DMAA

Worth noting that there may be a bit of uncertainty around Worrall's future with Karanka sacked. I felt Karanka underrated him and if he had stayed I don't think a permanent deal was impossible. If they have a recall option that will be a bit of a worry for Gerrard.

I was going to post this. Disastrous week for Kilmarnock with their main man Stewart gone and Jones all but gone. I don't think they can replace Stewart and although I'd be shocked if Clarke didn't want to keep Jones for now, the poor relationship with the fans won't help his form. Interestingly Stewart is also available on a bosman. A former Rangers youth player, I think he's good enough to be a squad player. However I don't see that happening.

I can guarantee you Liverpool wouldn’t be fussed by a buyback ?

I didn't make a positive claim about who is better. I was responding to the claim that basically Kent is the finished article and the master who Middleton needs to aspire to. The stats prove my point as far as I'm concerend that Kent has loads of work to do on his end product and Middleton (despite rustiness in his game and what seemed like a confidence dip) has still easily outdone him in far less time where it really matters for a left forward, providing goal scoring chances and taking them yourself. And I predicted that would be the case when Kent got injured too. He's a clinical finisher which Kent is certainly not, and a very good crosser which we saw with his assist against St Johnstone. I like Kent and want him to improve but I have my doubts that he has the technical quality required to provide the number of assists Rangers need long term from a winger/forward left player. I would say Murphy does have that technical quality and has been a major loss this season.

You’ve summed it up quite well. Solanke went for silly money but he’s not comparable to Kent. Kent’s fee will be decided by demand because he’s worthless to Liverpool and that’s why I think he will be valued at about £2m, I don’t think there will be championship clubs willing to pay more than that if making bids at all.

I mean nobody will spend that on him. He has slotted in to Scottish football and is nowhere near the top 10 goals table or assists table despite playing in a forward 3 of the joint top team. You need to really excel in this league to command a fee like that because the Championship is a big step up.

Because he’s not worth that. Time will tell but I don’t see Championship clubs clamouring for him at the end of the season, I still think he’s a £2m player and although I like him I wouldn’t spend cash like that on him.

Agree he’s a good option to have in the squad. As I’ve said loads of times I think your front three all need to be goalscorers and technically very capable. Defensive discipline is way down the priority list for me in that position.

This is way over the top. He has it all to prove as far as im concerned. A good dribbler and lots of pace but his end product has been poor all season. I’ve already pointed out that with far fewer minutes (800 fewer) Middleton has 2 more assists than Kent and 2 more goals.

Snubbing Crystal Palace shows how much of a coup this signing was. It’s worth remembering that two of his 3 best ever EPL seasons were when he was 33 and 34.

And I think Defoe alleviates the need for a no 10 in Gerrard’s mind which I’d agree with because 2 up front is a strong option now.

I agree but I’ve given up on that already. Might be silly but Davis has been given the number 10 jersey and I think if we had someone lined up for that role we’d have saved it. There have been no serious links and just looking at the centre midfield numbers I think we’re going to be going with Arfield in the attacking mid position with Davis expected to be more creative behind him than Coulibaly/McCrorie. Same goes for Kamara if he comes in.

I think Morelos knew what he was doing but there nowhere near enough force for it to be a red, you’d be sending players off all the time

I don’t like the formation in general but it certainly fits our squad well now. All 2 up front options need to be looked at because a fully fit Defoe should be starting ahead of Candeias, Coulibaly, McCrorie etc.

A reminder of how impressive a goalscorer we have on our hands. Truly world class. All these goals were scored aged 33 and 34.

Good to see Polster is in Tenerife. Have to wonder if Gutman is another PR move by Celtic like Allan, Morgan, Shankland and so on. Would be a blow to lose him now because he was offered a contract by Gerrard so he’s been deemed good enough.

Gerrard said he’d very much be open to playing him alongside Morelos. 2 up front is certainly a better option than it’s been in a long long time for Rangers, especially when Barisic is back.

To be honest I think only our recruitment department and Gerrard can really judge what is worth accepting. We can complain about what other players have sold for all day long, at the end of the day if they think they can use 7 odd million to make the squad better than it is with Tav then they'll do it. If you're very savvy I don't think that's impossible at all. Tav is 27 so in many ways is at peak value. Polster looks excellent in the clips I've seen and they've seen him up close in training so will know how he compares with Tav.

Gerrard has said he just wanted to see Hardie up close at the training camp and he could go back out on loan, and he said he wouldn’t keep him just to be a squad player. That’s changes things a bit regarding the 2 up front stuff because 3 strikers is a much more normal number to have in the squad for 1 up front.

A pretty misleading title which misquotes Gerrard I thought https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46789492

I think Lafferty has been scapegoated. Every time we’ve lost this season people talk about how the team needs time to gel yet Lafferty l’s appearance have been gets late substitutions in games where we are already struggling, and a few games where he has deputised for a suspended Morelos. Lafferty is never afforded the charity of needing time to gel with his fellow players and get used to his position he’s just thrown under the bus and people want him gone.

Really excited about Defoe. There must have been a raft of clubs interested in him, especially at the upper end of the Championship. It’s also important to remember that he was capped twice in 2017 aged 34 and scored in one of them. Normally a 36 year old English player we’d be signing won’t have had a cap for the best part of a decade if at all.

Are you going to get a better idea of that with him playing against Hibs reserves or against Hibs? He was playing against the same opponents Morelos plays against and doing really well. It’s madness as far as I’m concerned if it’s anything to do with deciding whether to offer him a new deal, he was in the perfect place for us to assess that.

Interesting. I haven’t kept up with English football this season but if it’s being used successfully in the EPL it makes it more likely that it’s what he has in mind. If it means we have less players behind the ball and more players in advanced positions I’m all for it, although I generally don’t like 3-5-2 based formations.

There no way he’s brought Hardie back unless he has a realistic chance of being involved. He was banging in goals for Livingstone and strengthening them against our rivals. 4 senior strikers has to mean 2 up front surely. After all it’s very hard to see Defoe not starting alongside Morelos given how much he’ll cost in wages. And in my opinion he’s the perfect partner because his strengths are Morelos’s weaknesses and vice versa.