DMAA

I know everyone is being guarded because of last season, but lets not kid ourselves tonight should be a walkover and anything less will be a disappointment. We should see high intensity and a bombardment of their back line. Let's just hope Morelos has found his shooting boots because we'll need to put away our chances to put ourselves at ease.

2 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

Dalcio clinches first move after his forgettable Rangers spell

The former Portugal under-19 international has now clinched a loan move to Portuguese side Belenenses.

http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2018/07/12/dalcio-clinches-first-move-after-his-forgettable-rangers-spell/

We always assume leagues like the Portuguese league are streets ahead of ours, but Belenses are a solid mid table side. And they have just signed Dalcio. Dalcio. Hamilton wouldn't touch him with a barge-pole.

Firstly, the usual hyperbole from the tabloids. This "World Cup star" played about 55 minutes in the world cup in total. He was backup to the unremarkable Ehsan Hajsafi. So I'd say there's no chance we're paying £2m for him, especially with a year left on his deal. Looks a player with a decent pedigree and decent potential though.

I agree Flanagan is no1 at left back. Wallace and Hodson will surely be leaving which leaves us with Tavernier, Flanagan and Declan John. I wouldn't add another senior full back to the squad when we have Ryan Jack who could easily slot in at RB too, especially considering our glut of centre mids. We also have Beerman to call on if we're desperate.

Comments regarding Rossiter were very interesting. Best player in pre-season and just bad luck with his knock rather than injury proneness. We’ve been here before but let’s hope he’ll be like a new signing in a few weeks time. What a squad we could have for this season!

2 hours ago, ian1964 said:

Aye but if SG wants him and the player wants to come it will be done within the contract, like a sell on clause, I think?

Hopefully. Cash plus player is another possible option you’d think. Surely we’re not bidding blind anyway, you’d think after an initial bid there would have been at least some kind of dialogue so we know we’re not wasting our time. The hard talk from Millwall was surely just to keep their fans on side. 

It’s very impressive from the club. I’m not

getting my hopes up yet because Millwall fans seem adamant he’s a £5m player at least, which isn’t unbelievable at all given Millwall finished 8th in the Championship and considering he’s only 23. 

19 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Meanwhile, some murmurs that we have bid 3m for Millwall's Cooper .

Yeh I’m not sure that Football Insider have a particularly good track record, but if this was true it would be huge for the club. Not going to get myself excited about it at this stage. 

32 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

We still don't have a creative midfielder.

Should also be said that Ejaria should be this kind of player, but of the central attacking midfielder variety rather than a winger with flair like Wilson. 

23 minutes ago, Gonzo79 said:

We still don't have a creative midfielder.

Harry Wilson is the only name mentioned who’d add that dimension. A journalist called Phil Hay claimed that if he was going anywhere it would be to us. As well as seeing if he’s ready for their bench maybe they’re keen to see if we pass our first few Europa league hurdles first too. 

33 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I don't think it's worrying. I think the player profile is encouraging

I agree with this, I’m glad we’re signing a French/African 22 year old and it’s encouraging that we apparently have a clause to sign him permanently in the contract. It’s a  risky strategy when they don’t have the pedigree though especially when Aberdeen’s success has largely been built on an ultra low risk strategy involving signing and loaning players who have a track record of performing in our league. 

54 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

He played in 19 league games, which is not bad. I think they were comfortable in the end, finishing 14th. It's arguably better than playing over 30 games for Bastia the season prior, when they finished bottom. It's certainly a step up.

 

I think he's a Ligue 1 player, albeit around the bottom. I'm not sure how that translates into our league, though.

According to Whoscored he played 9 full games’ worth of minutes across the whole season and they finished 4 points above the relegation zone. Not very encouraging at all. The two players who started ahead of him have had very non-descript careers. 

From youtube he appears fast, strong, aggressive and good at tackling but his technique and end product leaving a lot to be desired. Could be he’s intended only to strengthen the bench as it’s hard to see how he leapfrogs Arfield, McCrorie, Jack etc. 

In Gerrard we finally have a manager who brings respectably back to the club but with the board it’s a different story. 

We need a CEO who is a diplomat and who can build bridges with other clubs. A quick look at the forums of our clubs and despite being the most blatant case of corruption you could imagine they all assumed this story was nonsense because it came from King and responded by mocking Rangers further. He just brings constant bad press but I’ve no idea how change could be brought about. 

Coulibaly is an intriguing one. Another one we’d presumably be hoping to sign in 12 months who has high potential, but isn’t it a pretty big worry that he barely featured for a side who very narrowly escaped relegation in Ligue 1 last season?

2 minutes ago, craig said:

Is he not just a loan though ?  Which means there is no real time to treat him as a project.

Yes but I am assuming that it must be with a view to signing permanently. Otherwise it is a bizarre loan signing because he has no track record. We’d be as well loaning a proven striker in his late twenties. 

To be honest Umar Sadiq looks very weak and ineffective in the air. He’s very fast but I’ve been totally unimpressed with the videos of him. Hoping I’ll be proved wrong and at 21 you could view him as a high potential project signing, but he certainly doesn’t look like he’ll be banging them in any time soon. 

It was encouraging to see the Evening Times join the Daily Record this morning in effectively supporting Rangers here though.

It's absolutely extraordinary that the other clubs and so far everyone else are still denying the absolute obvious though, that you can't work for both the SPFL and Celtic's majority shareholder at the same time!!

I've never been a conspiracy theorist but this whole episode has given infinitely more weight to accusations of institutional bias against Rangers than any number of dodgy decisions or fixture lists could.

I thought their number 10 was excellent. I was very surprised he’s at league 2 level now. 

1 minute ago, JFK-1 said:

While a lot of attention will be given to the fact that Bury on paper will and should be viewed as inferior to us wasn't that also the case against many of the SPL 'inferiors' we dropped a heap of points to last season? Dundee etc?

 

If SG has taught them how to consistently impose themselves against lesser teams and get the result in a comfortable manner then that's half the battle already won. 

This Bury side we’re much worse than any Premiership side tbh. They looked more like Scottish League 1 bar 1 or 2 players. 

Flanagan was very impressive. Lots of chances will come from him coming inside and he’s excellent at keeping the ball. 

Katic was decent but I thought you could tell he’s not as good in the air as Goldson and generally not at his level. Plenty of time to improve. 

I thought Morelos was very poor all round. Delighted to see Middleton get a game he clearly offers the team something we didn’t have last season. 

Bury were surprisingly poor, but there were very encouraging signs from our team and our new signings. Goldson in particular looks a cut above. 

12 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Most likely next business according to ID10

 

Sadiq is only business I have heard....

 

Since this is the last day of EL registration for round one ... though we may bring in one wildcard (or the like?) till Monday.

I’m guessing it will be Monday because things seem very quiet again today. However I don’t think it would be likely he’d play much of a role in this round anyway. 

It’s a long shot but if Gerrard plans on spending big on a 3rd centre back it would be reminiscent of Martin O’Neill building a rock solid back 3 of big bruisers. It would certainly stand is in good stead for difficult away games at Celtic and Hibs to have such quality at the back. Unlikely I think though still. 

Sounds like Cooper is beyond our means. Could be we’re trying our luck, or it could be he was a back up to Goldson and his name has only just come out, but it sounds as though he’s going nowhere for less than a few million quid. They only signed him last summer so his contract won’t be near expiring. 

The orange top would have looked much better with blue shorts imo. 

https://goo.gl/images/GgTGxL