Thomson OUT - Eagles signing cancelled...!

[johnnyk 158]

He's had an outstanding season, played well against us, young enough to improve. At least as much potential as Eagles. If SPL players are good enough for the championship they're good enough for us in the market we're now in.

 

I agree here, i think he's a decent young player who would improve with us if given a chance. We do need another central midfielder incase anyone got injured and for around �£1m and not massive wages he might be a good signing. I don't think anyone else in that position would leave if he did sign for us.

[ian1964 10,724]

Rejection is a compliment to Rangers.

 

Exasperation must have been felt when Chris Eagles turned down the club’s offer last week, even although it would have almost doubled the money he will earn in the Championship with Burnley. Even so, there is merit
in a wage structure that does not 
accommodate a 24-year-old yet to prove himself consistently effective.

 

Wealth was once taken for granted at Ibrox, but the shift to frugality is complete. Kevin Thomson left for Middlesbrough partly because Rangers
understood they could not match the salary the midfielder would receive at the Riverside. Kris Boyd made the same calculation. Supporters will be distressed, but prudence should not be rejected out of hand.

 

Eagles was a promising young winger when he broke through at Manchester United, before then contributing to Burnley’s promotion to the Barclays Premier League, but he often falls out of prominence. It is absurd to consider him a peerless figure.

 

Common sense is to the fore when calls to breach a wage structure are rebuffed. Eagles might have heard of interest from different clubs, but 
Rangers have nothing to gain by trying to match the spending power of others.

 

Clubs tend to shun the notion of a salary cap, but an unofficial one is already in place. It does not apply across the board: some teams will always be above such considerations. But money has drained from the Scottish game, and there is alarm in England, too. Some club chairmen have implored the Football League to apply some restraint to wage bills, for fear of being unable to control their own spending. Debts have curbed them instead.

 

Walter Smith would prefer greater leeway, particularly with eight players out of contract next summer. Downsizing
has been forced on Rangers by the free spending that brought success and debt to the club under Sir David Murray. All the same, football in general needs to review its spending.

 

Spanish football will prefer to rejoice at the national team’s World Cup victory rather than contemplate the debts that have accrued in recent years. A cash-flow problem prevented Barcelona paying all their players earlier this month, while Real Madrid’s last spending spree was financed by substantial loans from two friendly banks.

 

Uefa are keen to impose financial controls, although the major clubs are predictably opposed. Roman Abramovich reined in his spending at Chelsea over the last two seasons, and there must be consternation in the boardrooms of most English Premier League clubs at the way Manchester City are now 
inflating the expectations of elite players.
Yaya Toure’s wage of almost Ã?£200,000 a week will be seen as a precedent.

 

The splurge cannot continue. Rangers
might be wistful at the recollection of signing premium players like Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne, but the 1990s turned out to be an aberration. Other players can always be identified.

 

Eagles might develop further and discard some of the whimsy of his game, but he seems no more or no less a talent than Chris Burke, a player Rangers
developed then sold to Cardiff City. Charlie Adam is another who has thrived in the Championship – where Eagles has played most – since leaving Ibrox.

 

There are always particulars, and both Burke and Adam looked to have run out of confidence before they left Scotland. Rangers were also seeking to reduce their squad at the time. Nonetheless, neither would have been on a higher wage at Ibrox than the one offered to Eagles.

 

Rangers fans will grow anxious while their Old Firm rivals continue to spend money on wages and fees for players
like Joe Ledley and Daryl Murphy. Celtic will also have to sell to balance the books, though, and they balked at the demands of Jimmy Bullard, a player whose reputation seems to vastly exceed his accomplishment. Rangers’ finances are more tightly constrained while the club waits to be sold, but greater parity will eventually be restored.

 

Restraint should be retained, though. The Old Firm will never be able to match the level of wages in the Barclays Premier League, but they should not be driven to recklessness by indivi-dual Championship clubs chasing their own route to the top flight. The greatest commodity will always be a manager’s astute judgement of a player’s worth.

 

 

THE Clydesdale Bank Premier League has become a source of expertise. Billy Reid was the latest manager to be approached by a Football League club, although he opted to stay at Hamilton
rather than succeed Paulo Sousa at Swansea. Managerial reputations continue to be cultivated in Scotland.

 

Alex McLeish and Owen Coyle will be conspicuous in the Barclays Premier League this season, having established themselves since leaving the Scotland job and St Johnstone, respectively.

 

There must be Scottish traits that lend themselves to managerial authority,
although it was assumed the socialism and work ethic imposed by growing up in mining and ship-building communities were central to the successes of Bill Shankly, Sir Matt Busby, Jock Stein and Sir Alex Ferguson.

 

Perhaps it is a refusal to be dis-regarded that expresses itself most forcibly in Scots. Coaching skills are taught by the SFA, but nature exerts an influence, too. Reid will be coveted again, while Derek McInnes looks like the most promising young manager of his generation. They are maintaining a tradition.

[Totti 0]

To not make a profit on a fairly young 1st team player highlights how dreadfully we are run.

[Totti 0]

He's had an outstanding season, played well against us, young enough to improve. At least as much potential as Eagles. If SPL players are good enough for the championship they're good enough for us in the market we're now in.

If a championship club are interested in a player it means they are good enough ? You need your head checked.

 

Craig Conway is a mediocre SPL player. There are top players out there for cheap if you look around eg Cuellar and Bougherra. We should be building a side able to look half decent in the Europa League if nothing else ffs.

 

And there's plenty players who look great at shite spl teams then look awful as soon as they step up. See Ian Murray, Russell Anderson, Derek Riordan etc.