buster.

I'm sick of the sight of his moaning face tbh. It just doesn't inspire confidence that he's going to get better with us. Ok, last season but this is a fresh start and I'd want to see more of a willing sharpness rather than the tired gate.

We appear to have a problem up top given Morelos is first choice. I rate him as a player but he doesn't look that interested. It's getting to the stage if we could flog him this window, I think we'd be better off gambling on bringing someone else in who can be more effective.

You get the feeling Middleton would cause them a lot of bother.

Can't keep possession (especially in first 20 mins) and allowed a poor team too much of the play. Improved a little as half wore on and prevented more attacks from the Macedonians. All in all, not sharp enough. If we don't improve markedly we won't be getting beyond the second round.

Th bench doesn't have one European start between them.

This is partly a consequence of recruiting players over 30 years old, compounded by his injury history.

A pleasant surprise

If he wasn't eligible for the first leg then he won't be for the second. edit. If we make the second round, we have to register any new players by the 20th of July within a squad A of 25, always respecting the stipulated proportions for 'locally trained players' (8) 42.08 For the qualifying phase and the play-offs, a club may register a maximum of two new eligible players on List A after the above-mentioned deadlines, provided the quota of locally trained players is respected. Such registration must be completed by 24.00CET on the day before the relevant first-leg match and the club’s association must confirm in writing that the new player is eligible to play at domestic level at this time. Page 38 of link https://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/Regulations/uefaorg/Regulations/02/55/82/82/2558282_DOWNLOAD.pdf

Building from the back sort of makes sense but the majority of the games in the SPFL will provide the problem of breaking down organised and populated defences. Last season saw us have an average of over 3.3 goals* in every league game, by far the biggest of the 12 teams. That might drop significantly with the important thing being which (goals for or against) comes down more. * Average per league game 17/18 For: 2.0 Against: 1.3 -------------------------- Regards the 3M bid for Cooper 1. Have we found where the money trees grow ? 2. I remember as a kid finding out we'd bought Cooper for 100,000 and being the happiest laddie in North Tollcross !

The European qualifiers come so early that we really need some stability wrt football management and squad, not the annual wholesale change that are consuming large quantities of finance with little in the way of return. Given signings thus far, if and when we go up against better teams perhaps it'd be better taking a leaf out of the Walter Smith book of European tactics.

The good thing about playing 6 players middle to front who were all with Rangers last season would be that it gives us a chance to see what effect the new management team are having on them as individuals and how any new style of play/tactics functions or not. The other thing is how the management team adapt their approach in the second game against the same side and if it is successful. Bottomline, this is about getting through to the next round and for players to get gametime/understanding with each other so they can be at a better level for a prospective second round.....because we'll need to be.

Saying it like that is more constructive. Simply calling him a prat, not so much.

Good opportunity for Windass today to make use of more space than he got last week at Ibrox. Firstly, he needs to show a good attitude, be up for the game and work hard. If he can do that, the rest would probably follow. Then he needs to do the same consistently or lose his place (the squad needs more options middle to front).

The 'Santos twitter feed Loyal' ain't too impressed at their signing.

So it's two weeks for all three which means they'd all be ready for the first league game. I'd consider offering odds of 25/1 on that actually being the case

3-4 weeks 2 weeks Next ITK poster will be on to say he'll probably play tomorrow .. ...........

English market very seldom represents value for money, it's loco ! We need to develop scouting contacts in other countries.

Given our experiences over the years, the lack of info about the injury sounds ominous. Anyone know what it is ?

Beyond the pitch, we have to start 'performing better and more consistently' at board level. The Warburton split festered and it became a matter of time, months before he went. The Caixinha appt. and expensive 'independent' transfer exploits was part of "institutional failure" according to AJ The Murty extension was a fudge that was going nowhere Currently a fair bit of uncertainty upstairs on various fronts The Gerrad appt. has to work or I don't know where we go. ie. it needs to be afforded some patience.

I'll be surprised if it's not tight and edgy but I think we'll get through. It'll be interesting to see how Gerrard has the team set-up and how the players respond.

My take would be that Gerrard needs a season and three transfer windows before we can start upping expectation levels.....aslong as this season sees a significant improvement in terms of League consistency, clear 2nd place and being generally competitive in matches against Celtic. It's also probably realistic to say that won't be enough for the majority.

Players need gametime and whilst there was a lot of coaching, we haven't played many friendlies to give it a chance for things to be tried out and then further tweaked. Looking forward to watching the game tomorrow.

You can't run before you walk, no matter how much you think you should. We have to build the football operation and Gerrard has to build a team. Unreasonable levels of expectation in the short-term are what will ensure we never get past first base.

When so much build-up goes into the SG era it creates a pressure and expectation that was hardly likely to be satisfied in the short-term. A 2-0 home win in Europe isn't to be sniffed at. The last-time we scored as many as two goals in a European match at Ibrox was more than a decade ago against Werder Bremen. .

Only time will tell with the above but IMO it'll be a minor miracle to get to the EL group stages at this very early stage of the SG era. I think this season is all about the League, generally producing better levels of consistency, being able to compete in the games against Celtic and improvement in final League position. Upstairs, finance and revenue streams are somewhat up in the air and we need some 'consistency', certainty and improvement there aswell.