JohnMc

The one thing that's impressed me about Aberdeen is their fitness. For all we've dominated them they've kept going to the end of the match, as such I agree we need to score first and draw them out of their defensive set up. If we can do that we should win with something to spare, if we don't they always look like they can score from set-pieces. 

The 2011 census results said 27% are RC, 27% said Church of Scotland or other Christian and 38% stated no religion. Remainder are Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish or Buddhist. 

There have been Irish Republican marches in Glasgow for a long time, I remember them going through Milton in 1980s at the height of the 'Troubles'. There was usually bother at them then from stone throwing to full scale attacks on them. 

I can see now that it's two thin red stripes on the collar, not gold, duh! 

I've given up predicting who'll make it and who won't, the jump from youth football to first team requires more than ability to bridge. Our right back caught my eye, as did McPake but whether they've got any chance of making our first team in any regular capacity is anyone's guess. They all need to be starting to play first team football fairly soon to keep progressing in my opinion, I doubt that'll be with us though, I suspect a season at Falkirk or Morton on loan await a few of them. 

The wee Dembele lad at Celtic, who's had a lot of hype already, can clearly play, but he looks tiny when you see him at that level. I actually thought the other black kid Celtic had looked a better prospect, but as I said I'm no judge of these things.

My understanding of Chromecast is anything will 'cast' as long as it's being watched on the Chrome web browser. I don't understand how a specific website could prevent the browser from 'casting'. I can see how an app wouldn't work though. 

I believe Stewart hates Levein almost as much as he hates Rangers, I understand the feeling is mutual. 

The graphics man did his job well as Findlay got his red card rescinded. What do you want to bet Clarke is less angry if his side lose this weekend? 

Is it gold trim on the home strip? Quite like the red one but not the black one, it looks like something St Mirren rejected. Sponsor's logo is too big on all of them. 

On 21/04/2019 at 19:20, barca72 said:

No doubt you are a popular fellow but like most people you will have a finite group of friends and acquaintances. As such I would refute your right to purport such statements to be true and factual. You have no way of knowing if either statement is true without showing published data.

Pushback is a harsh reality.

Fair enough. 

Membership of the Orange Order in Scotland is put at around 50,000, although the last 'big' walk in Glasgow had around 10,000 participants. The population of the city of Glasgow is around 600,000. It seems to me that most people in the city have no direct connection, I don't think I'm spreading falsehoods by stating that Barca. 

I'm not particularly popular on here, or in 'real life' either Barca, but it's kind of you to assume otherwise. You are correct, my statement was entirely anecdotal and based on what I see and hear among my finite group of acquaintances. 

I don't think it's stretching credibility to state that organisations like the Orange Order are less popular today than 10 years ago far less 30 years ago. That's not just here but in Northern Ireland too. For a variety of reasons fraternal organisations have become less popular in the last 30 years, be they trade unions, youth organisations, churches or the Orange Order. I'm not trying to slander them, it's just the way it is, I think. 

On 21/04/2019 at 11:26, buster. said:

In the wake of 'spitgate', some of the statements to come from the O.O. were actually very good, politically enlightened even (IMO). 

 

One specific being, IIRC was a suggestion, an offer to come together and stand against bigotry whilst on the march. It was an olive branch of sorts that didn't seem to be talked about or considered. I thought it the exact line they should be taking and that they should have pushed it further, forcing a conversation on it.

 

 

 

That's interesting. It was more around doing more to discourage the 'hangers-on' at these events and then the creation of organisations like "Scottish Protestants Against Discrimination" which is hyperbolic and viewed as such by a good number of people who might otherwise have some sympathy towards organisations like the OO. Holding rallies and demonstrations tends to inflame and annoy, rather than get the 'not bothered' onside. 

On 21/04/2019 at 16:28, Bluedell said:

There's been other marches and demos in the city where people have been assaulted and the Council don't seem to care.

 

If there were some level of consistency then that would go somewhat to reducing the conspiracy theories.

 

I wonder if I stand with a UJ and Rangers top on in the middle of George Square during the next pro-independence rally and I get assaulted, will the council ban all future pro-independence rallies? I think that we all know the answer to that.

It's not an exact comparison though BD, is it. If you were standing outside your Orange Hall for example and some sort of Independence march went past and someone following it spat on you then I think you could in all reasonableness request no more of that type of march go past your premises, and the police would probably back you on that.  

All future 'walks' haven't been banned as far as I know. 

I think Glasgow Council, indeed most councils and the police, would probably be quite happy if there was a complete ban on Orange walks. That's the direction of travel currently, bams spitting on priests will only speed that up. 

Listened this morning, well done, really enjoyed it. 

I agree, if Kilmarnock can fill 3 sides of their ground good on them. They've had a good season and they might, conceivably, still be challenging for second come that match. Certainly they'd want to secure third and European qualification and you have to say that's a pretty impressive season for them. 

Plenty of sides have been grateful for the blue pound over the years, but if they can fill their own ground they should. (I might revise this post if we're one win away from the title that day...). 

Urquhart scored a rasper against us in a friendly and Grieg signed him that evening. I don't remember him playing but my Dad's not the most complimentary about him. I worked with a guy years ago who believed we'd have won the European Cup that season if Derek Johnstone had been fit. We beat Juventus and then PSV Eindhoven and were drawn against West German champions Cologne. We lost 1-0 away and Johnstone failed a late fitness test so Urquhart started, Derek Parlane wasn't fit either and started on the bench. Apparently Urquhart missed a number of good chances and we eventually played out a 1-1 draw. Anyway, it's all if and maybes, but he maintained that if Parlane had started and more importantly Derek Johnstone, we'd have beaten Cologne at home. That would have seen us face Notts Forest in the semi final, an exceptional side but in a 'battle of Britain' type match you'd have given us a good chance. The final was against Malmo of Sweden. Imagine a European Cup final between the champions of Sweden and Scotland, the marketing directors at UEFA would have had a coronary. 

So we started the match with guys signed from Shettleston Juniors and one from Inverness Caley just a few months before. 

Changed days. 

15 hours ago, buster. said:

Fair enough !!.....but in mitigation I would say that Russell was signed at a time when there wasn't much in the way of signings from the Juniors. I think he's pretty much the only player since the mid 70's to come from the Juniors and do really well.

 

That 200 pound fee came at a time when yjere were no Bosmans and we were spending 100,000 on Cooper, 65,000 on Smith.

The last one to join us certainly. We famously signed Billy Urquhart from the Highland League the following season, that didn't work out as well as Bobby Russell. I had the pleasure of playing in a charity match with Bobby Russell once, he was still the best player on the pitch and he was about 50! 

Darian MacKinnon of Hamilton came from Junior football. 

Rab Douglas, the former Celtic and Scotland keeper, was signed from the Juniors by Livingston, but he's very much the exception. 

16 minutes ago, buster. said:

First name that came to mind was Bobby Russell at 200 pounds sterling from Shettleston Harriers IIRC.

The OP disqualified signings from the Juniors, or him and Sam English would be straight into the side. 

Peter McCloy - player swap from Motherwell

Graeme Souness - £300,000 from Sampdoria, still a bargain though

Davie Weir - free transfer, say no more

Harold Davis - was told he'd never play football after being shot, signed for a nominal sum from East Fife. 

Dado Prso - free transfer from Monaco, that bandaged head towering over their defence...

Ally McCoist - £185,000 from Sunderland in 1983. Sunderland had spent £400,000 on him just two years before. 

Scott Arfield - free transfer from Burnley, okay still a bit early in his Rangers career

Marvin Andrews - free transfer, industrial in style but effective and popular. 

I'll find three more later...

22 minutes ago, Gribz said:

Im going to need to think about this one. But Allan McGregor goes straight into goal.

 

Next will have to do a too expensive XI. Stephen Wright, Michael Ball, Tore Andrew Flo come straight to mind. How much did Guivarch cost? This one should be easy to do.

 

 

McGregor came to us straight from a boys club, I'm not sure he qualifies for this team. 

2 hours ago, Scott7 said:

Another thread reminds us of disappointing players some of whom cost a fair bit of money but we did get one or two players for not a lot of money who did pretty well. Baxter and McMillan the prime examples.

 

Here’s the team. All money paid or player exchange from senior clubs. No Queens Park graduates or Juniors selected. That’s two different teams.

 

McCloy,

Shearer, Telfer, Bill Paterson, Shaw,

Harold Davis, McMillan, Alec Macdonald, Baxter,

Gordon Smith, Ian Ferguson.

 

 

Baxter's transfer fee was a Scottish record at the time. I mean we can agree he was worth it but we paid top dollar for him. Likewise wee Doddy cost £65,000 in 1968, that was a big fee back then, again a great player and a good servant. Gordon Smith also cost £65,000, still a decent fee in 1977 but he was good value and left for over £400,000 just a few seasons later. Ian Ferguson is still the most expensive player St Mirren have ever sold. Would we spend £900,000 on a young Scottish player today?  

Ian McMillan is a fascinating player. He only left Airdrie because they refused him a testimonial after 10 years playing for them. He remained part-time at Rangers, working as a quantity surveyor during the day and training a couple of nights a week. Yet he starred in what some say was our best ever side. 

Great idea for a thread, really thought provoking. 

The frustrating 11 is different from the 'I just didn't like them 11'. Frustration suggests players you thought should have done more, didn't give us what we thought they could or would. So here goes...

Oleg Kuznetsov - bloody hammer throwers...

Basil Boli - Boli genuinely looked like one of the best defenders in the world at Marseille, he looked like he'd won a competition to appear on the pitch when at Rangers. 

Bruno Alves - What a CV, what a disappointment. 

Joey Barton - could also make it into the disliked 11, but he had ability, he just didn't seem to have it anymore.

Niko Kranjcar - we were building a midfield around him, we built a medical centre around him instead

Vladimir Weiss - possibly the most frustrating player we've had in recent years. Fast, great at taking a man on, total inability to know when to pass, shoot or cross. 99% of his runs led to nothing. 

Charlie Miller - literally one of the best players in the world when he was 16, ended up a Dundee Utd player, what an utter waste of talent. 

Duncan Ferguson - Should have been a Rangers legend, had a side built around him, led the line for club and country, terrified defences across Europe. Went to prison instead. 

Derek Ferguson - all the talent, all the ability but a dodgy shoulder and some poor lifestyle choices. 

Kyle Lafferty - still the most frustrating player. It's there, he shows it in glimpses, then it vanishes for months on end. 

Seb Rozenthal - Our first South American forward when South Americans were still exotic and exciting. Was probably hugely popular with the nurses in Ross Hall...

These threads are fun, but they're always skewed by age. Some of the guys most of us never saw play must have been spectacular. 

Alex Smith played 406 times for Rangers, retiring in 1915, Sandy Archibald and Dave Meiklejohn both played well over 500 games at a time when medical treatment was considerably poorer than it is for professionals today. Guys like Alan Morton, who features in what I think is the most iconic photograph of any Rangers player, amassed 31 caps for Scotland in a period when we only played 3 matches a season. What a player he must have been. 

During the 1960s we had a side that made two European finals, we could genuinely say we had world class players. Baxter most people know about, but players like Willie Henderson, Ralph Brand and Bobby Shearer are largely overlooked these days. Even players who don't only appear in black and white, like Jardine, Derek Johnstone, the always underrated Willie Johnston, a man who scored 2 goals in a European final and was genuinely a player who would get you up off your seat when he got the ball, and Tommy McLean another player who we forget as a player only remember the crabit, negative manager now. Plus how can any Rangers select not feature John Greig? 755 appearances, captain of club and country, treble winner, European winner, a player who stayed with us for his entire career when players of his ability were in huge demand in England. 

Anyway, I realise it's about favourite players, not the best ones. 

Allan McGregor, that save in Germany, countless others too

Hugh Burns, I loved Shug, at a time when we didn't have a lot to love...

John McLelland, came to visit my BB when I was about 12 simply because someone asked him too, we all got our picture taken with him and Gregor Stevens and he donated a Northern Ireland strip he wore at the World Cup to raise funds. A proper Rangers captain. 

Gregor Stevens, see above. 

Ian Durant, pre injury simply the most exciting  player I'd ever seen Rangers produce. That goal against Celtic from Copper's run and flick, the big hair when he first broke into the side, the performances in successive Skol Cup Finals, possibly my favourite ever Rangers player. 

Graeme Roberts, that game, the conducting, the sheer mentalness of it all. 

Souness, my formative years watching Rangers weren't littered with success, Souness arrived and suddenly stuff my Dad and older guys said made sense. What a player he was too. 

Laudrup, quite simply the finest footballer I've had the pleasure of watching in the flesh. 

Gattuso, I loved his industry, his work rate, his perpetual anger and aggression, he was the most Scottish Italian ever. 

McCoist, this shouldn't need explained. 

Derek Parlane, he left the club when I was 10, DJ was a much bigger name, but Parlane looked cooler, hair longer than Rangers players were normally allowed, even as child you knew he was a cool. Scored a ton of goals too which meant his name reverberated around my primary school playground. I doubt I ever saw him play in the flesh, yet somehow he epitomised my formative years getting into football. 

We'll do our most disliked 11 in another thread I hope...

Any player who signs for Rangers needs to understand that the minimum expected is winning the league. Obviously we won't always achieve it, but that's what the support expect. We're the best supported, most successful club in the country, I don't believe we have a divine right to win it, but we do have the resources to win it and that should always be our expectation at the start of the season. 

Now, we live in difficult times. The last 10 years or so have seen the balance of power swing east, they've currently got more money, better resources, more power and, frankly, a better squad. But, as I said above they've got a managerial change, and whoever is in charge next August is starting afresh. Some of their better players will take to the new manager and continue to play well, but some won't.

I tend to agree with you about trying the same thing over and over, however I don't think we are. I fully expect us to go into the new season with Gerrard still in charge. He'll have had a full season managing us at SPFL level, something no Rangers manager has had since 2007. There will be a stability and continuance about the side for the first time in a decade. Now is exactly the time to add seasoned quality over potential in my opinion. 

8 minutes ago, buster. said:

We need to build a solid base yet we also need to stop 10IAR.

 

The question is priorities.

It's not impossible to do both but IMO, it's unlikely.

 

The fixation with 10IAR is potentially very damaging, although you could say that 10IAR would be damaging and a potential tipping point for some of our supports relationship with their Season Ticket.

 

I'd say best to go for stopping 10IAR if it were next to guaranteed, but it's not.

 

The real damage would come if we concentrated on the short-term and it didn't work-out.

Hence, I reckon it better to continue building the base and hope we hit an early sweet spot whilst we do.

 

 

I think next season is our real opportunity to win the league. Realistically they've got more money and a better squad to start with, however they either go into next season with Lennon in charge or with a brand new manager, either way that will create some upset in their dressing room. Their players were signed by a different manager, one who largely got the best out of them. Their next manager might not. Either way there's a period of flux, settling in, and getting used to new rules, tactics and so on. 

When Gerrard joined Rangers really the only way was up, we were playing so poorly last season that as long as he showed progress he was going to get the backing of the support. It won't be like that across the city next season. They're a treble winning squad and they'll win at least the double this season, so any stumble or drop in that standard will bring criticism from the support, a drop in attendances and unrest. That's our chance. We've a season under our belts, an okay squad that needs strengthened, if we can get that right we can win the league next season. Their support will turn on their manager and their board if they stumble at all, for all their jubilation at the weekend I know a few who are far from happy with Lennon already. 

I'm not normally a 'short-termist', but this summer I am. If we can win the league we stop their Champion's League money and then they do have a problem, a serious problem. The playing field is level then. 

It might be a controversial opinion but I think we need to be signing players who can improve our first team and command a starting place from day one. I understand the mid to long term logic of signing a Greg Docherty or a Hastie, but we need to be winning the league next season, is Hastie ready to help us do that? I haven't seen enough of him to know, but this window I'd be happier if we were signing experienced professionals rather than promising young players. 

Wasn't Dirt Road only published last year? I read How Late It Was, How Late and never felt the need to read any of his books again, perhaps that's unfair of me.