bmck

I don't intend to lose anymore brain energy on what Kenny Miller will decide to do next.

Precisely this.

I wish one day Celtic would stand up and say something official on this. Typical.

Sorry mate!

There have been growing concerns about police responsibility and judgement after complaints about Rangers fans sectarian singing were contradicted by both a Stirling Albion spokesperson and the lack of sectarian arrests.

A spokeswoman for Central Scotland Police said: ‘There was sectarian singing from a section of the visiting support, leading to warnings from the club [stirling Albion] during the first half.’

However, these comments appear to have been contradicted by Stirling Albion spokesperson Mr. Goodwin. He stated that the tannoy message was standard procedure and was not in response to any sectarian singing.

The police are under increasing pressure to justify their comments after they refused to highlight what singing was deemed sectarian, and why no arrests were made on sectarian grounds.

It is rumoured that within the corridors of power at Ibrox there are deep concerns that the police have pressed the issue to influence Alex Salmond led Sectarian legislation. This legislation, shelved after garnering wide criticism from the legal profession in Scotland for its ambiguity, would have given the police considerable new powers.

Sources within the game claimed that the only songs publicly banned – Hello Hello, and the Famine Song – were not heard and expressed their puzzlement at the police’s judgement in the matter. Stirling Albion spokeman Mr. Goodwin thanked the Rangers fans for contributing a great atmosphere at the game and the club for organising it.

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Would it be hard for a friendly or even just responsible journalist to write the above?

5* stadium, excellent transport links (especially with the new bridges), and pretty near a lot of new attractions. Glad to see they're thinking about this stuff.

It means being kept in the dark while being fed manure - like how you grow mushrooms...

This seems like a good description but I'm not sure if you're joking.

FlyBe to Southampton on Thursday, back Friday evening. Great old hotel at Poole harbour.

Business class to Abu Dhabi 8th August.

Always wanted to travel business class. I think I'll sell out and become a corporate lawyer instead of a nice one so I can fly business class and also drink innocent smoothies regularly.

Albeit as a distant observer, McCoist has never convinced me he has the steel to lead Rangers. Hopefully the facts will change my mind.

I think this fear's underpinning most of what's being said - and it's clearly a fear WS wanted to lay to rest with all the "Ally's got a mean streak" stuff we were hearing at the end of the season. I hope this year's not a hard lesson for McCoist for learning it's better to be feared than loved if you can't have both. It's difficult to pre-judge though - guess we'll find out when the pressure's really on.

It's also difficult as he was brought in to inject spirit into the squad and dressing room, among other things. Since almost everyone is still here they're probably going to have to adjust to seeing him play this role to seeing him as the top boss. But if what we hear is right he's been making this transition for a while - his apprenticeship will have certainly given him the best possible grounding.

Me neither as it happens but it's got bugger all to do with lack of experience.

What's your reservations?

Sure, but footballers are like that, dangle ridiculous money in front of them and it's 'fcuk you I'm off' he's no different. I think his kissing the badge for sellik when he scored against us was a good reason for never taking him back, but he tried his hardest to erase that and succeeded IMO.

There's no doubt Miller succeeded here. Although, his contribution was sometimes slightly overegged. His goals against Celtic wiped out any badge kissing. It's just while everyone else like Davis and McGregor were willing to stick it out for the cause until better circumstances arose he was very quick to jump ship and leave the only manager to make him look like a player in the lurch for a few extra bob when already super rich. Now he doesnae like it and wants back and will no doubt be rewarded, if it happens, with lots of money and a longer contract than he'll have pace. Kinda feel he has made his bed, and we need to be looking to the future. That said, his goals will help us win the league - not sure if now is the time for misplaced idealism or romanticism.

...poor Danny.

At least now he's not wrong alone

He's just repeating what everyone knows, that we need players, and fast.

 

I don't think it will make much diffirence. Or, it could make as many positives as negatives. It could alert Wegner and McLiesh to start thinkingabout what it is that they want to do with the players that are wanted by us, as well as Bursa types saying we need a big transfer.

 

I'd say Ally is a new manager and as much as he could have learned from WS, he's now having to do it for himself, and that can be daunting. I'm sure he's just not looking a 'cock-sure' as we all know him to be and if he gets some players in, we win a few games, everything may settle down nicely.

 

Alternatively........... well, we can worry about the alternatives at an alternative time!

Good point. There is always the chance that he's essentially saying "We will be buying players soon, if you are just holding out to see how far we'll go there's a chance you'll lose a few million for a player you're not going to play".

I think this probably is to just feed the beast and keep them occupied while he works on more probable things, as someone else pointed out elsewhere. That said, I'd take KM back - so long as the price was right in terms of both transfer fee and wages. There's also a vaguely sour taste in the mouth with KM and his leaving that's hard to justify but is there.

Hey Danny! seems like you're gettin' ganged up oan.....WATP!

From what I've read, Danny would rather shoot himself than find himself in the majority too often.

I know what I hope they mean!

What does mushroomed mean?

Good to be able to agree with you on something Disagree with BJK even. Like the Ibrox disaster etc, it's trivialising something too important for my kind of banter. But football's not too reasonable, and the problem with making some things off limit is that too much goes with it. Doubt anyone will even be that bothered if the boy's not playing.

My head's hurting...

 

PS: I've not read either match-thread as I don't really consider friendlies worth investing a lot of time into as a fan. They're essentially meaningless. Sebo and Novo both scored as we hammered Chelsea in one, FFS!

Welcome to the friendly-results-are-meaningless team. Grab a pitchfork.

Emotional? My arse, I'm not emotional - I'm flabbergasted at your brazen headedness.

Flabbergasted is an emotion. Never really thought of myself as brazen headed - because it doesn't mean anything. Unless you mean I'm the brazen head, which would be cool. Or just brazen, which is probably accurate.

But one little point - if the results of pre-season matches are so unimportant to you and others (aye right), why have you called this thread 'our pre-season results a refllection'?

Glad to see you u-turn and re-enter the fray! I called it that because the focus of the thread is the reaction to the results.

Methinks you're a little inconsistent...

Stop exaggerating!

So I'm done with this because it's really starting to waste my time.

Have you just gone emotional over absolutely nothing? Very disappointing. You take yourself a little too seriously I think.

CEOs aren't paid 6 figure sums not to know the financial situation of other clubs they are dealing with.

6 figure sums != competence! Our situation is part financial, part situational though. We may have the kind of money that they want, but, knowing we're more pushed for time than others, they may chance their arm. That said, if I know we're rushed without Ally saying, I doubt they haven't came to the same conclusion.

All this means I doubt McCoist's words will make much of a difference but I'll happily admit I wish he'd keep his targets to himself - though I recognise the odd comment will contribute to unsettling people enough to make a transfer cheaper/easier to complete.

Yeah, Ally's openness with the press is unusual for us - but dealing with people warmly, and being charming, is one of his strengths in a way it hasn't been for Walter etc, so I'm unsurprised.

So you have nothing invested in either answer? You are actually nonplussed whether he is so open or whether he keeps quiet?

I am not sure. Ultimately, it's irrelevant. If he is succesful his press strategy will be right, and if he isn't it won't. So, yeah, I have nothing invested in either answer. I'm interested in whether we think it has any direct and real bearing on transfer negotiations, admitting that you need to move quickly - as I read somewhere.

Almost every manager in the press on SSN in the papers online blah blah has said something comparable.

 

I don't think it makes any difference for a manager to say he needs players. All clubs need players.

That would be broadly my thoughts. I think stating that we need players quickly is probably only sensible if you genuinly think you are going to get them quickly, though. So the next wee bit should be interesting.

Just read the thread. No-one changed their minds. Sensible people weren't worried about the result in the first game or the second. There were some worries about the central defense pairing (naturally), but that's it. Yer havering.

Why do I get the feeling that no matter what they said, you'll still see whatever it is you want to see?

Because you have a keen insight into the human condition and see that I, like you and everyone else, has absolutely no interest in the truth?

Seriously, though - you don't really have any reason to say that and are probably now backtracking because the people I mentioned have been perfectly consistent throughout. I do like the smokescreenery though - very sophisticated.

Ah, so this hypocrisy, flakiness, changeability of opinion and general lemming behaviour following Bochum is what happens in the real world eh

I'm very interested in this Bochum thread now.

I'm seeing a lot of criticism of Ally's regime so far - various aspects of it seem to be gathering more and more objections. I mean, your thread strongly suggests that you're not happy with him being so open, but you're trying to be fair and impartial and asking it as a neutral question.

Either that or I actually am asking it as a fair and impartial question.

fwiw Walter said exactly the same thing when the players came back to Ibrox from Killie - which he would never have said while in charge. Which, frankly, he never did say while he was in charge.

 

Ally's management style is polar opposite to Walter's - and he's going to be judged on that because Walter is what we're used to.

 

Should he have said it? Well he's always been extremely open with the press - maybe too open. That was never going to change. But as I've always said, we complained when we weren't being communicated with by the club, and now we're getting everything.

 

My personal opinion is it's good to know the manager recognises the problems we can see as fans. Often they don't. But the only way we'd ever realise he recognises these problems would be if he told us. Otherwise it's conjecture in the terraces, pubs, and forums like this.

He has to do things differently to be his own man. The thing I'm most interested in is if people think comments like these actually affect the real world of transfers and fees.

Haha, so I assume all the 'reactionary nonsense' I read about the Bochum result received similar condemnation from you as how we reacted to the Lotte result?

 

Thought not. There wasn't a word condemning any of it.

Any of what? I've not yet read the Bochum thread but I can't really see Ian, or Johnny, or rbr or Zappa saying anything much different than they've said here.

It's like you're in some parallel universe reading something completely different to what I'm seeing.

Yes, that parallel universe is the real world.