DMAA

Well from a quick google of “football target man” all the articles that come up refer to strong aerial ability. I’d say the likes of Lafferty are semi-target men, or poor men’s target men who can do the link up play side of things but aren’t going to win as many knock-downs, flick ons etc as you would expect from a quality target man like Prso.

Fair enough it’s just a matter of definition. I have always thought strong aerial ability is essential to being a target man. Whereas a link up man is a bit different, more like a Stephen Dobbie (at Swansea at least).

Neither are target men. They are tall but both poor aerially from what I’ve seen. I’m not sure, I don’t mind the sound of either player but I can’t help but feel you have guaranteed goals with Cummings which is what you need alongside Morelos arguably. If true Sadiq is done and we’re looking for another striker it sounds like Gerrard plans to play 2 up front. Presumably in a 3-5-2 with Goldson, Katic and Alves at the back.

Genuinely amazed at how many Celtic nutjobs are manufacturing stories out of nothing almost every day about Rangers.

A season in the top flight as a main striker is great for Hardie and great for Rangers imo. He can test himself at the top level. Best outcome would be he does really well and gets an extension and plays for us next season. It would also be good if he does well and fetches us a few of some sort.

Choosing Nemane over Barker absolutely sums the guy up. I wonder who he chose Dalcio over. Encouraged to hear we’re shifting Cardoso and Herrera. It will be another embarrassment to see them leaving for a fraction of what they were signed for, but the more deadwood we get shifted for Gerrard the better.

It’s a matter of opinion at the end of the day but I’d say we could get a better player for £2.5m. Regarding the fee disparity the fact is our players are only being tested in Scottish football and the amount clubs are willing to spend on them reflects the risk inherent in that. Spurs and Villa were arguably burned with Cuellar and Hutton for underestimating that.

£1.5m for Windass is probably an opening bid. I’d take £2.5m. I’m pleased to see Barker linked. For me loans are fine as long as permanent transfers are likely after a successful spell. We lack pace and a proper dribbling winger and although his end product is very poor it should improve.

Exactly. A big tough target man (like Prso) would be brilliant. It’s the one thing that will make teams think twice about playing so deep too. And you’d see Tavernier and Candeias’s assists get even higher.

Osijek is a tricky tie. On paper we should be beating a 4th placed Croatian league side. The worry for me is they appear to have a very competant manager. Excellent results across 6 games in Europe last year and he's turned them into a top 4 side having been finishing 8th every season for years before he joined. He's got a track record of playing against better teams and getting results. Big test of Gerrard's tactical ability and his ability to gel his squad very fast!

There's more to being a quality forward than goals, but I'm not impressed by the youtube compilations at all. His finishing is worse than Morelos and despite being 6 foot 4 he's not good in the air. For me in Scottish football you want at least one striker who's one of the best in the league in the air. It's a great option to have coming off the bench too when plan A has failed! The past few years our sub strikers have had no obvious strengths our starting players didn't have. Anyway, if he signs then I'll back him and hope for the best. He's young and I'm sure there will be a good chance of signing permanently if all goes well. For me it's another gamble but we've got to trust Gerrard and the team.

I thought Jason Naismith had done enough. He was signed for about 200k by Peterborough. Doubt he would have come here to be an understudy to Tavernier but he looked like a future Scottish international to me.

Hopefully there will be a clause in his contract with respect to any future alcohol related problems.

We need to back him and back Gerrard. We all know someone who changes into a different person when they’ve had too much to drink. No previous history of violence, genuine remorse and she has stuck by him. He’s been punished and now it’s time to move on.

I was just stating the facts. He didn’t hold down a starting place and wasn’t even on the bench some games towards the end of the season for a team who had the 3rd weakest defence in the championship. Im happy enough as long as he is on modest wages. At 25 and with his history he clearly has the potential to improve.

Not impressed with this one tbh. He couldn’t make the Bolton team last season who avoided relegation by 2 points and conceded the 3rd most in the league. He often didn’t make the bench. What more is there to be said?

Agree with that. It's all down to budget and allocating it carefully so that it improves the starting line-up as much as possible. So far that appears to have been done with big money spent on 2 centre backs. Watching England last night I couldn't help but think we lack pacey players to get in behind like Sterling, Lingard, Rashford, Alli. A player like that makes life easy for your creative midfielder because whether it's a quick incisive through ball or a chip over the top your man will get to it first 9 times out of 10 and suddenly you're in a really good attacking position. However our best chance of a player like that would probably be a loan.

I think it's very difficult for us to make a judgment on Cummings. I think we saw he had a goalscoring instinct that Morelos doesn't have in his short time with us, which would suggest he'd do well alongside a Morelos type of player. I think it was unfortunate we didn't get to see that. The problem just now is that the fan's expectations are sky high so everyone is confident we can bring someone in who is better but at this stage don't know that. £1m doesn't get you much these days and on balance it still looks a decent price to me. Remember Garner cost £1.8m.

I don’t think the money would be good enough. I had a look at it and apparently even the likes of Burnley in the premier league would only make about £1m a year from it. Hardly worth it to have the famous Ibrox rebranded The Paddy Power Arena.

No public person will be allowed to refer to it as Ibrox though, including the club itself of course.

“While he led the entire league in aerial duels (266) he was only 19th for percentage of those duels won. For a comparison in the Scottish league last season you could look at former Rangers centre-back David Bates, who won 63.2 per cent of his headers, a mark just above Katic. His new team-mate Bruno Alves dominated with 78.68 per cent.” https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/rangers/six-things-rangers-fans-should-know-about-nikola-katic-1-4753540 i was hoping he would be far more dominant in the air. At least the stats are far better than they were for Cardoso and he’s 6 foot 4 so the potential is there to improve. Get him in the gym and on the protein shakes!

Would like to hear a verdict on the guy from Croatia. I’ve watched the highlights of about 3 of his games and tbh haven’t been overly impressed. He doesn’t come across as being as physical as I’d hope, and was utilised quite wide on the right or left of a back 3. However highlights tend to show successful attacking moves and not unsuccessful ones.

Very exciting deal. They’ve gone for what should be a sure bet in Goldson alongside a high potential/high risk signing in Katic. I like it. I’d love to see some more young prospects from across Europe signed before the window closes.

He can’t be the player we hoped he was if he’s joining a managerless mid table league 1 side. A shame because I liked the sound of him on paper.

I wasn’t too encouraged by the fact he wasn’t making Bristol City’s bench by the end of last season and they chose to take a 500k penalty rather than play him. There isn’t much of him on YouTube because he’s a defender but that’s the impression you get. Actually there are highlights of most if not all of his teams games on YouTube so if you’ve got loads of time on your hands....