buster.

I wouldn't take anything for granted. Think back to better squads having excellent seasons in Europe and what happened the following season. Great run in 92/93 Following season booted out in first tie #Levski UEFA Cup Final 2008 Following season first tie was against Kaunas

I only listened to the podcast of the Monday evening Sportsound programme but Stewart was on and the Scottish Cup Final fall-out was part of it but not in much detail regrads the game itself. Edouards dive didn't happen because they didn't mention it. Even when it was happening, it didn't happen. 1001 camera angles could have been employed but if you don't mention it........ Stewart did find time to focus his critical eye on nemesis, Craig Levein. After a shrewd tactical approach in the Final, Stewart still managed to call him out as Cathroesque. Bingo card didn't quite come up due to the surprising omission of an ongoing simmering indignation at Morelos getting a red card rescinded in August. --------------- I cast my mind back to the League Cup Final and a Celtic penalty that was incorrectly awarded. It was missed but that isn't the point. Weeks later when Stewart was on Sportsound discussing poor refereeing decisions, Rangers were named when pointing toward injustices. However, when it came to that injust Celtic decision, Mr.BioMechanic could only bring himself to talk of the League Cup Final, no mention of who was involved. * Point being, if you don't mention it, for many,..it didn't happen. Repeat and repeat and over time it helps to brainwash and marginalise. You take a glance at a site like the 'Scottish Football Monitor' and it's a similar pattern. A more accurate name would be the 'Rangers Monitor'. A place where only one dimensional thought is tolerated and that pretends to be a high-falluting think-tank for the good of our game. I once tried to give it some balance, but I was accused of, charged and banned for the old whataboutery. ------------------------- * Looked back (this thread Feb 5th / p.141) Background is Andrew Dallas and awarding 4 penalties to Rangers v St.Mirren.

English clubs ruling the roost again in European football. Taking over from the Spanish ? English clubs in Final : 2 English players starting : 1 Spanish players starting : 4 English managers : 0 Spanish managers : 1

Gave up after 20 minutes. More exciting watching grass grow !!

Isn't that what folk are expected to do at a Park & Ride ? #DoggingLite

Bert Kassie ...v... Occasional MSM hack for The Sun ...isn't really a contest, .......it's like Rangers v Connah's Quay

It boils down to throwing in most of (if not all) the chips... in a bid to win the title back within the next two seasons. IIRC projected budgets are dependent on European group stage football in 3 out of 5 seasons. They are probably dependent on a close to continual capacity home attendance. As well as directors and others financially backing the club when need be. Qualifying for EL groups last season was a massive boost in the ST and the loyalty of the support and backing from directos & others has been fantastic. Retail should be producing more but we all know how slow and difficult the legal process is against Mr.MASH. The issue going forward is keeping the show on the road and I come back to throwing in most of our chips to win the league back. My hunch is that the 2019/20 season is when we have to take advantage of circumstances and do the business.

Celtic do have a much larger wage bill than we do but their revenue is also much larger. It depends significantly on European competition participation and player trading. As it stands, they have several players who could be sold on for decent money and I'd guess that they'd be looking to move on at least one that produced an eight figure (or close to) transfer fee per year. What that translates into is that we have to catch-up, rather than waiting for or expecting them to suffer a significant reduction. Until we win the league, it'll be extremely difficult to make more than they do in Europe. Even winning the league is only halfway to the CL group stage. Player trading is where there is more opportunity but only if we can significantly improve our own players on a consistent basis. Something that I have yet to see in nearly 50 years of watching Rangers.

MSM Mainly Skewed Mierda

I think Pete is right to balance out the praise towards SG with some merited criticism. The context of it being his first season in management helps towards a positive verdict and I'd agree with that shout. However, he now has to show he has learnt from the mistakes and the general experience. For me, for 19/20 to be successful, this has to be when SG really makes his mark and show that he can reach higher levels as a manager.

Rumours always pointed in that direction

Difficult to see how that squad defensively deal with Belgium or threaten them at the other end. I guess the real test is what we do against Cyprus although the feel good factor will quickly dissipate if we get a doing from the Belgiums. Can't say I'm bothered about there being none of our players involved, it's a bonus IMO.

Should get the retweets pushed.... @Frankie

It didn't have to be Stewart or Davis Why not both ? If the sheep could afford him on loan, don't tell me cost was an issue. The more relevant is Davis at Killie ! It wasn't hindsight. I said that you can't play both Defoe and Davis in the Killie match thread prior to KO. I said that only if SG had seen SD to be ready in training, should he be considered....and he was obviously quite a way off the pace.

Bump now that page has turned. Well worth a read !! Thank's Rick !

They failed wrt what they were initially brought in for, period. I'd go further and say signing Davis to immediately fill the void we had regards a creative midfield was a bad error of judgement. ie. the blame was more at a recruitment level (and manager for selecting both @ Killie) than the players themselves. Yes, you can then make an argument that they have since played a significant part and may well be excellent players for next season. The club obviously think Greg Stewart can do a job for us. Why didn't we make an effort to bring him in on loan in January ? A time when we desperately needed a number 10 option who was considered good enough. It would have also given us an idea if he was worth giving a contract to for 19/20.

I'd accept your point wrt Kent but not the others. The others had their moments but quickly drifted into inconsistency that should have meant less starts IMO. Docherty is the type of player I'd like to see in our squad next season rather than a Coulibally or an Ejaria. I'm convinced we'll get more out of him #StuartMcCall2

Signings and loan deals are similar in the respect that some will work and others won't. Ideally, you would restrict the number of both to only the ones that'll work for you,...the obvious problem is a lack of a crystal ball. SG knew about the Liverpool players who came on loan last season but one worked very well and the other fell off the rails after a run of inconsistent performances (although his goal in Ufa was very valuable). Perhaps we haven't quite reached the stage of having development players at a level to go into the first team but until this pathway starts to be trodden on a reasonably regular basis, the relative success of celebrated youth trophies rings hollow. At the same time, Gerrard has to deal with the pressure of the particular circumstances in front of him and pick eleven players who can consistently win games of football. The other issue you have with loan players who seem to find it easier to get a start is that it can't be good for the dressing room dynamic. One of the most important characteristics of a winning side is that the dressing room is together and too many players on loan will tend to dilute this. -------------------- Coulibally Ejaria Kent Sadiq Worrell Davis Defoe Looking at last years list and considering that our own youth development is a year further down the track, I'd try and restrict it to 2 loans maximum. Note that Davis and Defoe didn't work for what they were brought in for either, ie. they were brought in to help title challenge.

I reckon that article has two fundamentals wrong. 1. Date of draw for EL 1st & 2nd rounds is 19th of June (not 18th) 2. By far the most important, according to Bert Kassie, we have to play in QR1.

You can get 16/5 for a Derby win over 90 minutes at bet365. Seems very generous. Is there some factor I'm missing eg. injuries to key players, etc ?

I reckon any player to whom Liverpool recruit and later give a long contract extension, is bound to have a lot of ability or at least spades of potential. For such a loan to come up to Rangers and be successful requires much more than the ability and we won't know if he has what it takes until he has shown us on the park and done it reasonably consistently. To ask youngsters on loan to be up to the particular challenge of playing for Rangers at this juncture is an outside bet. For every success you'll have at least a handful of failures. Then you have to look at developing your own players (eg. Hastie, Middleton, etc) and not holding them back just to curry favour/comply with loan contracts from parent clubs. How many of our own projects do we need to produce a success, I'd say no less than the loan player hit-rate. Then consider 'the pathway' for our own youngsters (eg. McCrorie, McPake, etc.), aswell as the business side of buying low and selling high into the mix......I'd want to keep loans to a minimum.

Thank's to all involved for another good listen. Good to go over 18/19 one last time. For me, it's now time to log it in the memories banks and look forward.

Where are you getting that from ? @JFK-1 From what I can see, it doesn't hold true for this year. We play in QR1 If we make it to QR2, we appear to have scraped in to the very last available seeded spot.

Agreed. If Lennon is confirmed you have to say it sends various messages. Real ambition isn't there, eg. "we are a Champions League Team" quote will be mocked by their own support Reality for Scottish clubs is that financial marginalisation is gathering pace and little prospect of avoiding it in short to medium term Post Rodgers/Summer2018/lack of spend/inner turmoil........... Days when Biscuit Tin sees daylight* seem to be confirmed as minimum (pending summer transfer window numbers) Their Board are taking a big risk regards their own positions, eg. they are in second place come the next AGM. If we could win 55th then watch their ST numbers drop like a stone for 20/21 * You have to qualify that and say that wage bill is relatively high ---------------------------- I think it would also increase the need for us to take the opportunity and win it next season. That might mean significant financial risk for ourselves. I'd caution against too much celebration of this,... Cautious optimism is about right. Obviously, you have to see what happens in recruitment for both sides. Then it's about us putting a side together and actually consistently winning more games of football than them. 2019/20 is going to be for extremely high stakes.

Cynical PR/spin and careful timing was also apparent in the announcement of Celtic FC offering the managers job to Lennon. The PLC have their hands full trying to put one over on their own fanbase and revenue stream whilst at the same time trying their damdest to avoid taking full responsibility and opening the biscuit tin to compensate victims of child abuse. Spare a thought for Peter, his 7 figure renumeration package is on the line.