buster.

IIRC you are more a man of numbers

In a normal world, if someone advocates genocide then unless they fully retract, it darkly clouds anything further they have to say on the matter. @Scott7

There were always liable to be teething problems in SG&Co's first season in first team management. More especially at a club that if it wants to be successful has very little margin for error. The vital thing going forward is that they have learnt from it and can improve on a number of issues. Firstly, the summer transfer window has to be our best in recent memory. That doesn't mean we have to spend more than all other recent transfer windows, it means that the players brought are able to function consistently in whatever shapes and starting line-ups chosen by the management #Synergy I sometimes go on about veterans but it's not either veterans or youth. I fully accept both are required,...it's about the balance and bringing in experience that doesn't arrive with a significant injury history and isn't too far down the downward slope. There are never guarantees but you have to play the percentages. You talk of Arfield, Dorrans and Davis for next season. I'd suggest it not wise to depend on their bodies to hold up or give us what we need to get to where we want to be. Arfield has had an excellent season and perhaps he can have another. With him I just hope that this seasons efforts don't end up catching up with him next season.

The club (via chairman) would be negligent not to strike an optimistic tone and as you say it's pretty much par for the course. I think there is a factual base to most of it and as always, the key, we hope the money invested in players is done wisely with positive results. To get to where we want to go next season, we'll need a near perfect transfer window this summer. All of us want to end up at the same place and one non-negotiable en route is for the ST numbers to stay at a high level. The support has been amazing in the last few years and numbers keep going up. It's something that is seldom if ever commented on in the media, they are too busy looking for negatives.

The Juventus v Ajax tie is interesting,...a cynical old Lady taking on dashing but inexperienced legs. I recall a CL final between these two in 1996, the De Boer twins started and Porrini was on the bench. Juventus won on penalties. The only nation worse than the Italians on penalties being the Dutch....which leads into the fact that you had 9 Italians starting for Juventus and 8 Dutch for Ajax. Changed rules and changed days, last weeks 1st leg had 3 Italians starting for Juve and 5 Dutch for Ajax. The 3 foreigner rule had it's downside but at least it helped there be more competition. A talented young Ajax side had won the CL in 1995. ps. Man Utd are humped !

Coming from the poster who has stated genocide for the Palestinian people would be acceptable. With that base, the highfalutin talk means little to nothing........

Fair enough !!.....but in mitigation I would say that Russell was signed at a time when there wasn't much in the way of signings from the Juniors. I think he's pretty much the only player since the mid 70's to come from the Juniors and do really well. That 200 pound fee came at a time when yjere were no Bosmans and we were spending 100,000 on Cooper, 65,000 on Smith.

For me the litmus test for Davis is to be able to control the midfield against Celtic at Ibrox.

First name that came to mind was Bobby Russell at 200 pounds sterling from Shettleston Harriers IIRC.

Yes he does but starting him at Kilmarnock in January was a bad error. Filling a team with experience is one thing, filling it with quality is another. Too many of the veterans we sign are past their sell by date and end up injured or offering relatively little. Past quality ain't any use to use, eg. we got Davis and Defoe to try and maintain and increase the challenge this season, it backfired. McCrorie should have played at Rugby Park, not Davis.

Cover yir posterior ?

The injury was obviously why he didn't get the chance to hit the dizzy heights he seemed headed toward. Obviously no fault of his.

No-brainer to have him on a list and check him out but what happens thereafter is something else altogether. If we pursued any interest I think Hearts would ask for what we'd consider as silly money and I doubt anything will get done unless we could include a player as part of the fee.

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.

,,