Some Bears discuss all things Rangers
outside the Stadium before the match. 

NEW RANGERS COCKTAIL

While on holiday last week in Rhodes I came across a Rangers Cocktail while in a bar. It consisted of what is basically a Harvey Wallbanger ie. vodka, orange juice and Galliano with something else thrown in and a topping of blue curacao. Needless to say I didn’t try it.

Having come home I think I have spotted the new official Rangers cocktail. This concoction consists of a mixture of treating the fans with contempt, selling off good players ( with no intention of investing in replacements) not offering attractive contracts to players who contribute greatly to the team’s success ( like Boyd) and having players “on our radar” without much attempt at actually signing any. Even worse, I returned to see photos of what will be our “new” second strip this season. It looks, to all intents and purposes, the same design ( given a couple of minor changes) as the one we used 5 years ago when McLeish was manager and the likes of Steven Thompson was wearing it. In case you haven’t seen it yet, this is the red and white vertical stripes one. How contemptuous of the fans can they get? How lazy can Gers get or is it Umbro or JJB? They can’t even be bothered to design a totally new outfit. There are thousands of Gers fans out there who would have designed a better strip free of charge. Bad enough that they went back to the 50s for our first team strip but at least no fans would have one of those already. I still have my red and white effort from 5 years ago so I won’t be buying this “new” one. Talk about ripping the fans off! I hope few buy it and teach our greedy club a lesson they won’t forget. I shudder to think what the third strip will look like. Maybe we could try a little number with the official colours of Lloyds Bank?

YOU GO AWAY ON HOLIDAY AND........

Just back from my 2 weeks holiday in Rhodes, dear readers, so I hope you managed to survive without my columns. But, what happened in my absence? I return to find that the club has sold Danny Wilson and Kevin Thomson for a couple of million a piece. Forget the £5 million in add-ons if Wilson is successful as I doubt if we’ll ever see that kind of money for the kid. According to Liar ...sorry....Martin Bain, both players wanted to leave. I know that Wilson had made it clear that he wanted to go as he IS a Celtic fan after all and when Liverpool came calling there was only going to be one outcome. So, good luck to the boy. The better he does on Merseyside, the more money we earn. As for Thomson – that was simply done to get money now, rather than nothing at the end of this season. He wanted away? The only reason I can think of would be to get away from his nemesis, ref Craig Thomson who keeps sending him off! Your pals at Celtic will be grateful to you, Craig. On the topic of Thomson, how about this for irony? Just before I went on holiday, one of my grandsons appeared with his new Gers top on. On the back he had had Thomson’s name printed. I couldn’t believe he’d picked that player. I joked with him that it was a waste of time as the player is normally either crocked or suspended. I suggested that Thomson was on the park too few times to merit having his name on that shirt. Little did I know that he wouldn’t even be at the club within a couple of weeks! Still, I suppose he can kid on that it’s his OWN name on the back of the shirt!

As for other transfer doings – or lack of them....I noted while abroad that we supposedly offered Marlon Harewood a 2 year deal. Don’t know if that was later denied or not but if true it is extremely worrying. The guy has always been a donkey and now he’s a 30 year old one! Another “deal” was apparently for Chris Eagles of Burnley. Now this cheered me up as he has looked like the type of guy we need – a winger who can actually beat a man and get a decent cross in. Seemingly, his wage demands were too high for Bain and co. If playing for a club like Gers and in the Champions League too is just not attractive enough a proposition compared to the thousands of quid a week he’d have been offered, then we don’t want such a player. Could have been Rotten, Mark II. Even more annoyingly, I come home to find that James McArthur is to sign for Wigan – and for a measley £400,000 at that! This is a guy who could have improved our midfield especially when compared to Kevin Thomson but we can’t even attract him before a Wigan. That’s if Walter wanted him in the first place. I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn that Walter and co didn’t rate the guy.

To sum up, we have now got £4 million more to spend on new players than we had a couple of weeks ago....but will we spend it? I’m not holding my breathe.

 

THE NEW PINOCCHIO CALLED BAIN

Having read this morning’s papers, I don’t think I’ll ever believe another word that comes out of the mouth of Bain and co again. He tells the fans that he hopes to have 3 new players added to the squad before the end of the transfer window but we’re more than half way through the window and we have nobody as yet. Seemingly, 2 are “on the radar”. What does that mean? We don’t even seem to be “negotiating” with anyone, just “looking”. Shouldn’t this all have been done months ago? Every fan and his dug knows we need a winger, and a midfielder for certain and maybe another striker. Get a move on. Bain claims he doesn’t want any last minute deals that turn out to be “unfortunate” and a “mistake” like the Rotten one last season. Whose fault was that, Bain? Yours or Walter’s. The fans could see the guy was a dud immediately but we wasted umpteen thousands on wages on the frog. You’re damn right we don’t want to see any more deals like that one – or like Beasley’s or Faye.

Bain’s most worrying comment however in today’s papers was about our finances. In talking about the possible £10 million in Champions League money, Bain claims that all of that wouldn’t necessarily go to reducing the club’s debt! He claims that we still owe other clubs TRANSFER money! The end of year accounts discussed in public in January ( and even at the AGM in December which I attended ) claimed that we had paid all our outstanding transfer debts and that we only owed money to Lloyds now. It was claimed that Lloyds forced us to pay these transfer debts off. So, which is the lie – the one that claimed this had been done by the end of 2009 – or what Bain is suggesting now? And, if we do still owe money ( apart from the Lloyds debt) then where the hell is the club putting all the season ticket holders’ revenues, not to mention the other streams of income that we generate? I can’t wait for this year’s AGM in September so that I can ask such questions!

WHO’S A CLEVER BOYD THEN?

I must admit to a feeling of horror and disappointment when I read in today’s papers that Kris Boyd has agreed to sign for Middlesbrough. At least it shows that money isn’t his greatest priority otherwise he’d have signed for Shota Arveladze’s Turkish outfit. I really thought that he would have signed for one of the Premiership teams supposedly interested in him. We were told that Birmingham, Newcastle and Blackburn wanted him. If this were true then, at first glance, it seems puzzling that Boyd would sign for a mediocre Championship side like Strachan’s Boro who are by no means certain of promotion next season. But then, have a closer look at the deal and I think Boyd ( or his agent) comes out of this very well.

Firstly, it is only a 2 year contract. Come on, in this day and age, who, apart from veterans, signs for a mere TWO years? Boyd is what, 26? I think this is a very clever move. I’d have thought that the Premiership teams interested in Boyd would all have wanted him on a longer contract. The fact that Strachan has agreed to such a deal, to me, suggests that he is desperate for a 30 goal a season striker to help his side get promoted next season – or else he’ll be out of a job. Why else would you agree to such a short-term deal?

Now, look at how clever Boyd has been. He’s certainly not going to Boro because he thinks Strachan is a wonderful manager, nor is he going for the life-style or environment of Middlesbrough – one of the ugliest cities and most depressing areas of England. Also, he can’t believe, on the evidence of last season, that Boro are a fair bet for promotion. Even the money can’t be any better than the wages offered by Newcastle etc. So why do the deal? Well, I think that his rationale is that if he scores a barrowload of goals next season, bigger Premiership clubs will be trying to sign him – just look at what has happened to nonentities such as Charlie Adam or Graham Dorrans after a decent season in the Championship. If the likes of Adam and Ross McCormack can score 19+ goals there, imagine how many Kris could manage given proper service. If an offer comes in at the end of next season, then Boro would have to take it as Boyd would only have another season left on his contract. Alternatively, if he doesn’t do well or hates the place, then he would only have one more season before he could walk – if he wasn’t allowed to go in the final January transfer window even. So, in my opinion, Boyd has created a win-win situation for himself. Good luck to the guy. I’ll be asking my local bookie for the odds on him scoring 25 goals in the Championship. Should be worth a fiver surely? Gers will certainly miss his goals next season but hey...who knows...maybe he’ll be back at Ibrox in a couple of years – when Rangers have a new manager ( who believes in him) and maybe a new investor who can pay the guy what he is worth.

MANAGEMENT TEAM MUST GET IT RIGHT

With the news that Walter and co have signed up again at least for next season, it seems that they have been given a limited amount of money to go on new wages and player transfers. What we are crying out for – and let’s hope the management team can see it – is a winger and an attacking midfielder. Of course, another central defender, should Bougherra and Wilson go, would also be needed. So, I’d make my priority the signing of James McArthur of Hamilton as a viable option whom we could afford in terms of transfer fee and wages. If we can’t even afford him, we really are in trouble.

Finding a winger is a trickier task. The only one up here that I can think of, now that Motherwell’s O’Brien has gone to England, is Conway of Dundee Utd. I’m not even sure if I rate him that highly either. Sure he has pace but anything else? Still if we did get him, he couldn’t be any worse than Walter’s last wing signing – rotten Rothen.

So with our limited ability to bring players in, Walter and co must get it right. They have to produce a competitive team that can perhaps hang in there until new owners can provide real funds to take the club forward.

BOYD WILL BE THE BIGGEST LOSS

I’m not bothered at all that Novo, Smith, Beasley and maybe Broadfoot have all left, or might leave, Ibrox but the news that Kris Boyd will be scoring goals elsewhere next season is the biggest blow we could have been given in our quest for 3-in-a-row. I can’t believe that Walter hasn’t told Bain to increase the salary offer to Boyd. With the wages saved from the above (especially non-contributors like Beasley) Gers should have been able to offer Boyd at least £25,000 a week. Having done that, we would still have managed to decrease our annual wage bill in line with Lloyds’ wishes presumably. A paltry few thousand extra on top of the offer already made and we would have kept a guy who will always score at least 25 goals a season. It’s a false economy. We won’t be able to buy a player who can emulate Boyd’s scoring and those who remain have proved that they can’t do it. Miller’s tally last season was his best ever and he just scraped over 20 goals. I’d be amazed if managed 20 next season. As for Lafferty, Naismith and Fleck.....Velicka ( remember him?) they’ll be lucky to accrue 20 among them! But, think about it – that’s who will have to score the goals for us next season. Scary thought!

According to one newspaper today, listing the possible clubs Boyd might go to and their salaries on offer, few will be offering him any more than £25,000 a week and NONE will be in with a chance of trophies. Boyd is a Rangers fan and wanted to stay at Ibrox but the management team obviously don’t rate him that highly or they would have offered him a deal that he could have accepted. Good luck to Boyd wherever he ends up. At least he has made it into the record books and has become one of the select band of Rangers who have scored over 100 goals for the club. Thanks for every one of them.