JohnMc

It's been amusing watching Tom English receive heat from irate Celtic supporters for his criticism of Tom Boyd's tin foil hat moment at the weekend. They've been truly angered that English doesn't agree with Boyd's ludicrous nonsense.

Oh Bill, how naive you are. The universe does care and it will punish you. There is a reason I touch the top of the exit door every time when I leave Ibrox, why my Dad always has Extra Strong Mints and must offer them to whoever is sitting beside him, why I'll only wear my white bar scarf to games, none of the others I own, why I won't listen to Radio Scotland for an Old Firm commentary but will listen to Five Live, why we have to park in the Science Centre car park for mid week games even though they changed the parking payment and it's a pain in the arse now. There's a reason why Rangers players who score on their debuts don't have good careers with us, why we should never bring an old player back and why we should always wear black socks with red tops. If someone can provide me with documented, tested, peer reviewed evidence that none of those things plays any part in the result and my ongoing peace of mind I'll ignore them and continue doing them anyway. Because they'd be wrong!!!! Football and superstition are intrinsically linked. There is nothing rational about football support, it's all emotion, it's all feelings and highs and lows and delirium and despair. So don't you bastards go jinxing it with your over confidence, because that's the worse jinx of all. The universe cares and it's watching all the time!

Why are we all so confident now? Celtic have had one bad result, their home match in Europe against the Romanian champions, having had a pretty decent result in the first leg. Other than that they've won their two league matches with ease and gone through in a sticky cup tie against a side in the league below them. I don't think Lennon is anything like as capable a manager as Rodgers, and he's managing Rodgers side so there will be more than a few players he doesn't fancy or who don't fancy him. But, he's still an experienced manager and they've still got some dangerous players. They'll still win against just about every other side in the league. I think this is our best chance to win the league in a decade but all this talk of being out of sight by Christmas and hoping Lennon is still in charge in January is giving me the fear.

There are five Rangers players in the Scotland under 21 squad named earlier today.

I'm not sure that's fair. Linfield, Glentoran and Crusaders all have players from the ROI as do Coleraine, Portadown, Glenavon and Institute and all are considered clubs with largely Protestant/Unionist supports. He'd get far more abuse from other team's supports than from ours. As long as he's doing it on the park our support will stand behind him in my experience.

I've subscribed for tonight's match. I feel a tenner is actually good value, my two sons and I can watch it together (they'll be getting put off Fortnite and Minecraft so they don't mess with my connection). Certainly a few thousand others doing the same doesn't seem far fetched, like anything is making sure people know about it.

He was an unused sub.

I notice McCrorie didn't play for Portsmouth at weekend. He really needs to have a good season at that level to have any chance of making our first team. Barjonas didn't take his chances on loan last season, I don't know if he was injured or just not picked but he struggled first at Bury (a team in chaos to be fair) and then at Raith Rovers. Why he's been unable to push on from his early promise is the eternal question for so many young Rangers players. Barjonas is 20 now and he's only played about 20 first team matches. He needs regular first team football at some level to develop. That's why I'm relaxed about Middleton going to Hibs. If he can break into their first team and stay in it he comes back to us a much more rounded and experienced player. If he doesn't then we know he's not going to make it. Either way let him make his mistakes in Hibs first team. I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that we should scrap our youth system and simply concentrate on our first team squad. Indeed I'd actually ban all professional football teams from having youth academies.

There's a great gift in our trophy room from, I think, Katowice. It's a statue carved from a solid block of coal, they must have had deep seams in Poland.

Is there a central midfielder coming through the ranks currently that could challenge for a place? Barjonas looked like he might be good enough but it seems clear Gerrard doesn't agree and he'll be away if someone comes in for him and McCrorie is already out on loan. The one I'm waiting to hear about is Zak Rudden. We're short upfront, I don't think we can rely on Defoe and Morelos alone all season, and I wonder if our management team view Rudden as a third choice striker. If we qualify for the Europa League and do well in the cups we'll play a lot of games, whoever our 3rd choice forward is they'll get game time, then it's up to them to hold the position.

There are no 'spare' copies of that esteemed publication, every single one is coveted. I knew a guy from Ballymoney, just a wee bit up the road, who attended revivals in Stornoway back in the day. This is the best Ballymena side in a long time, they should be too strong for our youngsters. I'd love to go, but it won't happen. I did see Rangers play Crusaders and Ballyclare back in the 90s.

Ballymena hi! We should receive a good welcome there and of course NI football is doing okay currently, champions Linfield went through to the next qualifying round of the Champions League last night. To be fair they were 3-2 up at home with 7 minutes to go, only a pub team would throwaway a lead from there.

Ah, c'mon, it was a lovely pass and a decent finish. At 6-1 even I can be magnanimous! It's comedic just how much focus it's got though, I mean had it won them the match or even earned them a point I could just about understand but when it was a consolation during a trouncing you'd think they might have found something else to highlight. But as 26th so ably demonstrates every week, they don't think like we do.

He's the manager of Rangers, that means constant scrutiny and analysis followed by over the top levels of criticism or praise. Thats the gig, that's always been the gig. Gerrard's reaction to the Kilmarnock goal didn't concern me, that's been his reaction to most goals we've conceded. He's a much more thoughtful character than I thought. I'd assumed (wrongly) he was a heart-on-the-sleeve bubbly Scouser, but he's not, he's far more composed and steady. That doesn't mean he's not passionate, he just shows it differently. One concern I have with Gerrard is how he manages people who don't work as hard as he did. Gerrard was a perfectionist as a player, he was the boss in the Liverpool dressing room, and someone who decided if you made it or didn't make it at Liverpool. He'd very high standards and not everyone was able to meet them. I read the Lafferty article this morning and wondered why Gerrard was unable to manage him correctly. Now, let me be clear, I think Lafferty is a clown, he's a brainless waste of talent and someone who constantly displays poor judgement. But he can play football, and when managed correctly can be a highly effective member of a team. Micheal O'Neill has shown that, Craig Levein has shown that, Walter Smith showed that. We knew what we were getting with Lafferty when we signed him. There are still people at the club who remember him first time around, someone must have pointed out that he's not a good trainer, he'll have some sort of domestic implosion during the season and he'll skive off every chance he gets. But, he could win you a match when you need it. My concern for Gerrard isn't that he doesn't display enough emotion on the touchline, it's that he can't relate to journeymen SPFL footballers standard. That he doesn't understand how to motivate and manage a Lafferty, a Grezda or a Barasic. Gerrard, I believe, has very high standards, he expects high intensity training, 100% focus, total concentration. I expect most supporters are agree and think 'about bloody time too'. However, he's not coaching elite EFL, Champion's League quality players. Sometimes, at our level, you need to be able to do something with the shirkers, the lazy and the troubled too. For the record, Gerrard has shown himself to be a much better manager than I thought he'd be, and I remain confident for the season ahead. But if we're doing assessing, that's my observation.

Hah! I wondered if anyone would pick up on that. I know people, who know people, who know people...

I can't see anything other than convincing win tonight. Progres need to attack us and we'll sit deep, keep possession and wait for them to make mistakes, which they will. We're a very different side to the last one that made this journey. I don't expect a classic tonight, but it'll be fairly comfortable.

You need a licence to broadcast radio in the UK, Ofcom manages the process and they're not expensive (a few hundred pounds) if you want to broadcast using DAB. However, you do need to know what you're doing technically, you'll need kit and an engineer at least to set up broadcasts from the ground(s). You also need to buy access to a satellite so the broadcast reaches the radios of those listening, I've no idea what that costs. The big thing needed is the agreement of the SPFL and the SFA, without their agreement nothing can happen. I don't know if the BBC have exclusive radio rights, certainly the fact no other radio station broadcasts commentary suggests they do. If that was the case the whole thing is moot anyway. I'd be very surprised is the club haven't explored this. A Rangers specific radio station, broadcasting interviews, previews, match commentary and the like would do pretty well I suspect and could use the existing content being created for Rangers TV already. As I said I'd be surprised if they've not explored this. Maybe someone like 4 Lads would know.

The BBC is a difficult beast to pigeon hole, its size and resources give it enormous influence. Radio 1 for example has a huge younger audience, the biggest of any radio station and Radio Five Live remains hugely influential across all sports. The BBC website attracts a huge and diverse audience, they've segmented and cross channeled very well, and are industry leading in many ways. Their serious move into podcasts over the last 12 months is harder to measure. BBC1 remains a broad channel, creating programming aimed at a wide audience, BBC2 and BBC4 more niche. Cbeebies and CBBC have their own clear audiences as does the BBC News channel. Their charter goal is to produce programming for everyone in the UK across all their platforms. The challenge is when you look at it on a Scotland only basis because the UK wide channels can skew audiences. What we know is both Radio 1 and 2 have more listeners than any other radio stations in Scotland. Then Radio Scotland is next. However, this is complicated by Radio Scotland (and Radio 1 and 2) broadcasting across the whole country, no other Scotland based station does that. When you look at a station like Clyde, although it has a smaller audience than Radio Scotland in total its share is bigger in the area it broadcasts too. So it and the other 'regional' commercial stations out perform Radio Scotland in a number of areas. Now, I suspect you're seeing teenagers who watch You Tube channels, Instagram videos and other assorted web content as well Netflix and Amazon Prime and with sport Sky, BT and whoever has Scottish football this year. In the end if you want to watch Scottish football you are limited to the channels that are actually showing it. Teenagers and younger people have always looked for media channels different from their parents. Whether that was NME, Kerrang, Radio Luxemburg, The Word or today You Tube prankers and make-up artists. What is also inevitable is they drift back in their 20s to the mainstream and within a few years they've turned into their parents, mirroring, it happens to all of us without us noticing. The unfortunate reality is Scottish football remains niche, it's of massive importance and attraction here, but outside of Scotland there's little appetite for it. That's the market we're in for now. As such Radio Scotland, with exclusive radio coverage, has the biggest market share for Scottish football and until a realistic competitor takes some or all of that coverage they'll continue to exert significant influence. Ironically, the BBC Scotland issue with Rangers might have unintended consequences. Rangers specific podcasts are appearing and some are flourishing as fans look for coverage and insight elsewhere. If, and it's a big if, one of them or indeed the club, could get the ability to provide radio commentary of Rangers matches, home and away, then BBC Scotland might well have a problem. There are many hurdles in the way of that though. However, the longer this dispute goes on the more chance there is of someone finding a way of filling the void.

Yes, ignoring the BBC is not a strategy that will be in anyway effective. Put simply they have the 3rd most popular website in the UK (after Google and Amazon), the most watched TV station and top 2 most listened to radio stations. On a Scotland only basis Radio Scotland has the most listeners of any station broadcasting from north of the border. I understand very well the changes in media in recent times however the BBC remains the single most influential broadcaster in the UK and in Scotland. That may change in the coming years but I wouldn't put my mortgage on it.

Apologies for the late reply I've been on holiday. Again, Celtic are the most censured and fined club in Scotland. UEFA are far harder on them than the SFA are and I'm not aware of UEFA favouring them over us (or anyone else) but I'm happy to be corrected if you are. We've had fines too, we were fined last season for supporters going onto the pitch for example. The 'big' clubs get fined too, Liverpool were fined for missiles being thrown at the Man City bus and Spurs were fiend for a fan going on the pitch same as we were. UEFA are corrupt, I've no doubt about that, but they seem fairly evenhanded when it comes to fines and censures to clubs in UEFA competitions.

Who have you got in mind Coop? Some of the biggest fines have been to large powerful clubs, AC Milan were fined €12 million last season for example, Chelsea have a current transfer ban, Man City are facing something similar and were fined €40 million a few years ago, although it was downgraded to a still fairly eye-watering €17 million. UEFA do a lot wrong but they're fairly consistent in their treatment of clubs for stuff like that. The Tims have been charged something like 9 times in recent seasons. The fines they've got have been in keeping with fines other clubs got for similar offences.

There's a ruthless streak in Gerrard that I think will show itself in his handling of our squad and players fairly soon. Leaving Candeias out of the first Europa League squad, a player who made 33 appearances for us last season, was a glimpse of that. I think signing Edmundson and this pursuit of Helander is a sign that Gerrard wants every player to worry about his place. My player of the season last year was Goldson, he's our first pick centre-half, but perhaps not if Helander signs. That's a message to every player in that squad. Souness did this when he arrived. Signing Gough when we already had Butcher, Roberts and McPherson was a statement to the whole squad that no one's place was safe. I wouldn't be surprised if we sign another left back, particularly if we get some money in, and clearly a forward or two is essential.

To be fair to Darwin there weren't any internet cafes anywhere in 1989!

Best Pod yet, excellent work all involved. Big well done!

I love stories like this. Certainly the area where Ibrox Stadium now sits wasn't developed by the late 1870s although Copland Road and Broomloan Road were both developed and linking Govan Road with Paisley Road by then, and the Ibrox Railway Station was open. We moved to the area in 1887 and our ground appears on the ordnance survey map of 1889. I love grounds that are located in the middle of towns and cities. Surrounded by houses and businesses, genuinely part of their local community. I dislike the newer grounds that have been built in the last 30 or so years on the outskirts of towns. I understand why and I accept they've some benefits in terms of access, parking and so on, but they're soulless places pushed to the periphery. Ibrox, for me, is the perfect stadium. A mix of the old and new located in a city surrounded by people, homes, roads and businesses. I know The Hummell Training centre is an impressive facility but it's location isn't, it's miles from our home and overlooking hills and farms instead of the places our support live and work. I'd prefer the Albion was still used, but I accept why that's not practical. So it's all more ironic, when you look at the old maps, you realise that Ibrox was that 'edge of the town, middle of nowhere' stadium at first. The city built around the ground, not the other way around. I guess land was cheaper and more available, much like now, the further out you went. We were the McDiarmid Park or the Falkirk Stadium of our day. The other thing we often overlook is Govan was a totally separate town when we first moved there. At the turn of the century Govan was one of the largest towns in Scotland, but it was separate from Glasgow in the same way Paisley is today. I wonder how we'd all react if the club announced it was moving to a new stadium, outside of the city at the edge of the green belt.