Rangers

Best of luck with that group, Christ.

Rangers: September - December
Fixtures
League
Champions League
Squad
Main XI
Cup competitions XI
Big game XI

With our revised plan of action for our challenge in all competitions it was time to see if our carefully selected sides suited their respective competitions. The League has been a pretty easy ride for us these past few years, it stopped being a challenge a long, long time ago, in fact, I can't even remember if we were ever challenged in the league. We made a blistering start to the season by outscoring anyone and everyone within sight. Bobby Docherty and Tony Herd are firing on all cylinders and challenging each other for the Golden Boot with both players already reaching twenty goals for the season. We have scored five or more goals on eight occasions so far this season, I am loving it. Unfortunately our run of 121 games unbeaten finally came to an end when we fell to a 1-0 defeat to Hearts in a game in which we were completely lacklustre. We were looking like we were going to follow that up with a defeat to Livingston but for a 90th minute screamer from Jack McMaster, our star man that day. We bounced back spectacularly in our next game against Ross County though and normality was resumed once again. In a month which saw us beat Celtic 6-1 we could still only finish with a draw as we yet again failed to beat Hearts, this time a 1-1 draw seen to that. With Hearts challenging us in our matches this season you would think that it would be them that's trying to fight us for the title but no, it's their rivals Hibs. When we went those two games without a win Hibs were really on our tail until we beat them once again, had it not been for our two victories over them we'd really be in trouble and in actual fact it's still pretty close due to their game in hand.

Having been drawn in the 'group of death' in the Champions League we really had to be careful not to over think about our opposition too much and build up a fear of them as that could spell disaster. Instead we carefully selected players we thought would present us with the best chance of progressing in the competition. We absolutely could not have got off to any more of a flyer than we did at home to Ajax as we thrashed them 7-0, we just battered them from start to finish, simply. In the return leg it was much the same as we scored four without reply. Next up was Juventus and when we went 1-0 down inside 10 minutes I really feared the worst. Oliver Burke and Tourinho allayed those fears though when they both scored inside two minutes to put us ahead. The win wasn't to be though as Juventus equalised with twenty minutes left to play and after Robert Navarro stupidly got himself send off having only come on as a sun ten minutes previous. Manchester United were seemingly the best team in the group, as they should be given they are the current holders, but that didn't stop us from nabbing all three points on the day. They got their revenge in the return tie though as they beat us 2-0 which meant we were joint 2nd in the group on ten points and Juventus were 3rd on eight points. We went into the final game against Juventus knowing that we only had to draw the match to finish 2nd. We won 1-0 and saved ourselves from the agony and dread of a late goal by the Italians. Group D couldn't have gone any better for us and if you look at poor Ajax down in fourth you'll see how lucky we were not to be the whipping boys that they so clearly were. We were handed a Last 16 Knockout Round tie with German club Hoffenheim and I'm excited about our chances of progressing as a result.

It was par for the course for us util the final in the Scottish League Cup as we dispensed of Queen of the South, Hearts and Dundee en route to the final. Our victory over Hearts coming in the cup this term as opposed to in the league and being knocked out of the cup like in previous years was a bit of a relief. This set up a fourth League Cup Final with Hibs in my time here, we have won on two occasions and lost on one, we've also faced them in the Scottish Cup Final too with us being victors. When Hibs scored in the 30th minute I was thinking 'oh no, not again'. So we ramped up the tempo and went hell for leather to grab an equaliser which duly arrived after the hour mark through left back Jamie Dair's wonder strike. With the game tantalisingly close and both sides failing to break the deadlock we headed to penalties. When Alex Bielsa missed his penalty my heart sank but thankfully Ali Wilson was able to save the next two penalties to send us to victory! One in the bag now!

As previously mentioned our strikers are in blistering form with Docherty on 20 goals in 24(4) games, Herd on 23 in 24(3) and also the injury prone Tourinho managing to accumulate 17 goals in 15(2) too. Young Paul Wilson has also impressed by scoring 4 goals in 2 Champions League games! The goals are more spread throughout the team asides from that although a special mention has to go to Ryan Gauld. With injuries to a couple of players we called upon Gauld out of the blue and he's only went and scored 8 goals in 4(3) games including a double against Celtic! He has left me with a bit of a headache as in that form he should be getting a game but then with his advancing years and the potential we have in the squad it makes more sense to play the youngsters. However, we know we have a more than able deputy.

Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles

Current
Ross McCrorie - 252 League appearances
Tony Herd - 168 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 163 League appearances
Tony Herd - 109 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 98 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 9 League titles

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Frightening eh ScottT? Thankfully more bark than bite!

Rangers: January - June
Fixtures
League
Squad

I was really hoping that my tenth season in charge of Rangers would see us lift the illustrious quadruple, ambitious, I know. With the unity of our team and the stature of club that we have become it should never be entirely out of the question. That being said, it wasn't to be for us this season. However we did manage to win our first treble in four years, our fourth in total, which I was buzzing about nonetheless. For a good period of time there Hibs were looking like being our rivals to the title this season but much like the others before them they fell way short as they fell 21 points behind us. Having already secured the Scottish League Cup and the League, the next target was the Scottish Cup. Winning the Cup this year would see us overtake Celtic as the record Scottish Cup winners. After annihilating Falkirk in the Quarter Final it was Ross County next for us and I bet they weren't excited to hear that given our results over them this year. We did keep it respectable though as I didn't want their new manager and our recently departed reserves coach Peter Lovenkrands to be too embarrassed. Victory was ours in the final as we got the job done against the other mob from Edinburgh, Hearts, with a 2-0 win. The Champions League continues to elude us as we were narrowly defeated by Tottenham in the Quarter Final after scraping by Hoffenheim in the round previous. I guess it's just a case of us still having to fully develop our lads before we can make a serious case for winning the damned thing. As you may have guessed by now, with us being the lucky charm and all, Tottenham became the third team in successive years to go on and win the trophy.

It was a great year of development for the club as a lot of our youngsters have really kicked on and improved this season. Tony Herd and Bobby Docherty get all the plaudits and awards as strikers and with the campaign both players have just had it can definitely be justified. However, the progress of Jamie Dair has been tremendous as he's laid on goal after goal for his teammates, our 7-0 win over Falkirk is a great example as Dair laid on four of Docherty's five goals in that game, Docherty ending his goal drought with five goals was incredible to watch too. Martin Finnie stepped up from the youth team when a few injuries hit our defence and as a result he has improved massively after taking his chance. The increase in game time given to Reese Camm and Jack McMaster in the centre of the midfield has allowed their game to move up another level too, particularly McMaster who has scored fantastic goals consistently for us. Having previously moaned about the lack of young Scottish wingers around I was embarrassed to find that, actually, we have a left and right sided option at the club who have great potential. With O'Halloran only making five sub appearances for Livingston in his loan spell there I decided to recall him and also to promote Mark Rankin from the reserves. With these two prospects needing game time and a couple of our wingers starting to age we increased the rotation on the wing to three players per position. Surprisingly we had no complaints from the older players there who must have realised it was time to let the youngsters get their chance. Willie O'Halloran absolutely excelled and got ten goals in ten games whilst Rankin also impressed. Jamie Brown and Steven Wright were also given a bit of a chance too. The former was promoted from the reserves due to Paul Wilson's complaints about first team football which he still failed to get on his loan to Ajax, go figure. Annoyingly we had no players with any great deal of potential in our annual youth intake. A bitter blow but one we can manage as we have all the means necessary to attract the best young players around to country to our club and our scouts will be busy finding those players.

Despite our obvious dominance at the top of Scottish football it is quite clear that the best of the rest is pretty open these days. Celtic finished a lowly 6th under their new manager Paulo Foncesca after Robbie Stockdale jumped ship to Southampton midway through the season with a glowing reference from myself. As well as that they haven't won the Scottish Cup in six years or the League Cup in three so there are very difficult times at that club indeed. Evidently it is the Edinburgh clubs that are fighting it out for the best of the rest however they have moneybags Livingston to contend with as well as Falkirk who have started to do well recently. Whilst at the other end of the spectrum Aberdeen managed to stave off relegation as they came close to their third relegation in five years. I'm happy to see them all fight it our for every other position in the league as they won't take our spot I will make sure of it. I will be here for another ten years and as a sign of both my and the boards commitment we were able to shake hands on a deal that'll make me the highest paid manager in the world, ahead of the long serving Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho and Tottenham manager Diego Simeone.

Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles

Current
Ross McCrorie - 268 League appearances
Tony Herd - 181 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 175 League appearances
Tony Herd - 120 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 100 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 10 League titles

Christ, that is some season. Tony Herd is an absolute monster!

Not a bad season at all... just need to capture that elusive Champions League title!

Aye he is Jack, I must admit I was starting to have my doubts about him but he has turned into a great all round player. Picked the perfect player to break my records it would seem, well hopefully anyway. Was a decent season I was chuffed with the amount of goals scored! That is the holy grail ScottT, ever elusive as you said!

Rangers: Pre-season, August & Transfers
Fixtures
Transfers
League
Senior Squad
Reserve Squad
Youth Squad

With all the hustle and bustle, wheeling and dealing of our past summer transfer windows I was really looking forward to just loaning a couple players out, sorting my own squad out and maybe bringing a couple of youth players in this year. Apparently the other club managers didn't get that memo as I was inundated with offers for my players from start to finish. Firstly Tourinho then Jason Henry next it was Blair Thomson and then Alex Bielsa and Robert Navarro. I finally got a bid worth accepting for Tourinho and so off he went to negotiate with PSG in a deal that would earn us £120m up front. Poor little Tourinho must not have been getting enough money though as he only went and rejected them didn't he? I was seething with rage at him, we had been negotiating with clubs for years for him and only now had someone been willing to pay our asking price and he outright refuses to go? Worst of it was that more clubs started bidding for him once again but their offers around the £40m mark were simply laughable considering what we'd just been offered. PSG were done their bidding on Tourinho for the summer though and it was with reluctance I finally agreed to let him go to Chelsea for £80m, I'm not happy that we couldn't break our record fee received for him as we really should have. However, we will also get 50% of the fee involved in his next move, should he make one. We've benefited from those clauses twice already this season as we got £15.5m Enrique Fernandez move from Newcastle to Man United and got £11m from Matonense move from Man City to Borussia Dortmund. When Tottenham came bidding for Alex Bielsa I was reluctant to sell but considering the talent we have stocked up in the midfield I relented and accepted the £35m but, again, inserted a 50% of his next fee clause in the deal. Robert Navarro was running out of contract next summer and was on £150k p/w so it made sense to move him on particularly as he was extremely inconsistent and didn't like playing in the big matches for us. The best bit about our dealings in the market this year is that even if we did let a couple players move on we didn't have to replace them at all as they're replacements were in our squad already, patiently waiting for their opportunity.

We had an extremely busy pre-season but also a highly productive one as we set about playing our affiliate teams and showing them who's the boss. We won twelve out of thirteen which was a great boost of confidence for the lads going in to the new season. Ross McCrorie was delighted to receive a testimonial match this year too and our captain thoroughly deserved the spectacle that ensued. We couldn't have gotten off to a better start domestically either as we ran riot on the opening day of the season against Aberdeen and Mark Rankin got a remarkable five goals on the day too! Jack McMaster could only manage the four from midfield in the next game as we saw off St. Johnstone in the League Cup rather easily, Motherwell will be our opponents in the Cup next. We won our next two games just as comfortably but having played a game more than us Celtic sit top of the table with four wins from four. We will face off with Juventus, again, Porto and Leicester in the Champions League and that is a draw which I think will suit us in terms of progress.

Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles

Current
Ross McCrorie - 271 League appearances
Tony Herd - 183 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 176 League appearances
Tony Herd - 121 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 100 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 10 League titles

I can understand your frustrations about the Tourinho deal. To lose out on £40,000,00 0 must be gutting. Surely PSG could offer a decent deal for him?!

Wow, just wow. Just got through this. And £996 million transfer budget? Yikes. I'm sure you won't mind losing out on 40 mil with all that already in the bank. Dominated Scotland, now to conquer Europe which i think you can do. Goodluck.

I know ScottT after all the chasing they done with him they messed it up so badly! When Chelsea came in I made sure he would go by transfer listing and dropping to the reserves. On the plus side I might make more than £40m on any future sale! Appreciate the read through SonsOfAnarchy! I constantly get those types of budgets but never use them so it just builds up. I’ll be saving £300-400k per week on wages with the departures. My squad’s wage is generally low for a team of our stature. Cheers mate, I need it apparently!!

Rangers: September - December
Fixtures
League
Senior Squad

After losing what was left of the foreign contingent at the club and also the 'star men' we were set for a very different season with everyone now pulling in the same direction and no one thinking of their next move. As the season has progressed that has become quite clear as the team have been putting in great performances collectively and therefor we have had a very high number of players scoring for us, sixteen in actual fact. The slight downside to that is that we only have one player with more than ten goals and it is neither Bobby Docherty and Tony Herd surprisingly! In actual fact it isn't even a striker! Mark Rankin emerged from the reserves to become a first team player last January and he has been excellent ever since. We have been unfortunate with injuries these past few months as the likes of Docherty, Herd and McCrorie were sidelined for weeks at a time. Another player who has excelled in that same period of time has been Willie O'Halloran who has even been crowned European Golden Boy for his efforts. In the absence of Herd and Docherty Shogo Nakamura and Ruaridh Burns have emerged as first team players with both men grabbing eight goals each and the former grabbing three CL goals too. Things are looking pretty good in our first team at the moment. We have Ross McCrorie, Oliver Burke, Ryan Gauld and Glenn Middleton all now in their senior years of 29 or above but despite that we have ready made replacements for all of these players at the club for when their time comes to an end with us.

Having been drawn Juventus, Leicester and Porto in the Champions League Group Stage I wasn't too sure how it was going to pan out for us as all of those sides have real quality within their teams. Things got off to as bad a start as we could've imagined as we were beaten by Leicester in the first game and we could only muster up a 0-0 draw with Juventus in the next game too. At that point we were bottom of the group and looking like a team out of their depth however we bounced back emphatically to win the next four with relative ease. Progress was ours as we topped the group with Leicester in second place, Juventus in third and Porto in last place. We will be facing Red Bull Leipzig in the Last 16 Knockout Round, something we also done two years ago and emerged 7-5 victors on aggregate. We had an easy run at the Scottish League Cup too before facing a tough Livingston side in the final. Having went behind the them we managed to turn it around to win the game and the Cup for my sixth time. In the league things have been motoring along nicely but for that unexpected defeat to Motherwell a couple of weeks back. That was a real disappointment as we were running riot and winning every game but I guess you can't have all of the luck all of the time eh? We sit top of the league by a seven point margin and with two games in hand as well.

Records to beat
Sandy Archibald - 513 League appearances
Ally McCoist - 251 League goals
Sam English - 44 League goals in one season
Bill Struth - 18 League titles

Current
Ross McCrorie - 282 League appearances
Tony Herd - 192 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 184 League appearances
Tony Herd - 125 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 106 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 10 League titles

That's one of the most Brexit squads I've ever seen. Good work in getting out of that group, though.

That was the aim these past five years or so ScottT! Get all Scottish lads but without too low of a calibre of player! Cheers mate. Will be updating this in the next few days, just been busy this past week.

Can you link us your tactic big man?

Aye ready. Great work with the club closest to my heart.