JohnMc

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

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

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

Yeah, forgot about that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's entirely possible to state that Celtic have benefitted from big officiating decisions in games against us, including yesterday, without saying there's a conspiracy. I believe a number of referees are terrified to give decisions against Celtic and I think there are various reasons for that. I don't think refs are meeting in pub in Carfin plotting how to thwart Rangers, but I do think if a referee can avoid giving a penalty against Celtic in a tight game they will. If there's the slightest hint of controversy about a goal against Celtic they'll chalk it off. The personal and professional cost to a referee of upsetting the Celtic management, board, support and Celtic leaning media is high and as such they'll always err on the side of caution when faced with that. Who can blame them? None of that distracts from us needing to improve our side, but to pretend that big decisions in important games haven't gone against us with some regularity is surprising. Twice this season we've had goals against Celtic chalked off, both incorrectly, in my opinion. On both those occasions those goals would have given us a lead over Celtic, something we've not managed at all this season. Scoring first in these games gives you an advantage, it changes the momentum, it leads to changes in tactics, it changes the confidence of players. Who can say if we'd have won yesterday had the goal not being denied us, who can say if the first game a Ibrox would have played out differently had Roofe's perfectly good goal been allowed to stand. We'll never know. But to deny the evidence of our own eyes when it comes to these decisions, and to berate supporters for pointing this out I find bizarre.

My poorly made point was more about their ability to 'fit in' rather than what nationality they see themselves having. Bassey and Aribo were raised in the UK, so moving to Glasgow isn't as big a culture shock as if they'd been raised in Lagos. Likewise moving to Glasgow if you were raised in Belgium or Germany isn't as challenging as if you were from Malawi I'd guess. All that said I read an article recently about Jadon Sancho and his failure to blossom at Man Utd. The point the author was making was that because he was from south London he wasn't given the support and help he would have been given had he been from another country. He seemed to be suggesting south London is different enough from Manchester to warrant this. Man Utd expected a young English guy to settle fairly easily. Dortmund on the other hand had put every possible thing in place to help a young player settle in a new country and environment and so Sancho did really well there. This theory conveniently overlooked the fact Sancho had lived in Manchester previously when he was at Man City. Roy Keane speaks surprisingly well on this. As a player he was dismissive of some of Man Utd's signings 'struggling to settle' and this affecting their performance. He gave some of them a really hard time about it too. He'd moved to England as a young man and had settled easily enough. He recalled losing it with Sebastian Veron, who blamed his form on living in a hotel and his wife and family not settling in England. Then when Keane joined Celtic his family stayed in Manchester and he moved into a hotel somewhere in Glasgow. He's go back to Manchester for a couple of days after games and then return to Glasgow for the rest of the week. He admitted he was miserable. He hated living in a hotel, he missed his family and friends and that it did affect his form. Jim Bett's wife couldn't settle in Glasgow so he left Rangers, but she was able to settle in Aberdeen without a problem. Go figure that out. Anyway, in my experience Declan and Aiden from Coatbridge would find Govan just too big a jump, some cultural gaps are just too huge to bridge.

African isn't an ethnicity, it's a continent with hundreds of different ethnicities. Egyptians are Africans, Somalis are Africans and Namibians are Africans and they have almost nothing in common with each other. Your point is interesting. Aribo and Bassey are Londoners, both were raised there, Aribo was born there and Bassey moved there as a young child. They are Nigerian by heritage, but are basically English. Balogun is German. Again, Nigerian by heritage, but born and raised in Berlin. Dessers is Belgian, again Nigerian by heritage, but European in every other sense. Sakala was raised in Africa, Diomande was too. They'd be better gauges of how 'African' players can settle and adapt to life and football in Scotland. Culturally a number of African countries are anglophile and you'd imagine that gives the players a better chance of adapting. If they can speak English for a start, if they're from a Christian background, but that isn't definite. Sakala spoke English, came from Malawi which has a strong British influence, he seemed to settle quite well. Diomande, I assume, is Muslim, and was born in the Ivory coast, where French is the main language. However he spent a lot of time in Ghana, where English is widely spoken. I guess it will come down to the individuals more than anything else. How mentally strong they are, what kind of family structure they have around them, how well they play too.

We played 56 games, not including friendlies, last season. We played 65 matches the season before. This season we'll play 59 competitive matches. Last season Copenhagen won the Danish league, the Danish cup and played in qualifiers and group stages of the Champion's League, yet only played 47 competitive games. Club Brugge played 51, PSV played 52. We can argue about playing too much football, but if we reach the latter stages of both domestic cups and qualify for European 'league' football, which we should do every season now, then that's not going to change. So what's vital is not only that we are able to keep our players fit, so perhaps don't sign ones with clear track records of fitness problems, but also that we need real depth in our squad. I've no doubt we've asked players to play this season who weren't fully fit. Would it come as a surprise to anyone of we found out that Tav, Goldson and Lundstram had all played when carrying injuries? For us to be successful next season we need a squad that can rotate and rest players without weakening the team. We don't have that currently.

To be fair Balagun was signed as cover, he's done his job. I'd argue Sterling was also signed as cover and has played more than might have been expected. Butland and Dessers have both contributed and whatever misgivings I have about big Cyriel he's turned up, stayed fit and never hid, so fair play to him. Sima left at the end of December for AFCON and has been injured since, barring a short cameo. So his % isn't a surprise. I think Danilo joined us injured, eventually played, looked ok, then got injured, came back and got injured again. His % is no surprise either. Time will tell if he's a good signing or not. Lammers didn't work out, leaving in January was best all round, club did well to move him on quickly. He's done ok in Holland it seems, so hopefully someone wants to buy him. Really only Cifuentes and Dowell have been poor signings. Cifuentes was a bewildering signing at the time. We'll be lucky to give him away. Dowell is a decent player on the 38 minutes a season he's fit. He's averaged 19 appearances a season in his career, why anyone thought signing him for a club who play upwards of 50 competitive matches a season was a good idea is anyone's guess.

I'd have taken him when he was at Hibs. He's had injuries at Millwall, so he sounds like a perfect signing for us now.