Where is the club heading?

[bigbluenose]

Gerrard has been an improvement in every way. He’s achieved things his predecessors didn’t even remotely come close to.

If people choose not to see that, that’s their prerogative. Just as long as the rhetoric doesn’t become fact, and we end up losing a young, promising manager due to perception rather than reality.

Reality we are 3 points better off than last season with a youth coach in charge for most of it and our top scorer spitting the dummy because he never got his Chinese pay day that buggered up last season and drop 26 points in 26 games this season is that real enough

 

[Bigbluebear]

This last 3 years in the Premiership is what was always going to happen after our club was ripped apart and we basically had to start from scratch.

And some bears actually wanted us to go to division 3 at the time.

We need to stick with Gerrard. Changing again would be utterly catastrophic. Bears beig at each other throats because celtic might win the first worthwhile title in 8 years should calm it down.

 

[TPP]

It looks like we got the January signings horribly wrong. That’s fucked us, we are a number 10, stevie Naismith type player from adding draws into wins. We hoped Davis would be that. We’ve gone backwards since the break.

Big summer ahead

 

[TPP]

Reality we are 3 points better off than last season with a youth coach in charge for most of it and our top scorer spitting the dummy because he never got his Chinese pay day that buggered up last season and drop 26 points in 26 games this season is that real enough

Eh did you miss Europe ffs

 

[top_cat]

I'm just f.ucking fed up tbh. But, I know it'll come.

 

[bigbluenose]

You can talk about all the little intricacies of the season and of course we have all the default angry football fan talk of bottle and mentality however the difference between us and them this season is the home records.

Teams will set up the exact same way at Parkhead a they do at Ibrox. The difference is between the midfield base and forward line they have McGregor, Forrest, Rogic, Christie, Sinclair and now Burke and Weah. All score and create, all enable them to unlock stubborn organised defences.

We have Kent.

In the summer we really have to draw a line under the Candeias stuff, you cannot play in that area of the park for Rangers and offer only effort. Grezda has shown very little, Middelton needs a loan move, Arfield I always thought played on the left or right of Dyche's 4 man midfield at Burnley he is not a number 10.

We have a better goalkeeper and Morelos is the best player in the league. There's very little in the back 4's for me.

75% of this league is trying to break down organised defences and they're just a lot better and more equipped to do it than we are.

So why do we scouting and buying the same type of midfielders and wingers who can't score or break teams down.
We have so so many midfielders and most are not what we need.
That's the managements fault

 

[bigbluenose]

Eh did you miss Europe ffs

No but does it win leagues and cups and stop treble trebles ect no.
I want to stop the scum I do not care about anything else defeating those manky b#*tards is the be all and end all

Scottish Cup is a must if we go out to killie another disaster of a season

 

[scooter70]

The OP typifies the lack of realism in much of our support.

Gerrard had us playing European football up until Xmas and a whisker away from the knockout stages, beat Celtic in a league match for the first time in six years and we were even top of the table on a couple of occasions and neck and neck with the Yahoos going into the winter break.

All of that exceeded my expectations.

Admittedly we’ve had a couple of poor results in the league since coming back after the shutdown that have allowed the Beasts to open up a lead that is probably beyond us to claw back, but we’re still on course for the second place most of us said would suffice at the outset.

There’s been lots of hiccups, but we were always likely to see that in the first season so I’m not really sure what some folk were expecting.

Frankly, it’s that lack of realism that is at the heart of much of our problems.

If he doesn’t come flying out of the traps next season, he’s probably finished.

This is the conundrum in a nutshell

At start of the season the realistic amongst us said finishing a clear second, being competitive vs them, competing in the cups and not being embarrassed in Europe would be “success” this season....

But we as fans, probably quite rightly, struggle to get our heads around that scenario

My issue is we are now 8 behind them with a 3rd of the season still to ho, a season in which they have come back to the pack!

Bizarrely enough we may be looking back in next few seasons pointing to this one as best opportunity to run the league and can’t help but feel our inconsistency has stopped us doing so

We now face another rebuild this summer, seems like we are in an endless loop, bit of Groundhog Day going on

 

[Carlisle Bear]

So why do we scouting and buying the same type of midfielders and wingers who can't score or break teams down.
We have so so many midfielders and most are not what we need.
That's the managements fault

It's not what the fans want to hear because it isn't immediate enough but it's because you build your teams from the back.

We finished last season with a spine of Russel Martin, a David Bates who knew he was leaving, an uninterested Alves, Fabio Cardoso, Sean Goss, Jason Holt, a woefully off the pace Dorrans and a young boy in Docherty who just didn't look ready.

If we had to go back to July 1st I'd still have Gerrard fix those issues first.

Where I think you can be critical of him is the Grezda signing - that's undeniably money that looks wasted.

 

[MunroLoyal]

At the end of Sept I would have said in the right direction but we have stalled n stalled badly.. ..

 

[LD5]

With no major investment this coming summer we have no chance of winning the league next season

And how would you know no major investment will be made? There was about £10m spent on the squad last season with low finances, yet this season we will alone make circa £15/20m from Europe, Hummel deal and merch. Add the Morelos fee onto that, I'd be honestly baffled if we didn't invest a fair whack.

 

[MunroLoyal]

Last season we finished the season 12 points behind Celtic... we are currently 8 points at this stage that's 4 points away from what we finished in may.. if we dont buck our ideas I fear it could be more than 12.. ..

 

[R P McMurphy]

A month ago people were thinking we had a pretty good squad and had we not won the league this year then we had a good chance next season, now we need an entire rebuild? %^*& me silly man

That’s the Rangers support for you. We’re either world beaters or utter dross.

 

[Cardendenger]

Goldson, Barisic, Katic, Arfield, McGregor, were all players signed this summer that weren't loans and either are big squad players or likely will be in the future (Katic). That's ignoring already important players like Tavernier, Morelos and Jack who were here before the summer. The squad has holes which can be exposed big time like yesterday and can really hurt not having them but we're not going to have to build a whole new team again next year so the money can be put more towards 2-3 key players

That's what I was alluding to mate its crucial in the summer that we get the quality players we need

 

[Rangers72]

Hopefully towards a smoke free, drum free, efficient subway service stadium with no tims in the broomloan stand!

 

[Marstonbear]

The clubs future is those kids on the pitch at HT yesterday.

We need to successfully bring young players from our academy into the 1st team on merit which would free up more budget so we could focus more on quality than quantity, so more Goldson type signings rather than the likes of Flanagan

 

[SpongebobSquarePass]

There's no case for having SG under pressure until he's a good 18 months into his job.

We have stronger team than last season (Russell Martin FFS).

A couple of areas are a disappointment :

1) We hit an awful lot of useless long balls
2) Davis and Defoe - the former is miles off the pace so far and the latter is pointless if we hot long balls at him. And both are old - let's invest in the future instead.

 

[CaptainCourageous]

There's no case for having SG under pressure until he's a good 18 months into his job.

We have stronger team than last season (Russell Martin FFS).

A couple of areas are a disappointment :

1) We hit an awful lot of useless long balls
2) Davis and Defoe - the former is miles off the pace so far and the latter is pointless if we hot long balls at him. And both are old - let's invest in the future instead.

A stronger team than last season yet if we don't improve, could well find ourselves further behind the bheggars than last season.

 

[SpongebobSquarePass]

A stronger team than last season yet if we don't improve, could well find ourselves further behind the bheggars than last season.

That's true, although we don't look like conceding 5 goals to Celtic or Hibs anymore. Goldson/Worrall/Katic all better than Martin/Alves.

Not many agreed with me but I felt last season the defence was only any good with Bates and Danny Wilson, with the latter badly badly missed.

 

[tazzabear]

We laughed at the scums janurary window and yet they’ve got a load of first team players out injured and have managed to widen the gap from us

They've done well since the January break but did have a favourable set of fixtures.
Was there a game before yesterday you'd have expected them to drop anything?
All that said, we have done ourselves damage, caused our own problems.

 

[wager]

Or we could finish 12 points behind? It's too early to say.

Gerrard had to start managing games from the sidelines better, good managers can turn games in their teams favour. He has to learn soon.

The Scottish Cup must be the focus now, these players need a taste of winning.

WTF is mcallister doing in there, you would think he could chip in with the odd" naw stevie that wont work"

 

[crmpicco]

Not sure where we are going but without serious cash never mind 10 start thinking 15 or more. We wouldn’t have won a game in the way they did because we don’t have the quality the attitude the spirit. We have a losers mentality it’s blindingly obvious. It’s also soul destroyingly sad.

Anything beyond 10 is irrelevant.

 

[JMCK]

So why do we scouting and buying the same type of midfielders and wingers who can't score or break teams down.
We have so so many midfielders and most are not what we need.
That's the managements fault

I get your point, but you do make it sound rather easy to get those players; in relative terms our budget is limited, which may explain what we did in January. We could have players scoring if they were not as lacklustre as they were in the last match; we had enough to win that match rather comfortably.

 

[bigbluenose]

I get your point, but you do make it sound rather easy to get those players; in relative terms our budget is limited, which may explain what we did in January. We could have players scoring if they were not as lacklustre as they were in the last match; we had enough to win that match rather comfortably.

Its down to scouting and coaching look at the scum with Christie.
He is turning it to be a good player.
Stewart at killie now Aberdeen
Naismith for hearts the type we need are out there and we'll with in our budget.
Look at what we spent on Barasic Grezda Katic and they have hardly played that's 5 or 6 million right there.
Jack Coulibaly rossiter kamara McCrorrie all very similar type of player.
We don't need that many holding defensive minds in a squad.
We are buying the wrong type of player

 

[Jaws II]

People keep saying we need an attacking midfielder who scores goals.
How is he supposed to get the ball? All we have are a load of defensive mids behind them who are not know for defence splitting passes.
We need a midfield playmaker to control the pace of a game and find his team mates with incisive passes. Someone that can run with the ball causing defences to panic.
We need to scrap 433 and playing bang average wingers who can’t score goals. Not one of them is good enough.
We need to sell Tav and Morelos to find what we need but my god Allen and SG need to do far better in the transfer market.

 

[JMCK]

Its down to scouting and coaching look at the scum with Christie.
He is turning it to be a good player.
Stewart at killie now Aberdeen
Naismith for hearts the type we need are out there and we'll with in our budget.
Look at what we spent on Barasic Grezda Katic and they have hardly played that's 5 or 6 million right there.
Jack Coulibaly rossiter kamara McCrorrie all very similar type of player.
We don't need that many holding defensive minds in a squad.
We are buying the wrong type of player

We can't disregard the last six years, which appears easy, but how many young players had their careers at Rangers affected by that time; heartbreaking for anyone who appreciates football at that level. Kelly excites me most; I think he is our best prospect since Lewis Macleod. Kelly within the next two seasons will be a big player. Our scouting is still fairly random where it has to be; it would be good to think that we can be more deliberate and precise come this summer.

 

[Bri RTID]

so is this the end of the Davis + defoe Loyal ?

 

[isawthat]

We must be thankful for the good work Dave King and the three Bears have done for the club, since they saw off the corrupt people who were bleeding to club dry.

However it has become more than obvious that the club urgently requires a massive new investment, if it going to progress to the next level. Where the investment is going to come from is the big question.

 

[RFC#1Scotty]

It’s difficult to build a title winning team with our limited funds , Celtic are just spending enough to stay ahead and I fear they will keep on doing so. A worrying time for us all.

Seeing yesterday's game, I have nothing to worry about Celtic. Winning the title from that lot is achievable, trust me, you can see they are there for the taking, that's why it's frustrating, it's our own doing that is losing us the title. If Rangers can sort out the final third, it'll be an entirely different ball game next season.

 

[TN8]

Do you think next sesson of results stay the same questions wont be asked?
Its a results business at the end of the day and not being able to beat teams like St J will see his contract ended imo and rightly so

You're talking about next season. Of course I'd expect him to be gone if we don't see progress, I'd expect that with any manager. But if that's what happens then they'll win their 10 (if Gerrard goes it'll be because 9 is already in the bag).

That doesn't really explain your previous comments about expecting better from Gerrard this season, or that the board won't allow him to build.

As long as we're getting better season after season he'll be here. Some won't accept it unless we win the league, but the reality is that it's probably going to take someone longer than 1 or 2 seasons.

 

[Chastu]

they are bad but we are worse, and we dont seem to learn, thats the worrying aspect for me

 

[Maweepaljoe]

The fact that we have brought in so many stop gaps is the worrying thing. That together with some who are not of the required standard means we have a difficult summer ahead. I really don't trust Mark Allen if his record to date is anything to go by

 

[The Lone Ranger]

You're talking about next season. Of course I'd expect him to be gone if we don't see progress, I'd expect that with any manager. But if that's what happens then they'll win their 10 (if Gerrard goes it'll be because 9 is already in the bag).

That doesn't really explain your previous comments about expecting better from Gerrard this season, or that the board won't allow him to build.

As long as we're getting better season after season he'll be here. Some won't accept it unless we win the league, but the reality is that it's probably going to take someone longer than 1 or 2 seasons.

I agree, which ever manager we back needs more than one season.
Warburton amd pedro it could be argued thst if they were given the time and money could have been the ones but their results meant it was not to be. That's what i was meaning with my earlier comments. Gerrard hasnt done much better in the league so whats to say he will be afforded the time and money?
If we decide Gerrard is the man then we need to accept that we will have a few tough seasons and im happy with that scenario.

 

[Earl of Leven]

The risk is also for young families...we have been incredible as a support to keep bums on seats through the leagues. But we are in danger of becoming moored in a regular battle for 2nd/3rd/4th with no trophies to wave at the kids, youngsters, teenagers etc. What then? There is NO magic bullet. As DylanGer always says we NEED to be closer to them and better than we are to match expectations BUT there is no war chest and no obvious way to close the gap. I thought coaching excellence and was surprised by appointment we made but we are where we are now.

My gripe is same as always: the new board have forgotten the promises about dialogue, and genuine fan involvement. We know nothing and are told nothing.

 

[Jaws II]

I am another concerned about Allen. He never worked as a DOF before , just like our manager is in his first managers job.
The scouting hasn’t been particularly good and we spent 6 mill on players from Eastern Europe who the manager has dropped and publicly questioned.
1 of them is his best defender but SG can’t see it.
Our loan players have not been a success. They are either had no real first team experience or have been at the end of their careers.
Defoe is a good striker but he needs good delivery from out wide and from midfield runners.
However our wide players crossing is dreadful and can never find a player and we have no midfield runners.
The players we are bringing in Jones, isn’t much different from Middleton and Murphy or Candieas. He doesn’t really get past full backs and rarely scores.
Kamara is a decent player and could be good as our defensive mid, however we already had Jack, McCrorie and Halliday and the manager is talking about signing Coulibaly.

Let’s be honest our midfield is hopeless against teams who play on the counter.

No wonder we spent %^*& all on midfield players, money being spent on CD’s and wide players and support striker.

Allen and Gerrard have made countless errors and show no signs of learning from them.
If we get over 20 mill for Morelos and Tav in the summer if any transfer funds are wasted we could actually end up in a worse state.

 

[bob1873]

Anything beyond 10 is irrelevant.

Agree and disagree mate if they go beyond 10 it shows how far away we are and will be. In effect we’ll be an ‘Aberdeen’ we’ll have more history but it will be long ago and we’ll be no nearer a league win that the sheep are now.

 

[SHAWLANDS LOYAL]

Anything beyond 10 is irrelevant.

Anything beyond 10 and the games a bogey, people will quickly loose interest across all teams within the league - nobody wants to watch a one horse race

 

[GourockBlue50]

What were we expecting at the beginning of the season and why are we now thinking the manager should go if we don't win the league???????????

We now have the nucleus of a decent team. We can add to it with a bit of quality in the summer and then we can hopefully have a real go at winning the league.

 

[SHAWLANDS LOYAL]

What were we expecting at the beginning of the season and why are we now thinking the manager should go if we don't win the league???????????

We now have the nucleus of a decent team. We can add to it with a bit of quality in the summer and then we can hopefully have a real go at winning the league.

I’m not for a minute suggesting Gerrard goes, I think he’s doing fine but that doesn’t mean he can’t improve and he’ll have to be more proactive on the coming year in regards to changing games as things unfold. He can be the man to bring us 55 but it feels like we’ve stalled a bit since even the start of the season. Without being brilliant the scum are going to canter the league again with us fighting out with a brutal sheep side

 

[BigJig1872]

This is the lowest I've felt since Gerrard took over.

He is saying everything I feel what is wrong also.

Scary thing is I don't think we'll have had a better chance to win the league, this is the worst they have been and are on course for another treble.

Genuinely worried again.

 

[JMCK]

The fact that we have brought in so many stop gaps is the worrying thing. That together with some who are not of the required standard means we have a difficult summer ahead. I really don't trust Mark Allen if his record to date is anything to go by

I think you’re being unreasonable, particularly when it comes to Mark Allen. Much of our signing to date, specifically since coming back, has been done more out of necessity than desire; we needed positions filled not just players brought in. The time to assess properly what we're doing and how we're going about is not now I'd suggest.

 

[Barryhopez]

A month ago people were thinking we had a pretty good squad and had we not won the league this year then we had a good chance next season, now we need an entire rebuild? %^*& me silly man

 

[Sheik Ma Shammy]

I think we are struggling off the field with a board who do not stand up for the support and on the field, with a manager learning his trade our best outfield players were bought by Caixinha and Warburton.
We have to sort it out quickly or for years we will just make up the numbers in this league.

 

[jexx]

I think he board have been doing well, considering where we were.
I have to admit I am absolutely fed up of all crap our club and support have to put up with. On tv surely a decent representation of our club, and not ex bheast players commenting on every little negative they see. Fairness is all we ask for.
I also think some of our players just can't fill the Rangers jersey, and at times look lost and lacking ideas.
It's been a bad weekend but I really hope we are heading in the right direction.

 

[Maweepaljoe]

I think you’re being unreasonable, particularly when it comes to Mark Allen. Much of our signing to date, specifically since coming back, has been done more out of necessity than desire; we needed positions filled not just players brought in. The time to assess properly what we're doing and how we're going about is not now I'd suggest.

Fair comment but my points are made based on signings to date which IMO have been poor

 

[StokeyBear]

Next game can't come soon enough.

Beat Killie and all will be well.

 

[JMCK]

Fair comment but my points are made based on signings to date which IMO have been poor

I'd really like to see us in an even place where we have a settled squad mostly with the luxury of getting THAT one player who would get the fans going. We haven't had that in a long time.

 

[crmpicco]

This is the lowest I've felt since Gerrard took over.

He is saying everything I feel what is wrong also.

Scary thing is I don't think we'll have had a better chance to win the league, this is the worst they have been and are on course for another treble.

Genuinely worried again.

I must admit I’m feeling worried again. I thought SG was going to hit the hard this season, either by running them close, winning the league or stopping another treble but it looks like he nor the players have that in them. I honestly can barely believe they’re close to yet another treble. We have never came close to 3 trebles in a row and it shocks me that we’ve let this happen.

 

[BigJig1872]

I must admit I’m feeling worried again. I thought SG was going to hit the hard this season, either by running them close, winning the league or stopping another treble but it looks like he nor the players have that in them. I honestly can barely believe they’re close to yet another treble. We have never came close to 3 trebles in a row and it shocks me that we’ve let this happen.

You wouldn’t bet against it not happening that’s for sure, looks a stick one. Sick.

 

[crmpicco]

You wouldn’t bet against it not happening that’s for sure, looks a stick one. Sick.

Obviously you’d say we can still win the SC but what evidence is that this squad have it in them? The hand on heart truth is that Aberdeen and Kilmarnock have as much chance of winning it.