JohnMc

They finished fifth, a point off Champion's League qualification, so I could see the attraction for players. Berlin's probably the biggest city in Europe to consistently underperform in European football.

I think that 'Goal' account is a parody, I think it's a bluenose at the wind up. Funny all the same.

It's ridiculous to only pick one, the effort from everyone was extraordinary and it's not just emotion to say every single player made a significant contribution. If I have to pick one I'm going for Tav. Not only for his goal, but for his leadership, his overall performance was superb and also because his journey is Boys Own stuff. On top of all that he was our best player last night.

There have been a number of occasions in my time supporting Rangers when everything changed. I remember sitting in a Naafi outside Belfast watching Rangers play Shelbourne in a Euro Qualifier in one of Advocaats first matches, Smith's 9 in a row team had broken up in the summer and I think I recognised about 2 Rangers players that night, it really felt like the end of one era and the beginning of another. Likewise when we played our first matches in Division 3, McCoist, McDowell and Durrant remained familiar faces but a lot of the team were new and the feeling of complete uncertainty that had enveloped the club for months remained. A few years later I was watching Warburton's first competitive match against Hibs, we were following it on an iPad while travelling to a wedding. Once again most of the players were unfamiliar, so was the manager, it was another changing of the guard so to speak, a break with the past and a new era beginning. Throughout all that one man remained constant, a familiar face in the background, a reassuring presence for supporters who are far from the boardroom or the dressing room. Despite his low profile it was clear Jimmy Bell was someone players, coaches and managers gravitated too. You'd see him in the background of Rangers News photoshoots from some sun-drenched preseason training camp. You'd see him coming off the coach on Sky Sports as the camera searched for a big name player, these days you'd see him in the background as the club posted pictures from the training ground or travelling to a match. Despite what so many people think football clubs aren't businesses in the normal sense. The hint is in the word club. Rangers epitomise this as much as any. We've had turbulence in recent years, some amazing highs and terrible lows, yet we remain. A club greater than the sum of its parts. As supporters we celebrate the ephemeral, the transient player who thrills for a few season, the great performance that brightens us for a few months, the trophies we celebrate until the next one starts. But I think that as supporters it's really the long term recognition we cling too. The things that don't change like the marble staircase, the blue jerseys, the St Etienne bike; things we value way above their actual value. Jimmy Bell was one of those. His presence reassured us that everything would be okay, whilst everything on the surface had changed below the surface everything was the same. We've really needed that reassurance at times. I never met Jimmy Bell, I never spoke to him. Yet he was as familiar to me as any player or manager. He played an important role, far more important than managing the kit or driving the coach, he represented us in the club. Today is a sad day in the history of our club.

Right, so this is last week's man of the match! Couldn't figure out why someone had voted for Arfield. Wondered if Van Vossen had joined Gersnet...

I think you're probably right, but sometimes events can overtake people. Circumstances outside his control might force King down a particular path, ill health might become an issue, perhaps his children or his wife might feel differently about the shares should they come into their possession. Plus, sometimes people hear what they want to hear, 'I was duped' springs to mind. I suspect David Murray would rather his legacy was 9 in a row and Auchenhowie rather than crippling debt and Craig Whyte. Knowing when and how to leave the stage isn't always in our own gift, no matter what we might have planned.

I don't have a huge issue with them buying King's shares. I understand the argument that the money would be better going into the club, and in a perfect world that would be ideal. However, if Club 1872 don't buy King's shares I worry about who does. Assuming our major shareholders and current directors haven't expressed an interest in buying them then, for me, Club 1872 is a better option than some of the alternatives. From a business perspective if we want people with resources and business acumen to get involved in the club it would be an easier 'sell' if there's a clear exit strategy too. Club 1872 or something similar strikes me as a decent one. The thought of a decent chunk of the club falling into the hands of someone like Mike Ashley or Charles Green again is a bigger concern for me than Club 1872, for all its faults. The antagonism that seems to exist between Club 1872 and some of the current board isn't helpful, it pushes us to take sides. Fixing that would be in everyone's best interests. Easier said than done I accept. If, as a support, we expect our shareholders to simply write off a lot the value of their shares rather than expect to at least recoup what they paid for them, then I worry that will discourage a fair number of people from investing in Rangers. Even the wealthiest of supporter must baulk at potentially losing millions of pounds.

There was a tactical battle last night. We started strongly and were able to get Kent in particular running at them and causing them problems. They changed formation and stopped Kent, Bassey and Tav from getting forward and isolated Sakala. We then changed formation dropping Lundstrom back allowing Borna and in particular Tav to get forward. As soon as Tav was playing in their half we started to cause them problems again. It was a frustrating evening as it feels like Braga are beatable, they're technically good and have some excellent movement and passing as you'd expect but we've played better sides this season. Everyone can see we're missing Morelos, Sakala can't play that role and I don't think Roofe can either. How we adapt the side to deal with his absence will be season defining. We're still in the tie, hopefully we can find goals from someone as that's what this side is missing.

I don't think so, but let's be clear, I don't know any inside info, that's just my amateur opinion. Alegria can't get in the Thistle side currently, and i've not been impressed when I've seen him play. I don't think Weston is ready to step up to our level, if he ever will be. McCann might be, but I think a loan move is more likely.

Yes, I'm feeling more optimistic than most, I don't think there's much between the sides. We'll need to see where the squad is come August but I disagree that we needed wholesale changes. I also think there's a plan, the club know certain players are out of contract in the summer, this isn't a surprise, likewise others are entering their final year. Discussions around this will have taken place, the club must know who is open to renewing and who isn't, they'll know who they'd like to sign as replacements as well. Next season will be a strange one. The World Cup will be a big interruption coming mid-season and players who go to it will inevitably return jaded. We won't have many going as things stand, even if Scotland qualify it's still only likely to be a handful of players at most. Let's see how we react to this defeat, that will tell us a lot about this squad as well. There's still a lot to play for this season.

I get there's always a knee-jerk reaction after a disappointing defeat like Sunday's, but the level of pessimism surprises me. Had Morelos been fit I don't think we'd have lost on Sunday, his ability to hold up the ball, occupy centre-backs and operate as fulcrum for the team can't be underestimated. If we had an alternative to him, someone who could also play with their back to goal, bring midfielders in and win free kicks in their half it's a different match. So we're one player away from matching them. Plus Celtic have 3 important players in the their squad who are on loan, Jota, Carter-Vickers and Meada, there's no guarantee that at least 2 of them will still be their next season. We don't require wholesale changes, we do need strengthened and I expect we'll lose at least a couple of key players in the summer. We should be able to sign a centre-half who is as good as Goldson surely. I don't know if Soutar is that player, but presumably our scouts and manager do. In Robbie Fraser we already have a deputy left back, I'd be very surprised if he doesn't step up from the B team in summer, he's had a great season for the Bs. I expect Leon King and Lowry will also become first team squad members next season, of the crop currently out on loan I expect Katic and maybe Ben Williamson will join them in the squad, I can't see any of the others making it at Rangers though. Celtic will have access to Champion's League money, a huge bonus for them, but there's no guarantees they'll spend it wisely, they haven't in the past. Plus their squad will lose players in the summer or else they'll have to spend big simply to keep it as it is. They've spent millions to get a wee bit in front of us, let's see what the next few months bring. Financially we're in a slightly better place than we were last season with the Paterson money and the Europa run. Plus, I've not given up on this season yet, there's still football to be played.

In 1909, when supporter’s of Rangers and Celtic suspected the clubs were colluding with each other to increase their revenue, both sets of fans nearly completely destroyed Hampden in response. That was following the replay of the Scottish Cup Final, which like the final also ended in a draw. There had been suspicions for a while both club’s directors were more interested in making money than listening to the support and replays were lucrative. In that instance the fans destroyed parts of the terraces, pulled down the goal posts, dug up large parts of the turf and set fire to the ticket boxes and turnstyles before mounted police were able to restore order. History doesn’t record if any tennis balls were thrown onto the park though. There was no second replay, the cup was declared void that season. Other than heavy fines for both clubs and much indignation from the media life pretty much carried on as normal afterwards. Following this match the term ‘Old Firm’ was popularised. The belief that both club’s directors were making decisions that were of mutual benefit while maintaining a pretence of extreme rivalry. In my experience boards of all businesses make poor decisions. For successful, well run companies these decisions are rare and when a poor one is made they’re recognised and remedied. Poorly run companies make more bad decisions than good ones and that usually results in their demise, sooner or later. But even the best run make bad decisions from time to time. Time will tell if the Sydney Cup turns out to be a bad decision or simply an unpopular one, the two aren’t always the same. There are some intelligent, successful people on our board. That doesn’t mean they won’t make bad decisions, it’s how frequently they make them we should be looking at. I suspect we can’t afford to pull out of this Sydney match as things stand, so the board will need to thole it for now. If we win the league and are guaranteed a Champion’s League windfall we might decide we can afford to take the hit. If we don’t I suspect this type of match will become a common occurrence each season. As others have said Bisgrove is simply doing his job, there’s no way senior people at the club didn’t know this would be unpopular with at least some of the support. In the end they know we’re unlikely to try and destroy Hampden, or Ibrox for that matter, and we’ll keep turning up, buying strips and TV subscriptions.

I notice a fellow pod contributor in that. It looks great, look forward to seeing it.

I've not seen this mentioned anywhere but we played Dynamo Kiev in a friendly in 1990. Europe was going through seismic change, the Berlin Wall had fallen the previous year, Poland and Hungary had broken free from Communist dictators and the entire map of Europe was about to change as the Soviet Union was beginning to dissolve, events we're still feeling the consequences of today. For many of us at that time Dynamo Kiev were a 'Russian' side. Many people used the term Russia and Soviet Union interchangeably. Despite some of the great Soviet sides not actually being Russian, (Dynamo Kiev, Dynamo Tbilisi and Dynamo Minsk) there was a lazy shorthand in the West that Russia and the Soviet Union were the same thing. I grew up knowing a few Scottish Communists, I knew a guy who used to go to Moscow every year for the May Day parade and sent postcards home to everyone he knew. But he never explained the geography or ethnic breakdown to me, they were all comrades in his eyes. It's funny looking back. We'd played Dynamo Kiev in a memorable European Cup match in 1987, for many who were there it was one of Rangers greatest evenings. Dynamo Kiev were one of the best club sides in the world. European Cup winners in 86, semi finalists the following season they were rightly strong favourites. If you listen to Archie MacPherson's commentary of that match he describes Kiev as 'Russian', something most of us thought at the time. Anyway, that match has been written about a lot and is well documented. So I guess we'd made a connection with the club and somehow this led to a friendly being arranged that summer. Again this was unusual as Soviet teams rarely took part in friendlies in 'the West'. But then Europe was changing and Dynamo Kiev, having had successful runs in European competition were better placed than most to benefit from them. Anyway, the reason I thought of this match was it was the first time I remember reading about Ukraine being a separate nation from Russia. I had heard the name Ukraine from school history classes, but I'd never thought of it as a country in its own right. Dynamo Kiev had an iconic strip, that wonderful stylised capital D on white shirts and navy shorts, however on that day Rangers presented Dynamo with a new strip, it was a yellow top with blue shorts, the symbolism of which was largely lost on me then but is quite important today. Ukraine hadn't yet become a separate nation, but was clearly taking steps towards it and as arguably their most visible symbol Dynamo Kiev were nailing their colours to the mast. For all intents and purposes Dynamo Kiev were the Ukraine national side, they were certainly the best side in the country and many of their players were already Soviet internationals. I wonder if it was Rangers idea to give them the strips, or if someone from Dynamo Kiev initiated it. Dynamo wore them for a couple of seasons as Ukraine established itself as a nation, then they reverted back to their traditional colours. Dynamo Kiev have a fascinating history, truly remarkable. Dutch writer, Simon Kuper, wrote an extraordinary chapter on them in his book 'Football Against the Enemy' (a book with a chapter on Rangers too) and Andy Dougan, who wrote for the Evening Times for many years, wrote about Dynamo Kiev during WW2, again an astonishing story. As for Miko, he split our support. I remember someone telling me that John Grieg was announcing the sides to a corporate box at Ibrox one day and when he came to Mikhailichenko's name in the starting 11 he muttered "it canny be raining then', I don't think he was Grieg's type of player! Whatever lack of fight he might have demonstrated on the pitch he's clearly got no shortage of courage when it really matters. Good luck Alexei.

Both Diallo and Ramsay might still come good, certainly a fit Ramsay would bring something to the side, even if he was only available for our final 6 matches that might be enough. I doubt we'd have signed both without GvB giving his approval albeit they might not have been his first choices. I've seen us lose 3-0 at Fir Park to a mid-table Motherwell and nearly blow the title completely. Souness hadn't long left and it looked like his assistant, Walter Smith, might not be up to the job. It went to the final day, we had to win against Aberdeen, they just needed a draw to be Champions. The rest is history. It's going to be a nervy season finale, but sometimes they're the most memorable.

I'm not literally suggesting they're 'world beaters' I simply mean I don't think they're as good as some of their support think and we're not as bad as some of ours think. There's only 3 points in it, despite our poor form since the turn of the year. If we can fix that form, and it's a big if I accept, then the league title is ours. I've seen us win titles before despite having dropped points to sides we should have beaten, last season was exceptional, this one is closer to what most title wins have been like.

The jury is always out, that's the nature of football management, particularly if you're the Rangers manager. You're only a run of bad results away from criticism and questions, they know this when they take the job. GvB inherited a squad that had hit some wonderful heights last season but was stuttering this season. Our recruitment in the summer hasn't really strengthened us. Sakala reminds me of Lovenkrands, great when he's got space to run into, but he won't contribute a lot against 10 men defences sitting deep. Lundstrom has looked better recently but has taken 6 months to find his form and position. Scott Wright is a bit part player at best and Jack Simpson doesn't seem to have won the confidence of Gerrard or GvB, I expect he'll be back in The Championship in the summer. The least said about the signing of Ofoborh the better. Added to Goldson, Arfield, Balogun, Davis and McGregor all in the final months of their contracts, all senior pros at the club and I expect the guys who 'run' the dressing room and you could see a less that ideal atmosphere to inherit. In January our squad was weakened. Patterson, despite not making any impact at Everton, was an exceptional talent. Ramsay is clearly struggling with injury and is using us as an attempt to get fit, Dialo is a young player who has tricks but little heart or desire from what i've seen. The young Polish lad might prove an astute buy, time will tell. Add that to Aribo having to go to Africa and come back half the player who left. None of this is GvB's doing. GvB got our tactics so wrong against Celtic it's still painful to speak about it. But he got them so right against Prague and Dortmund. The lack of rotation and subs in recent games has puzzled. I feel that's connected to fitness or illness, I mean it's not like the Dutch don't understand how subs work. I can't help but feel there's more to this than we know. Likewise not starting Balogun, I assume he's not fit enough for two games a week and the management team thought we'd be able to beat St Johnstone without him but not Red Star. I'm guessing, but nothing else makes sense to me. Some players have improved under GvB, some have done the opposite. Barasic looks like a shadow of himself, Kamara has lost his spark, Roofe isn't trusted, McGregor is suddenly a weakness. Yet Morelos looks reborn, Sakala started to show something and Bassey is now a first choice starter and Tav looks like he's risen to the challenge. Gerrard was always going to be a hard man to replace. Gerrard brought exciting, entertaining football back after a period of ineptitude and ridicule. His presence and charisma, his media savvy and his instinctive understanding of the club and the support were enormous assets for him and the club. Whoever we replaced him with was going to struggle to match that. GvB isn't charismatic, he's not got the profile of Gerrard despite a stellar playing career, he's a different type of manager as well. This league isn't won or lost yet. I've been bewildered by some of our performances and angered by some of our decisions recently. But, I still don't buy that our city rivals are the world beaters their support think they are, everything is still to play for, fine margins will tell in the end. I'm backing GvB. For now.

The purpose of these matches is to help us create top class players, not to win the competition. While winning is always nice and a good habit to form at a club like Rangers, our youth and B teams are there to develop players, not win trophies. Being exposed to sides like Sevilla should help our player's development, or at least some of them. I think the best we can hope for from the team that played yesterday is a couple of them are good enough to make an impact on our first team and maybe another two or three that aren't good enough for us might command a transfer to another Scottish or English side. The rest will be released and rebuild their careers at a different level. If say Lowry and King can push on and become first team regulars this crop will surely be viewed as a success.

Crowds might effect some players, others maybe not, but they definitely effect the referee and linesman. 60,000 howling at every 50/50 tackle or offside gives them an advantage, without a doubt.

While I baulk at paying Hearts any sort fee for a player out of contract in 5 months the big picture is winning the league this season and the access to the Champion's League money that brings. That money could stabilise the club, clear our debts and set us up for a decade if used correctly. We currently have no natural right back cover and our left back cover is playing at centre half. It seems Simpson isn't good enough, both Gerrard and now GVB have been reluctant to play him, Helander is injured and might be back soon or might not, Balagun is fit again but is also in the final months of his contract as is Goldson. If both remain, no matter how professional both are, would they play through the pain barrier for us, would they risk injury or take a chance with a niggle for us? An injury to Tav and to Bassey or Barasic will see us really stretched and playing either weans or someone out of position, that's far from ideal. Buying Souttar now might be the best bit of business our board ever make.

Between 2015 and 2018 Connor Goldson only made 32 appearances, a period that also saw him diagnosed with a serious heart defect. He's been almost ever-present since he joined us. There's no way our medical and coaching staff don't know all about Souttar's injuries and his recovery, or lack thereof, from them. I get the concern about Souttar but we either have faith in our medical team or we don't. Football is a small community and everyone talks to each other. I remember buying Oleg Kuznetzov, he'd been almost entirely injury free for 5 seasons, dominating the Soviet league and starring for the USSR national team. He did his cruciate in his second match for us. Every player is a gamble to some extent.

Rangers first priority should be the health of our supporters, players and staff, everything else should be secondary. Based on the available public health advice the game on Boxing Day shouldn't have a crowd at it. As has been pointed out by others the likelihood of these crowd reduction measures being reversed by mid-January seem slim, so for me whether we go into a winter break now or in early January as planned is fairly moot, we'll all be playing behind closed doors at some point I think. The argument that a delay to mid-January will benefit Celtic as it allows them more time to get players fit is fair, but with Balugun, Barasic, Davis and Roofe, all potential starters if fit, also in danger of missing out perhaps a delay might not be that bad for us either. The African Cup of Nations taking possibly 3 of our players away for nearly a month is a problem. Losing 3 players does mean we can legitimately ask for postponements of matches but that would really cause fixture chaos, particularly if our next 3 matches are postponed as well. The club is well within its rights to point that out. I suspect Rangers, and every other club in Scotland, will be looking to minimise the number of matches played with few or no spectators allowed in. A look at last year's accounts shows just how important having a full Ibrox is for the club's finances, and that applies to every club up here. There's no fat for us to fall back on, losing our biggest revenue stream, again, provides some significant challenges for our board. I can understand why bringing the winter break forward is appealing to many boardrooms, if it means there's a chance of fewer matches being played behind closed doors. Of course no one actually knows the answer to that. Politically these recent measures have been unpopular, and with populist governments in place in Edinburgh and Westminster, it maybe that opinion polls rather than health advice carry more weight around cabinet tables this time round. So maybe restrictions won't last as long as they did last year. Or maybe they will, no one knows for sure. (I'm not trying to make a political point or agree or disagree with Government and public health advice. So don't @ me, I don't care.) All we can expect of anyone in our boardroom, or any other club's, is to deal with what they know, not what they suspect. For now that means a loss of crowds and revenue for 3 matches. That being the case bringing the winter break forward and so moving those 3 matches to later in the season is the sensible thing to do, even for Rangers. As an aside, as none of us really know what will happen, it's worth remembering that Celtic are in the Vauxhall Conference Euro Cup. Despite everything that's a tournament they could reasonably expect to progress quite far in. It's not inconceivable that come March and April Celtic are still playing European matches while trying to fit in 5 postponed SPFL matches around a diminishing fixture calendar. I think our board should be looking to book a tour of Japan for this summer, just in case.

It was a horrible tackle to be fair, how he stayed on the park is beyond me.

I imagine it'll be Paterson we sell. Whatever we get for him will be all profit, it doesn't weaken the starting 11 and there seems to be genuine interest in him from clubs with money. Selling Paterson alone should put us into profit for this financial year and allow us to sign some players in January, albeit probably Bosmans.

Dropping Kent and Davis was fairly bold management, and it worked so credit for that. Also thought it was interesting he left Morelos on after he was booked and the game was won. I can't decide if GVB simply doesn't know his past and how he's refereed differently to others or if he simply has more faith in his professionalism than I do. That was a Dundee side in good form going into the match made to look very poor. I can't claim to be a master tactician but even I can spot the difference in what's expected from our full backs since GVB took control. So much of our attacking play under Gerrard came from our full-backs, they were often our furthest forward players. I felt other clubs were starting to nullify that threat more, they'd figured out how to play us. The last couple of matches has seen a subtle change there, with Tav and Barasic still venturing forward but not all the time and as an addition to the attack, not its mainstay. So far it's worked, I think both Livi and Dundee would have caused us more problems had Gerrard still been in charge, we were huffing and puffing against those types of sides earlier in the season. Interestingly I think Barasic has benefited from this change, but Tav seems more subdued. Everyone played well but I thought Arfield was man of the match. I felt he worked exceptionally hard and his running and attacking created space for others to exploit. That said another 3 or 4 were also excellent so I've no complaints with Aribo winning the official award. A 1-0 win for Dundee Utd today would see us go level on goal difference with the team in second place, it seems only a few weeks ago they were miles ahead on that measurement. Overall you have to give enormous credit to the board and Ross Wilson as well as to Gio and his staff and indeed the players, for the almost seamless transition of management team. I'm not sure all of us fully appreciate how seismic our entire first team management team walking out on mass must have been.