stewarty

Agree it will be interesting to see the reaction of the team to spending a few days on the training field and whether more of the management team's ideas start to come to fruition. Also looking forward to seeing Grezda get some minutes and Coullibally will hopefully start as I think he needs a solid 65-70 to put him into contention for Thursday.

Promising signs, but we've been here before with Rossiter in particular. We can see the boy has ability, I just hope his biscuit bones firm up a bit.

Classic hot take. ?

I am in total agreement. When someone is put on the spot and they double down on the bluster and indignation, its a red flag for me.

I hope your confidence isn't misplaced. I can understand the nervousness given the number of issues we've had on the injury front over the years.

Good luck to JJ. Wouldn't be surprised to see a few younger players head down to him on loan.

Its a worry that he is clearly not fit but surely if the club were not satisfied that he was ready to play a part in their squad we would have held him back? I know there is a process in terms of international team medics evaluating an injury, but I'm not sure how relevant that is when its just a couple of friendlies they are playing.

To refer back to my previous question about why a politician might withhold his footballing allegiance in order to further his career, I would draw parallels to my own support of Rangers. I grew up in the Scottish Borders and much of the realities of West of Scotland life in terms of any religious divide passed me by as its largely irrelevant down in Rugger country. My Dad is a Rangers fan and grew up in the west coast and I got my love of our team from him, pestering for tops and being football daft from as young as I can remember. However, despite being baptised, neither I nor my family are in any way religious. It was the done thing at the time I guess but we never went voluntarily, only on the odd occasion did we set foot in a church when invited to a wedding or attending a funeral. We were not a political family either, although I did take a keen interest through my teens and still do to varying degrees depending on how engaged I am on specific topics, or how jaded I might be with all the referendums and elections we've had in recent years. I never really knew who my parents voted for - they are working class so would typically view things in terms of "how much is that going to cost me" when looking at the budget and how much a packet of fags or a pint of beer would cost from midnight. Fast forward to today, I find myself in the space that is being vocally criticised by some. I identify as a Rangers fan first. I have voted SNP in the past but also for Labour, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats. My politics is largely left of centre but I consider myself pretty moderate. However the only fixed view I have on politics is that I will change my view to suit the circumstances as they relate to me. Hence, my vote is never guaranteed to anyone and I would never join a political party for that reason, despite being reasonably well engaged. Not having grown up in a family or social setting that was Loyalist or influenced by NI politics, I don't identify with those elements of Rangers fan. I voted yes in 2014 but not for any reasons based on identity, but from (in my view), a pragmatic sense that Scotland would do a better job of running our affairs long term than an increasingly remote Westminster. [NB - I'm not attempting to re-hash any arguments on this, just giving some context] So from my perspective, I'm not against the union or people who identify as unionists, but I do struggle with aspects of the way support for it is expressed. I'm not pro- Royalist. But similarly, I'm not anti-Royalist either. So when you roll up the various tenets of the stereotypical Rangers fan, i don't sit naturally with many of them, despite a shared love for a football team. Yet I attempt to fit in, to not make an issue of any differences I have with those who have alternative views, to enjoy the cut and thrust of discussion whilst not attempting to be divisive. I often do this carefully. I seek to look at both sides of a debate and give a moderate view. So, to bring back to the question - I think political culture is such that it is very personality and issue driven. Debates are polarised and the effect is a tribal "them and us" scenario whereby the only way to get ahead is to side with one extreme view or another. To express a moderate and balance view is seen as weak - "you're either with us or against us" springs to mind. I think we've seen plenty of that in this thread and its disappointing to say the least.

Hahahahaha

Ally was quoted in an article I just read about how his health was affected by being our Manager, when he said something about St Midden offering him a one month contract to be their boss?!! I think it was before they appointed Stubbs. Utterly mental short term thinking if thats true.

We will not find any political party expousing a position on what football team to support so thats a dead-end argument. What is more interesting is the pervasive culture whereby a fledgling politician might deem it prudent to their career to keep their Rangers allegiance to themselves.

That might be the more nuanced position you took, but initially you accused SNP voting Bears to be collaborators. You've deliberately fanned the flames on that point so lets not try and be cute now.

True. But I'm not arguing against you on that point. I'm merely stating that my sense is that something is wrong here and there are agendas at play beyond valid community objections. The process ultimately is flawed here. If there are objections then its right that they are discussed in a transparent manner before any decision is made. And none of the bluster-filled retorts from the politicians under scrutiny have properly addressed the questions raised about their involvement.

They live near Ibrox stadium. For the sake of argument you could just call the stadium footprint an extended fan zone for every home game. To object to having a specific family friendly entertainment zone would suggest to me that they have another agenda at play.

Good move for the lad on paper. Got a feeling he will score a few for them.

Makes sense for Alnwick to get games if Fod is content to be backup.

http://www.standardscommissionscotland.org.uk/codes-of-conduct/routemap-for-complaining and http://www.standardscommissionscotland.org.uk/uploads/files/1531127491CllrsCodeofConductJuly2018.pdf may help in that regard

Chickens appear to have one eye on the coop and will be coming home to roost pretty soon, one has to imagine. The fact that the immediate response is to go "some of my family are Rangers fans" from McDonald, is such a classic deflection that absolutely nobody will buy. Next step if they continue to prevaricate would be to make formal complaints to the Standards Commission for Scotland. Section 7 of the Councillor's code of conduct should be all the referencing required for anyone making a complaint.

From our point of view, international exposure will hopefully add to his value. There are risks though, I agree and he will need careful management. But on the upside, if he nails down a place internationally and scores goals, he will have his pick of clubs and we will be able to maximise a transfer fee.

Fantastic for the lad. And vindicates the work the management team have done to get his head back in the game. Thoroughly deserved Alfredo!

The point has been made several times that we are not very good at politics, so I have taken that to heart and just written to my local SNP MSP to make clear my views and imploring him to ensure that this matter is thoroughly investigated.

Compare and contrast to the sympathetic tone displayed a year ago by Mr English when Lafferty's gambling demons were exposed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41239996 What has changed since then? Simple, he's back at the big bad Rangers and is now fair game.

A pathetic article from what I read. I only managed the first few paragraphs, it was so obviously snearing. In other words, a typical Tom English piece.

Happy with that. Another striker, at least one centre half and a wide player please.

Is that you, Lee?