AJF

You seem to have the inside scoop on how this unfolded. How we forgot to request an away fixture and subsequently demanded the fixture be swapped.

Demand

Ah, Super Ally. Effectively served an apprenticeship under one of our greatest ever managers in Walter Smith, but fell massively short. We blew a massive lead in 10/11 under him to lose the league. Subsequently, we coasted through Divisions 3 and 2, but by the time we arrived in the Championship, our squad was littered with overpaid and underperforming players and ended catastrophically. Some leeway is obviously given due to the circumstances and the boardroom tussles/shenanigans at the time, but I was relieved when he eventually did go and he could go back to being one of our most loved players. Thankfully his failed stint doesn't seem to have caused any damage to his reputation with the fans and is still adored.

Yeah, I totally get that, I just think saying Barron has been playing well for us and saying our overall recruitment hasn’t been great can both be true.

I feel your point conflated two issues though. I said Barron (as a player) was not on a list of problems for us based on his performances. You said that him being one of our better signings indicates there is an issue. I would agree with that, but I'd say that's a very different issue from my original point, which was an appraisal of Barron's performances for us rather than an appraisal of our overall transfer strategy.

I'm almost glad I'm away for the weekend and missing this one. Ridiculous time for a football match to be played, and such is the apathy within the support just now, I anticipate an extremely low attendance for this. If Lawrence is out, then Bajrami should be the one to move into the 10 which I think will be a better position for him rather than out on the left. Surprising that Igamane never got any minutes last night, especially since the game was done just after half time, so maybe Clement is preparing to hand him a start in this.

We have went through a period of cost cutting that has required us to replace some experienced high earners that departed with lower budget, younger players e.g. Barron in to replace Jack/Lundstram and Jefte in to replace Barisic. We have apparently shaved £10m p/a off our wage budget so I think an initial drop off is probably to be expected. Again, beacon of hope is complete hyperbole, but Barron and Jefte have been two of our more promising signings this season and have performed relatively well on the whole. They are both young and promising, but as you mention, consistency will be key. I suppose my point is, Barron is getting torn down a lot for his performance last night (correctly, I may add) and used as the barometer of his performances, but that has really been the exception to his general performances for us.

With all due respect, every other club is the same - they act in their own best interest.

He had a very poor game last night granted, but the comments regarding Barron based on that alone are a bit of hyperbole. He was just voted our player of the month and has made a pretty good start to his Rangers career. As @Grangemouth Bairnmentions, I feel he is being left to do a lot of work himself, which is exacerbated by ludicrous subs (yes Dowell, I'm looking at you) which leaves him totally isolated. As far as our list of problems go, Barron doesn't even feature on it.

I’m not sure what they are expecting here. It’s obvious to everyone. It’s also a bit of a stretch to include us in the bracket of winning all the leagues

I think that’s a very large stretch. I disagreed with the colt team idea, but I fail to see how Rangers wanting one could be construed as us implying we need a bigger challenge domestically. We’ve won 3 major trophies in over a decade, why would we want it to be harder, particularly when we’ve had a pretty decent record in Europe over the years.

I’ve yet to hear a Rangers fan say anything remotely like this.

Woeful that. Whilst we conceded two in the opening 20 minutes, I thought we actually started quite brightly, but then it descended into a shapeless mess. The Cerny miss was pathetic and was punished immediately. Special mention for Souttar who turned in probably his worst performance for us tonight. He looked terrified to engage with an (albeit pacy) Lyon forward line, to the extent they were about 12 yards out so many times without a tackle being made. There are slight signs of positivity on the left with Jefte and Bajrami, but even then, it was a poor mistake from Jefte that led to the first goal. Lyon looked maybe a class or two above, but they weren’t untouchable. They were shaky at the back and were clearly uncomfortable playing out of defence evidenced by the amount of times they played it long. But because we were terrified of balls in behind we were far too deep to capitalise on this and try and win the ball higher up the pitch. Awful error from Barron to gift them a goal and he was really lost tonight. The Dowell sub at half time, for me, is madness. Even if Lawrence is injured and needs to be hooked, I’d much rather have brought on McCausland and moved Bajrami into the 10. Bringing on Dowell, who is scarily casual and displays no urgency, left us chasing shadows in midfield. That improved slightly when Raskin came on who managed to break up play a few times but the damage was done by then. Tavernier with his usual as well, allowing a man to ghost in at the back post to score. He can’t run anymore and has to be taken out the team.

I think we will need Diomande back in from the start tonight to stand any chance. The balance was totally off against Hibs and Diomande is excellent at retaining the ball under pressure which will be required. And while Kasanwirjo looked good against Malmo at left back, I think we need to bring Jefte back in after another good performance on Sunday.

I’m assuming they’ve organised to have pre-match pints with these Dons fans