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PENALTIES, CORRUPTION AND SELECTIVE STATISTICS

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Following the Derby Day draw, and in line with expectations, the usual fallout following these games has unsurprisingly occurred. The media and social media narrative has been entirely focussed on penalty decisions, referee loyalty, conspiracies and corruption. The game itself was entertaining, with spells of dominance for both sides but also a large number of unforced errors. Personally, and with a bit of bias possibly, I thought we edged it slightly and the draw felt more like a defeat than anything else. I think the reality set in that a win was needed if there was any chance of chasing our rivals down for the league this season and 9 points at this stage seems an unlikely points’ gap to close in the remaining games. Focus should really turn to the beginning of a rebuild for Michael Beale and winning the 2 domestic cups left on offer whilst finishing the league as strong as possible. It would be preferable to get a couple of players in this month in preparation for next season, then
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The Return Of Michael Beale

 There we have it, Rangers have a new manager. Michael Beale becomes the eighteenth permanent incumbent in the managers office at Ibrox. Personally I’m delighted to see the man return after just over a year. Beale left with Steven Gerrard and the rest of his background team, returning south to Birmingham and Aston Villa. Beale wasn’t at Villa for long. Having ignored or knocked-back several offers to become a manager in his own right, he left in the summer to take up the managers role at Queens Park Rangers in London. He did very well in the Championship, leaving QPR in a very respectable position. Having released twenty two players that weren’t required, he brought only six new players in yet leaves them in a healthily placed seventh top in an insanely tough league to get out of. He returns to Glasgow much heralded, highly sought after and renowned for being one of the finest coaches working in British football. The reason for the return of Michael Beale is of course well understood.
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Is It Too Late

 Following on from another disastrous run of results that have seen Rangers lose 2-1 to St Johnstone and draw 1-1 with St Mirren, serious questions now need to be asked of the board, and their inactivity. Anyone who believes, as Gio stated he himself still believes (following the loss to St Johnstone), that this managerial team can turn things around is surely just kidding themselves on now.  In the last  18 months we have seen a squad that was high on confidence, with good reason, and on the cusp of creating a dominance that was so sorely craved after the last decade, descend into a team clinging desperately to second place. A team with zero identity, unless aimlessly crossing into a crowded box is now considered an identity.  A team with no heart, as players pick up fresh injuries every game, leading to a longer list of unavailable players than available players. I am by no means saying the players are faking these injuries, but when a team is on the decline and starts to lose faith
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A Closer Look at the Accounts

 RANGERS INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL CLUB PLC – ANNUAL STATEMENT to 30 JUNE 2022 A view from an Accountant and Season Ticket Holder One of the most eagerly anticipated days of the Scottish Football Calendar has arrived, the release of the Rangers Accounts. There will be a lot of nonsense being talked around these and a lot of misinformation flying around on social media as to what these figures mean so I thought I would give a run down of my views on it for those who want to cut through a lot of the noise. There is already some good information out there, particularly a thread this morning from @KieranMaguire on Twitter who is the go-to guy for analysis on football finances. If you want a good break down of the key figures and comparisons to prior years, to our rival’s performance then I would suggest you take a look at his thread. I am sure he and others will be appearing on Rangers podcasts over the next couple of days to cover things in more detail. I didn’t want to just rehash the poi
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A Closer Look at Wilson

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  Rangers had been rumoured to be after Ross Wilson for the Sporting Director post for some time before he was officially appointed in Oct 2019. The former Falkirk man had built a respected reputation in his 4 and a half years at Southampton, and when Rangers found themselves with a vacancy following the resignation of Mark Allen for personal reasons it appeared there was only one man the club wanted. While Mark Allen hadn't always been the most popular of figures at Ibrox, it is worth noting that he came in when there was basically no scouting structure at Rangers and he was able to rebuild this department to a semi-respectable situation. Though he brought in a lot of questionable signings like Brandon Barker and Aaron Nemane, he was also able to bring in a Scott Arfield or Connor Goldson. Ultimately though, I doubt there were many tears when he left, and there was a lot of excitement about his replacement. Ross Wilson was of course responsible for signing Van Dijk from our rivals
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What's He Doing?

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 The title of this article could really relate to 4 different people. Just like most of the fan base I'm a little annoyed at Saturday, though not as surprised as I should be. On the latest episode of Bett on Rangers ( @BettsPod ) our host Chris Bett said he wouldn't be surprised if the game ended in a draw. I disagreed, I expected a comfortable win, but over the course of the game I became less expectant, and once the reds were shown I was sat waiting for the inevitable equaliser. Morelos First up for analysis on "what are they doing" is Alfie. We all know how important a fit and firing Alfie is to this team. He's our talisman, he's our all-time leading scorer in Europe, he's pushing for all-time leading scorer in the history of the UEFA cup/Europa League and more often than not we've seen that no Alfie can often mean no goals... However, we're not the same team that relied solely on Morelos for goals anymore. Tony Goals (credit  @DerickSnake ) has
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A New Journey Begins

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  Last season we got to experience a wonderful journey that started at the Oresund Bridge and ended at the sarcophagus of Christopher Columbus. It was a journey that I thoroughly enjoyed but ultimately ended in failure. I'm certainly not trying to downplay our run in the Europa League, or our Scottish Cup win, however any season we don't win the league should be considered a failure (unless we win a European trophy to balance it out). I started the season, like many others, with high expectations. That took a huge hit when we were put out of the League Cup Semi Finals by Hibs, in a very one-sided affair, and then seemed all but done after we were dismantled at Parkhead. At that point plenty of folk were calling for Gio to go... little did they, or any of us realise what was about to come. He seemed to reinvigorate the team after this, and the displays in Europe were fantastic. None more so than the way we handled tournament favourites Borussia Dortmund. That run did more than e
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