JohnMc

When Morelos shot for his goal there were 8 players in the Porto box, 7 of them were Porto players. Put me in the Goldson for MOTM camp, thought he was immense last night and marshalled our defence during a prolonged period of Porto pressure. Morelos will rightly take the headlines though. Barasic actually did well after his (very soft) booking. To play for 60 or so minutes on a yellow and not put a foot wrong is worthy of mention for a full back. Porto are a smart, professional outfit, who probably should have turned their greater possession and dangerous movement into a goal or two in the 1st half. I thought the injury to Pepe was the turning point in the match, they changed their shape and we started to control the match from that point on. Football is about taking chances though, and both our goals were hardly even chances, Morelos had no right to score from that position, it was a sublime touch and finish. To be competing at this level again, consistently, is just the best feeling.

Brilliant work and fascinating insight as ever. Well done.

I meant to post this a week or so ago. Following Dundee Utd announcing a significant financial loss recently, a loss that was underlined by a salary to turnover ratio of 133%, the evening Sportsound featured Jim Spence, Allan Preston and Chick Young. Jim Spence is a well known professional Dundonian, a man of the people, recognised as the senior legal opinion for most of Tayside and someone who cares greatly about sporting integrity. For the younger readers sporting integrity is something that was all the rage earlier in this decade. Anyway, I expected a full evisceration of Dundee Utd from Lord Spence, someone as concerned with financial probity as him would be ripping then a new one as they say in the High Court. Well, you can imagine my surprise when in fact it turned out that dear old Jim was in fact something of an apologist for Dundee Utd's reckless absentee owners. Apparently they've got deep pockets, have fallen in love with Dundee Utd (I know, I know) and see them as a long term investment. Indeed apparently their business plan will see them making money in the mid to long term. Incredibly this clear case of "financial doping" doesn't require criticism, simply explanation. It's a project, there's nothing untoward going on and everything will be fine. Allan Preston, a football agent who relies on working with clubs for his living, also saw nothing to worry about or question. It was left to an incredulous Chick Young, for possibly the first time in his life, to express what everyone else listening was thinking, namely WHAT THE FUCK??!! Yes, BBC Sportsound that evening made Chick Young sound measured, qualified and sensible. Who says it's not worth the licence fee. PS For some reason no Dundee supporters were invited on to give their opinion on Dundee Utd's problems. Again, a break with precedent surely.

Good stuff Bluedell, many thanks.

I expected a loss but I expected a much reduced one. So I was surprised at the size of the loss and the need for more investment on top of it, I don't mind admitting. You make a very valid point about the need to grow and to do that there's a requirement for investment and I accept that, as far as we know, all the investors are happy to see that investment turned into shares. We're very lucky. As I said earlier in the thread I'd be interested in knowing what the mid-term plan is, how will the current Directors exit. I'm not panicking, but I'm a little nervous.

My biggest concern Gaffer is there has in fact been very little focus on the board and accounts. This thread had around 4 replies until yesterday. We live in strange times, without making any political points there is a genuine chance that this country could look very different this time next year. Between Brexit and serious calls for another independence vote there is instability and uncertainty as well as financial volatility. Not the time you want to be depending on the largesse of individuals who, I assume, have their money tied up in investments, property and so on. Selling a player isn't without consequence. If we lose Morelos, undoubtedly our most sellable player, he needs replaced and that will cost money. Also, these figures remind all the buying clubs that we need the money, never the best place to be in negotiations. Morelos aside who is going to raise serious cash? Jack should walk into most English Championship sides and if he can maintain his form Barasic could prove valuable, Goldson, Katic, Helander, Tav and Kamara I suspect would too. But in reality are any of them going to leave for in excess of £10 million? I'm not convinced. Our squad players aren't going to raise much, no one is spending a lot to take Grezda, Murphy, Flanagan, Polster, McCrorie, Docherty, Foderingham or Halliday from us. I found the results a lot more troubling than you. Perhaps that's because of our recent history, perhaps I'm just naturally more pessimistic and cautious.

I'd never heard of that guy until yesterday and clearly he isn't someone to take seriously on matters Rangers. However nature abhors a vacuum and, 4 Lads aside, I didn't see much written about our results by our supporters. If we've learned anything in the last few years it's that Tims enjoy nothing more than writing about Rangers. JFK-1up the thread has possibly summed up how too many of our support feel and that apathy has the potential to ruin us, again. That's probably my biggest concern.

Agreed BD. Can you imagine the nightmare we'd face if UEFA decided to impose a transfer ban on us. That said this type of thing has always gone on, 'tapping up' and gentleman's agreements are as old as the professional game. Sam English told how Bill Struth made payments to him through a foreman at John Brown shipyard when he was still a Yoker player so he wouldn't sign for anyone else. This feels like a modern version of that.

Have to say I expected there to be more chat about this thread. While I accept the board have the club's best interests at heart and are very different from past boards an £11 million pound loss is somewhat worrying. Without wishing to sound morbid what happens to Rangers if something happens to Dave King? King is in his mid 60s, that's not 'old' by today's standards, but it's not young either. I'm grateful for the money the directors have put in and continue to invest, but that's surely not sustainable for much longer. I'd like to know what the plan is for the short to medium term though. I assume it's 'sell players', which is fair enough but has proved harder than it sounds so far. I'd be very concerned if our plan for profitability is based on qualifying for the Champion's League. I'd also be interested to hear the current board's exit plan. What's the long term plan for the club? An open share issue? Private sale of shares to other high-wealth individuals? New investors? While we're all enjoying having a high profile manager again and playing some decent football while challenging properly for honours I'm nervous about what's next. What happens if we don't win the league this season, do we twist and gamble again next year or sell our best player(s) and balance the books? We all want to stop Celtic winning 10 in a row, but we also want a club for the long term.

Gregor Stevens? He played 89 times for Rangers, how can he be a dud? I'm also not sure who he was keeping out of the side that was better than him. Stevens was an absolute gentleman off the pitch, a bit more combative on it mind.

Ian Durrant Brian Laudrup Souness Graham Roberts Barry Ferguson But as has been said above that could change tomorrow. Well, except for Laudrup and Durrant, they're on forever.

I think Rudden was injured and missed much of pre-season training. He's been getting a starting place recently though. McPake has just turned 18 and playing his first ever season of first team football. He'll be getting some fairly rough treatment in that division I suspect so he'll need to learn to adapt. As supporters we love to see a player beat a man, but sometimes keeping possession, holding the ball up or making a short pass is the professional thing to do, McPake will be learning that this season. This is where so many promising young players at Rangers have stumbled, that step up from youth star to first team regular is a huge jump. I fully support sending these lads out to learn their trade and make their mistakes. As for McCrorie he needs to figure out what position he plays. He's not currently strong enough for centre half or tactically aware enough for holding midfield. Awareness can be learned and strength developed.

Surely the target this season is winning the league? I mean that's always the target but this season it feels like a realistic ambition. So while I agree there's no need to panic after yesterday it's still very, very frustrating that we dropped points to a Hearts side low on confidence and really struggling for form. We'll drop more points this season, that's inevitable, but yesterday's performance deserves criticism I feel. Had we been peppering their goal, missing chances and simply been unable to stick one of our chances away then we could shrug our shoulders and move on safely knowing it was just 'one of those games', however that's not what happened. We were poor yesterday, lacking creativity, lacking direction, lacking composure and being too easily knocked off our game by a physical approach from Hearts. I personally don't feel we can compare ourselves to five years ago anymore. We've rebuilt, we've had a full season under Gerrard, now is time for this side to step up and play. Rangers sides that don't win matches they should win will always be criticised.

Put bluntly Glasgow Council are bust, the equal pay issue has forced them to 'sell' or 'lease' almost all the physical assets they have to either raise or save money. From a number of perspectives this makes sense. It removes future costs from the council and provides an asset for the club and its ambitions. If it also signals a better relationship with our council too, then so much the better.

While I agree he's far from the finished article and his contribution looks negligible at times the only league match we've lost this season he didn't start, we've won every other match and at times are playing fantastic football. Perhaps his contribution is more tactical than someone like me can see.

From one angle the Morelos penalty looks soft, but from every other angle and from the Aberdeen player's reaction it's a clear penalty. I saw the Tweet and actually thought Ewen Murray was trolling the BBC, but looking at his replies to incredulous supporters it seems he wasn't.

I didn't see the match. That's what loan spells are all about for me, all young players will make mistakes, it's about learning from them. Let him make his mistakes at Hibs, return to us a better more experienced professional.

At first glance it seems that Robbie McCrorie, Jake Hastie, Glen Middleton, Cammy Palmer and Stephen Kelly are benefiting most from their loan spells so far. Kelly is having a great season with Ayr and McCrorie seems to be getting plenty of practice at QOTS. Allan McGregor looks pretty solid currently but it wouldn't be a big surprise if his place was under review in 12 to 24 months time. McCrorie is surely being groomed for that challenge. Cammy Palmer is the son of a church minister, there's your useless fact of the day. He's should be great with crosses... Ross McCrorie isn't making it into a struggling Portsmouth side though, that's a concern.

While I agree that comparing eras is difficult I think you're way off the mark if you think players from the 50s and 60s would struggle today, indeed I'd say it's the other way around. While the media like to focus on the 'maverick' players like Baxter and Jimmy Johnstone and their excesses off the field there were hundreds of top players who looked after themselves and lived life like athletes of that time. One difference was these guys still lived in the communities they were raised in, they earned similar salaries to their peers unlike today's players. So pictures of players in their local with a half of bitter and 20 Capstan give the impression of players not looking after themselves, when in fact they were as advanced in terms of fitness and conditioning as the era allowed. A lot of players were part time too, so the level of dedication and work ethic was actually very high back then. I'd actually venture that many of the top players today couldn't play in that era. The sheer brutality of football then would have counted against many of today's players. One reason I think Messi isn't as good a player as Maradona for example is the level of protection Messi gets compared to players in previous eras. As much of a genius as Messi is, he'd never have been allowed to make some of the runs he can today, he'd have been kicked up in the air by a full back and the full back would have got a talking too from the ref, nothing more. There's a video somewhere on the internet where a camera followed the German forward Jurgen Klinsman playing a match for Inter Milan. Klinsman had this reputation for diving, at that time in this country diving was viewed as cheating, pure and simple. We'd far more respect for the defender who fouled a forward than for the forward who dived and tricked the ref. Anyway, when you saw what he put up with in an average Serie A match you realised just how brave and strong he actually was. His diving was in response to the incessant and extreme fouling he received. That was the norm during the 1980s, it was even more so during the 70s and 60s.

It's the great man's birthday today and an excellent excuse to look at some of the wonderful moments he gave us. I think this remains my favourite. I watched this from the front row of the Rangers end, the geniuses who designed Hampden hadn't matched up the end of the roof with the front of the stand and it was pouring all match. The front row was also subterranean giving us a worm's eye view of the match. Oh, but all that was forgiven when Mr McCoist slotted home what proved to be the winner. Football has always been a great escape for me, and for the rest of that match I might as well have been on a Spanish beach in July for all I noticed the rain.

I enjoyed it, thought it was pretty fair overall.

Am I correct in thinking Ricksen had has best spell with us when pushed into midfield or is my memory playing tricks on me?

What a horrible disease. Very sad news.

I watched the 2nd half of the NI v Germany match last night. In the half I saw Germany were the better side, they played some lovely football and could have scored more. I believe NI could have scored in the 1st half though I didn't see that. What was striking though was that Northern Ireland really gave them a game. NI should have scored themselves in the 2nd half and they didn't stop pushing and attacking until the very end. Now Germany had the better players and, in my opinion, deserved their victory, but they knew they'd been in a match and had NI got an equaliser you wouldn't have put scoring a winner past them because they had some momentum and were very clearly 'up for it'. The Northern Ireland side has no real stars in it, I mean they don't have a Gareth Bale type player. Their second half subs were the guy McGennis who used to play for Aberdeen and Kilmarnock and a lad from Linfield. Yet they were still able to give Germany a proper match. Northern Ireland support might have left disappointed by the result last night but they won't have complained about the effort or desire on show. I had the misfortune of watching the Scotland v Russia match on Friday. The difference in style, attitude and application was stark. Indeed the difference in support too. The gradual demise of Scottish football is a thread all of it's own, but the inability of Scotland to put out a side that will at least compete and challenge a better side is a disgrace that nothing can excuse.

If our main problem is a lack of cutting edge then surely a new striker is a good idea? It's funny whenever I mention a new striker people assume he'll be the 3rd choice, why couldn't we buy a new first or second choice striker? Defoe doesn't have a full season of 90 minutes every week in him at his age, in my opinion, Morelos will pick up suspensions and both could pick up injuries. We'll be playing two games a week until Christmas, we can have all the wingers in the world but if we don't have someone to score the chances we'll be kicking ourselves. Perhaps Gerrard feels Kent or Arfield can play up front.