Calidad

Congratulation to all the players and staff. I share the sentiments that its shame what has happened- and yep do feel for Falkirk who have battled hard as well. I think though on the balance of it we deserve it. I hope now we can build on what has been done and concentrate on surviving in what will be a highly challenging Championship next season. 'Mon the Rovers

Has anyone actually seen this in writing? I would hazard a guess no, and this is is more an aspiration that black and white unbreakable contract. Remember we had 4 seasons without that fixture and by all accounts the TV companies still televised our games, I think also that attendances went up at a lot of clubs. We need to get away from building our game around just two clubs and how many times they play each other. I know a lot supporters from both sides and they generally agree that actually playing each other a couple of less games might actually be a good thing. The clubs money men might not like it, but money men are only happy about one thing, and being happy about one thing is not a good place to be. Our game needs a revamp, and not just a 1 season emergency revamp and the revert back to it stagnating ways . Scottish football needs to be gallus and look forward. We need a bigger top flight and bigger Championship. Maybe some sort regional leagues underpinning it all. I would also like to see a financial reward going to clubs who play predominately Scottish players in their first team squads-- I am sure that it will not be that hard to work out.

Okay, a lot of peeps seemed to be a little underwhelmed by Locke's appointment. I am more than willing to give the new management team a chance, then benchmark has been set so they have to do as good as last season at least. I was reminded by someone the other night that when Locke was in charge of Hearts they went on a pretty good run of games, and if it had not been for their points deduction would have been a better position. Not sure about what he did at Killie, but things have never been good there. Not sure even a world class manager would sort that out. I am looking forward to next season, the Championship is going be a belter, the Prem will just be Rangers/Celtic and their nosiey whataboutery will drown out everything else. I hope Hearts/Aberdeen can at least split them apart and keep the wet coast shills in the sports desks from boasting that we ( when I mean we I mean Scottish football) have been missing the Celtic/Rangers show. So this season I will just concentrate on the Championship. Best League in the World.

I am not sure blaming the old squrim for the complete decline- they were caught up in their own arms race, cheered on by various accolytes in the media. No one held a gun to the heads of the other clubs, but they swept along by it. What could you do though, as soon as you produced a good player who might have the audacity to score against the old squirm one week, the following week the phone calls were into the Daliy Old Firm to print some story that he was off to either side- or both and unsettle the lad. If he was ever signed it was puny sum and the lad would end up the Squirm Reserve squad. I can see this happening all over again once the two of them are back together again. Hope not. But learning lessons from the past is not high in Scottish ftiba is it.

Give the guy a chance, hope he gets fit pronto- Hope we dont resort to hoofage tho----

I like the look of the squad the manager is putting together. It looks a good mix. Might be getting my hopes up here a little but maybe we should be thinking of finishing 4th and pushing for play off, and good couple of runs in the Cups would be a good season. Can not see past a Rangers or Hibs finishing as 1st and 2nd. Outside that those two there is not much to seperate the rest. Going to be tight league this season so we need to win out home games.

" Never mind the Nomads....here's the d- list" Pretty sure the Scottish fitba hacks will be doing the PR in the coming days that if the do not get a nomad and d-list it will be for the "long term benefit" of the Rangers. Now where is that war chest....

So what is going to happen when tax cheat Dave gets his Rangers suit and tie dusted off from the last time-the suit probably still has the IOUs in it from his last stint on the board-and gets his photo op at the top of the marble stairs ( PR done by Jim Traynor who is spoon feeding Daily Record junior hacks some left over Lamb stew) claiming a new dawn is on Rangers? The reality? Correct me if I am wrong Ashley has the retail sewed up? Ashley is owed about 5-8 mil depending on who you ask? They still need to pay a mil a month (?) in outgoings. Maybe a few more bums on seats will help but I think the glow of this putsch will fade very quickly when Tax Cheat Dave has to come out and make more cuts to fund the Ashley pay off. One thing will be sure it will not be Tax Cheat Dave’s money he will be risking-rich men don’t do that. It is not over yet by a long shot.

I belive that all the SPL clubs last year did the same thing to Hearts, and there was no a peep in the press about it and I do not think that Hearts complained. The Daily Record is shilling for the Rangers PR department again.

Rangers are not going to die. Peter Lawwell will nod through the Ashely "Take over", as he would rather see a weakened Rangers playing than them being killed off. If it does not look like Rangers will get promoted this season, look for the cozy PR puff pieces for League reconstruction. Then when Rangers get back in to the top league it will be business as usual for Old Firm Inc.

I honestly think that if Rangers do not get up first time of asking from the Championship, either automatically or via the playoffs- then you will see "League Reconstruction" being touted. There has already been a number of articles in the press floating the idea for the next season. I guess they will look to expand the Scottish Prem to say 16 teams and invite Rangers + others into the Prem.(Which I do not have problem with really). What will happen tho, two seasons later the Rangers/Celtic axis will be back to be strong again and the little PR minions will be pumping out stories "league is too big, we need a smaller league" and everyone will role over with their tummies being tickled and Rangers/Celtic get extra derbies trying to outpend each other and tabloids printing puff pieces. You heard it hear first.

This whole narrative that the Scottish Prem is "boring" without Rangers and Celtic slugging it out, probably comes straight from the Rangers/Celtic PR machine that call up their buddies on the sports desk and say "We need another "its boring without our derby-get scribbling" Scottish football should be a lot more than just two teams, and I think the last couple of seasons in the Scottish Prem have been exciting for the a lot more fans-yet the football punditocrcy ignore it. The continue to bleat on "poor old Rangers fans-club is a mess. Poor old Celtic fans having to watch their average team toil a 1-0 win against ICT-thats why we need Rangers back.." Yawn When Rangers went bust I was hoping there would be cultural change in Scottish ftiba, the wider game would be embraced and covered. Instead they all seem to doing their best to talk it down and then when Rangers get back they will talk it up again, simply to prove themselves "look we were right" Sigh.

Couldn't agree more, however this also happens in other leagues round the world. In England they build their marketing and sponorship around the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal et al. Go abroad and all the adverts are about them. Scudders the EP chairman was quoted the other month saying that Man U not being in the Champions damaged the EP "brand". The whole Rangers disintegration just revealed how much the Scottish football authorities have built the whole the marketing and sponorship around one grubby derby match between Rangers and Celtic. At the moment the Scottish Prem is still a tight race-Celtic will probably pull away once they are pumped out of Europe ( I hope Celtic can stay in as long as possible) attendances are generally up with most clubs. In the Championship its still all to play for- and I think promotion and relegation will go down to the wire, so why is that being sold to the TV compainies like that? Because for the last 20 odd years all they have done is sold Rangers/Celtic and they can not get their pretty heads round any other concept. As far as Rangers are concerned-fan ownership is the only way. I wonder if they have the patience for how long that would take-doubt it.

We kept getting told that Rangers have no debt? They only issue they have is their costs. I think Ashley will do what is required to get the costs down. My mind has always boggled at the statements made that Rangers need 16 million to win the lower leagues, they don’t of course. Such statements are for the Rangers fans who want to hear the continued sweet mood music that they are world players and need a spending policy to reflect that. Ashley, now that he has his pawns in place, will look at the player budget and go “You're ‘avin a laugh mate” and get the axe out. His accountant will look at the rest of the Championship clubs and go –this is what you need to get promotion- and it will be a tenth of what they are spending now. Some –if not more than a few of the 10k, 8k weekers will be looking for new clubs come January. Hence why he has only given them 2mil- which will cover costs for a couple of months! Ashley will simply do what was needed to be done 3 years ago, there will be no warchest, no big spending; no “Rangers Men”. Even another season in the Championship might not be such a big deal for Ashley. Not sure that mood music will be to everyone’s taste down Ibrox though. Coisty will be no doubt come out with some carefully crafted PR puff piece to say he will enjoy working with the new board and looking forward to the new "investment"-while checking the small letters in his contract and sending his CV to Question of Sport...