buster.

,,

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

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1115527915184230400

Quick and late observation regarding age profile of a squad. What team are bucking the trend at a top level this season,...Ajax with by far the youngest squad in the CL. Whilst it's not as simple as filling a squad full of youngsters, it's a reminder that the most probable pathway to relative success in the future will be via our youth academy.

A question for asking is how hard did Norwich try to get him to sign a contract extension ?... and why ?

Quick question for anyone who cares to answer... Why have PQ gone so big on pushing 'strict liability' ?

The balance of power between the big hitters of the EPL looks like getting wider if the likes of Chelsea can't keep a hold of their best player. The top six certainly provide an excellent product but it has tiers that are becoming more pronounced. Hence England have two club sides who can compete at elite level, unless Spurs and Man Utd can cause an upset in the CL quarters.

Forgetting football colours for a moment, that is quite a harsh sentence for a first-time offender. As Der Berliner mentions, it'd be interesting to compare it to punishments dished out to those who attacked our players after the SC Final. Mack would have been fine had he been wearing a suit in the Square Mile and committed a crime with much greater consequences #bonus edit A Hibs fan who tried to punch Rangers player Lee Wallace during the pitch invasion that followed last year's Scottish Cup Final has avoided jail. Dale Pryde, 20, admitted climbing over fencing before running towards Mr Wallace at Hampden Park. He also pled guilty to punching a Rangers fan and hitting another with a chair. Pryde, of Greendykes, Edinburgh, was ordered to wear a tag for three months and carry out 250 hours of unpaid work........... https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-39446695

Rightly or wrongly, of course he was being presented as a legend, otherwise he wouldn't have been there. The "some" refers to the group of players in the pic but obviously doesn't include all the best players to have played for the club for various reasons, eg. the late great Davie Cooper.

A more recent positive is that he's been mostly playing first team football for the past three seasons, the best thee years in terms of minutes in the whole of his career.

A little bit of experience in the central defence isn't such a bad thing. If he's looked after himself and his injury history isn't significant then a 2 year contract for a 31 years old is ok (not forgetting the detail that he is able to play to a decent level and has done it recently).

The area of the pitch that needs the most in the way of legs is probably where there are a disproportionate number of years (veterans)...eg. Davis, Dorrans, Arfield. .. Whilst the defence is relatively young. I wouldn't want to go into a new season with too much of a dependency on older legs in the middle of the park. Anything we get from Dorrans will be a bonus. Disaster of a signing and although unlucky with injury, injury history should have been taken into consideration. Unless prepared to play for relative buttons/1 year contract,... I don't think Davis should be offered a deal (harks of us refusing to learn lessons). Arfield is about 4 years younger than Davis and has done enough to stay in and around the team.

Thanks lads !..........for another decent listen Bold predictions for 7 top tier wins IAR considering the last time we did that was 2011. Funnily enough though it included a 0-3 win at Motherwell with McGregor and Davis in the team and Lafferty finishing the game in the same posture as yesterday, sat on bench (after being taken off)... It also included three home wins against Aberdeen, Hibs and Celtic. Well 0-3 Gers 2011 0 - 1 20' S. Naismith 0 - 2 45' K. Lafferty 0 - 3 85' G. Wylde Well 0-3 Gers 2019 0 - 1 22' S. Arfield 0 - 2 39' S. Arfield 0 - 3 60' S. Arfield I'd almost have been tempted to have sent Alfredo away for a long close season with an eye on getting him fully rested and prepared for the next campaign / avoiding the possibility of another sending off which might have a more serious impact going forward, whether it be his value (transfer fee or to us in bigger games). Never going to happen, just thinking out loud.