Setanta to Increase Prices by a whopping great 30%!

Last September, we warned you about possible overcharging by Setanta.  It was noted that despite their TV campaign advertising a price of £9.99/month, many of us were still being charged £15/month and that our subscriptions were not being reduced automatically by Setanta.

Read our article Are You Being Screwed by Setanta for further details.

Today we learned that, during the close season when Setanta is hardly worth watching, Setanta is going to increase its prices by a whopping great 30%.

That’s right; from 01-Jul-2008 you will be paying £12.99 per month instead of the current £9.99 per month.

Watch out! If you see Setanta advertising their product for any less that £12.99 per month, be sure to write to them to get the lowest price on offer.

 

New Season Signings

Who should Walter Smith be signing for the coming season.

Kenny Miller?  In my opinion, definately not.  He was not good enough for Celtic. He did very little at Derby.  I would not sign him even if Derby paid us to take him off their hands.

It was obvious from last season that we need players who are significantly better than some of our current crop.

David Weir was definitely struggling towards the end of the season.

Our midfield, apart from Ferguson, lacked energy, creativity and threat.  Too many of our players appear to be one dimensional.  By that I mean can pass, but can’t tackle and can’t shoot. Or can tackle but can’t pass and can’t shoot. Or can shoot, but can’t pass and can’t tackle.

We need players that can do all three, but just now I would settle for two out of three as an improvement.

Our forwards are in the same boat.  Kris Body can score goals, but little else.  Nacho Novo runs his heart out but is not an out and out goal scorer.  Jean Claude does a lot of huffing and puffing and can hold the line but again is not so effective in front of goal.  Daniel Cousin has ability but his attitude sucks.

If you watch Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, Carlos teves, and Ronaldo, they do everything, they run arounhd as much as Novo, Score more goals that KB, and pass better than BF.  So we still need to work on how hard our players work for each other.

Apart from BF, very few players appear to have any real vision about what is going on around them.

So let us hope that we find some quality players who can do more than just tie their bootlaces.

Curent players who I would keep:

Alan McGregor, Carlos Cueller, Sasa Papac, Kevin Thompson, Barry Ferguson, Kris Boyd, Nacho Novo, Jean Claude.

So what is your opinion?

 

 

Rangers Players to Trade-In Bentleys and Range Rovers?

After flying high this season many of our Bentley owning stars (Including Chairman Murray) will be turning their eyes skywards for their next mode of transport.

The new Moller Sky Car is going to be a must have for any wannabe football superstar.

I wonder if they are less expensive than EUFA Cup Final tickets.

Bolton complain over Spain police

Bolton Wanderers have made an official complaint about “overzealous and disproportionate” treatment of their supporters by Spanish police.

I have every sympathy with the Bolton fans.
The Spanish Police have a reputation for unprovoked brutality and a complete lack of restraint.

I remember an incident in the NOU Camp in Barcelona.

The Spanish police had failed to remove one or two spectators who just got a little over excited as Rangers were about to win their first European Trophy.  Then the referee blew the whistle for a free kick. The Rangers fans thought it was the final whistle and started to celebrate and the police stood and watched when first just a few fans came on to the pitch and as the fans realized that the police were doing absolutely nothing to discourage them more and more began to run on to the pitch.

Of course, the chaos started when the police finally realized they were there to keep the fans off the pitch and had to clear the pitch.  Batons were drawn, even guns were drawn.  They set in about the celebrating supporters with a vengeance.  The pitch was cleared, all except for one fan that had a little too much to drink.  He was making his way off the pitch as fast as his condition would let him.

Six Spanish police, each wielding a 3ft long wooden baton, went after him.  They caught up with him, knocked him to the ground and then started beating him with their batons whilst he lay helpless on the ground.  The Rangers fans do have a real sense of justice and they were not going to stand for that kind of treatment and returned to the pitch to rescue the helpless supporter.

After the match, the Spanish police went round in packs, like today’s street gangs, looking for anyone wearing Rangers colours.  If they found you, you took a beating. Back at the airport, the place was littered with beaten and bloodied bodies of Ranger’s supporters waiting for their flights home.  The violence of the Spanish police barely got a mention in the newspapers or the television.

The establishment closed ranks, Rangers fans were vilified and no one took any notice of the behaviour of the Spanish police.  Except the Spanish people, they said that no one had actually ever stood up to their police like that before and secretly admired the fact the, at last, someone had stood up to them.

The Spanish police have been doing this for years, but as is always the case, the government and establishment figures can and do get away with murder.

Allan Hutton completes tranfer to Spurs

I must say that I am very disappointed that Rangers appear to have forced one of their best players to leave the club.  Their appears to have been little or no attempt to keep Allan at Ibrox.

Given the current state of tranfer prices and wages in the English Premier League, there is very little chance of Rangers bringing quality players North, so when you have such a quality player in your own backyard, it makes a lot of sense to do everything possible to keep him.  In the past we have brought players like Terry Butcher, Graham Roberts, Richard Gough up from England but what are the chances of lining up John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, or Robbie Keanne in a Rangers Jersey.

We hear the stories of a new Ibrox and massive new investments but see nothing on the pitch. We support this FOOTBALL CLUB  and want to see them win with style.  We do not want a bunch of bean counters in the boardroom and a bunch of second raters on the park.

We know that the books have got to be balanced but if you are not up to the business of producing your main product on the football pitch then maybe those responsible would be better suited to managing the budget for Ayr United.  (No offense meant to Ayr United).

Not Good Enough to Win SPL?

28-Oct-2007 Dundee Utd 2   Rangers 1
23-Oct-2007 Rangers 0 Barcelona 0
20-Oct-2007 Rangers 3 Celtic 0
06-Oct-2007 Rangers 0 Hibs 1
02-Oct-2007 Lyon 0 Rangers 3
29-Sep-2007 Motherwell 1 Rangers 1

Looking back you may think that Rangers are doing pretty well.  A 3-0 home win over ‘tic; a 3-0 away win over Lyon; and a 0-0 draw at home against Barcelona.
However, in the SPL, there is a home defeat against Hibs, a draw against Motherwell, and the most recent defeat against Dundee Utd (Not to mention a 4-2 defeat at Hearts).

There are no excuses for these results. Many of these teams are under new management, have new players and have much less to spend than Rangers.
Against Hearts, Hibs, Motherwell and Dundee Utd, Rangers started very badly, and let the opposition take the initiative.

Walter and Ally were far too slow in making tactical changes and changes in personnel.  Indeed, it is debatable if the correct personnel were put on the park to begin with.

It does not look like good news that we have signed the likes of Amdy Faye on Loan for a full season.  There is nothing to suggest that he should pull on a blue jersey ever again.  That is down to the player.  He must realise that if you run on to the park wearing a Rangers jersey then much, much more is expected of you.

SPL teams are getting wise to Hutton and are now taking steps to prevent his runs, but that means opportunities in other areas are not being exploited.

Lee McCulloch, apart from being at fault with the Dundee Utd goal, did little to stand out from the crowd.  Cousin looked completely out of sorts.

Sasa Papac is improving game by game.  Kevin Thompson is also stepping up to the challenge.  Nacho Novo is always full of running.  I think it is time to see more of Steven Naismith.

Several areas where we need to improve enormously are in our passing, our set pieces and Throw-ins.  Barcelona gave us a lesson in passing and moving off the ball.  Rangers players need to be much fitter (Charlie Adam take note).

Rangers will have to perform much better over the rest of the season if we want to finish in the top two and a whole lot better if we want to win the League.

Lyon 0 Rangers 3

When I went to bed last night I could have sworn that I had just watched Rangers beat the French Champions by 3 goals to nil.  It must have been a dream.  Naw, I counldnae even have dreamed such a result.  It must have been the drink.

Woke up this morning and there it was, plastered over the back page of all the newspapers:

Lyon 0 Rangers 3.

Rangers defended well throughout and their goals were special.

Another strong surging run by Alan Hutton earned a corner, and Damarcus Beasley whipped in a powerful cross that took out three defenders to find Lee McCulloch whose header bulleted into the back of the net 0 – 1.

Second half, and Alan Hutton has the ball wide right midway into the Lyon half, a good cross to the feet of Daniel Cousin, who swivels and shoots past the helpless French goalkeeper 0 – 2.

Now the third goal was special.  If Ronaldo, Ronaldihno, or Wayne Rooney, made the pass that found DaMarcus Beasley, they would have been raving about it for weeks.  The pass opend up the Lyon defence and left Beasley with only the goalkeeper to beat, which he did very neatly, 0 – 3.

The first five or ten minutes were a bit unsettling  as Rangers struggled to retain possession and looked really quite vulnerable, but as the match progressed Rangers began to get more of the ball.

Whilst it was a great result, we must try not to give the ball away so easily against Barcelona, as this just gives our overworked defence so much more to do.  Having said that, to score three goals with so little possession is pretty clinical.

The blatant dive by Juninho was no accident.  Players on the continent actually practice this in their training sessions.  They ARE professional cheats.  The booking against David Weir should be rescinded and passed on to the real culprit, Juhinho, but  Eufa rules apparently as designed to protect cheats, and it is not possible to rescind a booking.

Luckily, someone up there does understand justice, and after his deviousness was exposed maybe it was more than luck that saw Juhinho’s efforts for the rest of the evening fail.

Motherwell 1 Rangers 1

The results from both Tynecastle and Fir Park have helped highlight problems in the Rangers ranks that need to be addressed fairly urgently.
In both these games Rangers were outplayed in the first forty-five minutes.

In the Motherwell game, I might even suggest outclassed by a team of former Rangers players.

We spent over £10M, supposedly strengthening our team, in the summer, only to get the run around by a team of players we let go for next to nothing.
That said, we did hit the cross-bar twice in the first half, and the Motherwell goal was offside, if only by a matter of a few inches.  But, to be fair to Motherwell, they could easily have gone in at half time 3-0 ahead.
In the second half, Rangers did change things around and put up a bit of a fight.  That was something that would not have happened last season.  Demarcus Beasley, got a penalty, by suckering Keith Lasley into knocking him over in the box, and Kris Boyd took a very good penalty kick to give us a draw.

Over the piece Kris Boyd did miss a number of chances, but the more observant amongst you will have noticed that most of these shots were taken with his left foot.  The penalty was taken with his right foot.  If we want to get the best from Kris, we need to set him up on his right side.

The big problems again emanated in the midfield. Steven Whittaker was quite rightly taken off at half time.  Steven has not yet got up to speed in a Rangers Jersey, and any number of players would currently provide better service.

The midfield problem is not just down to Whittaker, the current crop of midfielders is just not flexible enough to perform in a modern midfield.

This includes, arguably, our best player Barry Ferguson.  Barry is great at seeing passes, keeping possession and giving himself and others around him time to play.  However, an important part of the midfielder’s job today is chasing, harrying, winning tackles, and providing good defensive cover.  Of course, that is why Brahim Hemdani was our player of the year last year.

Our midfielders have only some of the attributes required, but their range is limited. They are almost too specialised.  Versatile players like Stuart Munro, Jorge Albertz, Alex McDonald or John Greig are the type of players we need in there, well one can but wish.

P.S.  Did Jean-Claude do the necessary warming up before coming on at half time and almost immediately pulling a hamstring?

Rangers 3 Aberdeen 0

Sorry for the delay in posting the match report, but a certain goalkeeper (who shall remain nameless, but has the initials AB, which must stand for ‘Av BotchedIt’, and played a significant role against Hibs at the weekend) has had me in fits of laughter.

Not only that, but  his manager said that he wanted his team to play like that every week and that he was fully satisfied with their performance.  Maybe he was watching a different game, because Hibs, as well as scoring more goals than them, also had more shots on goal.

But I digress, the Boys in Blue, are back at the top of the league after a well deserved victory over Aberdeen.  After a sticky first half,  Lee McCulloch let loose from 35 yards, the ball sailed in under the bar giving Jamie Langfield no chance.  Aberdeen had never really looked like scoring, and so the question was how many more could Rangers score before the end.

Steven Naismith, will have left the field with a good number of bruises, but more importantly, he also scored his first goal for Rangers.  I definitely prefer Naismith to Beasley.

Of course, Kris Boyd only ever thinks about one thing when he steps on to a football park, and he did just that, to finish off the scoring against Aberdeen.
Now, unlike wee ‘g’, whose team also conceded three goals,  Jimmy Calderwood was not satisfied with his teams performance and will not be happy if his team plays like that every week.

Walter Smith is rapidly becoming the master of understatement,  “I thought it was a poor challenge”, was his opinion on Diamonds tackle on Naismith.  “It’s nice to be top of the table, but it would be a lot more comfortable if it was the last game of the season”, he added.  Yer right there son.

Rangers 2 VfB Stuttgart 1

You see, the key to winning champions league games is to keep your cool under pressure, fix what is not working (quickly) and do NOT commit the cardinal sin of losing two goals in the first 10 minutes.

It took Rangers most of the first half to get to grips with the German Champions.  With only one up front it was obvious that Rangers were not going to be playing a pressing game.  Rangers followed the lead set by the national side in two victories over France, kept it tight and relied on the unexpected.

Although if anyone had been paying attention to the form of Alan Hutton they would have realised that he would be a real danger.  I have already mentioned how hard he is to stop, once he gets going, and last night when he set off on one of his runs, he could easily have ended up in Stirling had he not stopped and passed to Charlie Adam.  Charlie, not to be outdone by Hutton’s impressive run which took him passed five German tackles, cut inside another hapless Stuttgart defender and passed a curling shot neatly into the net for Rangers Equaliser in the 64th minute.

With 15 minutes to go, it was Hutton again, who made a surging run into the box, touched the ball passed Fernando Meira, and then crashed into the defenders late tackle.  Clearly, a penalty, and a very cool Jean-Claude Darcheville sent the goalkeeper one way and the ball slammed into the net.

Of course, things did not look too bright in the 55th minute when Ferguson had to go off with a hole in the back o his heid and brains oozing oot all over the place and those sneaky German’s copped a goal when we wisnae ready.  However, they took him back to the workshop, Walter did some reprogramming, and they patched him up with duck tape.   Rangers were then ready to do some business.

One thing that did cause concern when Barry was off the field was the blindingly obvious realisation that there was no one willing or able to take charge and organise Rangers efforts. In a night which saw a good result we will not be too critical of the team and will instead give honourable mentions to Allan Hutton, Jean-Claude Darcheville, Barry Ferguson, and Charlie Adam for his goal.

All in all, a good night for Rangers.