Leppardized2001

Well as i've said before i'd snap him up give half a chance and give him 18 month deal were we to get him in January. Sure he's not the best positionally and he never was the quickest player but this would be offset by his leadership and organistion at the back and his never say die spirit. As someone said earliar, he's very much like Colin Hendry, another Braveheart if you will. Hopefully he could also bring on Svensson as I feel he could become a great player for us, just at the moment he looks bereft of all confidence. If we could get him AND Russell Anderson.....ahhh stop dreaming Malky...lol Malky

Well when it was announced that Paul Le Guen was going to be our new manager I, like most us, was delighted. He was probably the most high profile manager available on the market, was wanted by a lot of clubs and had been very successful in France. What i did not envisage is that we would be 16 points behind Celtic by early Decemeber, getting well beat by Falkirk at Brockville and basically getting to point i'm dreading every away game. As the season has progressed i've been advocating to give him more time, that his record in France proves he can do it. However, with every week it seems a case of 2 steps forward, 2 steps back. We are now in December and despite what le gaffer says, I still don't think he knows what his best team is. His stubbornish in sticking with his 4-2-3-1 formation or whatever is is proving one of his major failings. It just doesn't seem made for the high tempo of Scottish football, more for the slower tempo of the European game. This formation would be alright if we had a solid back 4 and 2 quality wideman who can provide both crosses and cut in from the flanks, something we had an inkling of when Lee Martin and Chris Burke were fit although neither of this 2 players is the finished article. Persisting with a clearly unfit Dado Prso and Nacho Novo in these positions is sheer folly. As for the defence, well it isn't getting any better now is it?? Looking at it, we don't have the players currently to play his preferred formation. Our lack of a genuine wide left player would deter me from going the 4-4-2 route, and our lack of defensive solidity would favour me towards a 3-5-2 formation. This would give us 3 centre backs, Hutton and Smith as the attacking full backs...dropping back when required so effectively giving us 5 at the back. You could play Ferguson, Clement/Hemdani and Buffel/Adam in the midfield with Clement/ Hemdani dropping back to collect ball from defence or if Hemdani was one of the centre backs he could bring it out and leave other 2 CB's sitting back and Clement beside Ferguson, Ferguson being the central playmaker and Buffel/Adam roaming wherever they can cause most problems. This would leave you with Boyd and Sebo up front, the phyical presence of Sebo allayed to the goal scoring of Boyd. The writing should have been on the wall with his summer signings. Sure Sionko and Svensson were in their country's World Cup squads and I for one think Svensson will still come good. But raiding Austria Vienna for Sionko, Sebo and Papic smacked of desperation to me. I know the transfer budget isn't the biggest we've ever had but surely we could have done better than that?? Le Guen had a year out working in the media having left Lyon. Am assuming that he would have used this time to identify potential signings for when he got back into club football. Either he cannot spot a player, the Lyon scouts found all their fantastic players or the Rangers scouting network needs a serious overhaul. In fact, the only good things that have come out the season so far have been the reemergence of Barry Ferguson, the Uefa cup performances and Charlie Adams. I apologise for the over long post, just hurts to see my team going through its current trials and tribulations. At the moment I still think we should give him more time, but unless things improve rapidly I'm afraid it could be a case of au revoir le gaffer. Malky

Reckon he can eclipse Larssons SPL record over the next few seasons but I don't see him seriously threatening Super Allys record unless Rangers can build a team that can once again dominate Scottish football for 9 seasons in a row :-) Malky

Think it's a case as Pete said of Nacho wanting to prove himself that he can make it in Liga 1. He failed to make it into the top flight of Spanish football so headed for Scotland and Raith Rovers where he subsequently moved to Dundee and then Rangers. Being at Rangers will have raised his profile back in Spain, particularly with his recent scoring run in the Uefa Cup. Perfectly understandable for the wee man to come out and say it and I for one wouldn't hold a grudge against him if he wanted to pursue his 'dream' of making it in his homeland. Malky

Good to see Ian Murray making his way back from illness. Understand it was some kind of arthritic condition he's been suffering from. Hopefully he'll be nutured back to full fitness so that come the restart of the Uefa cup campaign he'll be ready for first team action. Would help with Papic being cup-tied for the competition. Malky btw read various press reports that Letizi could be off come the January transfer window.

Well if this is true I think this signing would take a few people by surprise. Sure most folk are going who???, but this guy is some player. Has a great goal scoring record for Lazio in Serie A and caused the English defence a few problems in their encounters with Macedonia. He's not an out and out striker though, likes to drift out to the left so maybe hes been looked at as the long term replacement for Dado Prso. Malky

Well as I said in my other post regarding Ricksens departure, i'd be amazed if Zenit haven't paid some money to take him on loan for the season as well as covering the majority of his wages for this season. This being the case, i'm sure a future transfer fee has been agreed if the arrangement worked out to the benefit of all parties involved. Think £1million is a reasonable fee for a former Dutch internationalist who has a good few of years top flight football in him. The one thing I would say is what would happen to him say were Dick Advocaat to get the bullet from Zenit as he's obviously an Advocaat favourite. Malky

First off i'd like to say it's a fantastic result. Ok, Auxerre aren't the team they may have been a couple of seasons ago but they still have quality international players who for the most part were played off the park by Rangers. Barry Ferguson was my undoubted Man of the Match, ran the midfield and was spraying quality balls all over the place. Was gutted when Steven Smith had to go off. His overlapping runs on the left were one of the features of Rangers attack and when he went off Prso suffered as he had no one coming up outside him. The midfield three of Ferguson, Clement and Adams played well, all showing good composure on the ball with Ferguson and Adams showing a willingness to get forward. However for all their passes and triangles i thought they lacked a cutting edge. Ferguson supplied a couple of through balls but for the majority of the game Boyd was denied good service and was up against two central defenders. Yet again though the achilles heel was the central defence. Paul Le Guen MUST settle on his first choice 2 and stick with them so allowing them to develop an understanding. Is also something that needs to be seriously worked on at Murray Park. Ok, we may lose a few more goals but hopefully over the following weeks an understanding would develop and the defence would become assured. Time we got Alan Hansen upto Murray Park, he'd rip us to shreds on Match of the Day. It's supposedly said about Brazil that they don't care how many goals they concede, they'll score more. Our trouble is is that we are not Brazil. Malky

Same bet will get you £182.87 at William Hill ;-) Malky

Think Sir Alex will be field basically a full strength team against Celtic and because of that I expect them to win. After their shock loss against FC Copenhagen and their experiences last season they'll be wanting to get qualification to the next stage out of the way asap and by winning against Celtic they'd make certain of winning the group as well. The fact that the game is today ( Tuesday ) and they don't play Chelsea till Sunday means they have the best part of a week to prepare themselves for that big game so can play all their big players tonight. I expect Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney to cause them serious problems. Scholes basically gets free role in the Man United team and think it will be upto Lennon to keep an eye on him. Add into this the fact that Rooney also likes to drop off the front and old gingernut could have his work cut out. Malky

Yeah, and they also seem to be buying the best up and coming youngsters from South America. Looks like the days of the 'Galactico's' are well and truly over. Malky

Has has been mentioned, due to the January transfer window approaching, there is going to be a lot of speculation regarding players Rangers are supposed to be after. Only today I read in the Mail on Sunday that Steven Naismith is a Le Guen target in an initial £500,000 deal. None of this has come from Rangers and for the most part will be information 'released' by the player's involved agents/representatives in order to drum up interest in the player and therefore get the best deal for the player and the agent. As for Garry O'Connor I've always thought he wasn't a bad player but was amazed when Lokomotive Moscow signed him. His families inability to settle in Russia has been well publicised and has been well known he would like to return to the UK. However i believe his preferred destination would be the Premiership and I don't believe he's a player who would improve us in anyway. Good back up striker but nothing more. I do find it very interesting though that basically all the players we are being linked with are young Scottish players with potential. I for one would like to see this being complemented by the signing of a couple of experienced players in key positions, namely a commanding centre back and an international class striker. Malky

The problem for Steven Gerrard is his versatility. You can basically play him anywhere and get a performance out of him. Clearly he is both Englands and Liverpools best central midfielder but both Rafa and Steve MacLaren seem to have trouble getting best out him because they feel they have better players in the central midfield position, Xabi Alonso for Liverpool and Frank Lampard for England. They CAN'T not play him so he invariably ends up floating out in right midfield. Zenden is never a central midfield player. He is in fact a player I have never really rated and am amazed he's had career he's had. Was a so so winger in his day but doesn't have the pace for that anymore and doesn't appear to have the 'heart' to mix it in central midfield, certainly not at a level like the Premiership. As for Pennant, supposedly the statistics prove he fired in the most crosses in the league last season while playing for Birmingham. Think the reasoning behind his signing is that by already having Peter Crouch, having a player who can knock in a lot of crosses can lead to fair few goals. Trouble is despite being 6ft 7in Crouch ain't that good in the air, definitley no Mark Hateley. Do agree that I think that they'll break their away duck against 'Boro, if only for the simple fact that 'Boro are really struggling for consistent form under Gareth Southgate. Malky

Yeah I read about this in the Daily Mail yesterday. Supposedly his agent is well acquainted with a Spanish agent and on the basis of Roberts impressive appearances for the Scotland under 19's it was arranged for him to go on trial with Barcelona. Think the idea was for him to go over, train with their 2nd string and for the Barca coaches to assess him, something they do with a lot of young players that their scouting network highlight. Snodgrass however turned the opportunity down, much to the anger of his agent who set the whole thing up for him and who has know been quoted to have 'washed my hands off him', questioning his attitude after turning down such an opportunity. Malky

Well read in the press that he's not interested dropping down to the Championship to join a club on loan. If he were reckon he'd end up at either Sunderland or back at Leeds. Wouldn't be a bad January loan signing for us though..can you just imagine him in an old firm game. Hopefully Sir Alex has been impressed by the progress of Lee Martin and Phil Bardsley and can talk Alan into it. Malky

Think Roeder at Newcastle will definitely be the next to go. Messers Shepard and Hall are not famed for their patience and having seen a few of their performances this season you just can't see where the goals are going to come from what with Michael Owen out for the long term and Martins having trouble asjusting to the Premiership. At the start of season I thought they'd do ok and considered the £5 million capture of Damien Duff one of the transfers of the summer. Malky

The fact that he won the Champions League in his first season is the only thing thats saving Benetiz at Liverpool. How any manager can justify changing his team almost 100 times in a row is beyond me. I know we live in the days now of big squads and rotation but he's taking the michael regarding it. I actually had Liverpool down as one on my bets to win their league in my yearly European league accumulator. £100 bet to get me over £30000 back...got the 'Pool at 8-1...little did i know that it would all go pear shaped before xmas. Sounds famailiar doesn't it. Malky

Goto to agree with Gribz on this one. I reckon if he were to become available in January we should sign him to the summer of 2008. The fact that he's been through the ranks at Rangers, taught the ropes by Richard Gough, he knows what the clubs all about and that he's clearly an artliculate leader who fellow team mates look upto would be ample reason to sign him. He may be 32-33 but hes clearly got another couple of seasons worth of SPL action in him....time that could be spend helping the likes of Svensson and Papic develop their game. And for those that think Andy Webster was 'carrying' Elvis in games....pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Webster if i recall came to Hearts from Arbroath. Think he may have learnt a thing or two about the game from Steven but lets face it, he's still not the finished article as his recent performances at Wigan have highlighted. True, due to his dispute with Mad Vlad he's been out of action for a while but don't see Webster being Premiership class. Am sure Steven is one of the first names that Walter puts down on his Scotland teamsheets. Malky

Well considering that Zenit have supposedly already handed out £250,000 to take Ricksen on loan, i'd be amazed if a future fee for a permanent transfer hadn't already been agreed if the arrangement had worked out to the benefit of all parties. I think we'd be looking at another £1 million on top of the £250,000 already paid as well as the bonus of having one of the highest earners of the payroll. From comments attributed to him that i've read in the press he seems to clearly be fed up of Scottish football so even if Zenit don't sign him i don't forsee him staying to see out the remainder of his contract. As for Buffel, the guy can obviously play the game but it seems he can't be fitted into Le Guens prefered formation and therefore I don't see him sticking around much longer. I would hope though that we would look to recoup most of the fee that we paid to Feyenoord to get him and not look to off load him on the cheap. What really grates me is that we let Shota sign for nothing to AZ Alkamaar and then sign someone like Filip Sebo to replace him. Perhaps its to early to judge Sebo, considering his lack of first team action and the fact that the majority of his appearances have been as a late substitute in games. That and the fact that his goals to games ratio for his national team is very impressive. The fact remains that Sebo at the moment isn't cutting it in the SPL while Arveladze had a proven goal scoring record and it's basically his goals that have taken AZ to their high position in the Dutch league. Malky

At the time we signed him I thought he was a cracking signing and his bit part appearances during the World Cup backed my impression up. He also looked not to bad during the early part of the season. As has been mentioned, I think he's a player who thrives on confidence. Looks a good player in a good team, a poor player in a bad team. In fact the player he most reminds me of is Alexei Mikhailichenko...great player when in the mood but can disappear in games. Malky

I think the whole Chris Burke thing has been built on the back of the Blue Heaven programme. Reckon all us fans have taken to him as he plays the game we like to see it and he's a young Scot whos come through the ranks. Le Guen favoured formation also seems to heavily rely on wingers. As has been stated, who knows what the real story is. Perhaps he feels his status in the squad means he should receive a higher salary, being a bit part Scottish internationalist...something similar to the Shaun Maloney situation at Celtic. Or perhaps he's been offered a low wage but linked to big appearance fee due to his sporadic appearances over last couple of seasons. Or maybe he wants to prove his fitness before committing himself to the club. I'm 100% sure though he'll resign on a deal that suits both himself and the club. Malky

Thanks for the welcome BMCK, great to be here. Malky

Have to agree with the general view that an experienced commanding centre half is required...someone in the Goughie mould. The current situation at Hearts is worth keeping an eye on, especially Elvis's. I think he would be a great sigining in January on a 2 year deal. He knows what the clubs all about and would help 'fire' the team up and the likes of Svensson could learn a lot from him. Craig Gordon would be unaffordable and don't think Hartley would come to Rangers. As for Kevin Thomson and Scott Brown from Hibs, I think they would be fantastic signings but with all the supposed Premiership interest in them I think you'd be looking at £3million MINIMUM for the 2 of them especially as they are both on long term contracts. The only way we could afford them is getting through the UEFA cup group and disposing of some of the 'dead wood' at Ibrox, the likes of Gavin Rae, perhaps Nacho, Fernando Ricksen. They'll also be taking into account the fact that a high earner like Stefan Klos will be off the payroll in the summer. Malky