buster.

Scotland manage to throw a 3 goal lead away and lose the the 3rd goal in injury time. They'll do similar for the next 20 years worth of summer tournaments and then it'll be 20 years of wilderness #NationalTraits

Looking at the provisonal list of seeds, if we are in the draw for QR3, we'll need a wee bit of luck in the draw. Roma Espanyol Wolves Eintracht etc

Absolutely, individuals and separate groups will always be able to do their own thing, it's natural and can be a positive, especially if everyone is pushing in the same direction. However, when it comes to your point about Marginal Gains, it would surely often need a degree of understanding, agreement and co-ordination for it to stand a chance of being effective. A good example of individual initiative is here on this forum,..26th and his excellent thread on Pacific Quay. Now, think about the ongoing situation between the club and bbc Scotland, your idea of marginal gains and looking for a solution.

Agree,...keeping hold of him will obviously depend a lot on how the lad and his advisor/agent see the future. One thing the Turnbull tansfer saga shows is a 19 year old provincial Scot able to effectively price himself out of the reach of Celtic. Taken alone, that is a positive for us but the bigger picture is more about how the financial gulf is affecting the market in the UK and it won't have gone unnoticed by McPake.

One thing SG&Co and Mark Allen/Football Operation realised before they took over at Ibrox was the need to do the transfer business early and have as many of your planned squad at your pre-season training camp as possible....I think this was a vitally important factor in our European run last season. Rather than trying to analyse individual players from videos, I think that is the biggest plus as we approach another season. That said, we are much more liable to receive bids for our players this summer than 12 months ago and that might cause some upheaval.

You have to say that the list of provisional second round opponents isn't daunting, at least in name (benefit of squeezing into the list of seeds). Pressure will come from a general expectation that we are now already in the 3rd qualifying round draw

McPake obviously sees a move to Liverpool as his way into our first team Roma's apparent interest in the lad would surely be on the back of the tournament success in the middle east. RYD is the way to go but we can't continually lose our better prospects before they get a sniff of our first team. I guess it comes down to the increasing financial gulf between the footballing rich and poor. The rich look to hoover up the talent (ownership) and loan them back to the poor to fatten them up....#NeoliberalismRuiningTheFitbaw

So it's the second round draw today ... Seems a strange way to conduct the draw unless UEFA have struck an agreement with various hotels in the Nyon area Forlan could try and land a double by booking flight(s) for potential second round opponents. Bigger odds at play if we were to provisionally come out against another either or opposition

We always tend to return to the same old background. problems and questions underpinning much of any such debate,....you could call it quicksand. Somebody mentioned our collective strength but we are a long way away from being anything close to a collective We discourage quality leadership because of the way we have tended to treat those who do stand-up We are good at loyalty and following the team, not at politics We tend to follow pied pipers and not want to learn lessons We are increasingly marginalised and we inadvertently seek to go ever deeper (where others want us to go) We tend to respond positively to ideas that take us further down the road of marginalisation and vice versa (club often react to this so as to curry favour / ie. PR between club and support/customers). That doesn't mean such a road is always mistaken, it's not You could fairly argue that the general political situation and societal tendencies have exacerbated such marginalisation and helped take it to a level that it's difficult to see changing positively anytime soon... #confrontation

Rangers reopen talks with Josh McPake over new deal as Liverpool and AS Roma track winger https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-transfer-news/rangers-reopen-talks-josh-mcpake-16536624 ------------ We really need to keep a hold of our better prospects.

Will probably be back to the same part of Europe we started in last season as the Kosovan team easily got past a team from Gibraltar last season. Thu 29/06/17 UEL Norrköping 5 - 0 Prishtina View events More info Thu 06/07/17 UEL Prishtina 0 - 1 Norrköping View events More info Thu 28/06/18 UEL Europa 1 - 1 Prishtina View events More info Thu 05/07/18 UEL Prishtina 5 - 0 Europa View events More info Wed 11/07/18 UEL Fola Esch 0 - 0 Prishtina More info Thu 19/07/18 UEL Prishtina 0 - 0P Fola Esch

Given how many options we have on the left, instead of trying to add Kent, I think we'd be better using the cash for other positions. You could argue that Kent can play in the middle but I'm not convinced his game is conducive to the number 10 role.

Looking at appearance stats and nothing else (ie. stop here if you think that worthless !!)....... Ojo seems to have made a real mark at English Championship level with Fulham in 2017/18 and the subsequent step-up to the French top flight saw him struggle to make the same impact. The SPFL is probably seen as going back a level to enable him to get more game time although being Rangers, the demands are such it still presents the young man with a more than significant challenge. The fact that two seasons ago, he did well enough at Fulham to get a lot of gametime at Championship level is a major positive and if his attitude is right, I'm sure he can make a contribution. That said, starting berths for our plethora of wingers should be about performance levels and what they bring for specific games, nothing else.

An individual can choose how they deliver criticism but not lay out guidelines as to how others go about it Given our recent history I think it important to provide balance. I heavily criticised previous regimes (especially from May 2011 to March 2015) without any mitigating balance because they didn't have any meaningful credit. The important thing IMO is to criticise or question X or Y when you think there is merit in so doing and that is where the issue and conversation should be.... although I wouldn't dream of laying out any guidelines for you !! In this particular case, I was speculating on a game that I haven't actually seen, nor is it yet finished. #Frustration #QualifiedCriticism

The big question mark for me is Morelos. does he stay/go ? if low bids come in and we don't let him go, how does he react ? if he stays does he start / is he the best forward for the system of play ? if he doesn't get his move and isn't starting does he go into the long sulk ? I get that you could say he stays and scores over 30 goals but on balance I think now is the time to move him on.....and if we did, we'd need another decent centre forward who fitted with how we want to play. Whatever happens, we need it resolved asap and not for it to turn into a summer long saga.

To get the club back and put as many building blocks in place as they have has been a tremendous effort. However, the retail challenge has proved to be a tough nut to crack. Not that surprising given how Ashley operates. I'm not a lawyer but given the particular circumstances surrounding the relationship, if S.D.I. propose or agree to sign a contract with us, then you just know that there is something smelly in the small print. .....I'm guessing that the lawyers pointed it out (obviously don't know how they described it) and then they would have discussed the matter with DK. That said, we have to wait and see how it pans out, with the emphasis on WAIT (which SDI are more comfortable with).

I very much hope Docherty gets a place in our squad for the coming season, he won't let us down. Needs to get a fair bit of game time to be able to continue his improvement. If we were buying him from Shrewsbury, they'd want a seven figure fee. Like a new signing........!!

Written judgement from the most recent instalment. http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Comm/2019/1419.html --------------------------- I haven't got the legal expertise to give a meaningful summary wrt the current state of play but thoughts return to the question of why we entered into the 2017 deal with SDI and what legal advice we received regards the relevant contract clauses. An ongoing situation that SDI/Mr.MASH will be much more comfortable with than Rangers. Legal costs will be significant and then there are potential damages. What there isn't any sign of,... is normalisation !!

We aren't currently in a financial position to be able to contemplate any major changes to the stadium. Might as well have a thread up about us signing Mbappe....a nice thought but it ain't happening.

PATRICK MCPARTLIN Email

Back in the 70's there were no summer transfer window threads or transfer windows for that matter. Before I became old enough to do a paper round I had to walk down to John Menzies in Princess Street (Edinburgh) each summer morning to go through all the newspapers and see what was happening. An age that saw me so engrossed in the fitbaw, I hardly noticed the top shelf. The Sunday Mail was the required paper at the weekend as it always managed to have some kind of exclusive that actually was an exclusive.....and back in the day, it didn't register as too important that they seldom came to much. A paper round was my natural pathway to early comprehensive information and a degree of financial independence. I even managed to secure a spot within the distribution of the first edition of the Sunday Mail and Post round the pubs of a Saturday night when the tips made it worthwhile. That after doing the same with The Pink at about 5.30 on the Saturday night. An addiction of sorts to fitbaw gossip that was in the main bullshit. The mediums may have altered somewhat but the addiction is still there, only it's worse because I now fully comprehend that most of it is bullshit

Up to Middleton to go down there and make himself a consistent first team starter. Docherty went South and did well in the third tier,..now we'll see what happens to him.

Would have thought it better to decide on who stays and who goes on loan after pre-season training.

At a time when money isn't plentiful, I agree that it would be wiser to spend scarce resources closer to home. As a brand, we aren't going to compete successfully with EPL and other elite clubs in China. I think the route Celtic took by buying popular Asian internationalists is the way to go if you want a return via the Asian punter's pound. They'll spend because they support the player, identify with his personal battle to do as well as he can in a foreign country and thus bring credit to ex-club, country, etc.