JohnMc

Jack and Lowry played for the youths last week. I expect both are fit enough for the bench.

The Martin Ramsay book that came out a few months ago about the title winning season of 86/87 is worth a read for a number of reasons. I thought I remembered this season well. I was mid-teens, going to game regularly, leaving school and getting on in the world. Rangers had not had a good side for most of my time actively supporting them. Decline under Greig followed by false dawns and further decline under Jock Wallace, the players at Rangers simply weren't good enough. Then Souness was appointed manager. One thing I forgot about that season that Ramsay's book really brings into focus was just how many of that title winning side were at the club before Souness and Smith were appointed. Indeed it's no exaggeration to say that it was basically the previous season's side plus Woods, Butcher and Souness himself. Jimmy Nicholl rejoined, but he'd been at Rangers before. Graham Roberts joined during the season and became a first team regular, but new players like Jimmy Phillips, Neil Wood and Colin West made little impact. The real story of that season is how introducing 3 very good players transformed the side and lifted the existing players to heights they previously couldn't reach. Players I could have sworn had left the club that summer, like Cammy Fraser and Dougie Bell, actually played a decent amount of matches that season. The core of the squad that nearly finished 6th the season before won the league in style. Players like Davie McPherson, Stuart Munro, Derek Ferguson, Ted McMinn and Bobby Fleck along with Davie Cooper, Ian Durrant and of course Ally McCoist became a title winning side. Cooper aside none of that group of players were hitting any kind of highs in their careers prior. I guess what I'm trying to say is we don't have to rip everything up. There are weaknesses in our squad, but its core is capable of winning the League Cup, reaching the Scottish Cup Final, the last 16 in Europe and taking the title to the final weeks. Some judicious improvement might be all that's required.

Compared to PSV and Ajax the Feyenoord youth set up isn't that successful. I mean it's still better than ours, but that's a low bar. I thought bringing in someone from Belgian football made some sense. They've been pretty successful producing players in recent years and with a population around twice that of Scotland's copying whatever they're doing seemed logical. I've no idea if Zeb Jacobs was the right guy to implement that. I've no idea if he'll be a huge loss to the club. Perhaps whatever he's done over the last couple of years will bear fruit in the near future. Maybe his successor will get the credit, or blame, for that. Rangers and Scottish football in general aren't going to start producing seriously good players until the entire league is changed and it won't matter who we bring in to replace him. It is no coincidence that Celtic brought through a batch of decent young players when we were out of the top league. Since we've returned they've developed nothing like that number. Young players aren't getting a game when a couple of draws are a crisis and three defeats will see a manager sacked.

The Westfalenstadium was the inspiration for modern Ibrox. Most stadiums were oval shaped with a running track whereas Westfalenstadium was 'square' with 4 separate stands each close to the pitch. Rangers directors visited Dortmund and were so impressed they chose that style of ground for the new Ibrox.

Teams seem to have figured us out. Tav and Sterling barely got out our half all match, certainly significantly less than they were a few weeks ago. Other sides realise how important both full backs are to how we attack and have changed tactics to prevent it. We need to have a counter to that. I assume much more was expected of Cantwell and Lawrence last night, creative players capable of producing something that wins you a match. Both were poor, losing possession regularly and slowing us down instead of upping the tempo. Goldson's 'passing' was horrible last night and on Sunday. But, if there's no pass to midfield and no pass to the wings then it's either back to the keeper or across to Souter. Eventually though it goes long. His passing should be better, but the long balls shouldn't be needed in the first place. So many players seem to have lost form at the same time you do wonder if there's an issue we don't know about. A problem in the dressing room, a bug that's swept through the squad and drained players of energy. I'm grasping at straws here because I don't understand how the entire side, with the possible exception of Butland, can collectively lose form simultaneously. Everyone was rotten last night, defenders, midfielders, forwards and subs. Amazingly, despite the collapse, we can still win the league if we win all our games. I mean I don't think we will, anyone with eyes can see we're so far off it. It's massively frustrating, but I can see why Clement is talking things up and putting a gloss on things. He needs to work with the players he's got, throwing them under the bus at this stage won't help.

Robbie Fraser is 21 and has not been able to force his way into our first team under Gerrard, Gio, Beale or Clement. His contract is up next month and I think we can assume he'll be leaving the club.

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. I mean Ferdinand is unlikely to say appointing Beale was a mistake as that would reflect badly on him. But it does make you wonder if he started to believe his own hype and simply lost his way. We forget that when he first joined us we did well, he lifted the place, had us playing decent football and had a good January window. In the end he had to go, it wasn't working and I've no regrets over that.

Loved "Kd Lang lookalike". Applause.

It's hard to know which Dundee team to dislike more these days. I've been told on a number of occasions that Dundee is much sunnier and drier than 'the west coast', perhaps they're just not used to rain...

It's pouring in Glasgow, has been all morning and is forecast to continue for the rest of the day. It was similar last week in Lisbon, so not sure if it makes a big difference, but you'd hope it might favour us a bit.

Butland made some incredible stops, but his distribution was really poor at times, so not him. I thought Goldson was very good, but his OG excludes him from this, Soutar was steady and effective. Lawrence was excellent first half but faded in the second. Tav had one of his poorest matches in Europe I thought. Lundstrom was very good and then very bad at different points in the match. Some of his passing had me yelling at the TV. Diomande was excellent, but he came off before the end, as did Sterling who was also very good and Silva too, but both came off. So I've voted for Ridvan, who defended very well, got forward effectively, played every minute of the match and is making me eat my words about him with every passing game. Fair play to him.

The ref was kind to Benfica last night. The penalty aside if you look at where the freekick they scored their second was taken from, compared to where the foul was, that's poor refereeing. Di Maira simply can't play that cross from where the freekick was made and that shouldn't be a hard thing to enforce.

We'd McCausland in the starting 11 last night. He's been the exception rather than the rule though, and I'm still not convinced he'll 'make it'. His game will need to improve to keep his place after the summer I suspect. Our ability to move players who were exceptional in the their mid teens on to become first team players has been very disappointing for years now. We're not alone with that, few Scottish sides are good at it. There's more than one reason for that, but in my opinion none of the reasons for it are being addressed and so this will continue. You have to question whether the B Team experiment has worked. I'm not sure playing youngsters in the Lowland League, or now in varied friendlies, is working. I saw Lowry play in a B Team game a few seasons ago and he was so much better than that level, however as we all know his career has stalled and would any of us be surprised if he left for good in the summer? On Liverpool I think you're being generous calling a home tie against a side from a division below as 'high pressure'. While Liverpool wanted to win it's certainly not their priority this season. It's exactly the kind of game they'd introduce young players in. It seems like Liverpool have a decent crop emerging, but time will tell how many actually make it.

I don't think he's played for the B Team, he's only 15. B Team tends to be players 17 and over.

In fairness Arsenal have a better record of bringing their own players through to their first team than we do. I'm unaware of the lad and at 15 it's still anyone's guess if he'll ever make the grade so I'm not unhappy at the kind of money that's being reported. I remember how upset we were when Charlie Telfer left us for Dundee Utd.

I agree. Last season's Celtic side wouldn't have dropped the points they have this season. They were on 73 points at this stage last season, on 62 this season. Surprisingly we're on exactly the same points after 26 matches that we were last season, 64. There is an argument that this season's Rangers side isn't as strong as last season's side, certainly we've fewer striking options, our defence is pretty much the same but we've a better keeper. That shouldn't take away from what Clement has achieved results and performance wise though, he's taken a side lacking direction and, I'd say, ability, and turned them into a side much better than the sum of its parts.

The John Collins and Ray Houghton thing was interesting. I knew he wanted to sign Houghton but I didn't realise he'd agreed to it and then back out. I remember hearing Walter Smith say he'd wanted to sign Collins but again I didn't realise he'd agreed then back out.

We drew at home with Celtic, won every other league game. There would have been a riot if we'd sacked him after his first 9 games.

Devine had a nice assist for the Motherwell goal on Friday. I can't comment on his overall performance but Motherwell lost.

Among the many changes that Phillipe Clement has quietly affected at Rangers one has gone almost unmentioned. We finished the match last night with three 20 year olds and a 21 year old upfront, plus Yilmaz who is only 22. I'm not sure I recall Rangers ever having a younger side than the one that finished last night. Getting the best out of young players is not something every manager can do. We started this season with a side built around experience and height, somehow we now have a young, slim, quick side. Far from the finished article, but with a clear purpose and all knowing what they are meant to be doing. Huge credit to the big Belgian. Last night we saw a Rangers side show character. I think we all know we wouldn't have won that match 4 months ago. Not every player had their best game, but every player fought, showed intensity and worked very, very hard. We're not top, but this side is growing every week and they'll get another chance to take that top spot.

Does the signing of Cortes basically confirm that's there's no chance we're signing Sima on a permanent deal? It was always a long shot, but his contract will be down to his last year soon, Brighton might want to try and recoup some of the transfer fee they paid, but it's unlikely they'll get anything like the £7 million they're reported to have paid for him.

This match will tell us a lot about our team and the character and desire in it. As everyone now knows a 3-0 win puts us top of the league, with the same games played. If our players can overcome an Aberdeen side who always lift themselves for us, who have a new manager to impress, one that isn't inept for a change, and deliver the victory required, that might be indicative of what's going on behind the scenes. It also puts pressure on the side from across the city, and for a long time many of us have suspected they won't react well to pressure. I didn't expect to be in this position so soon into Clement's reign. If we stumble tomorrow that will tell us something about the players we currently have, if we don't that might suggest something else. Looking forward to finding out which it is.

22 years, jeez. In some ways it feels every second of it, in others it feels like just a few moments ago. That goal must have felt cathartic for him.

Are we stronger now the transfer window has closed? The players we've lost are Lammers and Devine. Assuming Tav stays fit Devine leaving doesn't really affect us. Should Tav get injured we're looking at Sterling to fill in. Neither he nor Devine can give us what Tav does, so Devine leaving for the second half of the season isn't much of an issue I don't think. Lammers played a lot of games for us, but failed to impress and his move away takes away some competition for places and options but doesn't really weaken us. Incoming we've Oscar Cortes, he's just turned 20 and has played 24 first team games. He's a punt, he might prove to be very good, he might thrive in Scotland, but it'll take him a while to adapt you have to assume. I'm not sure how good his English is and there's a big cultural adjustment required for him to settle. He might prove to be an inspired signing, but it would be unfair to expect too much from him right away. Mohamed Diomande is the same age but has nearly 100 first team games under his belt already. Although he's Ivorian he's been living in Denmark for over 3 years so culturally he's got experience of northern Europe, a move to Glasgow shouldn't be a huge shock for him. Like all players he'll need some time but I'd expect him to be challenging for a first team place from pretty much day 1. How good he is, or can become, I've no idea, but surely he can be more effective than Lammers. Silva, a young player carrying a huge weight of expectation on his shoulders, and, frankly, failing to deliver on it. It's not his fault he's one of the most expensive teenage signings of all time, however, he is and the fact he's ended up in Scottish football tells us his career hasn't gone as hoped. That said he's undoubtedly talented, and like the other January signings has potential. If he can stay fit he'll play a lot, mainly because of our lack of options up front. A run of games and some confidence might be the making of him. So, on paper our squad is stronger today than in December, however that's not the whole story. The loss of Danilo and Sima change the complexion of the squad. Sima is our most potent forward, and his goals don't look like they've been replaced. Danilo's injury being much worse than first thought suggests we might not see him again this season. We're threadbare upfront. Certainly the loss of Sima in January is a big blow, and one I'm not sure we've dealt with. The return of Lowry might yet make a difference. He's injured and looks like being out until April, but it's a long season with more than a few twists and turns left in it. Fit and focused, and depending on injuries or form elsewhere, he might still have a roll to play.

Well let me be the first to admit I thought Dessers looked like a dumpling from almost day 1. A poor touch, a lack of mobility and a surprising lack of strength and power when grappling with defenders combined with a complete lack of composure in front of goal. I'll also admit that despite his recent run of scoring form, a couple of which have been really nice finishes, I'm still not convinced by him. However, should he go on and have a great second half of the season and, once again, underline my lack of football knowledge, no one will be happier than me.