ian1964

Published Date: 15 November 2009 The Scottish Football Association will meet later in the week to discuss the future of Scotland manager George Burley. And Press Association Sport understands the meeting is likely to spell the end of his tenure as national team boss. Burley managed to hold onto his job in the wake of his failure to steer Scotland to a play-off spot for the World Cup finals but his position has come under intense scrutiny again following Saturday's 3-0 defeat to Wales. With a record of just three wins in 14 matches, the defeat in Cardiff now looks set to be the match which finally brings an end to a difficult reign. Furious travelling fans in the Cardiff City Stadium turned on the manager after Scotland found themselves trailing by three goals after just 35 minutes, demanding his dismissal and directing verbal abuse towards the beleaguered boss. Burley himself then attempted to dodge questions about his future in his post-match press conference before eventually conceding it would not be his decision whether he would still be in charge for the next game against the Czech Republic in March. SFA vice-president Alan McRae is unable to meet with the rest of the board on Monday but a meeting will be convened in the coming days, with Burley unlikely to gain a second vote of confidence from his employers after remaining in the role following the failure to qualify for the World Cup. http://sport.scotsman.com/latest-national-sport/SFA-to-discuss-Burley-future.5825992.jp

Aye, the latest time the MOPES tried to invade the park was when Miller cored his second @ Ibrox, the stewards managed to keep the swines penned in though.

Good mate,I will have a pre-match beer or two in the wee Rangers club with you :cheers:

Take you are going on Saturday Craig ?

Published Date: 15 November 2009 THE EXPECTATION is that it won't be long now, possibly only a matter of weeks depending on the number of times Walter Smith and the opposition combine to offer him the on-field opportunities. But, all things being equal, few would bet against Kris Boyd leapfrogging Henrik Larsson at the summit of the all-time SPL scoring charts. As the league restarts following the international hiatus, the Rangers player recommences his quest for a pl ADVERTISEMENT ace in the history books. Bettering Larsson's tally will fool no-one into regarding him the better player, says Billy Dodds, but it would safeguard for posterity Boyd's credentials as a goalscorer. Dodds is ranked ninth in the standings himself and says that Boyd and Larsson cannot be compared when it comes to their all-round ability but the one area where the Scot does measure up is when it comes to the instinctive finishing of chances in the domestic domain. "Boydy is an out and out goal-scorer who does work hard to try to add other aspects to his game but Larsson could do everything," says Dodds. "He had awareness, pace, the ability to bring others into play, he could get in behind the defence and was a natural goalscorer. He had the lot but there are not too many like that, especially playing in the SPL." Which is why he thinks it would be such an achievement if Boyd were to surpass the tally of 158 goals accumulated by the Swede in his 186 SPL outings (the 16 goals from his first season with Celtic don't count as they were scored in the old Premier Division). Already, Boyd has played 275 games, so the ratio will not be equal to the player who finished top scorer in the league in five of the six years he competed in the SPL. The only year Larsson failed to better the rest was in 1999/2000 when he missed eight months with a double leg break. But Boyd himself has been a model of consistency in that respect. Three times in the past four seasons he has taken the plaudits as top goal scorer. His self-imposed Scotland exile means he is fresh for the fight and, just ten goals from equalling Larsson, he will be rubbing his hands given the next sequence of matches. First up it's Kilmarnock next weekend. The club where he learned his trade and earned 63 of his SPL goals. Since leaving them, though, he has found them just as helpful in his ascent up the SPL charts, netting 13 goals in 13 league meetings against them. "We know all about him and what he can do and how to get close to him. But knowing that does not make him any easier to play against," concedes his former boss at Rugby Park, Jim Jefferies. "Even although we know what to expect he still manages to get the ball in the net. He has still done us a fair few times but we're not alone, he has done most teams in the SPL a fair few times." In fact, the striker can look at six of the matches Rangers face between now and the end of the year with some relish. Between them the teams involved have accounted for more than half his SPL tally, with Dundee United and Motherwell in particular surely sick of his penalty box interventions. Of the clubs lined up to play Rangers between now and the turn of the year, only Hibernian and St Johnstone have thus far prevented Boyd rattling in a tally above double figures against them. "There is no doubt what Kris is all about," says Jefferies. "He knows himself that he is no Larsson. He was an exceptional player and brought so much more to the table than Kris does but the one area where you could argue that he is equal to Larsson is scoring goals. He loves scoring goals and has that bit of selfishness and luck that the most prolific strikers have but it is not all down to luck. The more chances he gets, the more goals he gets. He gets a bad press but, maybe a bit like Ally McCoist, Kris gets himself into the positions to score and he takes his chances. You could see that in him at a young age and at training he was always shooting from all over. He just wanted to score goals and when he is taking that into matches and winning his team points you can't argue with that. What makes him better than most is his technique. He has great technique in front of goal. "He can hit it first time, and you can see that by how many goals he scores on the half volley or volley, and sometimes to get that chance he is having to adjust his position at the last minute and he is very good at that. Which means he can convert a chance so quickly and gives defenders very little time to get close to him or get a tackle in." Describing him as a great lad, the other thing Dodds and Jefferies agree on is how keen Boyd will be to supersede the former Celtic player at the peak of the all-time scorers list. "We all know that all the very best strikers love to claim everything, whether they got the last touch or not, and the best ones always want to finish top of the scoring charts," explains Jefferies. "Bettering Larsson would not make him a better player than him but that won't matter. Strikers thrive on confidence and this would be brilliant for Kris's confidence." "Larsson was a class act," stresses Dodds, "but these days, look at the other strikers in the SPL, when it comes to getting goals time and time again, Boydy is in a league of his own. What people don't realise is that he is a very thoughtful lad and he works very hard to improve on other areas of his game and if you compare the player he is now to the player Rangers bought, he has improved. He will never be the complete striker but he scores goals that win games and that's what Boydy loves. He will be desperate to get this record and get his name in the history books but, if he does, it will be a long time before anyone can beat it. In fact, I'm not sure anyone will. It is such a tremendous target." http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/sport/Moira-Gordon-Boyd-is-no.5825490.jp

Published Date: 15 November 2009 THE MEN of UEFA live in a parallel universe, a place of privilege and certainty, a world where nobody questions anybody or anything and where everything they do is right and proper. They're the Stepford Blazers, their righteous path illuminated by the Nyon lights. So you end up with a situation whereby Michel Platini announces a zero tolerance policy against racism, where he bangs a table and puts on an angry face and says he is drawing a line in the sand against the bigots and will bring down the Sword of Dam ADVERTISEMENT ocles on the animals who abuse players. And everybody stands and applauds. All those UEFA officials congratulate Platini and say pity those racists of European football when Michel gets his hands on them. Oh yes. In their world, Platini becomes a hardliner on racism simply because he says he is, even though he is not, even though there are countless examples of UEFA being woefully weak on the haranguing of black players in its competitions. But that's our interpretation, not UEFA's. Parallel universe, folks. Before Platini assumed office in Switzerland, these were the type of things that went on. Real Madrid were fined ?9,700 (Ã?£8,700) for their fans' constant racist chants and Nazi salutes in a game against Bayer Leverkusen. Brugge were fined a little under Ã?£8,000 for abusing black players against Utrecht. The Slovakians were fined Ã?£27,000 ââ?¬â?? basically, a pound a racist -for constant monkey chants directed at England's Emile Heskey and Ashley Cole. "It wasn't just one section of the stadium, it was the whole stadium," said Heskey. Those were the bad old days, of course. Since then, Platini was voted into the top job at UEFA on the back of a campaign of getting tough on the people who drag football into the gutter. The zero-tolerance policy has been introduced and here are the results. In March last year, the fans of Zenit St Petersburg gorged themselves on a feast of bigotry when Marseille travelled to Russia for a UEFA Cup tie. Bananas were thrown onto the pitch at Marseille's black players and there was wholesale monkey chanting and all manner of foul behaviour. Zenit fans revelled in their policy of refusing to accept black players at their club. For their actions, they were fined ?36,000 (Ã?£32,200). They went on to win a competition they should have been thrown out of had Platini been true to his hardline rhetoric. That's one example of many of UEFA's supposed hardline attitude. There are many, many others. That's its zero tolerance in action. This is what Platini said: "Football must teach values to Europe ââ?¬â?? honesty, courage, fraternity, tolerance and peace. Football includes, integrates, and welcomes. It excludes no one, it discriminates against no one, it persecutes no one." There are many black players around Europe who could challenge Platini on that assertion, but what's the point? He's convinced he is right. Everybody around him is convinced he is right. They all think that a ?36,000 fine is a proper punishment, a message to the bigots, a deterrent. On Thursday, UEFA's control and disciplinary committee handed down an ?20,000 (Ã?£17,900) fine to Rangers for the behaviour of some of their fans in Bucharest. To many ââ?¬â?? including a lot of fretful Rangers fans ââ?¬â?? this was a major let-off for the club, a gentle slap on the wrist when some were half-expecting something more severe. This was Rangers' third time in the dock after all. And that's not counting the riots of Manchester in May 2008, a full-scale horror show that UEFA washed its hands of. In UEFA's book, 18 grand is about right for what happened in Bucharest. No fans invaded the pitch, no players or officials were attacked, the match wasn't halted or abandoned. These are the things it looks out for more than anything else. It has been genuinely tough on teams who've messed with the "sanctity of the playing area". The pitch, says one UEFA official, is a "holy place". Clearly, the same attitude does not extend to the terraces, where you can chant what you like and throw what you like without having to face the full rigour of UEFA justice. Celtic, for instance, got fined Ã?£25,000 when one of their fans ran on to the "holy place" and brushed his hand off the head of Dida in the AC Milan goal. Fair enough, they deserved a real sanction. But it's a strange kind of justice that sees that offence as more serious than what happened in Bucharest ââ?¬â?? even allowing for the mitigation of aggressive stewarding at the stadium in Romania. UEFA's vows on racism ââ?¬â?? "we will abandon games and dock points and throw teams out of major championships," says Platini ââ?¬â?? are about as hollow as its threats to Rangers to come down heavy on them if they repeat offend. In Platini's world, UEFA believes that its words pack a punch, it believes that Rangers' fans will be cowed by the fine. It says that a ?20,000 fine for Rangers is a serious punishment. Zenit, after all, didn't get a whole lot more despite their hateful behaviour against Marseille. The point here, though, is that UEFA routinely sets the punishment bar so low for these offences that any comparison is rendered ridiculous. The lack of morality within UEFA can be told through many different stories. Here's one. In 2006, a group of Middlesbrough fans, women and children included, were set upon in Rome ahead of a UEFA Cup match against Roma that same evening. Three were stabbed. The visiting fans were also attacked inside the stadium as the match was going on. A couple of years ago, Manchester United fans were targeted by Roma thugs. Earlier this year an Arsenal supporter was stabbed outside Roma's Stadio Olimpico. Roma fans are notorious in Italy. They have a charge sheet in Serie A as long as your arm and they show little sign of learning their lesson. And yet when UEFA sits down to decide which club should host the 2009 Champions League final they gave the showpiece match to Roma. Some Sword of Damocles, eh? Some say that Rangers got lucky last week. UEFA disagrees and in its delusion we know everything we need to know about its zero tolerance. http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/sport/Tom-English-39UEFA39s-vows-on.5825513.jp

Unbelievable Pete how they can get away with shit like this, and other shit , and still get paid ?????

It must be easy being a journalist in Scotland............ right there is feck all happening, what can I write about ????, I know I'll just write a lot of shite about Rangers players cos they are pure toiling the noo and nae chunt will give a feck what I write aboot them!!!!!

By John McGarry, 15/11/2009 ROSS PERRY hopes to leave Oxford with honours in the New Year - to form Rangers' youngest ever central defensive partnership. The Ibrox stopper, 19, is convinced his game has come on leaps and bounds since he was farmed out to the Conference side. While he has been away, Perry has seen best pal Danny Wilson make an astonishing top-team breakthrough. And he feels the trail blazed by Wilson, 17, can only be good news for him. Although David Weir and Madjid Bougherra stand in his way, he's confident he can break through to take his place beside Wilson each week. Perry said: "I played alongside Danny for two years for Rangers and Scotland Under-19s. I get on really well with him which always helps and I know his play like the back of my hand. "He is a confident boy and I would like to think I am too so if we got a chance to play in the first team together I would like to think we would do well together. "It is all of our ambitions to play for the first team and it would be good for us and good for the Rangers youth development system if it were to happen. "Danny is a great player, he is very capable and it just shows that given the chance all the boys are capable of stepping up. "Watching him go in the way he has would give me a bit more confidence myself that I was capable of doing the same. "I'm delighted for him and I gave him a call the other day just to chat about things so I know he can't believe it. But he is just really enjoying himself." Even two years ago the concept of Rangers fielding two centre-halves with a combined age less than David Weir's wouldn't have been given house room. But with a chill financial wind blowing through the club, the old cliche 'if you're good enough you're old enough' has never rung truer. Danny Wilson Perry's due to return to Ibrox in January and feels that the financial situation, added to the fact Algerian Bougherra could spend that month at the Africa Cup of Nations, means his timing might be just about perfect. He added: "It is going to be hard to move either Davie Weir or Madjid. It is just a waiting game really. "But you never know because there is talk of Danny keeping Madjid out even when he is back because he is playing so well and of course, he could be away with Algeria in January. "I would love the chance to do the same as Danny and I am hoping to go back in January and see what happens. I think it might be a good time to go back because if you look at it you can see they have been using the young boys a lot more. "When you are a central defender it is normally harder maybe than if you a winger or a forward to get a chance because that is the last line of defence and the manager needs a lot of confidence to go and put a boy in. "But take the game on Saturday there. Rangers had two young boys in the side and three on the bench. It just shows you they are focusing on using the young boys more. "Two years ago I was involved in the first team a fair bit, the Hapoel Tel-Aviv game and I was on the bench from time to time. The year after, though, was a nightmare with injuries and I have kind of struggled to get going again. When I have played this year I have felt good, so it is just getting a consistent run together." In the meantime, Perry hopes he can help Oxford maintain their handsome lead at the top of the table and continue an FA Cup run which he hopes might have a glamorous twist to it. He said: "Things are going well with Oxford. We have only lost one league game which was to Mansfield and had a brilliant result last weekend in the FA Cup, beating Yeovil who are two leagues above us. "We have got Barrow, a team who are in the same league as us in the next round, so we are all aiming to get through that and hopefully get a Premiership club in the third round. "Growing up I always supported Manchester United, so a wee trip to Old Trafford would not go amiss." http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/scottish/scottish_sport/598751/Ross-Perry-hopes-to-follow-his-pal-into-Ibrox-first-team.html

By Graeme Bryce, 15/11/2009 WEST BROM boss Roberto Matteo is ready to launch a double Old Firm swoop in January - with Kris Boyd and Gary Caldwell his top targets. Matteo is ready to dip into the Baggies' massive parachute payment from the English Premiership and splash out �£4million to land the unsettled pair. The Italian is desperate to beat Midlands rivals Birmingham City to land Boyd, as Alex McLeish also eyes up the Gers scoring machine. The 26-year-old striker is out of contract at the end of the season but has yet to be offered a new deal as Gers' cash crisis bites deep. The Light Blues are under enormous pressure from Boyd's adoring fans to keep the goalscoring sensation at Ibrox. But if Matteo has his way the hitman will be packing his bags to help bolster West Brom's push for the Premiership. Although Rangers accepted a �£3.8m bid for Boyd last year, Matteo knows he could land him for less now as he enters the final six months of his contract. Boyd can leave on a Bosman in the summer and Rangers' bankers would not be impressed if the club let him slip through their fingers for free. Especially as they could rake in around �£3m for the striker if a bidding war starts up between West Brom and Birmingham. Gary Caldwell Matteo is also eyeing unsettled Scotland star Caldwell across the city at Celtic. The 27-year-old, who won his 33rd cap against Wales yesterday, is just the kind of experienced stopper Matteo wants to stiffen up his rearguard. Despite facing tough competition from Middlesbrough and Premiership side Burnley, Matteo is hoping to persuade Caldwell he can play an important part in his plans. Matteo would hope to land Caldo for a bargain fee of �£1m but Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell had to shell out �£2.5m to land Glenn Loovens from Cardiff City when he only had six months of his deal left to run because he faced competition from Rangers for him. Now he is hoping that a similar tussle between Boro, the Baggies and Burnley could see him raise �£2m for last year's Scottish Player of the Year. http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/scottish/scottish_sport/599161/Kris-Boyd-and-Gary-Caldwell-are-on-West-Broms-shopping-list.html

By Graeme Bryce, 15/11/2009 SPURS boss Harry Redknapp is set to make a cheeky bid to land Rangers No 1 Allan McGregor ON LOAN. Redknapp needs a goalie urgently after back-up keeper Carlo Cudicini suffered career-threatening injuries in a motorbikre crash. Now he will bid to take Greggsy until the end of the season - then make the deal permanent in June if the Scot impresses at White Hart Lane. The Spurs boss is a long-time admirer of McGregor and tried to sign him two seasons ago. Now he believes he may be able to tempt Rangers to part with the 27-year-old until the end of the season, at least, to help ease their financial burden. Rangers could save around �£400,000 in wages by agreeing to let McGregor head south and Spurs would take that beyond �£1million by agreeing a �£600,000 'rental' fee to land the keeper. That would show Gers' bankers the club are serious about bringing down their current level of spending. It would also be a chance for them to put McGregor in the shop window in the Premiership. If the former Scotland goalie gets a chance to step in for Spurs and impresses it is likely to lead to a permanent deal. It may also tempt other Premiership clubs to come up with the �£4m Rangers would jump at in the summer, given their current �£31m debt. Gers boss Walter Smith would be reluctant to lose McGregor, who is in superb form at the moment, but knows he has a more than capable deputy in Neil Alexander. http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/scottish/scottish_sport/599176/Harry-Redknapp-is-after-a-loan-deal-for-Ibrox-No1-Allan-McGregor.html

IMO, there is no doubt that we do,like every other club, have the neds that follow the team,however I believe that of things are organised properly and fans are treated correctly then the chances of these incidents happening are far less likely to occur,not excusing them,but it is a fact that chances are reduced

Aye, no doubt, they always have some team to follow,SCUM

Thank feck, 1-0 to the Frogs, second leg to go but you would expect Frogs to win and reduce the amount of green & grey hoops at the world cup, although no doubt like the true parasites that they are they will attach themselves to some other team that they have a speshul relationship with, but not as many

Who cares, we have Wilson

Yes...............the TATTIES are getting French fried, 1-0 Anelka

Aye, let's hope the TATTIES get French fried

McGready doesn't make the starting line up

2-0 now Egypt.............

Thought it was 2-0 mate ??? I stand corrected I believe you are right

1-0 Egypt, you're not allowed to ask for links!!!!!, check your pm

1-0 Egypt..................... OOPS, wrong thread

Big Bougherra is playing I see !!!!!!

Correct,and get rid of the Rangers players, numpties

HA HA..............The TA singing Burley Burley get to fuck