buster.

- Obscenely paid footballers that don't give their all - A manager with an ego the size of a small planet going through the same very deliberate and public process he did at Real Madrid and Chelsea on the way to vast pay-offs - A badly run football club but seemingly not that bothered upstairs aslong as the commercial side continues to grow Zidane got on well at Real Madrid because as Del Bosque did, he let things flow and didn't look to fight unwinnable battles. Could he do it at Man Utd ?

With Mourinho on the edge, Woodward needs to be held to account wrt managerial appointments.

Dave King gets a lot of stick at times (from me included) but nights like Thursday weren't coming back in my lifetime if he and the other main investors hadn't dug deep and taken Mr.MASH on in a corporate conflict that was always going to be complicated and costly. I might be wrong but I tend to think that DK had a fair bit to do with bringing Gerrard to Ibrox and again I think this appointment (along with his staff and boardroom backing) is the one that can take us back to the top of Scottish football within 2 seasons. My thanks goes to Dave King, George Taylor, Douglas Park, George Letham and the others involved.

Great work from the Vassimilator

Fancy a drink with your diktat Brenda...............

Celtic: It's not a neutral venue Rest of the Reasonable World: Shut the f**k up and sit the f**k down ya pathetic bleating dumbass

Apparently Lawwell was fuming because of the choice of ditktat !

You gotta feel for the poor wee lambs........years of banging their head against the EL 3rd round qualifier and they have to watch us saunter by them into the group stages and doing very well, thank-you. I'm sure in their heart of hearts they are thinking of the co-efficient and the good of the Scottish game as they cheer for us on a Thursday evening.

We now know we are capable of getting excellent results at a very good level. In Europe, we are having a ball. Domestically, we have to get to a level where we can get results consistently. This season that is more difficult because of 2 main reasons. - In the short term the European games will inevitably have an affect. - The standard amongst what are likely to be Top Six teams has improved in the last year.

Rangers 1 Hearts 0 Tav

Excellent win and a really good 3 points in terms of the group. Didn't see the game but from most accounts, the players that were under a degree of scrutiny (eg. Worrall and Morelos) came to the party and put in very good performances. In so doing, showed that SG's confidence was well placed. I notice SG held off with the subs and given how things turned out, a lot of kudos goes to him and his staff for that. 47,500 at the game along with the UEFA win bonus must mean the thick end of a gross 2M for last night which is great for the club news aswell. The result, atmosphere and state of the group should ensure happy supporters with an apetite for more when the Russians come calling towards the end of this month. Now it's about recovery and sorting ourselves up for a very difficult game on Sunday against the league leaders, who have had all week to drill into their team, what will be an organised opposition.

Gerrard seem to want to get Worrall established. Can't agree tbh. We paid money for Katic, he's our player to develop, he didn't do anything wrong and Worrall has't covered himself in glory. SG will be in for real stick if Worrall f**ks up tonight.

IIRC that Sturm Graz side were beaten 5-0 twice in the group but still went through as group winner We were the only side in the group to get an away win and still went out !!

Difficult game to predict. Had a new RV manager not been installed a few days before the game I'd have expected a home win, now it's a wait and see how the game develops. I can see two teams who will be looking to start strongly and as always it'll be a lot to do with who takes their chances. With that in mind, Alfredo Morelos has to show his good side tonight and help make things happen, as we know he can. The defenders have to defend and the midfielders have to compete, be brave and get up the pitch and help the full backs create and supply quality ball for the forwards. Football tends to be a simple game when everyone turns up and does their job.

Maybe Liewell is lying very well. Taking advantage of a situation to make it seem as if his club don't really have disproportionate sway on the 6th floor at Hampden

What an absolute organisational shambles. It's starting to take on a new level of avoidable farce. The time to sort this out was at the beginning of September (I started a Gersnet thread about it on Sept 6th). They needed to look at potential problems, speak to parties who could be key to providing solutions and have clear what the provisional decision would be when as was probable both OF clubs made the semi-finals and were drawn apart. It almost seems as if they were just hoping that the draw would throw-up another OF semi-final.

Was Cammy Bell playing ? Just watched the highlights posted above and there are some decent bits of play here and there. Boyce, apart from one fresh air kick looked a decent centre forward who finshed the first goal with real aplomb and held the ball up well. At other junctures, the game looked like a a group of 14 year old schoolboys chasing the ball. Glasgow played a fake Barcelona from Cyprus in the last 32 of the Champions League and are now up against the real Barcelona in the last 16. They are toast.

Consistently scoring goals for Rangers is a huge pressure to bear for young players coming through and selecting young players to do so is and continuing to do so when going through the inevitable dry spell is a difficult/brave/unwise (delete as you see fit) choice for managers. Only exceptional players who are exceptional from an early age will make it as a Rangers centre forward, eg. Derek Johnstone. A player who at an extremely young 16 years old as a centre forward, could score the winner at a domestic cup final against a Celtic team who had made the European Cup Final and 19 months later as a centre-half played in a winning Rangers team in a European final. Four years after that, he scored 41 goals in a treble winning season. Today, the probability for a route to success might start via the loan process.

THE DRAW FOR THE SEMI-FINALS OF THE BETFRED CUP WAS MADE AT MCDIARMID PARK THIS EVENING AND RESULTED AS FOLLOWS: Heart of Midlothian v Celtic Aberdeen v Rangers Ties are due to be played on the weekend of October 27/28 https://spfl.co.uk/news/betfred-cup-draw-tonight -----------------------

We weren't but I don't see that that makes a difference regards venue. I don't see any particular reason that says us here, them there or vice versa.......however the steer given to the BBC was Hearts at Murrayfield.

TBF, it's a problem that is International and IMO it's about a general change in where decisions are really made and in whose interests they are made. But given we are on a thread about League Cup semi0finals, not even I could think about going further off topic.

Scotland used to be a nation renowned for leadership. Why is clusterf**k the becoming the most used word on here ?

The only two countries with significant interest paired with 24 others who are chipping in a fiver each.

BBC, who will have been given a steer, pacifically mention the Hearts game being considered for Murrayfield.

How many 'away games' have they had to play over the years at Hampden without a whisper. They are also more liable to fill the stadium given how many Hearts fans would want to/be able to go.