to respond to any attempt at heavy handed punishment given that imposed on other clubs (Duffy??) None of which suggests that the 5 involved have been incredibly stupid and should be punished in an appropriate manner. Legal fines at a minimum and a suspension handed down to them, I'd like to see the club get ahead of disciplinary proceedings and issue a lengthy suspension to all of them so that when the inevitable SPFL suspension comes up, we've already dealt with it internally. Should they be moved on? The precedent was set with Edmundson and Jones so I suspect they may be, Patterson in particular will be a shame to see go if he does, but there is an argument to be made that they've made a very serious error of judgement, but if they can learn from it and make the right noises (and supporting actions) there may be a future for them here... The Patterson situation looks very worrying though with a coverup story, could be more to come on that as well...

So a story breaks that names nobody, there's a vague rumour that Ranger's players are involved but no details. And the BBC are asking the First Minister about it? Seriously?

Well, that's it then. 29 played for us and 28 for them. Last season set the precedent, null and void is now off the table!

A rangers player(players?) at a party? That's got to be a 50 point penalty for the club at least surely?