buster.

Very encouraging. It seems to be a comprehensive and holistic strategy that is being put in place for the football operation. It's the only way to go if you want to be as good as you can possibly be. Well done to those involved, including those at board level.

Dorrans and Rossiter are an unexpected bonus at this stage and regardless of the surface, after their midweek match, I don't think they'd have been starting come Sunday. Touch wood but our middle of the park options are beginning to have both quality and quantity. Sunday will be a lot to do with attitude and application against what will be an aggressive and in your face opponent.

Very much so and was always going to be the case. Revenue won't be an unimportant factor. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10.7 For each Match in the Semi Final Round of the Competition: 10.7.2 15% (or such lesser percentage as the Company may be able to agree) of the gross admission receipts after deduction of the applicable VAT shall be paid to the neutral venue owner and operator as payment for the hire of the stadium and associated services; 10.7.3 following the payment specified at Regulation 10.7.2, the Match expenses and costs incurred by the Company or for which the Company is liable shall then be deducted from the remaining balance and applied in the discharge and/or reimbursement of such expenses and costs; 10.7.4 the Company shall retain 5% of the remaining balance following the payments specified at Regulations 10.7.2 and 10.7.3; and 10.7.5 following all payments specified in this Regulation 10.7 the remaining net admission receipts after all such deductions, payments etc. shall have been made and/or allowed for shall be divided equally amongst the four competing Clubs or clubs which participated in the Semi Final Round of the Competition. https://spfl.co.uk/admin/filemanager/images/shares/pdfs/League Cup Regulations 2018-19.pdf

Should have publicly pointed it out prior to the decision. He's effectively throwing shite at the moon now but it's a standard Scottish fitbaw scenario that the tabloids will milk.

Sunday will only be super if Rangers and Hearts both win.

There is no need to call some on here "silly arses" because they don't see things in the same way as you. Just as a continuous confrontational war-footing from the club will not be in our best interests because in the long term it'll be us that lose. That isn't to say we don't 'battle' of occasion, there are several fronts currently open that mainly come from legacy issues. Wrt to BBC Scotland, as I said previously an immediate solution of coverage doesn't change their spots but you have to start somewhere and look to make further inroads over time. Prolonging the current situation and that general approach indefinately will damage us more than it will them and is what the Celtic-Minded would like to see.

Had Hibs beat Aberdeen the other night, I doubt the Polis would have been so keen.

Aberdeen have often had to play games in Glasgow with an early KO. It might not be ideal for fans but it's not as if it's breaking new ground and many of them have obviously found a way round it in the past. As have our fans who live even further away (ask Forlan). I reckon it comes down to finance and they didn't want Murrayfield getting a chunk. Look at the positive, two cracking semi-finals,...bring it on.

Taking different parts of what various posters have said and puttting them together could provide a solution to the immediate problem of coverage. DMAA talks about reinstating press privilages to McLaughlin and John mentioned both the club and BBC Scotland agreeing on statements that basically save face for both. That would mean renewed coverage and the important benefits that go with that and deny those individuals who work on BBC Scotland the vacum to air their increasingly open contempt (often by saying nothing at all). It wouldn't change the spots of the usual suspects but as Stewarty says, we are looking at the medium term to make significant in-roads there but you have to start somewhere. Bill says that the BBC is like the Arc and are becoming less important. I don't agree, they are by far the biggest broadcaster and are generally ahead of the digital curve wrt competitors. Clubs do a lot of their own coverage but there are many who don't want to always hear a one-sided take on things and for that matter, take an interest in what is happening in the rest of the football world. Bottomline, we as a business need to look to the future and not always play the confrontational game that if you do for too long will marginalise you. This is exactly what the Celtic-Minded want and how they are playing it. That doesn't mean bending over, it means boxing clever and subtle, a little give and take.

Is it a joint European and Scottish directive ? Or perhaps you should leave the paranoia to Timbo.

Making those type of excuses don't wash now that he's been over a season in the Scottish game and he doesn't seem to be willing to learn or appreciate the importance of discipline in certain moments. On the face of it, a booking last night was no big deal but the reality is that it was ill-discipline that now makes a very significant difference to what options are available to us in a National Cup semi-final and this would have been relayed to him prior to the game. In the Ufa game, he kicks the ball away and gets booked in a hugely important game, it's something that can happen. What doesn't often happen in that type of situation is that having been booked, he continues to act the idiot and gives the referee the grounds to send him off. The language doesn't matter, that was reckless stupidity for a footballer in those cicumstances and he has it in his locker. Bottomline, he can't be trusted.

We don't want the sheep to stay too long and graze too much of the long grass prior to Hearts v Celtic. What about loaning Kyle Lafferty back to Heats for the day at a rate of 60K per goal ?

It was the management teams reaction to going down to ten men at Aberdeen that gives me confidence that they can find an effective way of getting over the the lack of a centre forward. Probably more important is keeping our general momentum flowing.

Given he's got a nose for goals (3 goals in 215 minutes), not a bad shout. SG's 10 man Rangers have already went nearly 80 minutes against Aberdeen without a centre-forward, Murphy and Windass were left up front.

It was revealing when SG said a week or two back that the more he talked about keeping discipline, the more red cards etc. seemed to come. Whilst slightly tongue in cheek, I think there was a degree of understandable frustration in that comment. Stupidity is the appropriate word and I think it's clear that Morelos isn't for learning this lesson anytime soon. It's a balance, because he can be a cracking player and the manager doesn't have many options to work with, he's pretty much got to fully back him and cross his fingers.

If that is the preferred solution, shouldn't provisional permission already have been sought prior to the draw.

With respect, those levels of paranoia help no-one.

Roddy Forsyth is no bigot and is one of the very few semi-decent journalists within Scottish fitbaw.

One positive is that we have a management team who I have confidence in to come up with the best alternative available. Another is that the sheep won't know what to expect.

Again, it's not an either or and in the real world you have to deal with reality rather than go on about injustice. Excuse Morelos, fine but you can expect more of the same reactions from both European and Scottish referees to his style of dismissive physical gestures. When I saw his reaction in Ufa, it was clear he had given the ref a decision to make and as the camera panned elsewhere, the crowd noise confirmed the inevitable. Had the rest of the team not dug in that night, the reaction to him would probably be very different now. I saw the clip of the arm gesture in front of the ref. last night and I just shook my head. Regardless of what went before, the reality of that unnecessary gesture was that we'd be without decent centre-forward options for a semi-final. I've went on about not being able to trust Morelos from prior to the Aberdeen game when I said the players needed told not to do anything stupid / react because it was the type of game that often sees a red card and the sheep players would be dangling bait. It's not important the card was rescinded, the reality was that the damage was done because he took the bait. Since then it was a stupid red in our most important match of the season thus far.....and in most games I've watched he's been very much on the edge of further action with some of his antics. Yes, he is a marked man, that's reality and if he doesn't adapt, reality is that he'll continue to cost us.

Sorry but it doesn't exuse ill-discplined stupidity when consequences for team going forward were clear. It's not about either or,.......... Madden can have a poor match and Morelos can be stupid at the sametime.

In his post-match interview Gerrard speaks of not having any other option but to play Morelos last night, so unless Sadiq git injured against Motherwell reserves/in training that wouldn't paint an optimistic picture. Prior to the semi-final we have.......... Sun 30/09/18 PRE Livingston 14 : 30 Rangers More info Thu 04/10/18 UEL Rangers 21 : 00 Rapid Wien More info Sun 07/10/18 PRE Rangers 16 : 00 Hearts More info Sun 21/10/18 PRE Hamilton Acade… 14 : 30 Rangers More info Thu 25/10/18 UEL Rangers 21 : 00 Spartak Moskva I can't see him getting many first team minutes. More like Reserve games.

But it wasn't just verbal, it was the dismissive arm gesture that made the difference. Whether in European competition or domestic, we've seen what happens. It was Stupid with a capital S. A booking within play happens, suspensions happen but the predictable nature of the Morelos booking and what the suspension means,... sticks in the craw.

I put a thread up weeks ago about this and thought the easiest way around it was....if OF both got through and were kept apart in draw, then the first semi-final out the hat plays on the Saturday. TV schedules and location issues (including finance) would surely much prefer the Saturday/Sunday split.

It was the fault of Morelos, period. 1. Goes into the game knowing a booking puts him out of semi-final (would have been made clear to him) 2. Has already had the experience of letting the team down at a crucial point of a crucial match when ball was dead via dissent, does he take on board lessons ?...In the games since then it is obvious he hasn't. 3. Ayr Utd: Ball is dead, what does he do...he openly shows dissent to the ref with a physical gesture and gives the referee an easy out and Rangers without a decent centre-forward option for the semi-final. Morelos can be a very good player but he can't be trusted and his stupidity could have cost us a EL group stage place, probably did cost us a level of energy going into the Celtic match and now will very much undermine our efforts to get the first trophy of the season. ---------- Verbally questioning decisions is quite another thing and when a group of players 'go after' the ref., they do so together knowing it more difficult for the ref to take action against an individual. ------------------------------- Pete This suspension doesn't free Morelos up for the final as all bookings are now wiped from the slate going into the semi-finals. Only suspensions carry forward. @pete