JohnMc

In Glasgow it's yella, so that's how you all need to learn to say it.

Was he not already doing this role, just without the title? Is this simply confirming a title for a job he's been doing for a few months? Others will know better but I got the impression Koppen has been quite important inside the club in recent months.

He played in 3 separate World Cups, and, interestingly, in Argentina he missed the debacles with Peru and Iran, but played when we beat the second best side in the World, Holland. Just coincidence I'm sure. He captained the best club side in Europe, arguably the world, won 3 European Cups, 5 English League titles and 2 Scottish League titles and played helped Sampdoria win the first trophy in their entire history. For four years running he was named in the PFA Team Of The Year and also named in the PFA Team Of the Century 20 years after he retired. For 4 or 5 seasons Souness would have been a first choice for any club, and any country, in the world. I don't know what your definition of 'World class' is but if Souness doesn't qualify for it then I don't know who does.

A proper appraisal of Sir David Murray's tenure of Rangers is a thread in its own right, and probably one that stretches for a lot of pages. On Souness, whatever views people hold of his departure, and it was badly handled by all concerned with the exception of Murray, ironically, he must be seen as one of the most important figures in the club's history. The magnitude of his influence on Rangers, and all of Scottish football, is almost difficult to comprehend today. The ripples from some of the boulders he threw are still being felt today I'd argue. There remains much to admire about Souness, his charity work is exceptional, he's always positive about Rangers, when it's not always fashionable to be so, his punditry can be entertaining too. His insights into the appointment of Clement are interesting. His argument for Lampard isn't without merit and it's interesting to hear his views on how the current manager is doing. Souness has knowledge and experience that none of us possess, but that alone doesn't mean he's always right. I've always felt Gordon Smith is one of those ex-players who people constantly over-estimate his ability simply because he's half way articulate. A bit like Pat Nevin, broadcasters swoon over him because he's capable of throwing in a few big words, and assume this must equal intelligence and insight. In actual fact Smith (and Nevin) have consistently shown themselves to make poor decisions, lack insight and struggle when given real power. That said he can be entertaining and enjoyable to listen to some of his stories.

If I was a betting man, and I'm not, I might put a small sum on a new CEO being unveiled shortly before the agm. Something that removes some of the sting that might be coming the directors way feels like a smart move to me. It stretches credulity to think that we're not actively searching for a new CEO. We can, and should, criticise the board, but they're not idiots. I doubt when that person is announced it will satisfy all the support, but that's where we are just now. I'm really not sure I'd be recommending the board make some kind of holding statement though, it'll just push this back to the top of the agenda, and currently Clement is acting as a lightening rod for the board, can't see them looking to change that in a hurry.

If everyone was fit and available I don't think Matondo starts, I think Cortes and Cerny are wide and Bajrami goes to 10. Guessing Clement's ideal team is a bit difficult as he's prone to changes that don't always make sense to me. But I think you could guess at Butland, Tav, Souttar, Propper and Jefte, Raskin and Barron, Cortes, Bajrami, Danilo and Cerny as the most likely side. Currently Tav might find his place under threat, Balogun might start depending on who we're playing, Dessers might be number 9 and not Danilo. The point is though you're still looking at at least 5 'new' signings in the starting line up. I really don't think that's relying on the old guard, that's using the resources at your disposal. Dessers is far from good enough in my opinion, but he's currently the best forward at the club so what can we do. Danilo might turn out to be better, in flashes he's looked decent, but none of us know yet. I get the criticism of our domestic performances of late, we're not entertaining and we're not clinical. I don't think the answer is to change the manager though. I think Clement is a good manager, he's proved that elsewhere. Changing manager every autumn is not the answer to our issues, sure there might be a bounce, the last 3 managers have enjoyed that, but ultimately all ran into the same issues. Someone has to be given time to solve them. There are systemic problems behind the scenes at the club. Until we've key positions filled and everyone is pulling in the same direction it's impossible to judge to how good a job our manager is actually doing. Clement made a telling comment after a match a few weeks ago when he was asked about someone who had picked up a knock, I paraphrase but he said something like 'thankfully that's one of the few jobs I'm not being asked to do, our medical staff will will assess him...'. The inference was I was brought in to do a specific job but that's not how it's turned out. It might simply be excuses or frustrations, or I might be reading way to much into it, but judging anyone's ability while the club is so chaotic behind the scenes is unfair I feel.

Players will pick up injuries, particularly with the amount of games we play, we can't expect no injuries. My point is that our injury situation this season is on a par with Celtic's, arguably it's been slightly better. That's an improvement on the last couple of seasons. It's only November, we'll need to see what the winter brings, but in my opinion the injury situation is a bit better, so far, this season. Domestic football has been poor recently, there's no denying that. Of the signings made during Clement's time only Igamane, Kelly and Nsiala aren't regular starters. Kelly was always signed as a back up to Butland, no one expects him to start, do they? I don't think anyone has seen Nsiala before or since he joined us, I guess he was a gamble, no idea if it will pay off. Igamane, so far, looks like a poor signing. He's only been at the club for a few months, so far too early to write him off, but he's got a way to go before he's ready. Those 3 apart, Diomande, Barron, Jefte, Bajrami, Cerny and Propper are regular starters, most are first choices. Cortes, when he's fit, usually started too. Kasanwirjo is featuring regularly now too. For that reason I think your 'old guard' comment is unfair, we literally don't have any other players to choose, we have to play some of the players who were at the club before Clement. You can complain about the lack of signings, but you can't criticise the manager for not choosing players that don't exist.

Is our injury list not better this season? I thought our only injured players currently are Cortes, Matondo and Lawrence, am I missing someone? For comparison Celtic currently have Odin Holm (cost £2.6 million played 3 games this season), Adam Idah and Greg Taylor out, with Carter-Vickers having missed much of the season. Every squad will have injured players, but without wishing to jinx things we do seem less injury prone this season, certainly we're on a par with other clubs where last season we'd 6 or 7 players out fairly regularly. Interestingly we played Livingston on the 12th of November last year, five of that starting line-up are no longer at the club and of the five subs that came on, four of them have also left the club. That's quite a big change in 12 months.

Signing a young(ish) player who has played 80 matches in Danish, or Finnish or even Scottish football strikes me as a better gamble than someone in Morocco or America. Raskin, Diomande, Jefte, Souttar and Barron have all settled and assimilated into the team far more quickly than Cifuentes, Igamane or James Sands. I think we also miss a trick picking up inexperienced players being released by big English sides. The fact you're not deemed good enough to get into the Man City or Liverpool first team squad is hardly a damning statement on your chance of being a success in the Scottish league. I know nothing about Finlay Curtis other than his name is appearing more and more frequently in B team reports. An attacking midfielder is something we've not had since Arfield left, at 18 he should be around the squad pushing for the bench. Chances of that happening seem remote unfortunately. A series of managers, including from countries where playing youngsters is expected, have overlooked our youths, read into that what you will.

Superb stats, Buster, albeit a little depressing for Thursday!

I think I'm the only Rangers supporter left who expects us to beat Aberdeen on Wednesday. I'm really hoping Aberdeen approach the match the way most of their support, and decent percentage of ours, expect. If they are open and expansive I think that plays right into our hands. We've struggled against packed defences, but when sides have a go, like Malmo, Bucharest, Dundee in the cup and Ross County at the start of the season, we've done fine. There's no way Aberdeen are as good as Celtic or Lyon. I accept they are in good form, are picking up points and are clearly a better side than in recent seasons, but they're still Aberdeen. We need to bring our scoring boots, I'm hoping Dessers 45 mins on the bench has given him the kick in the arse he needed, he was much more effective in the second half yesterday than he's been in the previous half dozen games. Cerny and Bajrami seem to be settling too. We're a long way from where we need to be as a side, but I'm not feeling the trepidation some many of seem to be. Bring it on.

The victory was enjoyable, but more importantly was the performance and the reaction of most of the players. I'd heard it whispered that the players weren't playing for Clement but last night they clearly were. There was an urgency and energy about us last night that's been missing recently. That suggested to me that the players are still with the manager and were also unhappy with recent performances. That's important in the grand scheme of things. I'm far from convinced we've turned a corner or that we won't struggle to breakdown St Mirren on Sunday, but who knows.

I think in both. He broke into the first team during a difficult period for the club, but during the title winning 86/87 season he played 47 games and scored 8 goals, our 4th highest scorer that season. Not bad for a centre half who played right back for periods. Souness didn't fancy him, as seemed to be the case with most of the players he inherited, and sold him that summer to Hearts. Smith brought him back five years later and again he did everything that was asked of him. He was solid, brilliant in the air and faster than he got credit for on the ground. He was no Richard Gough, but he was underrated and under appreciated by most of us.

It still depresses me that so many still yearn for a sugar daddy to make everything good again. I do wonder just how many in our support would accept literally anyone in control of the club if it guaranteed we'd win the league and beat Celtic. It's always worth casting your mind back and remembering why you became a Rangers supporter. Was it simply because you expected us to win the league every season? Most seasons? I started 'supporting' Rangers at primary school, mainly because most of my pals, my dad and my big cousins did. It was a north Glasgow primary in the late 1970s, you'd the choice of Rangers or Partick Thistle, no other clubs were available. But the relationship was cemented in the 1980s, when I was old enough to go to games. Here's the thing, in the first half of the 1980s there wasn't a lot of winning going on. We weren't just behind Celtic, we were behind Aberdeen, Dundee Utd and even Hearts for a while. Don't get me wrong there were some good times, a couple of League Cups, a Tennents Sixes too (well it excited me at the time!), but mainly it was a struggle on the pitch. But then going to the football isn't just about the football, is it? It was meeting up with your mates, a common shared interest. It was the ritual of going to the game, lucky omens, lucky clothing, buses or trains, the programme, the pie, I was too young to drink but clearly that was important to many guys too. Then the game itself, the singing, the noise, the smell, the chance to share every emotion, publicly. Football and gigs were probably the only places you could be emotional without feeling stupid or being ridiculed. Winning was always great, a bit of magic from a player a bonus, and a defeat met with anger. Our club is going through the most turbulent period in it's long history since the late 1800s. We're not out of it yet, we're hopefully towards the end, but who actually knows. Football is a very different sport to the one I started watching, but the essence of supporting a club, the things that cemented that bond I don't think they've changed, although pricing of tickets and timing of games does make it harder. Our club is still perfectly capable of being stable and solvent as well as competitive, some stability would help that happen, I think.

Davie Macpherson - 276 appearances, 27 caps and never rated by anyone. He looked awkward but was actually really effective. Stuart Munro - from the same era, underrated fullback, played 179 times, wasn't signed from Italy or England and so was often overlooked by media, supporters and management.

'Get Bannon aff!'

It's not rank rotten, but it's not as good as 3 or 4 seasons ago, thats without doubt. Better Rangers sides than this one have been thumped at Parkhead. A star studded Rangers side who beat Celtic 5-1 in season 2000/01 lost 6-2 and 3-0 to them that season as well. I understand supporter's are angry and disappointed after a home defeat where we were second best all over the pitch, but surely some perspective is required? We are a club and a team going through transition. Only two players remain from the Europa League final run, one of them is a back up centre half and the other our much maligned right back and captain. That's huge change in a short time. For comparison the Celtic squad for that season contains 10 players who are still regular starters for them this season. We can pinpoint moments where things might have turned out differently. The huge one is failing to beat Malmo in Champion's League qualifying in 2021. Had we secured that money the squad could have been strengthened further, perhaps Gerrard wouldn't have been tempted away and our ability to match Celtic financially would have given a huge boost. Had we sold Morelos when he was one of the most exciting strikers in Europe, had we sold Kent when he was ripping holes in Bundesliga club defences for fun, had we sold Tav when he was one of the most effective attacking full backs in the Europa League... Decisions were made and we did none of those things. Our recruitment has suffered because of that. We're now a club that looks for potential talent in leagues or clubs a rung below us financially or in the reserves of clubs a rung or two above. We're not able to buy players in their prime now, not really good ones at least. We're a stepping stone for players hoping to make it to England or another league where the pay is much higher. Diomande, Jefte, Bajrami, Igamane and ever Barron will be hoping to develop and move within a couple of seasons. Guys like Cerny, Bajrami, Cortes, Nsiala we're the required 'step back' to move forward again. I'd say Propper is our only summer signing for who signing for a club like us is the final destination rather than than a stop on the way. That's a big change from under Gerrard and even from under Beale, who was indulged to an extent that we signed Danilo (over £5 million), Dessers (over £3 million), Lammers (£3.5 million) and even Cifuentes at £1.2 million. We must all surely realise that kind of spending on that type of player isn't going to happen again? I think it's going to be a rough season. We'll take some beatings at times, maybe even domestically. But I think we'll give some out too. Some of our signings look shrewd. Diomande, Jefte and Bajrami have ben early successes I'd say, Barron has shown enough to suggest he can become an important player and the fleeting glances of Cortes and Kasanwirjo suggest similar. Time is rarely given to Rangers managers and already some feel time is up for Clement. Yet time is what we need to give someone, Clement or whoever. This season still has some twists and turns ahead but if we're to build something we'll need to show patience and support. Again, not something we've always been good at. The only way we can compete financially, even with Celtic far less Lyon, is to develop players and sell them for a profit. That requires buying ones that aren't the finished article and trying to make them better. That's what we're doing this season and I don't see what other choice we have. I don't think it's Clement's fault that our squad isn't as good as it was 25 months ago, he can only play the hand he's been dealt. I've seen enough in some games to feel he does know what he's doing, but that it will take time and luck for that to to be fulfilled.

Obviously a lot of quite young supporters on here, like Compo, who might not realise that this is the third time Lyon have beaten us, fairly easily, at home. For us old timers this is something we've seen before, sometimes a European side turns up at Ibrox and is simply quicker, stronger and more skilful over the 90 minutes. Unless you're about 12 years old then this isn't the worst Rangers team you've seen. Last night, as against Celtic and as against Dynamo Kiev, our biggest problem remains our inability to convert our chances. Our team simply doesn't have enough goals in it. Lawrence is contributing now, Dessers will score some, but the rest of our team simply aren't. The goals have dried up from Tav, our centre halves aren't much of a threat from set pieces and our other midfield and attacking players simply don't score often enough. Lyon had goals right across their forward line. I don't think there is much we can do about that. We have the squad we have until January at least. Unless someone suddenly emerges that's going to be an ongoing problem. I suspect even if Cerny or Tav had scored early on. and they both should have, we might still have lost, but goals change games, they lift the crowd and force the opposition to change how they play. So who knows. This is a Rangers side in transition. Diomande, Bajrami and of course Butland looked decent last night, others found the pace, power and skill of Lyon to much. Anyone who thinks changing manager, again, in the autumn is he answer is very wrong, in my opinion.

Yes, but he's a bit of an invisible man.

I've no idea the veracity of any of these claims, but picking a public fight with the council's planning department sounds like a perfect example of winning a battle but losing the war. Having a good working relationship with the council, no matter how difficult that might be at times, is definitely in the club's interests. Anyway, we're back at Ibrox again, in the grand scheme of things the delay was annoying but temporary. Hopefully the board can address some of the other issues facing us now.

I feel it's the inevitable direction of travel and will only be exacerbated by the new Champion's League money creating further unbalance in domestic leagues. Celtic will earn more money this season from the Champion's League than the combined turnover of half the clubs in the SPFL. That's not sustainable and it's happening in leagues across the continent now. We've seen it in pretty much every other professional sport, how long it will take to happen in football is the question.

Ironically they are furthest along in the planning stage of this. There's already a 'Balkans' basketball league featuring teams from Serbia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Bosnia and, strangely, Dubai. Basketball is very popular in those countries, it's not the quasi-American happy clapper thing we have. Clubs like Red Star, Partizan and Hadjuk Split have basketball teams and their Ultras attend the matches. Despite the obvious regional tensions it seems to function well and at a high standard. The football clubs in those countries have spoken about trying to replicate this type of set up. Basically trying to recreate the league they had when it was all Yugoslavia. What stage it's at just now I don't know, it had some momentum before covid but I've not heard much about it recently.

I think UEFA might be more open to leagues amalgamating now as long as they remain under UEFA's auspices. If the Scots, Dutch, Belgians, Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Austrians, Portuguese, Serbs, Bosnians and Croats all came together and said we want to change our domestic league set ups it would be difficult for UEFA to ignore a block that size. UEFA got a fright when the Super League thing was launched and they've made concessions to the big clubs and big leagues now to keep them onside. I can't see why UEFA would object to a Scandinavian League being created, for example, that still had promotion and relegation from the various countries involved. The creation of 'new' domestic leagues that might challenge the dominance of the EPL and La Liga might actually be welcomed by UEFA. The various domestic associations would need to be in full agreement too, that might be an issue.

Hah, yeah fair point. Officially then.

Hearts are a great example of a well funded, well run football club. Why investment from someone with no feel or care for the club is being welcomed is beyond me. There's a bigger question regarding what kind of club we want. It seems some would welcome us becoming part of a larger 'football organisation', owned by an American hedge fund or Arab state investment arm. Rangers would simply become a stepping stone club, somewhere to 'park assets' in the hope one day they'll be good enough to play for Wolves or Al-Ittihad. Fuck that. If that's the future for Rangers I'm not sure I want any part of it. I'd argue we were a decent centre forward away from winning the league last season. Certainly the margins were small. This season we've started poorly, but it's early days. Of course panic has set in, that's what we do as a support, but the season is long and it's got twists and turns to come. It's far too early to judge anything yet. On the B team in the Lowland League, the standard is simply not good enough. The idea was interesting, but the reality is different. We've 3 young players starting regularly for us currently. One played 59 games for Aberdeen, one 96 games in the Danish top flight and one 31 games in the Cypriot top flight. That's the level we need our B team players at if they've got any chance of progressing to our first team. We'd be far better off finding clubs we can loan our younger prospects out too. Or even do deals where they literally join a club with a guaranteed buy-back in place. Young players make mistakes, lose concentration and can be dominated by experienced players. All this talk of a player trading model overlooks the fact that a sizeable percentage of our support will rise with fury at a series of misplaced passes far less a run of games where someone is trying to play their way back into form.