JohnMc

The players listed above are unlikely to go anywhere until the summer. I would believe all are getting better deals than available elsewhere. I would be surprised to learn that anybody wants to sign these players during an existing contract.

 

You can relax.

Guys like Miller, Boyd and Daly will be in demand, for any low to mid-ranking SPFL side they could make the difference between staying up or going down. If they offered to take them on half their current salary and we paid the other half I can't see us turning that down. Likewise Black and Moshni will find clubs without difficulty, they'd get what we're paying them in the third tier in England. We didn't recall all those boys out on loan because we want to bolster the reserve side.

It seems clear that every first team player who has only six months left on their contract will be told to find another club this month, every other player is available for transfer and those left at the end of the month will make up the first team squad. That's our current strategy, whilst some seem to welcome this madness I for one would rather we got promoted and that the best way of doing that is by getting the best out of our better players, not freeing them and playing the reserves or those no other club wants. On top of that they'll be managed by someone who himself doesn't think he can do the job far less want it, his assistant was warned not manage East Fife for health reasons and they are being assisted by a player who has never coached before.

Curious recipe for success.

"exceptionally fit"? We've got players who are blowing out their arses after about ten minutes! We've got players who lumber after postmen and brikkies in from a day's work who are skinning them for sheer pace.

With respect that's not true. The level of fitness and conditioning for full-time professional footballers is exceptional, ours are no different. Whether one person is faster than another is the luck of nature, but in terms of core fitness you are incorrect. I'm reminded of all those supporters who accused Charlie Adam of being 'fat', it was patently ridiculous, but plenty still said it.

I'm not sure I agree, at no point does Faure suggest anyone saw McCoist as anything other than the 'boss', he was simply showing the difference between the two cultures and McCoist's ability to relate with players and his accessibility for the payers. It was only one example, more telling for me was McCoist losing it with Miller and that being the first time Faure had seen McCoist really lose it.

There's a lot of uninformed talk from supporters of all clubs about what they think football training should be like. For most it's a cross between a military bootcamp and an intensive medical facility. Professional sport and football in particular has evolved to this point, players are fitter than they have ever been, they've access to dieticians, specialist fitness coaches, medical facilities and so forth. They are monitored, checked and assessed all the time, these guys are exceptionally fit. At that level though, the little gains to be made are psychological, both in terms of an individual' belief and state-of-mind but also of the team spirit, that 'band-of-brothers' ideal that all teams strive for. Making training 'fun' or at least enjoyable is part of the psychology, you've 20 odd players, only 11 of who can start a match, so you've more pissed off players in danger of becoming disillusioned and disruptive at any one time than you have satisfied ones. That needs addressed and part of that process is making training enjoyable. We might not like that, we might expect our players to be hyper-professional droid-like beings but that's simply not the reality of a typical footballer.

Faure has barely started this season and could have used this interview to slate the club, the management who are clearly overlooking his playing genius and his colleagues who aren't as good as him in his own mind after all that's happened plenty of times before. He didn't, he complimented the club, his colleagues, the management and the support. He did this against a background of the most disruptive possible period in the club's history.

No one thinks McCoist was a tactical genius, but he understood the importance of team spirit, of togetherness and he clearly managed to foster that during a very difficult period. Credit where credit is due.

If we were still in the third division and sold Macleod for the going rate there, would you have considered that good business?

 

I don't know how he will get on there. All I said was that most Scottish players in this situation don't tend to do very well. Look at McCabe who was a standout for us at a higher level and spent last season in league 2 in England.

 

That doesn't mean that this is good business. He has shown plenty promise and £1m will disappear in seconds down a black hole. Selling our one good player for a pittance makes us increasingly likely to spend another season in the Championship and god knows what state we will be in by that stage.

Oh I agree we'll spend another season in the Championship, if not starting again at the bottom, I can't see promotion and selling MacLeod only underlines that. I also agree the money will vanish like every other penny the club's taken in the last few years. So I accept it isn't good business in terms of improving the side, it's the opposite of that.

£1 million isn't a pittance though. It might be small change to some clubs but none of them are in Scotland, it still represents good business, considering our desperation and poor governance I'm amazed we didn't end up giving Brentford money frankly.

McCabe only played 7 games for us, he left far too soon, everyone could see that but him and his agent, and Wilson simply joined the wrong club. But guys like Burke, Adam, Hutton and McCormick have had decent careers in England, McLeod has at least the potential they had.

It's not anything close to resembling good business. Falkirk got as much for McGrandles.

I'm not sure what point you're making, Falkirk are in the same division as us and Norwich are in the same division as Brentford. McGrandless had played more first team games than MacLeod has. As such it seems to be the going rate for promising midfielders in our division.

Also how can you argue that he's not a good enough player for the league he's joining whilst complaining that we didn't get enough for him?

If we're being realistic then £1 million for a 20 year old who has yet to play in the Scottish top flight and had a serious heart condition earlier this year is good business. Scott Arfield left Falkirk for £600,000, Johnny Russell for £750,000 and Ryan Gauld £1,500,000 plus add ons that might take it to £3 mill, so £1 mill seems pretty good, assuming that is what we'll get.

I disagree with those who question MacLoed's ability, he might be playing at a lowly level but he's clearly got enough to take him to another level if he can stay clear of injuries. He's acquitted himself well when he played against SPL sides and he wasn't chosen for the last Scotland squad because Strachan and his coaches wanted to do us a favour.

In an ideal world we'd have kept MacLoed, built a team around him and sold him in 3 years time or made him captain and gone on to become a club legend. But we've not lived in an ideal world for a long time.

Good luck to him, he brought joy where there was otherwise only pain.

Ah, fuck. Turns out their fans are nice too. Bloody hell.

Not sure why these directors performing the ceremony would appeal to royalists.

It's an odd thread this one. Maybe he thinks them singing it will attract even more Cavalier behaviour...

The world of football messageboards is a bizarre place at times. When I woke up this morning I'd never have predicted I'd get into an argument with someone over the relative merits of Brentford FC, a club I've given close to no thought too in my entire life.

Let me go back a few posts and try again.

Brentford. Bloody hell.

Three words to boil the blood of Brentford fans everywhere and bring the wrath of FA chairman and celebrity Brentford fan (when he's not supporting Man Utd) Greg Dyke down on anyone who dares scorn the inevitable rise to the very pinnacle of the sport that Brentford are on.

See I'm old enough to remember being depressed when a Rangers captain left us to join Watford, and Watford were actually a good team then. It's probably arrogance actually, why shouldn't one of the brightest prospects in the sport in Scotland be linked with a deeply unfashionable and noticeably un-honoured club like Brentford who play in front of crowds that Hearts would complain about. They're having a good season after all and seem to be stable. The English Championship is a decent level and salaries will far exceed anything we're likely to pay to anyone who isn't a board appointee in the near future.

But then the other side of me says; Brentford, fuckin Brentford! Are you joking, fuckin Brentford for Lewis fuckin MacLoed!! The one vestige of hope, the only thing to put pride in my heart while all around people are trying to induce cardiac arrest. Fuckin Brentford. Where are Sporting Lisbon, Nantes, PSV, Liverpool, Sunderland, fuckin hell even Leeds, someone, anyone where I can say, fair enough, at least he's gone somewhere with potential? Brentford, bloody hell.

They are better than us, on and off the park just now. Interestingly they were bought by their fans a few years ago. Fixed as a club, run prudently and imaginatively and are now reaping the rewards. But still, Brentford, bloody hell.

So yeah, I get it, they're riding high in Rupert Murdoch's self styled fifth richest league in the world, they might just make it into the intergalactic Premiership next season and be fellated and patronised in equal measure by the Neville brothers and MacLoed can buy himself a baby Bentley or white Range Rover. Brentford, bloody hell.

Still, at least it wasn't Bournemouth he was linked too. Bloody hell.

Jeezo Rangeristis, are you Greg Dyke or something? They are very clearly just having a good season, with those crowds, whether 7,000 or 10,000 they can realistically go no further. That doesn't mean they aren't well run, that doesn't mean they aren't a proper club or they don't play good football. It just means they are punching above their weight and that's unlikely to be maintained. They've not played in the English top flight for a very long time, do you think that's changing sometime soon?

I'm dealing in the here and now, what is happening on the pitch and on the training ground. Brentford are in a far healthier position than where Macleod is now. I really don't see what attendance figures have to do with this.

Macleod's emergence has been the one thing the management team have got right. He might well continue to develop under their tutelage. Brentford are far healthier than us, that was the point of my original post. Attendance figures are important because they allow us to see were realistically Brentford are likely to go. With those crowds it's unlikely they'll go much further, and if by chance they did it wouldn't be for long. Again, I mean no disrespect to Brentford, but they shouldn't be able to attract our best p[layers.

Brentford are a fantastic club and one which would allow the player to make the necessary improvements that his game needs, infact, I believe that he is doing well attracting such teams as them and Burnley.

No, they're a fairly ordinary club who are currently punching well above their weight, congratulations and good luck to them for that. But they average less than 7,000 at their home matches despite their best season since the second world war.

We, on the other hand, were a fantastic club who should be able to allow the player to make the necessary improvements to his game.

Brentford. Bloody hell.

Nice post D'art. I'm struck by this line though "these are the standards we were raised with and safeguarding them together" and I find myself wondering how true this now is. I wonder if the real legacy of David Murray is a supplicant support. Nobody under 38 will really remember the pre-Murray era, to them a club like Rangers is run by a larger than life plutocrat who uses his private jet to impress possible signings and who runs the club with their own rod of iron, or steel in his case. We became so used to his apparent benevolent dictatorship many were simply 'raised with that standard' and struggle to function without it. The delight that many in our support showed for Craig Whyte initially underlines this. Too many simply welcomed his apparent wealth without questioning his suitability. We're seeing the same with Ashley, he's a billionaire I hear cried, as if that's the only criteria that matters.

Unfortunately, for many, it is.

What I don't know is how to change that.

This is staggering if true. It's telling that my first instinct is that it is true.

Our lack of player development is simply down to kids not playing out on the streets/fields as much as they used to (xbox generation as well as parents being frightened to lets their kids out). This combined with the poor physical condition and nutrition many youngsters have, plus the prehistoric attitude many coaches have to football. Still far too great an emphasis on speed and size instead of technical ability.

 

England still produce plenty decent players, though even they don't produce anything like the required level, as can be seen in their major tournament results.

 

By the law of averages you would think we would produce the occasional world class player but I can't remember the last one we have had. Wales, Ireland etc have had some in recent years but not us.

Nah, I disagree. They've got x-boxes and peadophiles in Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium and they manage to produce footballers with a modicum of talent fairly often. Societal changes are to blame. The schools being a huge one as RPB explained, but also the enormous and savage social changes that took place in central Scotland in the 70s and 80s played a massive part. Mining, steel and shipbuilding areas had genuine communities and these communities had all sorts of activities available often to a high standard. My father was born into a small mining village in the mid-forties, it consisted of only three miners terraces (rows) yet it had three friendly societies, a quoiting club, an ambulance corps, a juvenile football club, a Junior football side, a brass band, a dramatic society, and a phonetics class as well as an active trade union. That was replicated all across Scotland, it simply isn't anymore.

Konterman wasn't the best import we ever made but he was an interesting guy off the park. He set up home in Drymen when he signed for us and was astonished to discover their was no kids football club in the town. He'd come from a similar sized village in Holland where all the kids joined the local side when they were 6 or 7.

Whilst I was failing to persuade six year olds to go back to bed you were penning post of the year. Hat tipped.

I loved Durrant. He appeared at a time when we simply weren't very good and his emergence was like the first shoots poking through in late winter foretelling better times ahead. Players like Hugh Burns, Cammy Fraser, Bobby Williamson and Kenny Black were the staple heroes then, fully committed, physical players without an inch of guile between them. Davie Cooper had more or less gone on strike over our poverty of player and Bobby Russell couldn't hold down a regular place.

When Durrant appeared as a teenager with Kempes like flowing locks on a fourteen year old's body you feared for him. But he was special. You read stories about George Best breaking into the Man U team as a teenager. The club had a 'tradition' of playing training matches on a car park where the experienced pros would physically intimidate the youth players in an effort to 'make or break' them. Those that could live with the literal kicking they took were deemed strong enough both mentally and physically to go on, those it broke were discarded. Apparently the entire first team defence decided that Best needed 'sorted', his dribbling, feints and tricks were not on, humiliating season professionals couldn't be allowed. But for a fortnight they literally were unable to kick him, try as they might, he was simply to fast and to skilful.

It's no exaggeration to compare him to Durrant. Durrant ghosted past players, his position and timing of his runs was uncanny but what was most impressive was his ability to play in a 'mans' game whilst looking like a child. He must have experienced unbelievable intimidation, particularly at first. If he can pass that on alone he's worth keeping on at the club.

My favourite Durrant moment wasn't a goal, it came in the League Cup Final against Celtic, a game in which he scored and was fouled for the winning penalty. Yet for me his finest moment came in his own box, deep in the second half, Celtic were attacking and attacking, our defence half cleared the ball and it fell to Durrant, he was facing our goal about 15 yards out, every other players first reaction would have been to blooter the ball out of the park, Durrant performed a 'Cryuff turn' wrong footed the entire Celtic team and most of the Rangers one, turning frantic defending into attack in a matter of seconds.

I've probably only seen half a dozen players in my lifetime who'd have had the ability and thought process to have performed that in the heat of an old firm cup final.

If you're selling strips, I would think that's obvious; but ultimately Ashely may not want to own two football clubs.

Ken Bates, whilst Chelsea owner, bought a controlling stake in Partick Thistle in the 80s. His plan was to use Thistle as a feeder club for Chelsea, in the end other than Thistle getting a very young Billy Dodds on loan for a season little came of it other than virtual bankruptcy down Maryhill way. ENIC had a decent shareholding in us at one time whilst also owning large stakes in Sparta Prague, AEK Athens and of course Spurs. They apparently thought money could be made from TV rights.

If Ashley doesn't want to own two clubs then what was yesterday's charade all about and what is Llambias doing in our director's box?

I've yet to hear of anyone who wanted to own more than one club simply because they supported them and wanted to see them both do well.

Because these rules were bad rules. Plenty of people own two clubs

What possible reason could someone have for wanting to own two football clubs?

It's posted, it depressed me writing it, I expect it'll do the same to any poor sod who reads it, apologies for that.

Where do I post it Zappa? I don't have access to the writers section since I created a new log-in, will I post it in here or just open a new thread with it? I'll have it ready on Christmas Eve.

Give me a quote where I am saying that Ashley is not here for making money? All I'm saying is that I wouldn't be surprised if he's not solely (sic!) here for making money.

Sorry dB, you think he's not solely here to make money? So what other reasons do you think are worth considering bearing in mind he has no known connections to Rangers, Glasgow or indeed Scotland?

When Souness left we turned to his assistant and that turned out okay I suppose.

I wish Kenny good luck, he's highly regarded as a coach by almost everyone in football, that's quite different from being a manager though. McCoist has taken some stick by armchair tacticians over his statement that the players out of contract this summer need sorted out. Those who have driven themselves half-mad with their hatred of McCoist the manager seized on this as further evidence of his profligate nature and inability to make hard decisions regarding players he has a soft spot for.

In actual fact it was as sensible a thing as McCoist has publicly uttered for a while. Playing for Rangers is a job to the players, it's what pays the mortgage and the bills and funds the lifestyle. No matter how overpaid we view professional footballers it's a short career and most aim to make as much as possible out of it while they can. We'd all do the same I've no doubt about that.

So here's the thing, having a significant number of your squad not knowing if they're getting a new contract is destabilising. If a player knows that come May they aren't getting paid anymore then certain things begin to happen. Firstly they don't risk playing with any niggles, no one is going to take the chance of a tight hamstring turning into a fully blown torn one for a club that are possibly discarding you in five months. Likewise, those 50/50 tackles, who really wants to take the chance of picking up an injury when trying to secure a contract with a new club, it's not a great career move. Thirdly it creates disharmony in the squad, those who are unsure of their future naturally worry, their wives and partners are rightfully asking for some stability or at least a clear idea if they're going to have to move house again, they themselves are being asked to perform by someone who in all likelihood isn't going to be managing the side next season, perhaps even next month, what's the point in impressing him?

McCoist carried weight around Ibrox, directors were nervous of him, he had currency with the players, the staff, the support and the media, that gave him some clout when it mattered. The players know the the 'new' guy doesn't.

McDowall might well surprise all of us, if he does it will be a footballing miracle frankly, because he's playing with a loaded deck and he's out of chips before he sat at the table.

The latter is disrespectful to anyone who disagrees with the general conception of Ashley, the former is an assumption that is probably very much a reflection of his core interest. It is very much up to debate whether it is Ashley sole interest though. If you believe that, fair enough. Those not following suit straight away are not be default lacking "common sense". Only Ashley knows what Ashley's plans for Rangers FC are. Making money is sure one of his top priorities.

On what grounds do you disagree with the concept? I'm genuinely curious what might make you think Ashley is interested in Rangers for other reasons? His only public utterance in the subject was at the Sports Direct agm, his words there suggested he wasn't involving himself at Rangers for any other reason than to benefit Sports Direct.

There are a number of cultural differences between the UK and Germany, one is in the ownership of football clubs. I can understand why you might look at this situation and assume that the very rich guy might fancy putting something back into the community and would only get involved in a professional football club to help them. I mean no disrespect when I state that in this culture corporate pillaging is not only tolerated is actively celebrated by many influential people in our society. It's naive in the extreme to assume that Ashley plans anything other than the enriching of Sports Direct, all evidence points at that.