Gaffer

Your last point there is spot on. If he did speak to the board and leaked that to KJ, he is unfit to be our manager. If he didn't have the sense or conviction to speak with the board in the first place, he is not fit to be our manager. Either way I'm glad he isn't.

What an article from KJ there. He clearly has some major issues with DK, but this comes across as hysterical to me. My understanding is that we never got to the stage where we spoke with DM. Is that correct? That's certainly the statement I thought we had made. How can it have been anything DK or board said/did if we didn't even speak with him? Am I missing something here?

It is what? - in the fake news thread? - a load of crap? - sorted out? (The contract, that is) Its Monday morning. I'm confused easily.

You are quite right to correct him on his use of language, however I'm not sure you should be so quick to label him untruthful either. He stated an opinion and his is no less valid than anyone else's. Murphy hasn't proven anything in this league yet, as with Martin and Cummings. However, that's exactly why you can't say you are correct and he is wrong. Griffiths and Sinclair proved that they couldn't make it down south, but Murphy has done more than both of them. Is it not therefore conceivable that he might just be better? Martin was a success down south. Again is that not reason to at least entertain the notion that he might be better than his counterparts at Celtic? None of us know how successful we will be with these players, but I think it's reasonable to state an opinion the way he did (notwithstanding his language which I'd hope he'd retract).

I'm almost certain that those who have entertained the prospect of having him back have not seen him recently. I always rated him as a player with us, but more so when he was at Everton. He was a great player at that time. He has however fallen away dramatically, and I think most people will cool their interest when they see him play for Hearts now. I think he relied on his acceleration, which seems to have fallen off a cliff now. I've not seen him for a few months now so perhaps that was him returning from injury, but he didn't appear to be even a shell of the player that performed so well for Everton.

Great post Baxterboy. I couldn't agree more! The sooner we realise that this mob are just overhyped, the sooner we will have the confidence to have a real go at them. The bad news is that we are an average team at the moment, otherwise we'd be walking this title. The good news is that they think they're miles ahead of us, so hopefully we can give them a fright. I liked the way you compared each position and I can't think of one of their players I'd rather have in my team either, and certainly not their 40m rated striker. I'd rather have our loan/600k striker every day of the week, even if he is an idiot. 55, here we come!

Just read his tweet. That looks pretty conclusive to me that he's staying.

The Albion fans rate this boy highly and can't believe he's not getting his chance there. If possible we should do everything to get him.

I am almost completely speechless at how out of touch these guys are. I don't know whether to be astonished, disgusted or sympathetic (to their obvious mental problems). Boyd, Ferguson and McCoist should have Rangers' best interests at heart, and I don't think any of them are this stupid to believe what they're writing/saying. I can only therefore assume that they need the money so badly that they'll say whatever it takes to get an article printed. Either way, these are sad days for these guys. How low can they stoop? I agree with Stewarty ..... let's get these guys a gagging order for their own good. Their reputations are in pieces already. They are in real danger of losing any shred of respect we had for them.

I understand your thinking, but I think him going there will annoy them more. It won't take long before they realise that we are better at assessing a player than they are. He's just not very good any more. He was a very good player, and still can do something for them. But their fans' expectations of him will very quickly evaporate. If we spend our admin time on securing Docherty instead, that will prove to annoy them (and all our other nearest rivals) for a long long time. As for Hyndman, we actually play a system under Murty where he'd fit in nicely and I was disappointed when Rangers denied interest in him. He was just not physically strong enough to play the role MW had him play in central midfield or the pace to play wide, but he is a very talented player and would be suited to the number 10 role in the 4-2-3-1 system. Having said that, we now have plenty of attacking options. Only time will tell if the options we have are good enough.

Great piece Rousseau, as usual. The switching of play is key for me in this, because it's too easy to nullify our attacks by many of the teams who will play defensively against us. 7 teams in the SPL will sit back, with at least 8 of their players moving left and right across the pitch as we move the ball out to the wings. Even if we attempt the overload, they will quickly identity this and get their numbers over quickly. This is where the sudden switch of play creates the real opportunity. My concern when I watch us in this system is that we don't seem to be able to achieve this quickly enough for it to be effective. There is no doubt that Goss or Kranjcar can see and make this delivery with a single pass, but only one of them is likely to play in our league games. So, if the opposition covers this player, and matches our overload on the wings, what do we do? The alternative is that we make the switch through a series of shorter passes (via Holt, Jack, Dorrans, McCrorie, etc), but this is the part that breaks down for me. They just don't do it quickly enough, and my fear is that when's we try to do it faster, we give the ball away more often. If we're overloaded on one wing and then lose it in the middle, we are exposed at the back. For that, we need pace and organisation in defence, which is why I'd like to see McCrorie and Martin (or Alves) in partnership there. However, we also need Jack because he's the ONLY player in our team who I have confidence in to hold up play enough for our defence (and midfield) to reorganise itself accordingly. McCrorie is decent in that role, but just doesn't read the game as well as Jack does. In summary, I'm all for this strategy, but again there are key man dependencies we need to address. Who can deputise for Jack? Is Docherty that type of player?

I reside in Scotland and I don't recognise much of what you've suggested. I do agree there appears to be an anti Rangers agenda, but I actually think it's just poor, lazy journalists that issue false but entertaining stories to their readers, who enjoying reading their fantasies. They'll continue to do that as long as it's what their customers want, and let's face it, they do want more of it. Most of Scotland that I know is actually beautiful and interesting. Of course there are bad areas, and in particular the west coast has a sectarian issue, but it's not widespread at all. Far from it. I do accept though that we all have our opinions shaped through our experiences. I've maybe just been fortunate.

I think this is a great idea, and I'd love to hear from you guys (and others on the forums). I enjoy the heart and hand podcast too, but there aren't enough good to ones around in my opinion, so this would be welcomed. I have no idea how I could help, but just wanted to encourage you to follow through with this and to wish you good luck. I have had media training so I'd be happy to pass on the things I've learned from that, if you are interested. Other than that, I think I'm useless to you. Good luck, and I can't wait to hear the first one.

That's an unbelievably bad attitude for any player to have, especially one that wants to break into the first 11 of a club like Rangers. Little comments like that give a real insight into a player's psyche and aft that, I'd be telling him to find another club. The thing is that his attitude in games seems to tie in with this statement because he just isn't working hard enough for me. i suspect you guys are right and he realises it and suspects he will be away soon. I hope so.

You've got cracking pictures for every circumstance

Or we could profit out of it. Isn't it prudent for this company to hedge at least part of it's bet? If that's the case, and if these are real bets and the company closed betting because it stood to lose too much, can't we offer to hedge it? If these gullible folk are so sure it's going to happen, why not get oddschecker to offer at 10:1 and then we will hedge at 11:1 on. 10% (or thereabouts) is a decent return. That would be a story!!! Celtic fans betting we will be relegated and us betting that they're a bunch a lying losers. It'll be an even bigger story when we're collecting the winnings and laughing in their faces. That would be funny as well as profitable.

I think you're right, and it would help, but these red top rags are just giving their readership what they want. What Celtic fan wants to read about the good things going on at the club? These people don't care if it's true or not. Celtic fans (and others too) want to read this because it's a fantasy they wish was true. As long as they want to read this crap, there will be an organisation out there willing to give it to them. I did a quick look back over the past two years on our Gersnet pages. I've counted 118 instances of made up stories we've discussed, and I wasn't looking that hard. Note that this didn't include any transfer speculation. This just proves that our club is what all fans want to talk and read about. Their primary interest is entertainment, not facts. I don't know what the answer is, but that's the environment we're operating in. I'd like to think our PR team could do a better job though.

Although Jack can play as a right back, he isn't a wingback and that's what we would need to replace Tav. The only person that would have any chance IMO of filling that spot would be MOH, but from what I've seen he's not good enough so I'd be so disappointed for Tav went. It'd be a massive hole to fill.

I'm not sure what system Murty wants to play, but we are in desperate need of a number 10 if he is going to persist with 4-2-3-1 or the diamond. If Pena goes we don't have anyone to play that position. In those systems, it's THE most important position on the park. However, it's also the hardest and most expensive one to fill. Maybe we have to wait until the summer to plug that almighty gap.

Others have summed this up perfectly well already, but I still can't believe that a paper, even one as deep in the gutter as this one, could print such a pile of crap. I'm getting the feeling that there is some desperation somewhere and I'm actually heartened by it. These lazy journos now can't find anything to write about our club, so they blow the dust off a diddy has-been, feed him some crack and alcohol, and get him to spout the biggest chunk of lies and fantasy. It's just utterly bizarre and I can't remember reading something like this since Cantona's trawler nonsense.

If that's true, I wish him all the best. I liked his style and vision, and he scored some good goals for us too, but clearly Murty just doesn't rate him so it's better for everyone if he does go.

You've probably suspected it for a while, but now it's confirmed: I know very little about my own club. Only 26 correct answers :-(. I'm sure fans of other clubs would get more correct answers than I did so I'll be on a watch list now. I'll try to pay more attention to when goals are scored, and teamsheets this year.

Only these so called journos can turn a positive support for our club and the team's effort into a negative story. He's scum. Most of them are scum. He makes reference to GIRUY, but what he doesn't appreciate is that we are saving the biggest GIRUY for him and the rest of Scottish football when we win 55. It's going to be the sweetest feeling ever in the history of football. It's also going to be the best story in the game, but I doubt any of these guys will want to tell it. We will though.

Happy new year to you all. We all have our moments, and we all have our disagreements, but we'll have the same objective and that's to see our club be successful again. Here's to progress in 2018, and us edging closer to 55. All the best to you and yours.

This is something I'd really like to understand, but fear we never will. Why is Pena so out of the picture now? What is it that Murty sees that we don't? Pena is surely someone who needs to be involved. I'm utterly bemused by this. I've said a few times before that I've seen this guy play last year and he's better than anything else in Scotland right now, and when he played in those few games for us, he started to show that, and indeed he was our top midfield scorer and assisted more than anyone else. Why has it gone so badly for him?