buster.

Renato Sanches (Portugal) is 7 months younger than Jordan Thompson.

Benitez showing that he seems to have control over signings. Hard working British instead of French prospect (too often with dubious work ethic). That's two of Strachan's established players dropping down a division, although in the case of Fletcher, playing in the Championship is probably better than sitting on your erchie in the top tier.

If we did offer as much as 75K for a 16 year old it shows we rate Knox highly but I guess if the price goes into 6 figures and some then the gamble will be for somebody else. Looks like being a good timely deal for a Livingston in financial bother.

Third time lucky for the Belguims ? They went 180 minutes without being able to score against Wales in qualifiers with you know who getting the only goal for Wales. If Hazard plays at a similar level as he did against Hungary then Belguim will score. Wales will try and close him down and generally offer Belguim less space than Hungary did, how does he and his team react ? They couldn't score against the organised Italians but have made hay against lesser teams. Wales don't have the Juventus defence but they are better organised than Ireland and Hungary. Wales will probably enjoy more space when they attack and they have the quality to take advantage. Add the fact that the Belguim defence has several absent and you'd back Wales to score, or would you I remember looking forward to watching the 1991 European Cup Final between Red Star and Marseille. Lots of exciting players on show with Red Star fresh from beating Bayern Munich 4-3 on agg. (they'd also put us out in the second round) and Marseille having put four past a great Milan side..............but the game was a tediously boring 0-0 AET.

He was more from the 'make it up as you go along' (MIUAYGA) school of mgmt which attempted to solve problems by chucking money at them and hoping that it worked. When there was no or next to no money it was simply MIUAYGA.

Portugal are a capable side but only tend to do enough to get by. They have the quality that allows them to be able to do this against most teams with the likes of Queresma coming on to provide that wee bit extra, whether it be a final ball (eg. v Hungary) or a lung bursting run to nod in a goal (Croatia). When Hungary scored three, they scored three. Renato Sanches, at 18 looks like he'll become one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe and these type of players often spread their wider fame in summer tournaments. Maybe he'll be the man tonight. Generally a good consistent tournament side that is a level below the big hitters. Poland struggle to beat teams but are are also difficult to beat so as you suggest, with the stakes being high this might start off with both prioritising not losing a goal..... but many thought that the Italians would do similar. Bottomline, as we have demonstrated time and again, we'll have to wait and see because results and bookies profits show that we don't have much of a clue

He did the same at the outset of his managerial career. Bumbling German tour leading into the Malmo games.

Generally, the English have always disregarded football played north of the border but have been prepared to acknowledge and praise those Scots who go South and do well. In the past, whenever Scottish sides beat an English team it was treated as 'giant-killing' or a shock result. The English have generally held arrogant opinions about their football sides and their place in the pecking order whilst the Scots have done similar but at a different level and in a different style. Now that so much money has entered the English top tier, it may aswell be a different sport from what is played in Scotland and because of that it becomes ever more difficult to envisage a sufficient bridging of the gap so as to be able to land on the side of milk and honey when competition's change format (eg. meetings in December 2016 re. European tournament format change) or other changes.

Thank's for the explanation, you obviously have a fair bit of relevant knowledge around this. I think whenever the moment comes, the RIFC board have to stay strong, believe in the structure and interview accordingly. There are an increasing amount of modern, progressively orientated coaches/managers out in the marketplace who should present their case with our infrastructure in mind. If I had anything to do with it, those who didn't know about it or hadn't taken the bother to look into it should be struck off the list Given circumstances, a good solid infrastructure is simply well considered and responsible executive decision-making. I really can't see another route to both success and sustainability.

Wales Players Celebrates England Exit | England vs Iceland https://youtu.be/OQF8x-SCCco

Poland 0 - 1 Portugal Wales 1 - 2 Belgium Germany 1 - 0 Italy France 2 - 1 Iceland

The song...... 'We're shite and we know we are......' comes to mind. We (the Scots) have accepted that and simply take what we can in terms of entertainment from any major tournament, knowing that it won't have anything directly to do with us....... Other than the occasional decent football match, comic England failure is as good as it gets I stress the word 'comic' because most teams get beat at one stage or another. The comedy has to do with their inflated footballing ego that is always pumped up with hot air in time for the major tournaments. It continues with the first body blow (often involves a goalkeeping mistake), the noise of knives being sharpened, a manager saying everything is fine then a second body blow, mutterings about player discontent, players saying everything is fine, press doubting manager, manager and player disconnect and then disaster. NB. 21stC England comic failure always involes a Rooney angle from his hairline down to his metatarsal and most recently his new position on the park. The talk of Gareth Southgate makes you immediately envisage another disaster and his apologetic and at times pathetic expression towards the camera. If you were a casting director, Southgate would be your man.....#send in the clowns.

I wonder how many active discussions and words have passed on this general topic without anything actually happening. Wake me up when something actually happens,....you'll need a shovel.

I don't see a DoF position, nor see the need for one. The TB seems to have all the angles covered. It's one thing to have a structure but then and especially at the beginning, it's only worth what the individuals involved are capable of giving in terms of expertise and vision. The exciting thing for me is the apparent/obvious calibre of the people involved. eg. We need the right people choosing the boys to go on the Boclair project. At a time when we have financial challenges, this was the only route that made viable sense. If we want to be both successful and sustainable, we have to make it work. The support may need to have some patience. The other thing is that if and when MW leaves then we will have a footballing structure in place that would require new personnel that were a good fit with the structure, rather than the other way round.

What do folk think of the infrastructure (Technical Board) part of the 'answer' ?

Yes, priority should be given to developing our own and loan signings should only be considered when clearly better than what we have and/or are a better fit. Hopefully we will have more talented players coming through in the coming years and it lessens the need for taking on loans.

I think every effort should be made to get both boys and girls to play football (or any other sport for that matter) and that shouldn't be for what are essentially businesses (football clubs) to do. Clubs play their part in the development of 'elite prospects' (mens) in mutual interest with SFA but the government and the sports governing bodies should be generally encouraging sporting activity and providing places where everyone can engage in it. At a level such as where Rangers Ladies play, then RIFC could encourage and modestly provide, eg. kit, training space or whatever but not directly fund competitive ambitions IMO.

Wrt to McCoist/past regimes I doubt that there was a coherent 'plan' in place on either the football side or the board side A sort of negative double whammy.

Scottish womens football may be an emerging participative sport and if it is then great. However SWF will not be an emerging market in terms of making money...... edit ........at least not for football clubs.

If self-financing/sustainable then it makes sense but that would probably mean limited ambtions. Limited ambitions on a womens football level would make sense for me as I envisage taking part as being enough. However I'm sure the Ladies will have competitive ambitions which would need funding. This is where I don't think it would work wrt RIFC who need to channel scarce resources to the mens game. If Glasgow City Ladies can be successful without an apparent parent senior football club, then I see no reason why Rangers Ladies couldn't become in the main, independent from RIFC with perhaps occasional links/provison of X or Y. --------------- Regard the BBC coverage They seemed to take a decision to promote/basically force feed their viewers with womens football coverage whether they liked it or not. This didn't relate to a sudden increased interest in the game but was more a decision based on political correctness/promotion. Prior to that they had decided to cover 'foreign football' a lot more. However this decision had more of a valid representative reason behind it based on actual trends.

Fair enough --------------------------------- I have went on about the infastructure so much over the past months that I hardly touched upon it in that post.... but that is the important aspect of answer#10 and one where the board deserve an awful lot of credit.

Infrastructure is hugely important and it is certainly now being treated accordingly. This may not be popular or PC but unless self-financing / sustainable, I'd drop the Ladies team from RIFC responsibility. They could set-up independently and reach the level they reach but at the end of the day, very few are interested and IMO it's next to unwatchable for more than 10 minutes.

Club executives are responsible for finalising agreements and signing contracts but a manager will have a financial budget to work within and will liase with executives regards player 'targets' and when applicable, during negotiations with club/player regards fee/salary and how it fits with overall plan (if there is one).

I'd imagine his Well Being will be 'off the radar'.

Hodgson was still experimenting and took risks coming into the tournament, eg. bringing only one wide player and loads of centre forwards (said this weeks ago) so when you have to break a tight defence down he is more or less forced to go with Sterling. It wasn't just personel, it was shape and forcing Rooney into the side. Although tbf, Rooney didn't do badly in the midfield over the piece. With all the force-fitting and changing of players, it wouldn't surprise me if there was a bit of a disconnect/tension that eventually affected the group on-field when in adversity. This leading to what was a pathetic team effort last night. All that aside, England aren't as good as they think they are and despite their bi-annual embarrassment, the arrogance and unrealistic expectation levels with which they every tournament always returns 2 years down the line.