JohnMc

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.

I watched Mayo for Dunfermline a couple of times last season and he didn't look like he was close to being ready for us. I think the fact he went out on loan in the Championship again tells us what our coaches think his level is currently. I suspect Leon King, Lewis Mackinnon or Kyle Mclelland are now more likely to step up. A lot is expected of King but I've not been convinced when I've watched him. He's one of those boys who was built like a grown man while still in his mid-teens and I felt that helped him dominate at age group football. It'll be interesting to see if he can make the next step.

We're being naive if we think Aston Villa aren't an attractive club for anyone raised in England. They genuinely are the proverbial sleeping giant. They've a big support, based in the second largest city in the country, and a decent history to match. They might have been a yo-yo side in recent times but I'm old enough to remember when Man City and Chelsea were too. Aston Villa have ambitious billionaire owners, a decent squad and money in the bank from the sale of Grealish. On top of that Birmingham is only a couple of hours drive from Liverpool, Gerrard could be home with his family every night. I suspect Gerrard knows that unless he can turn Rangers into perennial Champion's League participants his managerial pedigree isn't good enough for the Liverpool job currently. But, take a side like Aston Villa back into Europe, have them playing exciting football, maybe win a cup, and he's very much in the frame. Remember Klopp had won the Bundesliga and reached the Champion's League final before he was considered for Liverpool. We've not spoken a lot about our recent financial report and what that might mean for the club. Gerrard and his coaching staff are ambitious and our failure to beat Malmo was a huge blow to the club. If we don't win the league this season we might have a problem, we can't keep losing those kind of sums. Having crowds back is a huge help, but we can only balance the books by qualifying for the Champion's League or by selling someone for decent money. Gerrard and his coaching team might feel they've taken us as far as they can with the players we have. Hopefully that's not the case and he does fancy a crack at winning the SPFL and then straight into the Champion's League next season.

This is a great thread, thanks for all the posts 26th. Message boards can be combative and unpleasant at times, I'm as much to blame for that as anyone. This type of thread is what the internet was made for; warm, intelligent, informative and original. Hat tipped.

For what it's worth it's not been as bad as predicted, yet. Most of the closures are on the north side of the river and affecting Partick and Finnieston areas. I'm told getting to parts of Govan, specifically near the Clyde by the BBC, Science Centre area is a challenge as well. If you're travelling along the M8 or M74 then stay on until Ibrox or Govan don't try and come off early would be my advice. I think the best advice though is to try and park in the city centre, St Georges Cross or Cowcaddens area, there's a few multi story car parks near Cowcaddens, and jump on the Subway. It's driech morning in Glasgow and the traffic is very slow, if it's similar tomorrow night it could be grid lock.

Right, well as fun and enlightening as this thread has been I think I'm going to leave you to it, there's really not much more to say. You will require a Covid passport for this Sunday's match, I'm not sure of that's Bill Gates, a secret cabal of Jews or Nicola Sturgeon's doing. It is kinda funny now though. - https://www.rangers.co.uk/Article/supporter-update-29-09-21/3eSwxvlwMD20cDeixDQZoU AHEAD of Sunday’s Scottish Premiership match against Hibernian, we once again highlight the introduction of vaccine certificate checks across Scotland. Sunday’s game is a “test event” and thus, we are required by law, to carry out the same procedures as when the “grace period” is over. For the avoidance of doubt, following legislation introduced by the Scottish Government, everyone attending matches at Ibrox Stadium must be fully vaccinated and everyone must bring proof of this status with you to the match, unless exempt.

Just to be clear, are you claiming being double vaccinated doesn't reduce a person's chances of contracting Covid?

This subject genuinely seems to have tipped some people over the edge, it's remarkable. Sharing medical information with stewards? Do you think they're going to memorise what they saw and sell it to big pharma or maybe just nod and let you past? I mean the club already has your name, address and bank or credit card information, plus it's probably following you all round the internet with the cookie you accepted to visit the Rangers website and that already tracks your phone use so they know already your deep, dark web secrets. But aye, a bored steward on zero hours contract and minimum wage glancing at your covid form is what we should all be focussing on, that's the deep state made incarnate. I look forward to some roaster doing his Laurence Fox wannabe act and shouting angrily about freedom and Orwell at some poor student in a hi-vis jacket nursing a hangover on Sundany when he's stopped and asked for his Covid form. Nothing surer than he's planning it right now.

Great stuff 26th, looking forward to reading this during the season ahead.

Apologies, Blue Moon. You're right about it being a shambles, which is why I think they'll withdraw it before it needs enforced. Whether it'll encourage anyone unvaccinated to get the vaccine is the bit I remain unsure about. A version of this was unpopular but fairly successful in France over the summer. The fact they've had to withdraw their main vaccine encouragement advertisement recently too won't help either. It's a mess.

None Christine, that's not what this is about. It's about 'encouraging' those still unvaccinated, particularly young people, to get vaccinated. I suspect the hope is there's a surge in the coming weeks of people getting vaccinated and they can then drop this entirely. It will be unpopular and difficult to enforce but then it was never actually about that anyway.

Sacrifice your privacy? Most of the population walk about with tracking devices in their pockets and freely share the most intimate information about themselves, willingly, with colossal American tech companies and advertisers everyday. But yeah, I can see why after 18 months of limitations on our movement and 1000's of deaths letting Rangers know if you've had the vaccine aimed at pulling us out of this hell is your biggest concern right now. They already have your address, your credit history and your bank details, if they wanted to destroy you they can do it already. I don't need to ask myself anything. The NHS was close to being overwhelmed every winter before Covid, if even 0.5% of those not vaccinated end up needing hospitalisation the NHS would be unable to cope. There are literally thousands of people waiting for NHS treatment for non-Covid related issues currently, some of those people will die before they get it. That's before we even attempt to calculate the financial and social cost of the last 18 months. Everyone of us should be doing what we can to reduce the incidence and severity of Covid. Currently, the vast majority of professionals in the field of medicine say getting vaccinated is the best way out of this. You may disagree with them, fair enough. I'm not sure what your bacterial and immunology qualifications are, but until you're recognised for the expertise in this field you seem to think you have then the rest of us can continue to ignore you and instead listen to those who have spent their entire lives preparing for this. I'm old enough to remember when some people were furious that the government were insisting that motor-cyclists wear helmets. This was an invasion of their privacy, the Government had no right to tell some what they can and can't wear was the argument then. Likewise similar arguments were aired by enraged civil-libertarians when seat belt wearing was made compulsory in cars too. The government has no right to involve themselves in people's lives like that, apparently. Bull shit. We don't live in a bubble, our actions have consequences and ripples that might be unintentional but they are real and long lasting all the same. If you are involved in a motorcycle accident while not wearing a helmet you are, on average, 42% more likely to die and 69% more likely to suffer a serious brain injury. Aside from the immediate trauma of the people who first arrive at the scene of the accident, there's the police and ambulance crew who'll spend hours of their time attending to you, the many, many specialist hospital staff who'll try and save your life and then slowly try and rebuild it, perhaps months of physio and rehabilitation and maybe ongoing costs if you're unable to return to work or even live it at home again. Plus there's your immediate family, friends, neighbours and colleagues who will have to deal with the fall out of your actions. Catching Covid is not without consequences. It's not just you it affects. Get over yourself, you're not actually that important in the grand scheme of things. The sooner we are able to emerge from this and return to life as we knew it the better. If that means showing Pizza Express a slip of paper when I make booking or having to deal with possibly the worst ticket office in the Scottish football then so be it. It's a small price to pay.