JFK-1

Don't really see that happening. He's contracted till the end of May 2018 and we don't want to be losing key players mid season.

Fifa is discussing whether to allow only captains to speak to referees, says former Netherlands striker and manager Marco van Basten. It would bring football in line with rugby union, which has strict rules around in-match communication. Van Basten, Fifa's chief technical development officer, said there have been talks about how to improve player behaviour and respect for officials. "There are a lot of players now who are complaining during a game," he said. Speaking to the BBC, the former Ajax and AC Milan forward added: "I am sure the behaviour of the players can be better - we are thinking about putting it back in the right direction." At the start of this season, English football announced plans to reduce "intolerable behaviour" by issuing red cards to players who confront match officials, use offensive language or make gestures towards them. Fifa, football's world governing body, has recently introduced trials of video referees - where the match official can watch a pitch-side replay of key incidents on a small monitor. It was used in this month's Club World Cup - and was commended by Fifa president Gianni Infantino. "This is what we have to do to help the referees," Van Basten said about the introduction of technology and discussions around changing other rules. "We try to make a good product - dynamic, exciting, but in the end also honest. "There's a lot of emotion in the game and that's what's good - but we have to control it also." Asked about comparisons with rugby, Van Basten replied: "I think we can learn from every sport and they can learn from us - but we have to confront the problem." In rugby, only the captain is allowed to speak directly to the referee. In return, the referee is asked to communicate directly with the captain only. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/38423665

I don't have any issues as such with the club supporting their whining publicly for PR purposes if there were to be any PR gain from doing so. But I don't think we can ever be in their position in the same way as they are viewing it. They're painting it in part as a bad thing for the home team who may be losing some money due to sheep supporters not being there while it's likely a greater priority for them is to have as much as possible of a support backing them in an away match. But that will never be an issue for Rangers. How many sheep fans who would go to a match are there likely to be outside Aberdeen itself? Probably almost negligible while Rangers on the other hand could easily take up a full away allocation just about anywhere in Britain with a significant portion of that allocation going to people who are relatively local if need be. The sheep could never do that. And again at the end of the day when TV is calling the shots they're always going to be playing second fiddle to Rangers no matter who says what. They're surely aware of that.

Looks as if it's going to be a real dogfight all the way outside the top 5. Half the season gone and there are just 4 points between 6th place and bottom. Any of them could feasibly fall into the bottom 2 after just a game or 2 or on the other hand the bottom club could be in the top 6.

In this instance i'm not talking about a financial gap or any perceived class gap. Just the points gap which at this time is substantial and I don't expect that to happen again next season. At this stage if we can aim to maintain a close points gap well anything can happen. Pre season I thought there was at least a chance we may challenge for the title but that was based around them being no great shakes under Deila and having massively inconsistent results themselves. Rodgers has made a difference with what? A couple of players? I think we could be a whole different outfit too with just a couple of quality additions. And as I said at this stage i'm now looking to maintain a reasonable points gap putting us within reach of them with a contrary result or two and comfortably ahead of those coming up behind. That's achievable for next season after a couple of good windows in which those coming up behind will basically stand still while we will continue strengthening. All we need to do is keep beating those behind us and the points gap will be minimal.

Yeah but the confidence stems from thinking how very much smaller that gap would be if we hadn't stuttered so badly dropping 2 points at a time in multiple draws to teams which on paper we should have been comfortably easing past. The first day against Hamilton being a prime example. I don't see that happening again next season.

Might be the case that as captain he insisted he stay on since this thing was still finely balanced and we need the points to go into the break with a lead in second place. Win at St Johnstone then even if we lost at Ibrox next week we would still go into the break with a minimum 1 point lead taking into account the game in hand the sheep have. Hearts are falling out of contention and are going to be competing with St Johnstone for 4th. It's now in our interest for Hearts to take something from the sheep at Tynecastle on 30th December. Hearts might begin falling further out of contention since it appears to be the case that they may lose more than one key player in the January window while we will strengthen.

I suppose that's what they call grinding out a result and a 4th straight win plus another 3 points will do me but they need to improve on that for the visit to St Johnstone.

The gap is what it is simply because we had a relatively poor start. I'm confident that wont happen next season.

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Hate mob? Does he think there are going to be hanging effigies? He thinks anyone would do such a thing?

Glad to see him repeat this. That's exactly what we want. Better quality not simply increased numbers.

The former Rangers owner Craig Whyte has pleaded not guilty to two charges, including one of fraud, in relation to his purchase of the club in 2011. Mr Whyte's lawyer entered the plea during a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday morning. The 45-year-old, who lives in London, faces a charge of fraud and a second allegation under the Companies Act. A trial is scheduled to go before judge Lady Stacey at the High Court in Glasgow in April. The Crown has alleged that Mr Whyte fraudulently obtained a "majority and controlling stake" in the Ibrox club. It is alleged that he directly, and through representatives, pretended to then Rangers owner Sir David Murray, and others, that funds were available to make all stipulated payments. The second charge under the Companies Act centres on an £18m payment in connection with the takeover. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-38404056

What made it all the sillier coming from a so called expert is that he made the proclamation about the sheep being the second force after the match at pittodrie when we totally outplayed them but just didn't get a result for a variety if reasons including ref incompetence in the last minute. Made me wonder if he had even watched it or just looked at the result and came up with that babble. I could have done that then said the sellick were among the best in Europe after they got a draw against teenagers at Man City.

The media pundits who posit themselves as 'experts' are every bit as contrary as anybody else is. Just a couple of months or so ago Jackson at the record was proclaiming that Aberdeen are indisputably the second force in Scotland. Then just this week was executing a U turn to say that Rangers will come in second by a comfortable margin. Wondering if that makes me more of an 'expert' than he is because all along I said we would be minimum second and that wasn't simply blue bias. I could see that in bursts we were a far better team than those sheep and presumed the bursts would eventually become more of a pattern than a burst. I don't know how Jackson forms his opinions but if it's from watching then analysing he's no expert.

There may actually be some profundity to that given recent form. He's going to have to prove himself good enough to get into a winning team and improve it.

I think the basic point is that TV calls the shots when it comes to scheduling times in such situations. They don't care about what's seen to be fair or otherwise. It's a business decision.

Mine for one.

I don't think Rangers played particularly well against them at Ibrox, we played far better and lost at Pittodrie. At Ibrox they pretty much matched us for possession and had 1 more shot at goal than we did and 1 more shot on target than we did. But it also has to be mentioned that as far as i'm concerned Aberdeen played about as good as they can get in both matches while particularly so in the Ibrox match we did not and still won the home match and were robbed in the away match. We're getting better all the time now and hopefully will be even stronger after a good January window. Willie Miller is an Aberdeen legend and a former manager. He has to say these type of things no matter how inaccurate they may be. He knows very well that over the next few seasons Rangers will leave Aberdeen in our wake. Their days of starting a season expecting a minimum second place are destined to be a distant memory tucked away beside the Ferguson era. We owe them a beating the next time we go up there and talking about revenge I would loved to have pulled the exuberant bunch at Ibrox in the cup rather than Motherwell. We owe them more than a beating. They're owed a complete humiliation and not for winning the cup.

Well as was mentioned TV audiences decide what is the main event and when it comes to a Rangers match or an Aberdeen match Rangers are always going to be the main event. That's exactly the same down South too where the bigger clubs are always going to be the main TV event. I can understand Aberdeen not liking that but it is what it is and they are what they are. And what they are is nothing in comparison to Rangers when it comes to TV. They used to know that but appear to have forgotten it recently. They're like a BBC 2 show tucked away at a late hour while Rangers are prime time BBC 1. They just need to relearn that.

What he deserved was the chance to get a team he had just added 11 players to organised in a season that was already transitional even if no players had been added. If anyone who matters had taken this criticism seriously he wouldn't even be there right now he would be sacked and that's ludicrous. A great deal of it sounded no different from that we would expect from those who hate us and no different from the stupidity at Aberdeen right now with McInnes. And to make it all the more absurd in a matter of weeks we're sitting 7 points clear in second place after the screamers were screaming about lucky to be top 4 or even top 6. And no doubt the same screamers will be screaming the same nonsense come the next contrary result. The man has worked wonders at a club that was in shambles and merits no criticism on the level it was thrown at him.

Can't be denied that on paper at least they appear to have more quality than we do but at the same time what we're looking at isn't so vastly different from the team we played off the park at Hampden in the SC semi. Add to that the fact that we have been starting to click while they have been beginning to stutter we can go into this with confidence. But it's essential to keep winning prior to that. Beating them would get us nowhere if we're dropping points in the meantime. I have concerns Garner may go into it so fired up the tasmanian devil may look placid in comparison. Red card bait.

It's simply a failure to acknowledge that Rangers are back in the mix and accept what that means. If we weren't back in it they would be sitting second right now though miles behind the lead. Think anyone would be calling for McInnes head in that situation? The sheep fans are idiots but you would surely think the board are at least a shade smarter. But in saying that McInnes himself might decide you know what f@#$ this.

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