The slating of walter smith and the team!

[Super_Ally 0]

Not in the slightest and I think a pretty naive view . I predicted he'd be in the team this season and it was mainly delayed by the boy's injury. Other factors were there about fitting into the team and showing enough confidence.

 

He was going to play sometime and people calling for it to be earlier have to be pretty full of themselves to think they are responsible for the event when the time comes. So if I tell you to do something you're going to do anyway, do I get the credit when you eventually do it?

 

If he'd done as the fans told him he'd have played the lad when he was injured..., and played Aaron earlier, and played Sebo, and played Gow, and played Cuellar when he was injured, and not bought Miller etc, etc, etc.

 

Quite agree with this.

 

I in no way think Walter is such a "weak" manager that he picks teams on fan pressure and think that is borne out by the evidence of his time at the club.

 

Would like to see more of the positivity and the pro-Rangers stance evident in your subsequent post from the rest of us.

[UCF2008 0]

I've come to the conclusion that no matter who the manager is and how successful he is, there will always be a faction of the support who disagree with his decisions. That's just football. While we all want silly money spent in transfer season, we complain when that's what we get.

 

WS & DM are talking about cutting the squad size down to 20 seasoned pro's supported by the youth. If they cut it down to 11 there would no doubt still be complaints about team selection.

 

When Walter was brought in, the main objective was to 'challenge' for the title and so far we've done just that. Let's cut him some slack AT LEAST until the end of the season.

[bmck 117]

Emm ..... and you point is? While I'm delighted you've cleared up that posts are about words, I haven't a clue what you're trying to say. Perhaps it's just noise, eh?

 

im not convinced there is much more than noise at all! :cheers:

[maineflyer 0]

Quite agree. The boy has talent but isn't going to show it until he gets a run of games in his preferred position. Having been the subject of rave reviews at Hibs and during his early days at Ibrox, it says a lot for Kirk ''limited ability'' Broadfoot that Whittaker can't get a sniff at right-back.

 

Whittaker ...... some talent but alas none of the confidence to use it. What has happened to this fella?

[maineflyer 0]

im not convinced there is much more than noise at all! :cheers:

 

Possibly depends more on who's listening than who's speaking. In any case, the only reason so many words are written here is that no one CAN hear them, if you see, hear, sense what I mean.

[Bluedell 5,516]

Whittaker ...... some talent but alas none of the confidence to use it. What has happened to this fella?

 

I put it down to the fact that he just doesn't have a big club mentality.

[Norris Cole 0]

And so Kaunas had little to do with Smith then? It was the players and luck, eh?

 

No, it was down to Smith playing McCulloch, Dailly and Adam in midfield in Kaunas. And playing for the draw. Again.

 

And how long ago was Kaunas, so you're saying that can't be used as justification to condemn him eh? He's now top of the league and in the cups, so how can you criticise him if we forget the recent past? Where is the line? If it's only a month or two, then he's a pretty good manager, best in the country in fact.

 

Kaunas was this season. It was also a large part of the reason we tried to punt our top goalscorer - had we succeeded there would have been no title this season. Do you see how I can still hold Kaunas against Smith, aside from making us a laughing stock throughout Europe? Or maybe I should thank him for avoiding last year's fixture backlog?

 

Sorry but that sounds like a Tim's excuse. Do you find it as hard as Tims to give Rangers any credit?

 

The Tims say that their NIAR is better than ours because they were shit during ours. Do you agree with them? Should we not count our NIAR any more and all hail Celtic's team instead?

 

What is it with online forums that anyone who is critical of the club in any way is compared to a "tim"? You simply haven't answered my point here. Celtic's worst run of form in a decade has propelled us to the top while covering up our own deficiencies. That's not my opinion, it's simply what has happened. If Celtic hadn't gone on a run of 1 win in 6 league games, we'd have been well behind and Smith would be getting it in the neck. Or presumably you'd still be defending him. As for 9IAR, do you not remember how close Aberdeen ran us in 89 and 91, and Celtic in 96 and 97?

 

No of course not, Celtic go on a good streak and we falter and they are obviously great and we're rubbish. Turn the tables and we're still rubbish, eh?

 

Show me where I said this.

 

So when we do well it's down to the players and luck, and when we do badly, it's the manager's fault... hmm.

 

Actually I specifically said the UEFA Cup run was lucky. Smith refused to rest first team players eg. Weir in the lesser games last season with the end result that the team was so dog tired towards the end of the season they had to be dug out of a hole in both cup finals by Boyd. That, to me, is victory in spite of Smith.

 

As a Rangers fan I demand the club be taken forward. Smith's been given plenty funds where McLeish had his transfer and wage budgets slashed, so I'm not taking the financial situation as an excuse.

 

I'd love nothing more than for Walter to win the title this season, at the same time fully recognising it'll be in the 2004/05 mould of papering over the cracks. As Sue Barker might say, what happened next?

 

I respect Smith as a Rangers man, and will always take his side over the Rangers-hating scum in the SPL and the mhedia. However, the defence of Smith is a defence of mediocrity.

[gisabeer 409]

I've come to the conclusion that no matter who the manager is and how successful he is, there will always be a faction of the support who disagree with his decisions. That's just football. While we all want silly money spent in transfer season, we complain when that's what we get.

 

WS & DM are talking about cutting the squad size down to 20 seasoned pro's supported by the youth. If they cut it down to 11 there would no doubt still be complaints about team selection.

 

When Walter was brought in, the main objective was to 'challenge' for the title and so far we've done just that. Let's cut him some slack AT LEAST until the end of the season.

 

Like mainflyer says ill never forgive Smith for playing for a draw In the Uefa cup final.

 

As for cutting the squad down to whatever figure, he was the one who went on a panic buy to appease the fans after squandering the transfer kitty before Kuanus.

 

i want a manager who has the balls to play to win. we currently dont have one.

 

I dont think that is too much to ask. As a supporter Its the least I expect.

[gisabeer 409]

Whittaker ...... some talent but alas none of the confidence to use it. What has happened to this fella?

 

Dragged down by walters negative tactics. I would put Beadsley, McCulloch, and Adam in that bracket too.

[craig 5,199]

The manager who gave us Kaunas will be getting no slack from this Bear. Neither will the manager who plays for draws, constantly plays players out of position, perseveres with players tragically out of form, claims to have seen disastrous results coming, signs players for good money only to never play them so we have to try and punt our top goalscorer, and makes contemptuous statements about the fans in the media.

 

The UEFA Final was as much down to Cuellar, McGregor and Lady Luck as it was to Smith. It's also worth pointing out that Manchester was nine months ago. History. Just as with 9IAR, it simply cannot be used as a justification to forgive him his faults in the present.

 

Would this thread have been started if Celtic hadn't their worst run of form this decade?

 

There has been nothing on these Smith threads which makes me think he is deserving of praise for his current work. Support, maybe, but I prefer to support the players who are doing the business on the park. If we bring it home in May it will be thanks to Mendes, Bougherra, Boyd and the rest of the boys in blue.

 

 

But is that not being contradictory ? An appalling loss in Europe is down to the manager whilst a league win is down to the players ? Is that a fair statement ?

 

It also gives the players something to hide behind when they play poorly and lose games - must be the managers fault.

 

Yet whilst they win.... hey, we are the mutts nuts.

 

I know there is more to it and I am being simplistic here but there is no doubt in my mind that the two go hand in hand. Smith is not the ONLY reason we failed against Kaunas. If we are stating that Kaunas are a pub team then our players produced performances of sub-pub team calibre. Surely they therefore need to share in the responsibility of defeat ?

 

Likewise if we win the league by a couple of points then, it could be argued, that Smith's decision to go 4-1-4-1 away to Aberdeen and Celtic would be justified (not to me, but you can see how it could be) and that would make him a part of the reason that we win the league - the players obviously deserve the credit too.

 

I just think that it is harsh that Smith would get no credit for positive outcomes but gets TOTAL blame for negative ones.