buster.

The phrase 'being made of glass' IMO points more accurately as to why he never really got a realistic chance to fulfill potential either at Rangers or elsewhere.

I first saw Jamie Ness play in an OF league game at Ibrox and his cultured left foot and composure in such an environment were at a level I'd seldom seen in our midfield. I had only saw clips of Jim Baxter but Ness and his style reminded me of him This guy could go as far as he wanted in the game but ...... He was the latest in a long list of young Rangers midfielders who for varying reasons didn't do as well as they should have done. Others have already been mentioned on here... Ian Durrant Charlie Miller Derek Ferguson Barry Ferguson (perhaps this is being tough because Barry did do extremely well but I still think he might have made it further had injury not halted his progress) Lewis Ferguson (at Rangers as a boy, we probably let go the Ferguson with the most professional attitude / there is another potential XI) I saw an interview that Simon Ferry conducted with ID and DF and the ex-players more or less admitted a less than professional culture within the club. DF said that when he left Rangers to join Hearts it took him months to get to their level of fitness. At Ibrox, It had been about having better players with a good team spirit (drink together win together). Little wonder that 80% of European campaigns were frustrating.

Can't agree but if you really think so....do some moderating.

Spurs are 16/1 to lift the CL Generous ?? I reckon so.......

1. Morelos does have a disciplinary issue 2. Media have jumped on it in such a way that it has focused attention of all including some officials (including compliance) 3. So you get weak referees like Kevin Clancy going into games and appearing desperate to show AM a card It's a toxic mix for the player that he'd be better out of and IMO if we got a reasonable fee, so would we.

DJ definitely benefited greatly from Wee Tam's delivery. The memory of McLean crouching over a free-kick and Johnstone waiting close to the penalty spot is a good one. So is the understanding between Jardine and Russell.

Nae luck for the lad. Looking at the general situation re. Holt with a cold business heid, I can't understand why we gave him an extension to 2020. That isn't to do with the injury, more his level as a footballer. I'd have thought that whilst he did a decent job at certain levels that we'd have seen ourselves as needing to look for better come summer 2019.

A few months ago I mentioned that Morelos could one day work with Simeone because he is the Argentinians type of player. If that were true and Simeone/AM have had enough of Costa then there is no way they'd be in the market for a player like Morelos. Alfredo has been sent off more times this season than Costa has been in the last 6 seasons or more. I was watching the Barca v Atletico game and talk about a parrallel. Second visiting first, a good number of points behind and absolute necessity of a win for them to preserve any title hopes. After about half an hour, their centre forward gets sent off for an off the ball incident (dissent). 2nd placed team go on to battle bravely and are beaten late in the game.

We always seem to be in a hurry looking for Short Term gain that in turn tends to hurt us financially and over a period of time can't be sustained. The increasing disparity with finances in football means we have to swim against a stronger tide and where we could previously get players of a certain level via the STerm route (eg. 29 year old Pedro Mendes from EPL) , now we have to settle for generally lesser solutions that don't produce results (eg. 32 year old Niko Kranjcar from USA 2nd tier / significant injury risk) The balance between experience with legs/ability and bringing through younger players that can be successful and sustainable is where we want to be. But given we can't afford the instant solutions (veterans of sufficient ability & legs), better to alter that tactic. The current problem is that the desperation to stop 10IAR will dominate the short-term and the good work of the youth development dept. may not get a pathway into the first team. I'll repeat that if the short-term thinking regards stopping 10IAR works, then fine, we breath and we build on it. The problems come if you throw all your chips at it and it doesn't work. That said, if the chips were thrown at a slightly younger player (eg. mid-twenties), then that could be the right balance.

Nae chance ! PSG have become serial bottlers in the KO stages of the CL. Barcelona are very good and consistent at beating inferior sides at home in the CL. Home CL record for the last few seasons Wed 18/09/13 UCL Barcelona 4 - 0 Ajax View events More info Wed 06/11/13 UCL Barcelona 3 - 1 Milan View events More info Wed 11/12/13 UCL Barcelona 6 - 1 Celtic View events More info Wed 12/03/14 UCL Barcelona 2 - 1 Manchester City View events More info Tue 01/04/14 UCL Barcelona 1 - 1 Atlético Madrid View events More info Wed 17/09/14 UCL Barcelona 1 - 0 APOEL View events More info Tue 21/10/14 UCL Barcelona 3 - 1 Ajax View events More info Wed 10/12/14 UCL Barcelona 3 - 1 PSG View events More info Wed 18/03/15 UCL Barcelona 1 - 0 Manchester City View events More info Tue 21/04/15 UCL Barcelona 2 - 0 PSG View events More info Wed 06/05/15 UCL Barcelona 3 - 0 Bayern München View events More info Tue 29/09/15 UCL Barcelona 2 - 1 Bayer Leverkusen View events More info Wed 04/11/15 UCL Barcelona 3 - 0 BATE View events More info Tue 24/11/15 UCL Barcelona 6 - 1 Roma View events More info Wed 16/03/16 UCL Barcelona 3 - 1 Arsenal View events More info Tue 05/04/16 UCL Barcelona 2 - 1 Atlético Madrid View events More info Tue 13/09/16 UCL Barcelona 7 - 0 Celtic View events More info Wed 19/10/16 UCL Barcelona 4 - 0 Manchester City View events More info Tue 06/12/16 UCL Barcelona 4 - 0 Borussia M'gla… View events More info Wed 08/03/17 UCL Barcelona 6 - 1 PSG View events More info Wed 19/04/17 UCL Barcelona 0 - 0 Juventus More info Tue 12/09/17 UCL Barcelona 3 - 0 Juventus View events More info Wed 18/10/17 UCL Barcelona 3 - 1 Olympiakos Piraeus View events More info Tue 05/12/17 UCL Barcelona 2 - 0 Sporting CP View events More info Wed 14/03/18 UCL Barcelona 3 - 0 Chelsea View events More info Wed 04/04/18 UCL Barcelona 4 - 1 Roma View events More info Tue 18/09/18 UCL Barcelona 4 - 0 PSV View events More info Wed 24/10/18 UCL Barcelona 2 - 0 Internazionale View events More info Tue 11/12/18 UCL Barcelona 1 - 1 Tottenham Hotspur View events More info Wed 13/03/19 UCL Barcelona 5 - 1 Olympique Lyonnais

Unless he can start to better control the discipline his value will drop. For him personally, I think he needs to get out of Scotland where his card is marked by the media and officials.

,,

I was thinking you'd be the first to give Baxter a start

I didn't only mean the club but was referring to the fans reaction to speculation. IMO it's too often about players who have played to a very good level in the past but who are very unlikely to get anywhere near that level again. In the past we could get players who were doing well at a very high level (or very recently had been) but finances (especially England) essentially mean that most of those kinds of players that we can realistically attract have been on the downward slope for a while (eg. Kranjcar). What happens too much is a lot of noise is made on arrival, a relatively high wage, struggle to adapt to Scottish fitbaw, injury, expensive deadwood, pay-off.

I keep seeing names that had slipped my mind # Plethora_o_Talent

We never learn our lessons, do we !!

Back up XI to fill out squad McCloy Stevens Butcher Forsyth.T Nicholl Russell Ferguson.I Gazza McMinn Prso Wallace.R

How's yir heid ? Just asking given those are CL fixtures in the EPL thread Couple of interesting ties but with clear favourites that I'd expect to come through.

To say that we'd be the only club targeted by SL is over-egging the pudding. As it stands, clubs don't want it and that includes both sides of the OF. A watered down version is as far as the footballing governing bodies would go (unless, perhaps there was a serious incident with serious consequences). Generally, if CCTV is improved and offending individuals are dealt with by the CJS then that is as much as can be done regards the recent object throwing (which incidentally is nothing new). PQ know this but keeping it at the top of the show is probably as much aimed at the politicians as the football authorities. IMO the main reason it's being heavily pushed by PQ because they want to see Rangers targeted and materially punished for sectarian singing. If you listen to what Michael Stewart says on the Monday night Sportsound about 'tens of thousands of fans/sectarian singing' in connection with SL* and also a clip of Chris McLaughlin interviewing a Dutch journalist (on his twitter feed) where the message is 'punish the clubs' **........I think you get an idea where PQ want this debate/focus to go. Thereafter you'd have another debate on what is sectarian or not and guess how that discussion would go. Note that the debate on PQ and the constant use of sectarian opposed to offensive. * https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p075wpps **

Stewart Jardine Gough Brown Numan Laudrup Albertz Prytz Cooper Parlane Johnstone

They wouldn't get away with that. I think it'd be more a matter of proportionality. They'd be screwed if we could lose the offending words/songs.

- Red card for Compliance officer and process - Use money saved to help bring in VAR PQ seem to have dropped VAR from their thoughts.

I'd give him at least part of the last game against Kilmarnock but then aslong as nothing is at stake other than the 3 points, I'd send most of the regular performers who'll still be here come our first European fixture, on summer holidays directly after the Celtic game thinking about adequate R&R prior to the new season.

This isn't about youth or experience, it's about a mix of the two. If we continue to put our faith and what transfer budget we have in older legs, I think we'll continue to get the same results. We are behind them in terms of finances but we are also behind them in bringing players through the system. We hear about the good work being done in youth development and see it in recent International tournaments but we'll be in a much better place if and when some of the players get to a level to start making it through to the first team. Three of their regular better performers (Tierney, Forrest & McGregor) came through their youth system. I really like Ross McCrorie as a player and would like to see him get more game time but you get the impression that SG often prefers players who he think can better retain possession (eg. Kamara). I reckon Docherty was sent on loan because whilst he works hard to win balls, his next pass often went astray.

The obvious angle from a rightly wary and suspicious Rangers support would be that it's a potential way to materially punish us for what is deemed sectarian singing.... I don't think they are wrong to cover the issue but it's about proportionality. The resident wannabe politician and actual bio-mechanic expert on Sportsound alluded to this yesterday when they had a long pow-wow on strict liability, repeating themselves for the nth time. Stewart specifically pointed towards and I paraphrase...'tens of thousands singing sectarian songs'. Their excuse for such repetition was that Daryl Broadfoot hadn't been on the programme the previous Monday after the C v R match