The slating of walter smith and the team!

[Norris Cole 0]

I know flowing football has been mentioned by some but I have no problem with winning being the priority and that is where my current dissatisfaction comes from. Two titles in eight years, both snatched from the jaws of defeat on the last day, is hardly the winning that I want to see. Losing seven games in a row against sellick was desperate. It's the lack of winning and the lack of belief that the 'leadership' at Ibrox is inadequate that drives the desire for change.

 

You cannot argue on the one hand that winning is the priority while simultaneously defending a losing regime. Neither can you trade off past failure against the possibility of future success. If you are going to adopt the 'it's a results business' attitude then you have to be prepared to address defeat, not just assume that failures who wait long enough will eventually be vindicated by success.

 

Somewhere, in a parellel universe, Celtic are going for 9 in a row. And Murray is being chased through the streets of Edinburgh by a blood-thirsty mob.

[Jon 0]

Can this thread not be closed as its just going round in circles......

[Super_Ally 0]

I know flowing football has been mentioned by some but I have no problem with winning being the priority and that is where my current dissatisfaction comes from. Two titles in eight years, both snatched from the jaws of defeat on the last day, is hardly the winning that I want to see. Losing seven games in a row against sellick was desperate. It's the lack of winning and the lack of belief that the 'leadership' at Ibrox is inadequate that drives the desire for change.

 

You cannot argue on the one hand that winning is the priority while simultaneously defending a losing regime. Neither can you trade off past failure against the possibility of future success. If you are going to adopt the 'it's a results business' attitude then you have to be prepared to address defeat, not just assume that failures who wait long enough will eventually be vindicated by success.

 

Can't disagree with that. And so perhaps a lot ire can be directed at Murray for a run of 2 out of the last 8 titles.

 

Smith however, is in competition for only his second title. Fate, the SPL, fixture congestion and Walter himself all cost us in his first assualt.

 

However, come the end of this year he could have won 5 out of a possible 6 trophies with a European final to boot. As it is Walter that this thread is about, declaring results is all I am interested in is, to my mind, a legitimate "defence" of Smith. Can Smith be blamed for for PLG and Eck losing the previous 2 titles?

[maineflyer 0]

Can't disagree with that. And so perhaps a lot ire can be directed at Murray for a run of 2 out of the last 8 titles.

 

Smith however, is in competition for only his second title. Fate, the SPL, fixture congestion and Walter himself all cost us in his first assualt.

 

However, come the end of this year he could have won 5 out of a possible 6 trophies with a European final to boot. As it is Walter that this thread is about, declaring results is all I am interested in is, to my mind, a legitimate "defence" of Smith. Can Smith be blamed for for PLG and Eck losing the previous 2 titles?

 

Like any Rangers manager, Smith was brought to the job to win the league title. He couldn't in his first season. He didn't in his second season. This, his third season, he has a chance. However, his opportunity has come about largely because of a slump in sellick's form, rather than anything Smith has done to improve our own performances.

 

In my opinion, he has bought poorly and used his squad poorly. Much of the talk about his tactics is to do with results, not just style points. I feel a more aggressive and confident approach would actually achieve better results. Some of the displays this season have been as dire as last year and let's not forget that this has led to similarly shocking results, without which we might just be able to say we are at the top of the league by our own efforts alone. Think St Mirren.

 

While this may turn out to be a championship year, none of us can predict it at the moment. What I can say however is that I would feel more confident were it not for the fact we probably have to rely on sellick doing worse than ourselves.

 

This is a thread about Walter Smith and his ability to change Rangers from losers to winners, for there is no other purpose to his being here. So far, he appears to have spent a lot of money and achieved very little. Never mind 15 years ago when he had enough money to compensate for ability, times have changed and so have what it takes to be successful. This isn't about gratitude or respect for the past, that's long gone, history. Looking forward is almost painful.

 

Whatever happens this season, it is looking almost certain that our squad next year will be considerably smaller and weaker. Our best players will be sold this summer to fund increasing debts and we do not appear to have a manager with any ability or enthusiasm for developing young players. What we do have is a manager who has little further ambition beyond his current job and who is deeply obligated to David Murray - a puppet on a string. As Murray's interest continues to wane, do not expect Walter Smith to make a difference.

 

From what I can see, Walter has become part of the problem, not the solution.

[maineflyer 0]

Somewhere, in a parellel universe, Celtic are going for 9 in a row. And Murray is being chased through the streets of Edinburgh by a blood-thirsty mob.

 

Can you see if I'm likely to catch him?

[Gazza_8 233]

I'm sure there were a few people on here telling me and others to stop moaning about the performances as we were winning. How times have changed!

[johnnyk 158]

I'm sure a lot of us were OK with the way we played last season as we were winning again after the disatrous PLG era and we got to all three cup finals and took the league to the last game of the season with no help from anyone. I'm also sure a lot said we had to move forward again this season which IMO was to play good football and sign some good players. I don't think we've really moved forward football wise and were also out of europe very early which was embarrassing. We are playing the same defensive style/formation along with playing players out of positions, it's not great to watch with hardly any risks taken all season especially away from home in the bigger games. I know we can't have it all but surely we can try and play attractive football sometimes? I also think we are only in our league position as Celtic are also very poor as they could easily have had the league in the bag by now. If we won the league I will of course be delighted but is it going to the be the same again next season or will we try and play a good style which is better to watch once more and stop boring the fans to death!!

[calscot 0]

I sense people who have had to sit in mute frustration while Rangers struggled from poor performance to poor performance and who are now intent on exacting retribution against the naysayers. Unfortunately, were it not for the fact that ra sellick have all but collapsed these last few weeks, there would have been no Rangers 'revival'. Were there really something to crow about, I fancy I would be crowing too, as would most others who feel disappointed with our manager. I'm delighted we're at the top of the league but I would rather it were on our own merit.

 

I think that's pretty unfair seeing as most people agree we've been robbed of at least 7 points by poor officiating this season while Celtic have benefited from same. Not only that we've had more than our fair share of bad luck while Celtic have had the opposite.

 

I think most Rangers fans who don't have an anti-Smith agenda will agree with the above. We've been talking about it all season.

 

It is up to Rangers to be better than Celtic and other teams throughout the season and just exactly when those teams lose or draw their games is pretty much irrelevant.

 

Or are Celtic really going for 6 in a row because helicopter Sunday just doesn't count?

 

If Rangers had a level playing field we'd be on course for a decent points total this season and that is despite only having the pick of about 3rd tier players while competing with the lower end of the EPL and the Championship.

 

WS may have more money than other teams in the SPL but he is probably more hamstrung relatively cashwise than any manager since Jock Wallace.

 

Eck may not have had the biggest budget but it was relatively better to mid table EPL teams than what we have now.

 

In net cash terms I think WS has spent about 3-4M which is probably around the same mark as Eck but the money is worth much less today.

 

You can't expect early DA type of football with Championship type cash.

 

The fact is that both the OF are suffering for this and so combining with a downturn of native talent they are not able to put together the top class teams of old.

 

If Celtic are rubbish in the same climate as us, then why should we be so much better? Who are we being compared to?

 

It's obvious that without the top Dutch, English etc internationals we used to have but are now unreachable, we're not going to be so far ahead of the SPL opposition.

 

It's ludicrous to say that Celtic and all other SPL teams can't put together a decent team with the constraints the SPL brings and then say that we should be producing a team to compete footballing-wise with Man U.

 

And that's another problem, we have loads of fans watching the Premiership which is the richest league ever and then expect the same kind of football from a club with far less money to spend on talent.

 

Rangers fans are continually accused of accepting a lesser product and lower expectations but surely some are just expecting the impossible and downright ridiculous?

 

But the point in the end is that we have been a better team than Celtic all season and the fact that their luck has suddenly evened out a bit has got absolutely nothing to do with it.

[calscot 0]

PS How many games have Rangers lost this year? Is that not a "revival"?

[calscot 0]

Gisbeer it's not always possible to play flowing football and win games especially for the old firm. Though the recent times has showed more teams having a go at us they stuff there midfield and defence (exactly what we did in europe last season) it does not let us play football we have got players in there that can play decent football but a lot of the time it's a scrap more than anything else in the spl. it's ok trying to play decent football and win games but i think it's i bit naive to think if we play great football we will win the league. Remember the tommy burns celtic teams every celtic fan used to love watching them play, they say it was 1 of the best celtic teams they have watched from a footballing point of view, but what did they win?????? I would rather win trophys and championships than the team been labelled the same as tommy burns team "GREAT FOOTBALLING TEAM BUT NEVER WON THE LEAGUE" at the end of the day gisa its the championship that counts!

 

And I think WS agrees with you. There are plenty of teams in Europe who did not play pretty football against us last season. We have the same tactics against us almost every week. Tommy Burns is an excellent example from which I think many managers have learned.

 

Some people think PLG's teams played good football (I don't) but he was 17 points behind at the half way mark.

 

OF management, at the end of the day, is all about winning the league. It's the same in any two horse race.

 

I seen a Hagar the Horrible cartoon yesterday. It had his mate reading a plaque on the pub wall which said, "It's not about winning or losing, it's how you play the game". He then asks Hagar, "Who wrote that?"

 

And Hagar replies, "A loser!"