DoofersDad

3 - 0 now. Far from bottling it, they are getting stronger. They'll be hard to beat next year in the SPL.

Because the adminstrators get £585 an hour and are in no rush at all Rangers next 3 games are against Dundee Utd, Celtic and Motherwell. What is happening behind the scenes to ensure they still have the best players available for those games. The Utd and Motherwell games are effectively 6 pointers now in terms of the race for 2nd place. I would like to think there is no way that Rangers can play in Europe next year but the administrators and HMRC may feel that the best way to ensure as much tax owed is paid to the taxpayer is to engineer a solution which maximises the chance of playing in the champions' league next year.

I don't think anybody is saying it is all wonderful or anything like. We could and should be doing better than we are and there are genuine concerns about some of the selections and tactics, but this season has been about rebuilding and it has been desparately difficult to do that with the amount of lengthy injuries we've had. So, we've had a couple of disappointing results in the last 2 games against teams who are 2nd and 4th. But before that we conceded just 2 goals in 5 games and we have not been beaten by a bottom 6 side since August 20th. It's far too early to call for a change of manager. If we only get another couple of points before the split I'll maybe agree you've got a point. If we get relegated I'll maybe agree with you. It ain't going to happen, though. More chance of us being safe before the split than going down. This is a season to write off and hope, indeed, expect better next season.

Listened to the radio commentary. Consensus was that the score flattered Utd and that ICT payed pretty well on the whole. The difference is the lack of cutting edge up front. We actually had more attempts on goal and a pretty even split of possession against a team that are on fire at the moment. OTJ obviously not fully match fit and without Doran and Hayes there is clearly a lack of quality in midfield but we created chances and should have scored against a side who have now had 4 consecutive clean sheets. With Shinnie out, the front men just don't seem to be able to find the net at the moment and that is where we are really lacking at the moment. It's all well and good promising players a run in the side so they are not under too much pressure to score in a particular game but I cannot for the life of me understand why Winnall is not given a chance. He surely can't do any worse in front of goals than the others. Any lingering hope of 6th is now gone. We now have to get a couple of wins under our belts and make sure that any lingering hopes Dunfermline may have of catching us are snuffed out as surely as our hopes of top 6 have been tonight. Then we can aim for 7th place. 7th would equal our best finish ever and given the injuries we have had this season would represent a really good season.

Surprised Williams is dropped - he was one of the better players against Rangers. Golobart starting just 3 days after Terry said he would not be in contention till the weekend. Hopefully OTJ will get a decent run out today. I have faith in Terry even if I don't always understand why he does what he does.

Agreed, but there really should be no need to get rid of any of these staff. If the club is to continue as a going concern, these staff are essential to the efficient running of the stadium, Some of the top players will be paid as much in a year as all of the cleaners, groundstaff, secretaries etc put together so taking them out of the wage bill has far, far more impact. Get rid of the high paid players first of all: these others should go only if the position is such that that it's either them or there are not enough players to put a team on the park.

I have no sympathy for the guy. Multi-million pound contract and what with what he has already earned and the cost of buying out his contract, this young and seemingly ineffectual young manager need never work again whilst still enjoying a very comfortable lifestyle. He has, of course been let down badly by his players (Torres 3 league goals in 36 appearences after a £50 million transfer is a disgrace). How much is it the players failure and how much the managers inability to motivate them and get the tactics right can be debated but there must be fault on both sides. People say you'ld have to be mad to manage Chelsea but I think you'd have to be mad not to. If Abramovich wants to pay me several millions to get the team to under-perform then I could do that happily for a few months. Roman, send me a PM with your phone number and we can discuss the details.

The one group of people with money we don't hear being talked about investing money in football clubs is footballers. With the kind of pay they are getting they should soon be accumulating enough to make a big difference to a small town team. On MOTD yesterday they were talking about the value to Arsenal of Van Persie and saying that they would probably need to offer in the region of £200,000 a week for him to stay. They said that this would disrupt the wage structure and if they did that, other established 1st team squad players would be looking for £140 - 150,000. A player investing those sort of sums sensibly could be set up very comfortably for life within the year. They could then have plenty spare to put back into the game. Wishful thinking, I know. Lining the pockets of the motor manufacturers and pandering to the materialistic whims of their trophy WAGs is far more important then giving something back to game that gave them their fortunes. As for the mythical Muirfield investment which is going to help secure the future of this club - it is just over one week's pay for Van Persie! Such contrasts sum up for me what is wrong with the world game these days.

However technically clever this modern manufactured "dance" stuff may or may not be,it ain't music as far as I'm concerned. It's got no soul.

Thanks for the clips, guys. Certainly a lot of similarities but Jonny's is the original and best.

It's all the same topic. An independent Scotland may require nuclear weapons to defend our compost heaps from hostile takeover. Nukes should sort the slug problem too, I guess.

Money corrupts. Caldwell was still earning big money. £8,000 a week on a 3 year contract and he's earned more than many hard working men and women earn in a lifetime - and he's doing what he loves. My heart bleeds for the poor exploited soul. He chose to leave to earn even more money somewhere else. I'm not saying I blame him if it was offered on a plate to him elsewhere, but it was his choice and he chose the money.

It is a condition of membership of the SPL that clubs have an U-19 team. That is the bit that is crippling a lot of clubs at the minute. Our own club are very much feeling the pinch as well. But isn't that a sad reflection on the state of the game in this country in any case? It should be unthinkable that a team in the top flight of a national league wouldn't have an under 19 team - or a reserve team for that matter. There are teams down at level 5 or even level 6 in the English non-league pyramid system who have reserve teams and youth teams (under 18). It is through games in reserve and youth leagues that players mature and show they have what it takes to play in competeive games.

Sounds like a really great offer. Let's hope there are plenty of takers.

£249,999 more than Craig Whyte paid.

He's not done a lot wrong. They were 5th last season and they're 5th now. They beat Aberdeen in the League Cup this year. Can't expect them to do much better than that.

Sounds like a good idea to me. It would allow those who go to the games to actually see what is being talked about and, indeed to allow them to know that it is being talked about at all. Very interesting website. The downside for us is that because we do not fill the ground, the extra capacity this produces will not result in any increased revenue save for the handful of folk who might be persuaded to come to matches who currently stay away.

Didn't see the England game so I will have to take your word for it. Unless.....

To be fair, I don't think there is a lot they can realistically do. It's not their fault the game in Scotland is going down the tubes. The problem lies with the way the world-wide game is marketed with the game increasingly structured and financed to cater to a global TV audience. The masses watch football from their arm chairs and not the terraces and they want to watch the big name players rather than their home town team. It becomes a self perpetuating circus. They have changed the big european club competitions from straightforward knock-out competitions to mini leagues and a shorter knock out stage in order to ensure the best chance and the most games for the biggest teams. Should one of them slip up against a less glamorous side that happens to have gate crashed the party the league gives them a second chance to let the big boys win. Worse still, several teams that then fail to progress in the champions league are given places in the Europa league. The 2 Manchester sides for instance, fail miserably in the champions league and are now earning further mega millions in the Europa league as a reward for their failure. To play the number of games these top clubs play, they have to have big squads of top players and television and sponsorship money means they can pay these players stupid sums of money. Some of these players hardly ever play but are there when needed. Unless a club receives massive investment there is no way teams can ever aspire to reach the top - the gap is too wide and the promising players and managers are plucked away with offers they can't refuse. A few years ago a talented manager at an average club could bring together talented players, keep then together for a few years develop a brilliant team and acheive great things - Brian Clough at Nottingham Forrest being number 1 in my list on that score. The dream that your club might just do that sort of thing is part of what draws people to support their local clubs, but as the market and financing of football has changed, that sort of team progression no longer happens. Get a couple of years out of a good player and they are off where the grass is greener. Clubs like us and the Pars get squeezed. We have to pay players more than we can really afford in order to keep the standard to a level the fans want to see. But we also need to keep ticket prices at a level which allows us to pay the wages. The problem is that increasingly the fans are voting with their feet and saying the ticket price is too much for the standard of football on offer. It's a grim thought, but from a business angle one might now consider that winning the league title is simply an unattainble goal. You have to buy success these days because market forces (and the Bosman ruling) break up teams that could develop together and progress to success. There has never been more money in the game, but it's all in the wrong hands. A cap on player wages and agreements that a much larger proportion of the television monies is shared throughout the game is required. I can't see that happening and I can't see that the SFA can do much about it either.

It's not the win bonuses that's got them into difficulty, that's for sure. It's a sign of the times and a lot of clubs are going to be struggling in the next year or two. Teams will not have the money to attract and hold on to half decent players, standards will drop, crowds will drop, finances will get even worse and so the downward spiral continues.

New on the BBC website. Knock on effect of the Rangers debt. http://www.bbc.co.uk...otball/17210537

I was thinking along similar lines but not because I think he was as bad a Mahonio does, but because I thought he was just the normal standard of referee we see and therefore poor. I wondered therefore whether to tick the average or poor box as he was both. I wonder, Scotty, if "average" in the poll could be changed to something nuetral such as "Acceptable" or "OK"? Given that most of the refereeing we see is of such a poor standard "average" in this context actually means poor.

Barry Wilson for Elgin V Clyde. At the age of 40! Well done Barry.

Going round in circles a wee bit here. I'll make 2 points. Firstly, whilst we were defensively poor on Sunday (but well done, Proctor!) I think the rubbishing of our side is generally unfair on the team. Those few of us who actually bothered to stay to the end will have seen how hard the team tried to turn 4-1 into 4-2. They never gave up. Rubbishing our team's effort is also actually rather disrespectful for a Rangers side who played very well indeed. These were players whose future is in the balance through no fault of their own, they were hurt by the defeat to Kilmarnock and they were very much up for it. They were playing for their contracts and did themselves great credit. No shame in losing to that Rangers side. I don't think there is a particular problem with the defence if we can keep the players we have and keep them fit. Sunday was a one-off. As I said before in this thread, between the 2 Rangers' games we conceded just 4 goals in 7 games including a trip to Parkhead to play a rampant Celtic side. That's top 3 level defending and achieved with a range of personnel. I think that is quite impressive and shows not only have we players of appropriate quality but we have good cover as well. The disappointing thing recently is that we have drawn with teams we should be beating and that's because the goals have dried up with Andrew Shinnie injured. Tade, Sutherland and MacKay have not been scoring and despite bringing Winnall in, Terry doesn't give him an opportunity. Of course, it is goals the fans want to see and if we had converted recent draws into wins then we would be well placed for top six and very few would be complaining. So can we please stop moaning about the defence and start moaning about the strikers instead

Well done Graeme. Could you please have a word with Jordon Rhodes about the joys of playing in the Highland Capital?