buster.

We have to consider where we currently are as a club and to put it bluntly, it's that of a sometimes decent, sometimes awful, inconsistent diddy team. McInnes has been managing a team that has over a number of years, managed to achieve a relatively excellent level of consistency.

Don't agree at all. Since serious speculation started linking McInnes to Rangers, the sheep have struggled for results and have put in two of their worst performances in the DM time there. The win against Kilmarnock came on the back of McInnes and Milne coming out with 'holding statements' but within 2 or 3 days, McInnes was odd's-on, back at the top of the betting. If nothing else, I think the ongoing situation has actually worked in our favour wrt sheep dropping points. ------------ The 'body of evidence' regards McInnes by far outweighs a couple of results that may well be partly explained by current speculation.

His defence means that it was hardly likely he would go into detail re. the TOP question. A better one may have centered on if the board were prepared for any potential implications for club. Wrt to the current manager search, it was always going to be a general answer without much detail. Fans wanting names or exactly when an annoucement would be made were always onto plumbs. Answers wrt the Pedro Caxinha appt. and time at the club were unsatisfactory, as nearly everything that came with it were. Key point being....have they learnt their lessons and will that be reflected in the upcoming appointment, it's process and how it dovetails into a longerterm plan (Mark Allen seemed to touch upon).

What would Mr.Jackson say the Daily Record does with the Rangers support ?

IIRC, the accounts contained a line about projections being based on qualifying for at least the EL group stages in 3 of the next 5 years. If bookies were to offer a price on that happening, I'd think you'd get somewhere between 5/1 to 10/1. The importance on getting the next managerial appointment and subsequent recruitment right is immense.

I agree regards a place on the board. It surely corresponds with the growing shareholding C1872 has. Thinking out loud and prepared for being told I'm being stupid but if C1872 got a seat on the board, would that in some ways make it more difficult to be independent from the Rangers board ?

I'd place more importance on why our players being so fired up and motivated, rather than formation. The prospect of not having Morelos available would have meant some forced attention to how to set-up in advance.

On the face of it, the second largest shareholder group would have every right to request a seat at the boardroom table and get one. But as you point towards, it would mean looking for a way to make it work for all parties, not least the challenge and thickness of skin for the individual selected. Making it work and the perception of such may be two different things. There already seems to be a divide of sorts, where many of those sceptical of due impartiality between Rangers and C1872 won't be happy without a blow by blow account of what is going on upstairs. It would be sad if we couldn't make it work because a seat at the table is what IMO corresponds to a large shareholding and what is needed.

Excellent performance ! Formation worked but it was more down to the determined attitude and workrate. (Note that in 14 matches, celtic have now dropped as many points as they did in the whole 38 games of last season)

Three at the back No Morelos Miller up front Pena starts

What I remember from Bermuda was 'Partly Cloudys' but they came in a glass !

Generally speaking, the only way we'd get an exceptional manager is if we found him at a very early stage in his career and he developed into one at Ibrox. The one that some consider 'got away' was a one time St,Mirren manager and for that matter, Aberdeen boss. Someone who Jock Wallace invited over at Ibrox to watch training around 1976.

Hopefully you see the worst of them !

You'll see McKenna tonight (he usually keeps Mark Reynolds on the bench). A big 21 year old who is built a bit like Doug Rougvie. Wright is on the fringes (473 minutes of league football this season) and from what I have seen, has talent and will have a decent career.

Young players should only be played by first team manager if they are good enough....It's really more down to the scouting dept. to find them, the academy to develop them and the club to keep a hold of the right ones. McInnes regularly plays McKenna (21 year old centre half) and sometimes, Wright (20 year old forward) because they are good enough, not because they are youngsters. Improving players would be a novelty, over the decades it hasn't happened enough at Ibrox. We've tended to throw money at problems, lose half of it, move on, then repeat it. Had we been better run as a football club when we had money, we could have done so much more in Europe. ----------------- edit I note that McKenna was on loan to Ayr Utd last season. McCrorie was on loan to the same club the season before. Ian McCall being manager I wouldn't be surprised to see both McKenna and McCrorie both play for Scotland sometime in the future.

Re, building footballing operation structure: That would be the remit of a DoF, eg. scouting infrastructure is being put in place. Over the decades, I've heard of grand plans for X and Y that nearly never come to anything because the short-term ends up demanding more attention (and finance)....but we now reach a juncture (extent of gulf between us and them) that I've never known. There isn't the finance to hope to leap over the chasm, so surely we need to think of longterm plans, get the right people to implement them and move forward, allbeit more slowly than we would like. As far as the manager is concerned, I guess it shouldn't be that long now and we'll just have to wait and see who it is.

Östersunds didn't expect much and he delivered. Different kettle of fish when expectations are clearly beyond the relative tools he has to work with.

Back in April, it was the Record that led the campaign of sorts to secure Miller a contract extension. Despite him getting one, I got the feeling that Pedro wasn't too keen. The Record aren't consistently 'friendly' to individuals who offer them nothing in return. --------------- Reading between the lines, Miller (directly or indirectly / possibly not the only one) was telling Jackson at the end of last season about a split between quite a few players and Pedro Caixinha. I know that Jackson was openly talking about 'the split' at that time, but didn't go to print with it, or at least not in as many words. Instead it was about applying pressure when opportunity arose. For me, you have a manager who was out of his depth/comfort zone and it's for the best that he is gone....but we have a player, Miller....who we'd be better rid of as well, both for football and other reasons. Thankfully his contract is up soon.

The remit of the DoF goes way beyond input into a managerial selection process, of which he has doubtless been involved in. Helping to put together a list of names that will have included McInnes,....might lead to an open-ended decision that probably won't be exclusively his to make. It could go for McInnes, having considered all those proposed and the criteria set. It might go elsewhere.

Is that from his buddies at the Daily Record ?

If you look back at his first spell as caretaker and how he used subs, it almost shows a reluctance to change from whatever his original plan was. Groundhog day First 2-1 defeat against Dundee saw a forced first half change, Wilson for Hill (injury)... We were 2-0 down after 41 minutes, O'Hara with the first. We pulled a goal back in 67 mins... .. then 2 subs on 78 mins Forrester for McKay and Holt for Halliday. (IIRC in that quarter of an hour, Forrester reminded me of Pena against Hamilton, ie. looked like he was on a mission to get a red card). The week after in the ICT defeat, he only used 2 subs in the 80 and the 92nd minutes. http://uk.soccerway.com/matches/2017/02/24/scotland/premier-league/inverness-caledonian-thistle-fc/rangers-fc/2242570/ Then it was St.Johnstone (better placed team than Dundee or ICT) in a midweek game at Ibrox to try and avoid 3 defeats IAR...and we won with an injury time winner. http://uk.soccerway.com/matches/2017/03/01/scotland/premier-league/rangers-fc/saint-johnstone-fc/2242580/ ------------ Contrast to Pedro's first game in charge......3 HT subs http://uk.soccerway.com/matches/2017/04/01/scotland/premier-league/rangers-fc/motherwell-fc/2242598/

If a club has a clear strategy, is well run and well organised, it is much more likely they'll get more out of the loan system. Warburton, who was organised and effective when he arrived at Ibrox, seemed to have a clearer idea of what he wanted out of the loan system and got a reasonable return. Caixinha, who had a great deal on his plate at the time of squad reorganisation didn't do so well in this market and Mark Allen, who arrived in mid June seemed to help bring in Nemane and John. TBF, it'll be much more difficult for any player to come in and do a job under current circumstances......although if they have something about them, it shouldn't be......... But if they have something about them, maybe they wouldn't be getting loaned out.

It's not very often that players on loan make a big impression and they often seem to be cheap options to pad out a squad. If Eck could get Iniesta and Messi on loan (as he previously went for) then maybe he is the man

To go from not trusting Pena as a sub against Dundee to starting him against Aberdeen shows a level of desperation that is unlikely to work. Then you have Kranjcar who obviously needs more than 5 matches to get him back to anywhere near the level he is capable of but in those 5 matches+, you are going to lack half a man in midfield. To play the better teams with this weakness is asking for trouble. I'd prefer something like the Windass/Atakayi curveball you mention.....at least it would be 'mobile desperation' and giving a youngster a chance.

Two of the main and more expensive players brought in to help link middle to front are representative of two summer transfer windows that have been awful and bad respectively. Kranjcar : Came on against Hamilton, looked like a ex-player in a testomonial game and then wasn't even on the bench at Dundee. Pena : Got a spot on the bench against Dundee but when his advertised 'skillset' was pretty much what we seemed to need, he wasn't even used and we finished having only used 2 subs. If the past is anything to go by, playing a less than match-fit Pena in the midfield is giving the sheep a much easier job of winning the midfield battle. The other thing about Pena, he's a distinct red-card risk. On the positive side, he might get on the end of a move and score a goal. Options are very limited and if Morelos is out then Miller might play up front (if Murty changes his view on Pena and decides to give the Mexican a start). Otherwise, it'd probably be Herrera for Morelos with Miller, presumably asked to play closer to Herrera. Each from