JohnMc

Is he one of these left-footed right-wingers? I know nothing about him but if he's a Czech international he must have something about him, surely.

When hearing the name 'Hannibal' it's interesting to see whose first thought is elephants and Alps and who thinks of cannibalism and Jodie Foster. A true cultural divide! Recent loanees have done ok, Tillman and Sima were successes I'd say. There's some incentive for this lad with his contract nearly up and it being unlikely he's going to make it at Man Utd. I saw him against us on Saturday. He caught the eye however I'm not sure if that's because of his unusual name and impressive hair or because of his ability. We need some bodies in, this doesn't seem like the worst business we could do.

That was as poor a half of football as I can recall, we were woeful. It's worth remembering Birmingham are in the English third tier. I know it's a friendly and perhaps the players have been getting run mercilessly for 2 weeks with an eye on a long season or something, but I'd still expect us to put up a better showing than that. The fact I was actually pleased when Wright and Dessers came on depresses me. I'm starting to wonder if so many senior players leaving, or trying to leave, is causing issues behind the scenes. We didn't look like a team last night, or at the weekend. I fully accept a couple of good signings could change everything, so I hope they happen soon. As an aside I liked the look of the Birmingham right back in the first half. Laird I think was his name. Obviously he was given the freedom of the wing and our tactics of not running or tackling and passing to Birmingham players might have enhanced his performance.

Celtic weren't substantially better than us last season and so far all they've done is replace their keeper. At best they've stood still, so far. Have we regressed a bit, or stood still also? Losing Lundstram and Barasic weakens the squad, time will tell if Baron and Jefte are adequate replacements. Sima is the biggest loss to our squad and he's not been replaced. It would be astonishing if we don't sign at least a couple of forward players before the window closes. I expect we'll strengthen elsewhere too as other players leave. It's frustrating we don't have more players in so they can get to know their team mates and Clement's demands, but it's still only July. You have to assume things are going on, talks are taking place. There tends to be a domino effect, someone in the chain needs to sell or buy and that triggers a raft of moves. I think we will need to get used to Rangers playing younger home grown players this season too. Not first choice, but when injuries and suspensions happen I think Clement will have to play the youth. In my experience Rangers supporters are all for this until it actually happens, we're not the most patient support.

He's clearly not part of Clement's plans, that's why he's with the B team. I understand it's mutual, Lammers wants to leave, for whatever reasons he didn't settle in Scotland or at Rangers. It's best for everyone that he moves on. He might need to accept a drop in salary for that too happen, so a lot will depend on the player himself. I suspect this will drag on until the last minute as interested clubs wait to see if we blink and agree to cover some of his salary and we wait and see if the clubs who want him blink and agree to pay him closer to what he's on with us. Whatever stats might say he's been a really poor signing for us. Not every player is capable of playing for Rangers, often that's not to do with footballing ability. Lammers falls into this category.

Andy Webster? The Andy Webster who we went to all sorts of hassle to sign and then never played, that Andy Webster? Hope lad takes after his mother. Last I heard Webster was involved in the Hearts youth academy.

Steve Carson is a Belfast 'Prod'. It should be noted that the BBC version of Rebus made him a Jambo instead of a Hibee. He was never a Hibs fan in the books but was on the STV dramatisation. 26th of Foot has as much chance of getting the BBC Scotland controller position than any of Kevin McKenna, Chris McLaughlin, Angela Haggerty, Gerry Braiden. Cosgrove is an outside chance, but I think it's unlikely, he's closer to Biden in age than Carson. But I'd agree that whoever it is that gets the job they're unlikely to be openly sympathetic to their close Govan neighbours or those who follow them. Keep up the good work, 26th, I always look forward to a new post on this thread.

I really don't know. I was surprised he that was offered a new deal and that he signed it. He's been overlooked by a succession of managers, on the little i've seen of him I didn't think he was up to the standard we need (not that I'm any kind of judge) and I assumed he'd leave this summer and begin his career in earnest at a side in the Scottish Championship. He's 21 now, same age as McCausland, so maybe that's now the realistic age to be coming into our first team. I wouldn't have given McCausland much hope of making an impact on our first team this time last year. I think he'll get an opportunity though. With Barasic gone and Yilmaz's injury record I think left back will be available for someone to step in. Yilmaz will be first choice, but after that Fraser has a better chance than most.

Lewis Ferguson was of course at Rangers as a youth but he's the perfect example of a player who needed time to develop then patience to play. Ironically he only made it into the Hamilton side because we signed Greg Docherty. It's not hindsight to say Ferguson would have done well had he signed for us when he left Aberdeen. He scored 16 goals in his final season for Aberdeen, I don't think we've had a midfielder with those kind of numbers since Albertz! For all my doom and gloom about youth the club are actively signing 20 year olds and surprised me by giving Robbie Fraser a 2 year deal, I was certain he'd be playing for Raith Rovers or Hamilton, someone like that, in the coming season. That suggests a change of strategy by the club, perhaps we will see a very young Rangers side this season. How the support will react to that will be interesting.

Yeah, forgot about that.

It's not the number of people watching that's the issue, it's the consequences. Liverpool aren't firing their manager is they finished second. Indeed no side in England is doing that, most are delighted if the finish fourth. Second for Rangers is being fired. If we're still second and trailing by say 6 points come the end of October there will be voices on here calling for Clement to go. That's not right but it is reality. I've pointed this out before. While we were visiting the fishing villages and market towns of the Scottish lower leagues Celtic had no challenge for the league. During that period they developed Callum MacGregor, James Forrest, Keiran Tierney, Ryan Christie and Charlie Mulgrew. They could do that because they could afford the mistakes young players make without worrying it would make a difference. Since we returned to the top flight they've developed no one of consequence. For the record, I'm not promoting ditching our youth set up, but there is an argument these days.

I'm not actually making the argument, merely pointing out that there is one. I'd prefer a youth policy that produced players we can use, currently it doesn't and part of the reason for that is demands on the club.

We're the living embodiment of short-termism. Rangers manager's job will come under pressure if we go three matches without a win, he'll lose it if we go five. Rangers directors will come under pressure if we don't win the league or have to fire a manager during the season. A Rangers player will come under pressure if they have a couple of poor games in a row. This is no exaggeration. Putting young players into that environment is problematic. Young players will make mistakes and as mistakes cost managers their jobs, cost their team mates win bonuses and pile pressure on directors no one is too interested in making that happen. There's a big argument that Rangers should close their 'academy', save the money and simply sign players that are ready for the first team. Let young players develop at clubs without the pressure and demands of Rangers.

Transfer fee still to be mentioned? Hopefully they won't demand too much from us to take him.

Jacob Pazikas (19) is going to Stranraer on loan in the coming season. Stranraer's form suggests he'll get plenty of practice. Despite Jacob's exotic name he's a bluenose from Linwood, I worked with his Dad many lifetimes ago.

Far be it for me to stick up for The Sun but Birmingham City were taken over last year by by an American group who seem to have more money than sense. Their drop to League 1 is unlikely to prevent them from buying players from Aberdeen. Aberdeen on the other hand have been operating at a significant loss for a few years, this has been offset by player sales, but even then they've still lost over £3 million over the last 3 seasons. The season just finished, despite Conference League group football, is unlikely to have improved much as they, once again, went through 3 managers and finished 11th in the league. Wanting £7 million is fine but I suspect they'd accept half that.

There aren't that many performers who can sell out a stadium gig, Compo. This summer only Pink, Green Day and Taylor Swift are performing stadium tours with Scottish dates. Springsteen didn't come to Scotland this year and AC/DC are only playing Wembley. That's your stadium artists for 2024. There are only around dozen, maybe 20 performers who can tour with stadium sized venues on their schedule. Scotland's not a big market and there are 3 stadiums, including Ibrox, vying for them. The other two have the advantage of not hosting sport every other weekend, so can offer more flexibility around dates. You can criticise the Ibrox management about a number things, but I'm not sure this is one of them.

There's a lot of work being done on the Copland stand this summer so Ibrox isn't available for concerts or events. We're not even playing any friendlies at home pre-season. Harry Styles, a troubadour popular with the young people, played at Ibrox in the very recent past which suggests our 'wizzos' are onto this little earner.

Schalke were certainly, although I thought they'd stopped haemorrhaging money in the last couple of years. Despite another poor season I assumed they'd still have the finances for a 20 year old Bayern B team player, who they know well, if they wanted him. They might simply be too strapped to purchase him, or have other parts of their squad requiring more attention, I don't know. It's always worth remembering that I have no inside knowledge, I've never seen this lad play, indeed had never heard of him until reading this thread. Take my concerns with a large pinch of salt. We've had some great players who signed from relative obscurity and other well established players who signed and yet failed to deliver. Basically I know nothing, I'm just killing time between meetings!

Specifically 4 goals, no assists and 'too expensive for the 3rd biggest club in Germany'.

Didn't Schalke have another shocking season, fighting relegation into the 3rd tier for much of the year? If he's as good as Tillman I'll be very happy, but his numbers aren't wonderful despite playing for a big club at a low level.

I don't know, Uilleam, I think the names of Waddell, Holmes and Murray are hard to forget and are closely associated with the managers they appointed, or removed. However, I'll concede it seems unlikely we'll be speaking about Bisgrove's time at Rangers 30 years from now. I agree that for most of us who is in the boardroom or executive level is of far less interest than who is starting at left back or picking the team. However, particularly with our recent history, debating and keeping a watchful eye on who is making decisions in Edmiston Drive is beholden on all of us. I would agree entirely that having success in one field is no guarantee that success will inevitably follow in a different one. Football in particular is strewn with the carcasses of men (almost always men) who were successful in business and then failed spectacularly in the business of football. I read yesterday's press release from Everton about the probable collapse of the sale of the club, I'm reminded that Moshri had a stellar senior management record and Bill Kenwright was an impresario of rare success. Yet both presided over a long period of decline despite a huge latent support and access to Sky's millions for decades.

That's not strictly true. Willie Waddell famously 'went upstairs' in 72, appointing Wallace as manager while he became General Manager, effectively the MD of the day. He was largely responsible for the redevelopment of Ibrox Stadium and the eventual title win in 74/75. As one of our greatest ever players, a high profile journalist, a title winning manager with a provincial club and a European trophy winner with Rangers, Waddell was as high profile an 'MD' as we could have at that time. David Holmes was appointed 'MD' by Lawrence Malborourgh after Lawrence group bought out Jack Gillespie and took control of the club. Holmes transformed Rangers, and Scottish football. While not someone who sought the limelight his profile was very high, and rightly so. He was of course replaced by David Murray, who purchased the club from Lawrence Group. Murray was acting 'MD' of all his companies. He enjoyed the limelight, courted it in fact, and had a profile as high as anyone in business in Scotland for a couple of decades. Even today, despite everything, he's more closely associated with Rangers than anything else. When Murray chose to step back from the day to day running of the club he appointed John McClelland as 'MD'. McClelland's main role was to take any flack that was aimed at Murray. Indeed that was the main role for everyone SDM appointed to that position. Campbell Ogilvie, who was never Rangers 'MD', has some illuminating insights into Rangers between Waddell and Holmes. We didn't have a single owner at the time, we'd a number of shareholders who each had influence but no overall control. According to Ogilvie the board was fractured, they rarely agreed on major decisions. The board were split on firing John Greig as manager for example, long after it was apparent it wasn't working out. Greig eventually did them a favour and resigned. Ogilvie tells of board meetings that regularly lasted 12 hours, where every single thing was discussed and debated and often no agreement was reached. Director's had their own agendas, cliques and alliances were formed, while the club slipped into a period of stasis, allowing Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts and even Dundee Utd to push ahead of us. The lack of leadership and direction was part of the reason we were unable to attract Alex Ferguson or Jim McLean as manager, despite both being very much open to it, despite what might have been spun since. Leadership begins at the very top. That's the case with every successful business. While supporters are much more concerned with the football related appointments, the replacement for Bisgrove might well be the most important bit of business we do this summer. History tells us what happens if we get that wrong.

There was a Danish left back joined Rangers in the 80s by the name of Jan Bartram. He was highly rated, ended up spending most of his career in the Bundesliga and became the first choice Danish international left back at a time when Denmark had a good team. He joined Rangers and it was a disaster, he clearly hated the place, he left after 6 months, during that time he failed to dislodge Stuart Munro as our left back, gave an interview to a Danish paper where he described Souness as a 'beast' and a 'bastard' and complained about the physical nature of football in Scotland. He wasn't a bad player, just a bad fit. Lammers feels like this decade's Bartram. It's better all round if he leaves, he's not a bad player, just a bad fit.

It's not about age, it's about fitness. I accept the two become more closely linked as a player ages, but simply being 32 shouldn't be some kind of cut off point. Steve Davis played 35 times in a title winning side at 34. If Barasic, Roofe, Lundstrom and Jack are away, plus this talk of Goldson and Tav leaving too, then we will be very short of experience, and a club the size of Rangers does need experienced players too. He's played 35 plus matches each of the last 3 seasons, that suggests his fitness isn't currently an issue. McLean isn't the kind of signing that gets the support excited, but he knows the league, he's played at a decent standard, he's Scottish which helps for European squads, and he's a decent player. I imagine his salary expectations are within our budget too.