How far behind are they?

the bridge said:
That's a fair point but that last transfer window for them was like porn.
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“Best transfer window in years”

The kind of porn where Celtic are the wee blonde girl sat on the couch and the rest of European football are the black guys surrounding her licking their lips?
 
Beckhambear2 said:
But that’s my point. How does anyone know if Christie, Ajer, Edouard, Ntcham will leave?Ntcham has hardly featured this year, the others obviously have contributed.
We have received bids for Morelos, Kent, Tav and squad players that are still here. Gerrard came in and made Halliday contribute to us.
The point I was trying to make about their signings was that some will work out and some won’t. So if they sign a decent GK and CB they aren’t as far away as we think.
People were laughing on here about how people were saying we were £30m behind them and look how that turned out
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They need much more than a Gk and a CB.

Try 2 keepers 2-3 CBs. 3-4 if (when) Ajer goes.
They have no RB. Kenny is a loan. And crap.
Taylor is their only left back. Who they slagged rotten. Until they realised that Laxalt wasn’t the 2nd coming of Ashley Cole meets Philip Lahm.

Even if no one really leaves other than the loanees they still need about 6 first XI players. Never mind a squad. We saw last year vs this the difference a squad makes.

Whilst the negative nancy’s are right that they are a match for the rest of Scottish football on any given day, it’s that strength in squad depth that makes you a match for Scottish football on most given days - that’s what really wins you the league.
 
I think Gerrard knows that and is why he is already building for next year, no standing still.
Its-Sebo said:
If we play our cards right we could dominate the league for a few years in my opinion – but we need to be wary, this season alone is proof enough of how quickly things can change.
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PMB1872 said:
Let’s not kid ourselves. They still have some decent players. Until we filled out the squad this season we were miles away. If we were to lose say Goldson, Kamara and Morelos and not adequately replace and they signed 4 decent players it could swing again. We can’t be complacent.
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But the negative crew need to stop presenting doomsday scenario for Rangers plus Celtic not putting a single step wrong as the most likely outcome this summer.

I can’t say that Edouard, Ajer and any ham plus possibly Christie, plus the 4 loanees are likely to leave. Despite that being the most likely outcome.

Yet the unnecessarily negative crew can suggest Goldson, Morelos and Kamara leaving as being a highly probably equaliser - even though you’d get long odds on Gerrard allowing 3 key players of that stature to leave all at once (and not replace them adequately).

The negative crew can’t have it both ways. You can’t catastrophise what will happen with Rangers this summer whilst strongly expecting a rudderless, leaderless, shambolic Celtic to smash everything out of the park.

Thats not being realistic.

It could happen. But it is by a very long way the least likely situation possible.
 
Tailwind said:
They need much more than a Gk and a CB.

Try 2 keepers 2-3 CBs. 3-4 if (when) Ajer goes.
They have no RB. Kenny is a loan. And crap.
Taylor is their only left back. Who they slagged rotten. Until they realised that Laxalt wasn’t the 2nd coming of Ashley Cole meets Philip Lahm.

Even if no one really leaves other than the loanees they still need about 6 first XI players. Never mind a squad. We saw last year vs this the difference a squad makes.

Whilst the negative nancy’s are right that they are a match for the rest of Scottish football on any given day, it’s that strength in squad depth that makes you a match for Scottish football on most given days - that’s what really wins you the league.
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Understand your view and opinion mate. Mine is that 2 or 3 first team signings and some confidence makes them closer to us than most would think.
thinknof the reaction of some posters on here when we lost to St Mirren, drew to Hibs and Livi. Drew to St J and lost on pens. That would also suggest that some of our fans think we can improve greatly
 
Tailwind said:
Its just as probable they will be weaker.

People should not underestimate the level of rebuild over there with question marks over the finances to achieve it.

They could be stronger. But there are very sound arguments they will be weaker.

You cannot state "they will be stronger" as a cast iron fact
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Yeah, they could be weaker but I'd be astonished if they were.
It may have come across I was stating as a fact but it goes without saying that it is my opinion. My opinion is I am sure they will be stronger.
Let's hope I'm completely wrong though.
 
GazzaG said:
Probably not as far as we want to think, I include myself in that.

It's pretty clear that a lunatic like lennon and his angry bastard blame-everyone-else approach didn't work, an actual football manager like Rodgers got much more from alot of the same players.
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Just as well they didn't hire an actual football manager then!

There's no way I saw them actually getting worse than 4 months ago.
 
They look even more rudderless than they did last year if that was possible

No DoF. No Head of Recruitment

A new CEO with zero football experience who appears to be being worked from the back from Lieswell lurking in the shadows

A manager with zero experience of Euro or UK football who only has one tactic. Attack

A squad who are miles behind us

Our world class ex player and Captain at Liverpool with such a high profile and a far far superior backroom team behind him

Whilst John Big Nose and iPaddy and who else ? Stephen McManus and who else ?

They are in a real mess and hope it gets even worse
 
I am sure our management team are fully aware that the gap between us now and the gap when we were coming back from near oblivion are not to be compared. They are having a bad time but nothing like the situation we found ourselves in for years. I have a feeling that this year we won’t sell anyone in the hope/expectation that CL qualification will resolve the financial issues we still have from the spiv era and COVID. In the meantime I will thoroughly enjoy their pain and our success.
 
Corkinator said:
Just thinking there, how far behind do you think they are? I reckon they’re where we were about 2 years ago, NOW!
So where will they be at the end of the season when they need 13 players? Where we were 3/4 years ago?
it’s Gona take more than 1 or 2 transfer windows to even get up to a par IMHO!
1. tgey can’t afford it.
2. Loads of new personnel behind the scenes.
3. New manager.
4. Time for players to settle and gel
5. They’re only looking at doing it half arsed because they’ll probably keep the back room staff.
There are more reasons but I think they’re in for a massive shock.
Hopefully we keep going and kick on again next season.
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Let's just make sure we don't take our eyes of the ball, and don't worry about what they do or don't do.
Onwards to 56 and more WATP
 
Its-Sebo said:
If we play our cards right we could dominate the league for a few years in my opinion – but we need to be wary, this season alone is proof enough of how quickly things can change.
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If we can qualify for the champions league this season and then retain our Title this year giving us automatic entry next season then you’re absolutely right….. it’s crazy the swing in fortunes that will have financially between us both considering where we were a few years back
 
Feet on the ground, eye on the ball and we should be able to dominate for the foreseeable. As we have shown recently though, things can change quickly if a club takes things for granted.
 
Habareno bear said:
If we can qualify for the champions league this season and then retain our Title this year giving us automatic entry next season then you’re absolutely right….. it’s crazy the swing in fortunes that will have financially between us both considering where we were a few years back
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This is a huge season. We need to win the title for the automatic qualification. That gives us financial security for a while.

They are I think 4-6 transfer windows away. It isn’t possible to sign the amount of players they need in one or even two windows. Given the costs they need a few cheap gems that isn’t easy and you will get more wrong than you get right just as we did.

Quite hard to believe how badly they have got this wrong.
 
They're a few players away, a decent goalkeeper would be worth a lot of points to them and would give the defence confidence getting them a few more points. A couple of strikers if they sell Eddie and that's a few more points in the bag.

They don't need to be massively better than us, they need to take maximum points from the other 10 teams then it's down to 4 old firms for the title, if they win one and draw one it'll be neck and neck.

I think we'll have this year maybe next year to consolidate our dominance and build. I can't see any team going beyond 3/4 in a row again.
 
I always keep my feet on the ground, particularly when it's so early and barely a ball kicked.

They seem to be in absolute disarray and the lack of progress they appear to have made over the summer is quite staggering to be honest. New CEO coming in, new manager needed, clearly needing a significant squad shift in/out and they seem to have genuinely fcked about and shown no real ownership of the situation.

The Howe example is mental. Being strung along for months by the guy then binned is embarrassing. They should've given him a hard and fast deadline and moved on if he was messing about. Then they might've been able to either aim for another good target or give the Aussie a longer prep and planning period for the season ahead.

I'm confident in our manager and team right now, but I'll still not write them off as being capable of recovering somewhat. Anything can happen in a long season - main thing for me at the moment is to get a good start in the league and get into the CL group stages. Very challenging first few weeks ahead.
 
My take is that this season is it is in our own hands if we mess up and give them an opportunity to compete, its on us. However their coach is no mug, he is not a Pedro or a Ronnie, at very least he will get them organised, motivated and disciplined this season and very fit by the start of next season. With three well funded transfer windows under his belt there is every chance he will put together a very strong squad by the start of next season. So in my opinion, we are one season ahead of them, but if we want to stay ahead we will have to work hard to raise our standards.
 
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They are in a state at the moment but even now probably still better than the other 10 teams in the league. 3 or 4 key signings and they’ll be significantly better than those other 10 teams. If we take them lightly we stand to end up with egg on our face, if we continue down our current “professional“ path, then we continue to stay ahead.
 
Their new signings have to improve them, they cant be as bad as what's there but they're signing players from all over the shop and that never works straight away.

It takes squads at least a few months to even a year to bed in and even then not every signing they are making will work as we've seen since Gerrard arrived.
 
Any team is only one transfer window, one managerial change and one large financial investment away. Getting all this right in place at the one time is difficult but not impossible. Let’s never take our eye off the ball.
 
Div1872 said:
They look even more rudderless than they did last year if that was possible

No DoF. No Head of Recruitment

A new CEO with zero football experience who appears to be being worked from the back from Lieswell lurking in the shadows

A manager with zero experience of Euro or UK football who only has one tactic. Attack

A squad who are miles behind us

Our world class ex player and Captain at Liverpool with such a high profile and a far far superior backroom team behind him

Whilst John Big Nose and iPaddy and who else ? Stephen McManus and who else ?

They are in a real mess and hope it gets even worse
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You forgot goalkeeper coach who is revolutionary in his methods of coaching keepers to not use their hands,stevie woods
 
I remember 2000 when O'Neill took over the piggery and we all thought Rangers were uncatchable. We had won the league by over 20 points, were unbeaten against them the previous season, and had just spent big money to add to the best squad in the country.

It fell apart, and they won the treble.

Not saying that is going to happen again as I am confident in our present team and manager, but I tend to prefer laughing at Celtic after we have picked up trophies and beaten them, not before a ball is kicked.
 
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Until they wake up and stop being loyal to clearly useless coaches in Kennedy and Strachan , they going nowhere. Ange is another Ronnie Diala (?) , TLB put them back and was allowed to spunk millions. Held on to Edouoard too long and his value has diminished. The rent on the shep where the disco lights are kept must be horrendous too !!!
 
MSF said:
Every team is only a few signings away from serious improvement in football.
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Has this ever happened when a full team is required? What you're referring to is a team building from a position of strength or even just needing a few players to improve an already decent side.
 
They will strengthen, they have players to come in so we cant be complacent, aslong as we concentrate on our game and strengthen at the right times we will stay one step ahead of them IMO , champions league qualification is massive for us not only does it give us a financial boost it helps us attract better players, and as for their fans they were in denial with all this can you see the rangers coming patter
 
Bruce_Wayne said:
Their new signings have to improve them, they cant be as bad as what's there but they're signing players from all over the shop and that never works straight away.

It takes squads at least a few months to even a year to bed in and even then not every signing they are making will work as we've seen since Gerrard arrived.
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Which is why I think we will go up a level. Last years signings bedded in and quality added this year. It’s a constant cycle of improvement. Tims have been in constant decline and frankly jammed their way to the .75 title and 2 cups. You need opposition and them trying to kill us has blown up in their faces like a 17th century pistol. They really are stupid.
 
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