DMAA

2 hours ago, les186 said:

£80k a week for Defoe and £60k for Skrtel?  That is ridiculous, we certainly couldn't afford that.

To be fair there is no suggestion Rangers would be paying those sums. However under a loan or transfer Rangers would probably pay around 20-25k, which is hard to justify for even more players with no sell on value.

We need to be building something with a mid to long term perspective or - like Hibs and Aberdeen - any success will be short term and built on the sand of loans and aging players. This approach weakens the club over the mid to long term whereas an investment-based recruitment strategy makes the club stronger gradually even if it doesn't offer the same prospect of instant results.

RB Leipzig are a great example of this approach. They barely sign a player over the age of 23, and with a transfer deficit of £94m over the past 6 years have assembled a squad with an apparent value of £316m which finished 6th in their first season in the Bundesliga. With their patient approach, Bayern and Dortmund will fear them far more than if they were signing ageing players and loan players scrambling for instant success.

3 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

One of the good ITKs out there.

Did he confirm interest in both?

22 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

Yeah, too bad that ID 10 has said on FF that the interest (sic!) is real

Who is this?

9 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

Some players suit different teams. Maybe they can't afford his wages?

He probably was one of the highest earners in the side given his history so it was probably a cost benefit analysis. They definitely need more defensively minded full backs.

However I don't like the idea of half decent senior players on the bench (Hodson style). I'd rather have a few quality subs with the rest of bench being made up of young hot prospects.

3 minutes ago, DMAA said:

Well they specifically said he wasn't offered a deal. Had a quick look at the responses to the announcement on Twitter and the Dundee fans don't seem to care, they're more concerned about Holt who apparently started ahead of him for almost all of the second half of the season. Jon Aurtenetxe apparently got off to a great start and then started putting in some poor performances.

Having said all that, I'd imagine he struggled being part of a defence that was constantly being attacked. He sounds like a left back who would look far better in a team with posession and on the front foot.

8 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

He knows what he is worth and Dundee is not able to pay him that ... would be my first thought.

Well they specifically said he wasn't offered a deal. Had a quick look at the responses to the announcement on Twitter and the Dundee fans don't seem to care, they're more concerned about Holt who apparently started ahead of him for almost all of the second half of the season. Jon Aurtenetxe apparently got off to a great start and then started putting in some poor performances.

31 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

Dundee have released Jon Aurtenetxe

It really begs the question why though. It’s really hard to imagine why Dundee would choose to release a Rangers quality left back. 

8 hours ago, ian1964 said:

 

Hopefully this is more rubbish. 

7 hours ago, Big Jaws said:

I think that may have been David Frazer that said that. As to the rest of your post I don't think Gerrard will be that rigid. I think he'll use whatever formation and tactics suit against the opposition the team face.

So do I, I wasn’t actually advocating for 4-2-3-1 I was just commentating that we lack a real playmaker. 

It’s a good sign that he’s just won player of the year at Hull and apparently been offered a lucrative contract to stay. 

Hopefully his contract with us is fairly modest because our wage bill will be rising this year. 

31 minutes ago, colinstein said:

the word "******" does mean those who took up arms to fight for independence for Ireland...some of them were proddies, some were socialists like James Conolly......some were tims. 

apparently it's meaning has been usurped in Scotland and it now means Catholic

Similarly "Hun" now means proddy.......

The problem is when it is denied the latter usage and definition of the word exists when it clearly does, and I’d suggest it is now by some margin the primary understanding of the word in Glasgow. 

Some of the criticism of Allardyce is very unfair. He has an excellent track record of immediately drastically improving the defensive performance of his sides.  The only manager in about 2 decades to come away from managing Sunderland with an improved reputation. Why is defensive performance so undervalued these days?

Do I think his style is right for Rangers? No. But he is a quality manager who has proven his ability time and time again and will not struggle to find another EPL job if he wants one.

5 minutes ago, buster. said:

The Key for starting to push their numbers down is to stop 10IAR.

After getting close to their record last season I think their numbers will be well down this season after so many drab performances, including 4 home league games they couldn't even score in.

Just now, buster. said:

Centre-half is probably the one position where some real experience and leadership is needed.

 

Leadership is also required in the centre of the midfield but preferrably not a 33 year old.

I'm expecting Alves to stay and I think he deserves another season with better players around him. If Skrtel was free and we didn't have Alves then you'd definitely take him but not for millions of pounds.

16 minutes ago, buster. said:

The more tangible aspect is another area where they have potential access to more revenue.

Yes, it's the foundation of your annual revenue really and it will always be a battle to beat them as long as they are generating that additional revenue.

Ah but according to some on this forum "fen1an" has nothing do with religion it just means republican revolutionary. I'm sure that what the trolls meant... 

5 hours ago, ian1964 said:

 

1 hour ago, craig said:

Just off the phone with the Ticket Office - they are pushing 40,000 ST renewals already.  Unprecedented was the word he used !

Must be more than 43k if it's a record. That was set after Paul Le Guen's appointment.

Wish Ibrox could be expanded though. It doesn't look good for the club when your rivals sell 10k more season tickets than you.

Interesting how the pragmatists get brought in to save clubs from relegation and then when they deliver they just get replaced with more Guardiola wannabes

Just now, ian1964 said:

And who has escaped media hunting down for his assault on Rossiter, unlike Naismith tackle on lego muncher

To be fair he was escorted out of the country buy our own players

49 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

 

After being linked with a £4m bid for a 33 year old it's good to see us linked to guys like Burke and Goldson. Both sound like they would be very good signings of the right age.

30 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

Scott Allan  

He is that kind of player. He's made some unfortunate choices

18 minutes ago, Ser Barristan Selmy said:

Lol people are reading way too much into this top scorer stat. Anyone who watches us can see we’re extremely poor in every area of the pitch. We are actually awful going forward.

We were good in spells. But as I pointed out in another thread, our goals tally of 76 is not impressive. It's actually our lowest goals tally since 2006-07 under Paul Le Guen. The fact we were top scorers on 76 says far more about the world beating, attacking football maestro Brenda than it does about us. 

9 minutes ago, buster. said:

There are teams there who could make life difficult but the first round should really be about us. In that if we have our act together regards some swift, decent recruitment and good preperation, then we should get to the second qualifying round without too many issues.

 

We'd definately be unseeded in the second round and there would be some potentially very difficult ties, eg. Sevilla.

I think it's a good thing to be in the 1st round because it creates a sense of urgency around recruitment and training early on which is probably a good thing. And as someone else mentioned it generates revenue for the club which won't go amiss.

I think it was Colin who mentioned in the Podcast that despite being top scorers this season we don't actually appear to create that many chances.

I think one of the biggest problems with 4-2-3-1 has been the fact that we don't have a real playmaker/trequartista in the squad to play behind the striker. We haven't had a player like that in a long time and I'd love to see Gerrard sign one. Windass has taken flak for his disappearing act but he's just not that kind of player and it's no wonder the position often didn't work for him. He's an excellent goalscorer but he's not the technical, creative pass-master you need in that position to link the midfield to attack and feed the wingers and forward with clever through balls.

I don't know if there are any other Italian football fans here but I always thought Alessandro Rosina was a great example of this kind of player when he was at Torino who wasn't too expensive for Rangers. David Silva and Luka Modric come to mind at the elite level.

I'm not sure who is out there at our level these days (because I don't play Football Manager anymore) but there's got to be someone. @Rousseau might have a suggestion?

5 minutes ago, buster. said:

We are seeded in the first round and can't draw Partizan and the other teams you list.

 

This link has a graphic that makes this clear.

https://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/seedel2018.html

Ah apologies. That makes for much better reading. There are a few sides in the Balkans in there too who would be a decent draw.

15 hours ago, JFK-1 said:

Potential opposition, one of them Progrès though I don't see a disaster on that scale happening again.

 

•  Partizan CC: 17.000
•  Molde CC: 12.500
•  Lech Poznań CC: 7.000
•  FH CC: 5.500
•  Dundalk CC: 5.500
•  Žalgiris CC: 5.500
•  Gabala CC: 5.250
•  Osijek CC: 5.200
•  Vardar CC: 5.000
•  Slovan Bratislava CC: 5.000
•  Beitar Jerusalem CC: 4.350
•  Anorthosis Famagusta CC: 4.310
•  Apollon Limassol CC: 10.000 or AEK Larnaca CC: 4.310
•  Dinamo Tbilisi CC: 4.250
•  Nõmme Kalju CC: 4.000
•  Aberdeen CC: 4.000
•  AIK CC: 4.000
•  BK Häcken CC: 3.995
•  Slavia Sofia CC: 3.825
•  CSKA Sofia CC: 3.825
•  Europa League play-offs winners of 2017–18 First Professional Football League CC: 3.825
•  Ventspils CC: 3.750
•  Shakhtyor Soligorsk CC: 3.725
•  Dinamo Minsk CC: 8.000 or Dynamo Brest CC: 3.725
•  Kairat CC: 3.625
•  Irtysh Pavlodar CC: 3.625
•  Tobol CC: 3.625
•  Fola Esch CC: 3.500
•  Lillestrøm CC: 3.485
•  Sarpsborg 08 CC: 3.485
•  Sarajevo CC: 3.250
•  Željezničar Sarajevo CC: 3.000
•  Vaduz CC: 2.750
•  FCI Levadia CC: 2.750
•  Milsami Orhei CC: 2.750
•  Stjarnan CC: 2.750
•  Cliftonville CC: 2.500
•  Široki Brijeg CC: 2.250
•  Chikhura Sachkhere CC: 2.000
•  Petrocub Hîncești CC: 2.000
•  Luftëtari CC: 1.700
•  ÍBV CC: 1.650
•  Liepāja CC: 1.500

•  KuPS CC: 1.380
•  Ilves CC: 1.380
•  Lahti CC: 1.380
•  Shamrock Rovers CC: 1.340
•  Derry City CC: 1.340
•  Samtredia CC: 1.250
•  Riga FC CC: 1.125
•  Narva Trans CC: 1.100
•  Stumbras CC: 1.075
•  Gandzasar Kapan CC: 0.975
•  Banants CC: 0.975
•  Balzan CC: 0.900
•  Progrès Niederkorn CC: 0.875
•  Coleraine CC: 0.850
•  Glenavon CC: 0.850
•  Third-placed team of 2017–18 Liga I
•  Third-placed team of 2017–18 Danish Superliga
•  Europa League play-offs winners of 2017–18 Danish Superliga
•  Fourth-placed team of 2017–18 Ekstraklasa
•  Winners of 2017–18 Azerbaijan Cup
•  Third-placed team of 2017–18 Azerbaijan Premier League
•  Winners of 2017–18 Serbian Cup
•  Third-placed team of 2017–18 Serbian SuperLiga
•  Winners of 2017–18 Slovenian Football Cup
•  Runners-up of 2017–18 Slovenian PrvaLiga
•  Third-placed team of 2017–18 Slovenian PrvaLiga
•  Runners-up or third-placed team of 2017–18 Slovak First Football League
•  Third-placed team or Europa League play-offs winners of 2017–18 Slovak First Football League
•  Winners of 2017–18 Magyar Kupa
•  Runners-up of 2017–18 Nemzeti Bajnokság I
•  Third-placed team of 2017–18 Nemzeti Bajnokság I
•  Winners of 2017–18 Moldovan Cup
•  Winners of 2017–18 Albanian Cup
•  Third-placed or fourth-placed team of 2017–18 Albanian Superliga
•  Winners of 2017–18 Macedonian Football Cup
•  Runners-up or third-placed team of 2017–18 Macedonian First Football League
•  Winners of 2017–18 Montenegrin Cup
•  Runners-up of 2017–18 Montenegrin First League
•  Third-placed team of 2017–18 Montenegrin First League
•  Winners of 2017–18 Armenian Cup or runners-up of 2017–18 Armenian Premier League
•  Winners of 2017–18 Luxembourg Cup

Definitely a few potential banana skins in there. We’ll certainly want to dodge Partizan, Molde, Lech Poznan, Tbilisi and the Sofias I’d suggest. The ideal draw would an Irish team because the travel wouldn’t disrupt things as much for the team and it would be an easy game.