boabie

As an outsider who knows practically nothing about the various parties can I ask if anybody is surprised by any of this ?

Imo it was always going to happen due to the mindset of most of those involved.

As long as nobody forgets that THEY are there to serve and represent US and not themselves, it'll all settle down in time. But as previously said, the very second any of them lose sight of that fact, they should be removed promptly.

Wales v Portugal 3-2

Germany v France 3-2

Ill Phils wean will be crying at this news.

Ronaldo or Bale for the Final now...Real Madrid seem to get things right most of the time.

I'll be honest here mate - from what little I've seen , Ronaldo has been a failure at this competition.

Very disappointed.

Sort of knocks on the head the eternal Scottish excuse of being "just a small nation" Wales and Iceland who are both even smaller appear to have overcome that problem.

The "small nation" excuse was only ever promoted by wasters like the SFA or folk who never actually went to football matches mate.

Those of us who watched games and saw the talent available we had were looking for managers and those working behind the scenes to be a little bit professional and make things easy for the squad, allowing them to do what they were capable of.

Leading our guys to hotels where there was feck all to do during downtime contributed to our serial failures.

One thing about tonights game - the referee made so many wrong decisions imo he shouldn't get another match.

Neither do I mate.

News of a Bar72 space had me phoning a friend but it doesn't appear on the booking site.

Well done Wales.Well done both teams for contributing to a smashing game of football.

Many years ago I dreamed of seeing a Scottish team produce displays like we've seen from the taffies. We certainly had the squad to do it. Unfortunately we had managers who made wrong decisions like Ormond who had us sit back against Zaire or dumplings like McLeod who not only didn't recognise who could actually do a job for us but also showed his true value as a fanny by not doing any scouting of the sides we were facing.

Once again , well done Wales ! You've a fan for the rest of this tournament - somebody who normally couldn't give a monkeys if no Rangers players were involved.

I agree, it simply gets my goat when I see English fans suggesting going to Rangers as being a step down even for a league 1 player while implying that it has anything to do with anything but the TV money down there.

From my previous experience of living and working beside the average English fan I'd say 95% of them know the square root of hee-haw about Scottish football.

They are probably correct in many cases btw. But are speaking from the wrong perspective. As you say, it's all to do with the money.

It may not be wholly down to sky but I would guess it's a huge factor. Or is it just a coincidence that as the billions flowing into England consistently grew our domestic game consistently went downhill as it became ever more impossible to keep any quality homegrown talent in our game?

 

Then as the reputation of our game cosnssitently falls it becomes ever harder to get anybody from anyplace to come here. The English leagues outside the EPL would be little better if they were in our position and it goes without saying that the EPL itself would be no world beater if all that TV money were going to say Germany rather than England.

It wasn't that long ago that we were able to match the English clubs when it came to wages mate.

If enough money was on offer then even the best player in the world would come to play in Scotland. It's all about the money - unfortunately, for several reasons there is none in the game here.

These kick-off times will actually be better for the Irish guy's I would imagine as they will be home earlier and I would imagine there will be an early morning ferry.

What about the rest of us Pete ? You know, having a couple of jars pre-match ?

RANGERS Football Club is delighted to confirm the signing of Lee Hodson for an undisclosed fee on a three-year contract.

The Northern Ireland international put pen to paper after returning from his country’s European Championship campaign in France.

The former Watford, Brentford and MK Dons defender spent the second half of last season on loan in Scotland with Kilmarnock.

He made 17 appearances in total for Killie including two against the Light Blues, having made his debut for the Ayrshire side in their Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox in February.

Having been part of Northern Ireland’s squad in France, Hodson will now enjoy a short break before joining up with Mark Warburton’s squad on its return from South Carolina.

http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/hodson-signs-gers/?

Rangers' first match on their return to the top flight of Scottish football will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.

Mark Warburton's side, who were demoted to League Two following financial irregularities in 2012, host Hamilton Academical at Ibrox on Saturday, August 6 (12.30pm).

The following day, Sky Sports cameras will be in Edinburgh to see new Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers begin the Hoops' quest for a sixth successive title against Hearts at Tynecastle (2.15pm).

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11788/10328371/rangers-return-to-scotlands-top-flight-to-be-shown-live-on-sky-sports?

That is well over a week since UEFA told them to get tae and there is still no sign of Brennans "explosive" letter from them.

All talk seems to have stopped on their forums. It's been 2 days since anybody on Kerryfail St had anything to say about it and it's fast heading to the archive.

Did those donating get their in excess of 5 grand back after the paper advert got refused ? Or is it maybe being used to pay the rent on their wee office while they sit around trying to think up another deluded scheme to fleece their own fans ?

:devil:

They have what is proposed there already - the European Cups.

They may well at some point in the future bring in some sort of league to generate even more money for themselves, but anyone believing we or the scum will be invited to the party needs their head read. The usual suspects from England, Spain, Germany, etc will receive invites. Nobody else need apply.

I read the HITC site on newsnow rangers on the subject. Surprise surprise, from twitter they selected a bundle of folk saying they'd be delighted to see Lafferty back.

Twitter must be full of guys who don't actually watch Rangers play.

CHANGES TO FOOTBALL STRUCTURES

Most of the questions I received were detailed in nature and I have consolidated them into common themes for the purpose of my responses. However, a few questions were directed at gaining a better understanding of the “bigger picture” and what has been put in place over the last year to ensure the football structures are solid and not dependent on key individuals within the football management team or the Board.

These are important considerations because the Club’s football department has undergone the biggest changes since the current board took over.

A ‘Technical Board,’ consisting of the Manager, Assistant Manager, Head of Academy, Head of Goalkeeping, Head of Recruitment, Managing Director and Director of Finance and Administration, has been established to oversee our whole football philosophy from the top of the Club to the bottom. This is in place to ensure the implementation of a Club-wide playing style, football philosophy and culture and to evaluate our progress in becoming a modern, progressive football club by measuring progress against set targets. The Technical Board also works with a player-succession planning model from our Academy through to the first team and this drives our recruitment and development needs of our most talented younger players as they move towards the first team. Evidence of our playing style can now be seen throughout all of the Rangers teams.

The Manager deliberately has a relatively lean first-team squad to create aspiration and to ensure a pathway for young players and that all players at the Club can ‘see the first team.’

Developing young players is a fundamental part of our business plan. Not only are there obvious financial benefits to development, but there is greater affinity between the player and the Club and from the supporters towards the player. It is difficult to replicate this with a player recruited externally. All of the clubs who have success in this area have youth development within their DNA and it is genuinely supported throughout the Club from the board down. Only with this level of commitment will we achieve success. We recognise that this is an area where the Club has had only sporadic success in the past, but to really be considered among the top European clubs we were required to radically change our Academy.

This change has commenced. We are very early in the project and we acknowledge that youth development takes time for us to see the outcomes. However, a number of positive changes are already evident. There have also been staff changes throughout the Academy ensuring we have the best qualified staff in all areas to create the best environment for the young players. For example, we are currently recruiting for a Head Development Squad Coach to work in the Academy to replace Ian Durrant, who recently moved on from the Club.

Moving away from traditional football recruitment methods, we decided to advertise to ensure that we get the best individual for the post. Each candidate will be put through a rigorous series of interviews, presentations and checks to ensure we get the correct person who will fit into our culture and who has the necessary skill set to help our players make the jump from the Academy to the first team. It is important that we develop our staff as well as our players and that we have experts in all of the disciplines.

We are creating a ‘best v best’ culture whereby we maximise the challenge for our Academy players. This may be via top tournaments abroad, fixtures in England, playing against older players and putting players on loan to best prepare them for the first team. Each player is an individual project. We must ensure that the challenges our players face are at the correct level at the correct time in order to change the normal pathway experienced by young Scottish players. By making decisions in the interests of the player we may negatively impact on the results of some of our Academy teams. That does not matter – producing players for the first team is the only objective of the Academy. The only team that must win is the first team.

We have the ambition to become one of the top 15 Academies in Europe and are creating an environment with our coaches sports scientists, medical, welfare and education, operations and analyst teams within the Academy to achieve this goal.

We recently launched a partnership with Boclair Academy that will result in 24 of our best young Academy players between ages 11 and 15 leaving their own schools to attend Boclair. This will allow them to concentrate on their academic study while achieving 16 hours per week of football activity. Only with this level of contact time can we produce a much higher standard of player. This is an important initiative.

The Academy is now split into four key sections; Children’s, Intermediate, Senior and Development squads. Each of these has a manager tasked with developing the staff and new separate age-specific curriculums. We have also become a Coerver Coaching partner club and this influences our curriculum design.

Academy players have individual websites where they complete well-being questionnaires, receive all of their video analyses and clips and can view all of the educational presentations on areas such as diet and nutrition, etc. We have recently achieved ‘Investors in Young Peoples Status’ for our Academy as a result of the way we look after the young players and the learning environment we are creating. Developing good people with specific behavioural characteristics, growth mind sets, drive to succeed, and humility is important to us and fits well with the traditional values of our club.

We are also increasing our representation and influence on key committees to ensure Rangers are at the heart of shaping any changes made within the Scottish game – changes which everyone must acknowledge are required if we are to produce a better quality and different type of player for our country and, in our case, at Rangers.

LADIES TEAM

The Club has demonstrated our commitment to the Ladies first team and Academy since we created our first squad back in 2007. Since then the Academy has grown and now boasts more than seven squads from under 12s to the first team. We have 122 Academy to first-team players with 16 girls in our elite centre. The squads train at Auchenhowie and have played games at Ibrox Stadium, which further demonstrates the Club’s commitment to investing in our female football talent. In March this year, we recruited our first full-time employee, Kevin Murphy, to work as the ladies first-team manager and oversee the girls’ Academy. This Academy mirrors the work that has been implemented within the boys’ Academy and we hope our talented young female players can progress through the ranks to help achieve their potential. There have been several players in the past few seasons that have progressed from the Academy to the first team and this remains a priority for the staff involved.

We are fully committed to continuing our support and aid for the ladies’ programme and not simply because by having a fully supported female section we are recognising our social and corporate responsibility. Perhaps more importantly, we recognise the growth in the women’s game on its own merits and we will continue to support the development of our female teams and ensure our first team keep competing in the Women’s Premier League.

http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/dave-king-response-10/?

My first attempt.

Poland - Portugal 2-2 Poland win on pens.

Wales - Belgium 2-3

Germany - Italy 1-3

France - Iceland 1-1 France win on pens.

Not disagreeing with you,just that it does baffle me how much stick Lafferty got for that from the whole of Scottisg football and Scottish media,quite right!,compare that to how much of an easy ride the wee hobo got for exactly the same thing against Halliday!,you would think it never happened yet everybody remembers Lafferty!

I remember Lafferty because he did it in a Rangers jersey Ian. I detest cheating .

But you're correct. He got far more negative coverage than anyone else did.

Count me in Kyle. You were a waste of a clean jersey and should've been thrown out the club right after your antics against the sheep. A mank jersey would have suited you better.

We know all of that boabie - but the SPL clubs didn't have remit to, as you suggested, "Kick us out of Scottish Football". They didn't have that right. They only had the right to expel us from the SPL. U being kicked out of Scottish Football was always going to be the remit of the SFL clubs.

It's semantics here Craig.

When the SPL clubs kicked us out we were effectively out of football. We had no league to play in unless the SFL clubs accepted us.

If the SFL clubs had voted not to accept us, as we hadn't been part of their set-up, then effectively the SPL clubs had kicked us out of football.

I'll leave it at that mate.

" Rangers have flown out to America today for a pre-season tour, and Warburton spoke at the airport this morning to confirm that a new signing could be on the way this week, despite the Gers boss being away from Glasgow.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Warburton admitted that a mystery player who has been at Euro 2016 could sign for Rangers in the coming days, with Rangers pushing to complete a deal - and he wants a couple more new signings the coming weeks to finish his work off. "

http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2016/06/27/warburton-hopes-rangers-add-new-signing-this-week-mystery-target/?

RANGERS Chairman Dave King recently invited supporters to send in questions and below you can read the eighth part in series as he addresses the topics raised by fans:

ALLY MCCOIST

A number of supporters have asked why Ally McCoist has not attended Ibrox since his departure and if this is a sign that he is not welcome as a result of his performance as manager and the manner in which he departed the Club. Given the number of similar comments that have been voiced over the past year I want to state unequivocally my personal and the Club’s position on Ally.

1. Ally is one of Rangers’ all time greats as a footballer and deserves the iconic status that he achieved at the Club.

2. In all of my personal dealings with Ally, both pre and post regime change, I have never felt that he made a decision without considering the interest of the Club ahead of himself.

3. When Ally resigned from the Club he, quite correctly, did so in terms of his contract. He subsequently compromised on this contract to the benefit of the Club and we are grateful to him for that voluntary concession.

4. Ally was a unifying figure for the Club when we were demoted to the lower leagues. As expected of a club with Rangers resources he secured two very comfortable promotions before the team failed to win the Championship and thereby secure the anticipated immediate return to the Premier League. Given Rangers resources, that was completely unacceptable and Ally acknowledged that.

5. However, and importantly, what must not be forgotten is the absolute turmoil at the Club during that season with massive cost reductions on and off the field. The emergence of Mike Ashley via Derek LLambias was guaranteed to spiral the Club further downwards and the overall atmosphere throughout the Club was as dismal and dire as it could possibly have become. I know this from my personal interaction with insiders throughout this terrible period for the Club.

6. The first team was not immune from what was going on and I am absolutely certain that the on-field performance was greatly impacted by the off-field shambles. I am also absolutely convinced that if the present board had been in place during that season (and was able to provide the support that the present manager now receives) Ally and his team would have won that Championship.

In summary, Ally’s reputation within the Club is not diminished to any degree. I have previously invited Ally to attend games and he knows he is welcome at any time. He has not yet chosen to do so but I believe that this is out of respect for the Club and the new Board as he wanted to give us space to move forward with as few historical distractions as possible. I respect him for adopting that selfless approach but hope that he considers that the Club has now stabilised to the point that we can enjoy his and his family’s company this season.

http://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/dave-king-response-8/?

Tell them we have a tour of Japan organised. That might work.

One game for a Charity Shield or cup, to be defended by the winner each year in the close season, held in a different city each year. Could work?

The last time we did that mate they kept the cup.