DMAA

45 minutes ago, Frankie said:

From this morning's Kilmarnock game press conference:

 

 

That’s a bit confusing. Everyone has a price but anyone preparing a bid is wasting their time? It’s maybe a way of saying he’s not for sale unless you pay silly money. Only they know what their replacement options are and January isn’t an easy time to find them. 

5 minutes ago, Uilleam said:

Are you advocating "No Deal"?

I'm not going to engage in this discussion until no deal is off the table.

52 minutes ago, buster. said:

Simplistic argument but if you are going to play a certain style, isn't it better to be finding ways of making it work against agricultural tactics from the get-go ?

The point I think Craig Mulholland made and I am making is that you want our players playing in a team who play the same style of football we play. And that being a style of football which actually gets the players on the ball and looking to break teams down. That way the experience and skills they gain are transferable to the 1st team at Rangers. It must be frustrating for the academy guys drilling a style of football into their players, only to watch them stuggle to get the ball passed to their feet when they go out on loan. 

On ‎20‎/‎01‎/‎2019 at 11:09, der Berliner said:

Mind we were linked with the lad Skov Olsen (?) 
Well Gerrard, Scoulding & Allen went to Denmark today to apparently ‘work on a deal’

Stevie's since confirmed they didn't go to Denmark, the location is unknown. Olsen looks too pricey for us tbh but a bit gutted. Signing young prospects is what will pull us back above Celtic mid to long term.

Should caveat that I only saw RTV's highlights but I was impressed with the way HJK played and I wonder if the club are thinking of starting up an official or unofficial feeder club link with them. I think it was Craig Mulholland who said recently that our kids aren't getting the playing experience they need in the lower Scottish divisions because of the style of football and I'm sure he mentioned the possibility of playing in Scandinavia where they play much more on the deck.

I watched some highlights of the kid we're linked with Skov Olsen and again you could see straight away that the sides in Denmark play a similar game to us playing primarily on the ground. 

It seems it would be very prudent for the the club to strike up a relationship or two with some Scandinavian clubs like Helsinki in order to get a first option on their young talent as well as getting our own guys better exprience than they'll get at Stenhousemuir getting clattered challenging for high balls all the time. 

2 minutes ago, buster. said:

The Arfield finish looks fairly simple but is top class

I've said it time and time again, he's such an important player due to his goalscoring ability. Very similar to Naismith in that he's such a natural finisher but scores from midfield.

21 hours ago, der Berliner said:

Mind we were linked with the lad Skov Olsen (?) 
Well Gerrard, Scoulding & Allen went to Denmark today to apparently ‘work on a deal’

This is a hugely exciting link. However I’m going to choose not to believe it until there’s more on it to avoid getting my hopes up. 

Just watched the highlights and you could certainly tell it wasn’t a Scottish team we were playing! Refreshing to see a team pass the ball around so well despite being underdogs. 

It seems the wage quoted for Defoe is totally untrue and we’re probably paying closer to 20-25k. 

2 hours ago, JohnMc said:

It's strange signing as by all accounts Stewart didn't do all that well their last season. Maybe Aberdeen just want to weaken Kilmarnock in case they pip them to third...

Yes but I think Stewart has proved that McInnes was at fault for that. I player like Stewart will look far better in one system

than another and Clarke has shown McInnes how and where to get the best out of him. And yes it helps that they’ve taken the best player of the team one position above them. Gutted for Killie. They were on course to finish above Aberdeen. 

Huge signing for Aberdeen. But I'm going to predict that McInnes fails to get out of him what Clarke did.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46925110

Two Championship clubs are battling it out for Rangers right back..........Lee Hodson ?

https://the72.co.uk/123633/bolton-wanderers-ipswich-town-targeting-rangers-right-back/

1 hour ago, buster. said:

Disagree, in your scenario he hasn't done enough yet.

 

The positive is that SG&Co have seen enough to give him another year.

Ball is in his court, ...I hope he can take the opportunity.

No I agree with that. I was just saying if he wasn't our player we'd be taking notice of him and wondering if he should be a target. He has to do it consistently and hopefully he will.

2 hours ago, buster. said:

He will be 22 in March so he really needs to kick-on and show he can do the business consistently at this level if he hopes to be part of our plans going forward.

 

It might be that he scores a few and we move him on in the summer anyway,... but the years extension would mean we could get a transfer fee.

Well if he wasn't a Rangers player we'd be saying who's this guy. 21 years old and 5 goals in 5 starts in the Premiership for a low scoring Livingstone side (and he's only played more than 75 minutes twice), and 4 of the goals coming against Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen. 

1 year extension for Hardie and at Livingstone for the rest of the season. The ideal outcome imo. Hopefully he keeps proving to Gerrard he can score goals at this level for the remainder of the season.

https://rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/ryan-hardie-signs-new-contract/

7 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

The usual haters have little to say beyond the standard grunts we have become accustomed to. Geriatrics, has beens, bang average, going bust, tick tock, etc.

McFadden said on Sportsound that we'd signed old players for an already ageing squad whereas Celtic have gone in the other direction. A very ignorant comment because our squad is not at all ageing. Gerrard has brought in experience for that very reason. I did a quick check on our starting line-up versus theirs in the last game and our average age was 26 and theirs 27. 

Hope he is over his knee problems. He certainly looks like he has the quality to play for us and replace Tav. 

Just checked FF and Stevie said it’s not Kamara. 

Polster most likely I think. I hope so, I was really impressed with the YouTube compilation of him. Very good on the ball. 

1 hour ago, Gaffer said:

Other than St. Johnstone and Kilmarnock (who appeared to abstain from attempts to continually hurt our club

St Johnstone? Weren't Kilmarnock were the only club to abstain from demoting us?

I'm a pragmatist and building bridges with Scottish clubs benefits us, that's a fact we have to accept. That doesn't mean we should with every club of course but it's in our interest to with most. Our good relationship with Hamilton got us Docherty on the cheap when a Hibs or Aberdeen would have demanded triple the price if they dealt with us at all. This boy from Partick, just assuming he is a future Scottish international, a good relationship with the club could be the difference between signing him or not. I like the idea of loaning Rossiter, Hardie etc. to a Livingstone or Dundee (not United) because it disadvantages Celtic and advantages us when we play them. And when those clubs have a player we want it helps the negotations.

1 hour ago, Bill said:

But really ... who cares about a select team chosen by Rangers haters? Will Rangers win more trophies if a meaningless elect team is packed with our players. Again, who cares?

I didn't mean to indicate that there was any importance in the personal opinions of those sportsound. I just meant hopefully Rangers outperform Celtic for the rest of the season. Saying "hopefully their end of season select team will be very different" was just another way of saying that. Not that I really hope Michael Stewart changes his mind of Alfredo Morelos.

15 minutes ago, Bill said:

I think that's excellent news for the rest of Rangers' season.

Agreed. Scapegoated too often by the fans. People never seem to forget a poor performance against Livi but he never gets credit when he performs well, on one occasion in Europe he performed far better than Goldson and bailed him out a couple of times but he wasn't given any credit for it.

6 minutes ago, Bill said:

Really, who cares?

You're reading into that comment too much. If they outperform Celtic's players over the next few months they will earn the status of being better than them, which would be reflected in a select team.

18 minutes ago, buster. said:

Did they review their respective XI's AFTER the game ?

To be fair our players have won nothing and the gauntlet has been thrown down for them to justify the status of being better than Celtic's players by consistently performing over the next few months, including the away old firm game where you don't have the 12th man. Hopefully their end of season select will be very different.

Just now, pete said:

Don't be daft we do not have one player good enough for the Celtic team.

Before the Old Firm game on Sportsound Michael Stewart conceded McGregor and Tav would make the select. We should be grateful for that.

4 minutes ago, buster. said:

I'd prefer we went with Barisic (no idea if fit or not) and gave the formation/players a chance to get some competitive minutes.

 

IMO Tav and Barisic are by far the best full back partnership in the league to play this way.

No doubt about it. Both are stronger attacking than defending and have the potential to provide a steady flow of assists. I think the key to the wing backs getting space in a 3-5-2 is having as much creativity and threat as possible from the 3 centre mids. If you play centre mids who prefer to keep things simple it doesn't work. This would support playing Kent in front of maybe Davis and Jack because he loves a free role and would be a threat running into the channels and distracting full backs.