Gaffer

I'm now fully expecting Windass to be leaving shortly. He has just liked his dad's comment about the 3m release clause. I don't know what game he's playing but the guy is an idiot. I know he's our player, but let's face it, he is a liability and we'd be better off without him. He seems to have no appreciation for the consequences of using social media for some of his messages and responses. If we get 3m or more for him, I'd take it. As for loans, I think they're a brilliant way for us to test out players. Imagine we had forked out millions on the recent loans, rather than just paying their salaries. Only Murphy has worked out, and because of that we bought him. That seems like great business to me. Yes, there's a risk of a player turning out to be brilliant and him returning to his club. I'd rather have excellent players leaving us, than flops staying with us. The loan market works, and for us it's got to be part of our future.

France 2-1 Argentina Uruguay 2-1 Portugal Spain 2-1 Russia Croatia 2-1 Denmark  Brazil 2-1 Mexico Belgium 2-1 Japan Sweden 2-1 Switzerland  Colombia 1-2 England

That's what I thought too. I'm almost 100% sure the new contracts removed the release clauses. I think the press has jumped on tweets by his dad. It just shows his dad is just as clueless.

I agree with you Darthter. At the start of this thread I said that SG's opinion that the team was unfit "may" have been correct, but I believe it is more about their mentality. Anyone (including SG) watching our games, especially against Celtic, could have been forgiven for thinking we weren't fit enough. Afterall, why else would we not be closing them down all over the pitch, in particular when they went down to ten men. I think he's underestimated the mental fragility and that's something that a ten day trip can't fix. That'll take much longer. SG now needs two or three games at Ibrox (where the pressure and intensity is greatest) to truly assess the 'fitness' of our players. I suspect at that time his opinion of some of our players will change. I hope we get off to a good start, but I also believe he needs the team to lose a couple of games in a row too before he sees who has the mentality to recover, and who hides under those circumstances. That's why I think he will need at least one more full transfer window to sort the team out.

I would also prefer we didn't bring in players with that type of background. I'm hypocritical though, like many fans because I just loved watching Gazza, who had a similar issues with his partner at the time. I'm not sure if people can actually be rehabilitated or truly change their ways and because of that I'd still be very nervous if I was the father of his partner. Having said that though, our justice system is based on people paying for their crimes and then being reintegrated. The press seems to be hypocritical too with the way they praise people like Nelson Mandela. What about his past? He did some horrific things. On that basis, I accept Flanagan has a right to a future and since Gerrard has decided he is an asset, I will support him. I would guess his punishment for that crime will continue for years to come and he has to live with that. Playing for us under those circumstances will be a test of his character. I hope he prevails though. As far a strong Stan Collymore is concerned, I don't dislike him because he beat his partner. To be honest I can't remember much if anything about that. I dislike him because he is an attention seeking moron who will say anything to get a reaction - with a particular focus on our club.

I've seen this release clause stated by a few sources now (including a tweet from his Dad), however my understanding is that none of the players have a release clause now as they were all bought out when the players' new contracts were signed. This was the same with Tav when he signed his new contract. I wonder if my information is correct or if Windass has somehow managed to retain this clause. If he has, I'm surprised we offered him a new deal because at that time his value was higher. At the very least I'd have expected it to increase.

Abuse and ridicule ?

I listened to that too. Our club really was in the dark ages when it came to fitness. When I listened to Durrant and Ferguson talk about the running they had to do during pre season for Rangers it made me think about how much time was wasted during pre season. Running up and down the dunes at Gullane only really develops their ability to run up and down sand dunes, but it doesn't really help them in a game of football. Footballers require a specific type of fitness which requires balance, sharp changes of direction, and bursts of speed. Running for 15km on sand doesn't help with that. So when SG says they weren't fit enough, he means for a game of football in the style he wants them to play. They would all have been fit enough to run a marathon, but that's useless. MW understood the theory too, and there's no doubt our team under him and Weir was very fit. We just lacked the ability to change the plan. The ironic thing about the way SG wants us to play is that if you do chase the ball down and win it back early, it's the other team that needs to be fit because they'll spend more of the game without the ball. Last season, especially against Celtic, it's no wonder we tired. We allowed them to play and didn't press them. There is no team fit enough to manage that. There's a reason most top teams score goals in the last 8 minutes of games. It takes about an hour of intensive work to tire a pro player. After that they don't concentrate as well and gaps open up. We need to get back to that, and being in our opponents' faces from second one of the game will help us win more games, even if it is towards the end of the match. That's a big part of what the football winning mentality is. It looks like Stevie G has got that into their heads now.

VAR played its role in that game too. I'm a big fan of this now. Not only is it making sure the big decisions are correct, but it adds much more drama to these situations too. Brilliant!

Apologies, but I've only now had the chance to listen to the podcast. Once again, brilliant job guys. I'm really enjoying them and every two weeks isn't enough, but I understand you need enough content to work with. The host was excellent, and Frankie was his usual opinionated entertaining self. I also really enjoyed listening to the guy from Fourladshadadream. Entertaining, funny, informative, insightful. I'm already looking forward to the next one. I understand that Pete asked for two weeks just to practice the pronunciation of our players and Euro opponents. Can't wait!!!

What makes you think (or know) that? How can anyone really believe what he writes? I can't believe anyone is that gullible. I can understand many people being amused by him, but believe him or donate???? Really!?! If anyone does, they're as ill as he is.

I can't imagine anyone is still stupid enough to donate to him, but the guy does need help - just not financial help. Forget that this is a deluded Celtic fan. He's clearly an ill person that needs help. I wonder if he has friends and if so, are they trying to get him the medical support he needs.

I think this suggests that the club is not convinced that he is good enough. This deal appears to have been constructed by his agent, giving him a final year to prove he is good enough. I expect he will sign with Livingston next season if they stay up. If not, he'll sign for another premier league club. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I've not seen anything to suggest that he will be good enough for our first team.

Uruguay 2 - 1 Russia Saudi Arabia 1 - 2 Egypt Spain 2 - 1 Morocco Iran 0 - 1 Portugal  Denmark 0 - 1 France Australia 1 - 1 Peru Nigeria 1 - 1 Argentina Iceland 0 - 2 Croatia South Korea 1 - 2 Germany Mexico 2 - 1 Sweden  Serbia 1 - 1 Brazil Switzerland 1 - 2 Costa Rica Japan 1 - 0 Poland Senegal 0 - 2 Colombia  England 2 - 0 Belgium  Panama 0 - 1 Tunisia

Some of the comments on this thread make me laugh. If we want a young 25+ goals a season striker who scores in 50% of his games, I think about £60m should just about cover that. We have to take risks. We have no option if we are to compete. We have no option but to put our trust in the football management team. I'm sure they know what they are doing. If they think these risks are worth taking, that's good enough for me.

It depends on what we mean by good enough. This current group of players are technically good enough to challenge for the league. We have no idea if they're mentally strong enough to cope with the demands of playing for Rangers. We won't find out properly until we have our first few games. We all just hope that Allen and the team (given that it's their first proper window) have been able to assess the mental attributes, otherwise we will be in for another difficult season. I'm quietly confident though, but I'm always optimistic so don't listen to me.

I'm sure this is the club that got a new rich owner. I saw it on a list last year, and they were planning to spend a fortune on a new ground and players. No idea if theyve progressed with that agenda but there's was a clear signal of intent to do that. I'm just hoping they don't sign Messi or Ronaldo until after we play them. ?

Russia 2 - 1 Egypt Portugal 2 - 0 Morocco Uruguay 4 - 0 Saudi Arabia Iran 0 - 2 Spain Denmark 2 - 1 Australia France 2 - 0 Peru Argentina 1 - 2 Croatia Brazil 3 - 0 Costa Rica Nigeria 1 - 1 Iceland Serbia 2 - 1 Switzerland Belgium 2 - 0 Tunisia Joker South Korea 0 - 3 Mexico Germany 2 - 1 Sweden England 3 - 0 Panama Japan 2 - 0 Senegal Poland 1 - 2 Colombia

He might be right in saying they weren't physically fit enough, but for me it was more about their mental fitness. The team collapsed mentally when Celtic went down to ten men. There was no belief that we could win that match. The team then failed to recover mentally after that and we went on to record some poor results and performances.

If Serbia put as much passion into their play as they did for singing their anthem, this could be 10-0 to Costa Rica. If I'd seen that singing performance before my prediction, I'd have used a Costa Rica win as my joker. ?

The level of stupidity and ignorance just knows no bounds with some people. That's so funny!!!! Wouldn't you just enjoy seeing her face as someone explains that to her? Priceless.

As supporters we want to see how the team performs against Celtic and Aberdeen so I'm excited that these are our early games. Of course I'd like to have had our first game at home but maybe an away tie is a blessing, unless SG manages to turn around our home fortunes quickly. I don't think Aberdeen or Celtic will be too excited about playing us so early though. I'm sure they'd rather watch how we play for a few games before deciding on the tactics against us. We are an unknown quantity. They aren't. That may be to our advantage.

Russia 3-0 Saudi Arabia (Group A) Egypt 1-2 Uruguay (Group A) Morocco 2-1 Iran (Group B) Portugal 1-2 Spain (Group B) France 2-1 Australia (Group C) Peru 1-2 Denmark (Group C) Argentina 4-0 Iceland (Group D) Croatia 2-1 Nigeria (Group D) Costa Rica 2-1 Serbia (Group E) Brazil 3-0 Switzerland (Group E) Germany 3-1 Mexico (Group F) Sweden 2-1 South Korea (Group F) Belgium 5-0 Panama (Group G) Tunisia 0-2 England (Group G) Colombia 1-2 Japan (Group H) Poland 2-1 Senegal (Group H)

I know what my previous posts said. Your assumption was that I don't know and am just taking a position and then working the agenda to fit. Let's just leave it at that. I won't say anything more on the matter.

You must think I work for the BBC with an accusation like that. I don't work any agendas to fit anything. At least not that I'm aware of. I'm not leaking anything. All I'm saying is that I hope the club, or someone, has the chance to officially explain what happened. Im sure Murty would be quite happy about that. Wallace obviously doesn't care about it coming out, hence why he I saw willing to take it to the SPFL. That's why I know he's leaving, because he can't remain at the club.