DMAA

Every starting player we sell introduces risk, and it will be very difficult to decide how much risk to take ahead of absolutely massive Champions League qualifiers. These qualifiers are arguably the most important in our club’s history. Progressing to the groups this season would make us massive favourites to win the league and therefore attain the big prize at the end of next season, automatic qualification to the groups. It would be far easier for the board to re-invest prize money from this season when there is an enormous cash prize guaranteed to the winners of next season’s title. That was a bit of a digression to say the least.

Saw this, an excellent analysis. Seems he could be someone who could play a Sadio Mane type role as a wide forward. He doesn’t look particularly suited to being a central target man.

On the face of it, it's a great piece of business. He's an ideal age, just turned 24, isn't costing us anything and looks like he is improving every season. Very hard to judge from the limited footage of him though.

He's been injured. But I'm not expecting much from him at all to be honest, at least not next season. Even when he was fit he struggled to get game time in a very weak Wycombe side.

I do normally watch and listen after we beat them. I don’t expect much, but my word, last night was by far the worst coverage I have seen. Sportscene, most people have probably already heard about. The whole thing was discussed from Celtic’s point of view, our last two goals weren’t even shown. They could have talked about Defoe scoring in what could be his last game but no, it ends with a literal Scott Brown tribute reel showing him scoring goals against Rangers. You couldn’t make it up. Sportsound, I have to admit I was expecting at least some improvement on that but it was dire listening. They managed to talk about the transition at Celtic for about 40 minutes. All the ins and outs, will Lawwell still advise from afar? Literally nothing said about Rangers other than in the context of discussing what Celtic have to do because they have been surpassed. This is a disgrace from a national broadcaster. One journalist having his press privileges removed doesn’t come close to justification for the constant Celtic-centric analysis and coverage and shameless lack of praise/analysis/anything of us. Well, funnily enough they never tired of talking about us when we were in the doldrums.

A few candidates for this but Kent was superb. His confidence was at its peak yesterday and he reached another level.

This is pretty much what I saw. To be honest I’d be concerned if he was backup to Helander, who has an unfortunate habit of picking up injuries which can cause him to miss chunks of the season.

I was referring to the 15 year period I mentioned in a previous post with this, Celtic’s problems seem to have extended the period of the old firm not finishing top two for another few years. I didn’t realise the extent of the Bosman ruling, thanks.

The fact is though that an Atlantic league is simply not realistic, everyone knows it would be fiercely opposed by UEFA and it would also be less popular with our own fans. I've seen a couple of polls among our fans on joining the English set up and both came out at about 70% in favour.

That’s interesting. Presumably, the gate receipts being split 50-50 went way back and though and this didn’t change the fact that the old firm always dominated, so it seems to me that it was the combination of exceptional managers at those clubs along with Rangers being cash strapped for a spell due to investing in Ibrox that were the primary causes. Celtic then had their own financial problems then of course which allowed the dominance to be challenged to another few years.

It’s all before my time, but I find it interesting that there was a period where old firm dominance was dented as late as the 80s. In 15 years, the top 2 was only Rangers and Celtic once. How did that happen? Because contrary to what many think, the record books show the old firm have always dominated, just not quite as much as they do today. Since 1890, the longest period without an old firm title winner is 3 years, which has happened twice.

In reality, most Rangers fans would rather a longer bus/train journey every other Saturday than not being able to attend at all, realistically. It is actually easier to get to Manchester than it is to get to Dingwall.

No brainer for me. We are being left behind. 20 years ago we could make the Champions League groups and put up a good fight against big teams. Those days are long gone, year by year the gap has grown between us and Europe's top clubs. We do have a rare opportunity to qualify directly for the UCL next season but that will be near impossible to maintain without loads of Europa League qualifiers to top-up the coefficient, with a 5th Scottish side in Europe diluting our coefficient and, at some point, without Gerrard. And without direct entry, qualification is going to get harder and harder. Going back only 5 years, the Champions route qualification play-off losers were Viktoria Plzen, Hapoel Be'er Sheva, APOEL, Dundalk and Red Bull Salzburg. Next season, the champions route losers will be one of Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Slavia Prague, Olympiacos, Young Boys, Crvena Zvezda, Rangers, Midtjylland. All those teams are on a high, most are thrashing their leagues. And as things stand, even tiny clubs who are relegation candidates in the EPL have at least twice the revenue we do and far more than twice the draw we have to attract players from across the world. If we played in a British League, you would back us to rise to the top and become a European force once again. Things are ok just now but we won't be beating the odds in Europe with Gerrard forever and without that we have no access to decent funds.

It's a difficult question actually. In order of priority: Centre midfield - I would love big money (if we have it) to be spent here. A strong player who can tackle but can build attacks too. Davis and Arfield will be a year older, Ryan Jack isn't available enough and when we play tough opposition Aribo seems to lack the aggression and defensive discipline we need. Striker - I think Morelos will leave so we will need to spend good money on a replacement. Roofe is like Jack, we can't rely on him being fit often enough. Itten is unproven still, particularly in terms of how much of a goalscorer he can be. I think he has shown quality in other areas of his game but we don't really know whether he can be a 20+ goal striker yet. Attacking midfield - With Kent, Hagi, Roofe, Aribo and Wright do we need a senior player here or just reinforcements? Stewart, Jones, Barker, Middleton leaving makes space for....yougsters McPake and Kennedy? Centre back? We are well-stocked but an injury to Helander (19-20 style) would leave me a bit concerned history would repeat itself. He ended that season with 22/24 league points and only 4 league goals conceded (despite only 2/8 of those being home games). This season Balogun has improved our record without Helander, though we've still conceded 10 goals in the 15 games when he hasn't played (3 conceded after he's been subbed), and only 6 in 24 when he has played and that includes 3/4 Celtic games and 3/4 Hibs games who have posed by far the biggest goal threat to us. Having said that, I don't think we can attract better back-ups than we already have. So in short, a big signing in centre mid and a big signing up front (if Morelos leaves) would leave me happy (I would prefer 1 big signing in centre mid than 2 signings). Sales to any of our current starters would obviously need replaced.

I missed that, thanks. Calm again.

Why on earth was Helander taken off? He's our best out and out defender, and I don't think we concede a free header in our six yard box if he is on the pitch. Very frustrating.

Really gutted to go out. It is a mystery how Gerrard continues to work miracles in Europe but still can’t crack the domestic cups against weak opposition. When we went to penalties I knew we were going out. The psychology is always in favour of the weaker side but would also be in favour of a team who have scored a late equaliser.

As soon as he did that I was getting flashbacks to Arfield in Portugal. There is no logical reason why it should lead to us losing a goal and yet it happens again.

That penalty was an absolute disgrace. Not the first incredibly soft penalty given against us. I know it’s a meaningless game but it annoys me, I want as high a points total as possible.

When he is fit he is a certain starter, has been since coming in. I’m a big Hagi fan but Roofe may be starting up front next season. And when Roofe plays behind the striker we certainly have more goal threat.

He's a player who lost a bit of pace quite young, no doubt because of the constant injuries. I remember when he first burst on the scene with Hibs and his pace was frightening.

Our bans are totally disproportionate. This is a serious blow to our chances of making the champions league groups too, both players are automatic starters (when fully fit in Roofe's case).

18 team league isn't the answer. Our league is already terrible quality without adding the top half of the Championship to it.

I think it just rotates every year, presumably by league position. What is interesting though is that last season there was no split but they chose to act as though there had been. So we had Hibs, Celtic and Aberdeen at home in 18-19, then we would have been away to them last season but we didn't reach the split, and now we are back to playing them all at home for the second time in a row. You'd have thought they would have just put us away to them since last season didn't happen.