Rangers

Rangers: Pre-Season, August & Transfers
Fixtures
League table
Transfers
CL Group Stage
Squad

Heading into this campaign I knew it might be the time to make some changes to the squad, despite our success last season I just feel like there's something missing, well there's a big thing missing actually; the CL trophy! There is more to it than that though, we are missing that win at all cost, die for each other and show no fear kind of spirit that we once had. I am aiming to bring that back and as a result I am no longer going to accept passengers in this side so when we get decent bids in for those I deem as passengers then they can go, some already have. Billy Gilmour has been a great player for us over the past seven years as he joined on loan for two years before signing on a free. Last year was possibly one of his poorest seasons though and when Leicester came in with that bid then I had no doubts about accepting, given that Gilmour is 29 as well it makes complete sense. Our next big loss was Glenn Middleton, Glenn is a player I've loved having in both of his spells, having sold him for £36m then bought him back for £6m, but with him now being 30 and with cover already at the club I felt like it was a good move for all parties. I wish him well and can't thank him enough for his contributions for the club as there have been many! I was pleased to receive such high fees for our back up players that we wanted to move on as well and then the rest of our business was just finding the right clubs to loan our developing players out to. Chris McShane joined us from Watford to complete a deal we agreed on around a year or two ago and he will be looking to learn from our senior strikers to help kick his career off here.

Our pre-season was short and very sweet as we racked up the goals against mixed opposition. We got off to a poor start in the league as, once again, our chances of an undefeated season come to an abrupt end as Falkirk overturned our lead to snatch victory. Our other disappointment of the month was the 3-3 draw with Celtic, we took the lead twice against them but were pegged back immediately and they then took the lead with half an hour to play but thankfully for us Tony Herd stepped up to score a 70th minute penalty. We've made early progress in the Scottish League Cup and will be paired with Dundee in the quarter-final as we seek to retain the trophy for a fourth year. I am much happier about our Champions League draw this year as Hertha Berlin and Marseille should be comfortable teams for us to play against. We also have the chance to seek revenge on Atletico Madrid as well and hopefully we can do that.

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 - 316 League appearances
Tony Herd - 249 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 235 League appearances
Tony Herd - 165 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 143 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 12 League titles

Rangers: September - December
Fixtures
League table
CL first knockout round
Squad
Loanees progress

After making the changes that we felt were necessary for us to progress even further I was confident going into the new season and it wasn't a false confidence I'm happy to say. Across all competitions we have managed to win 25 of our 30 games so far this season and I am thrilled with that. The couple of slip ups we've had in the league aren't a major deal and both our Champions League defeats came against last seasons Europa League conquerors Atletico Madrid so I was hardly surprised. I was disappointed with the manner of defeat in our second game against them and it looks like we're going to have to go back to the tactical drawing board against teams of that stature. Moving on from that though, we have played some fantastic football this season, truly, expressive, exciting and full of goals just what I love to see from my teams! In our other Champions League games we managed to secure three narrow wins against Marseille, home and away and away to Hertha Berlin and it was those types of performances we've missed recently, just grinding out the win in Europe. Our last game of the group stages was Hertha Berlin and boy was it a cracker! We annihilated the Germans from start to finish and Paul Wilson really put on a show for us after some indifferent form up until that point. Dundee really tested us in the Scottish League Cup as they took a 2-0 lead and then a 3-2 lead after we had pulled it back but fortunately for us we got our head in the game and killed them off with two late goals. The Hearts game in the following round wasn't any easier as it took a 91st minute winner for us to secure our place in the final and then the final was a piece of cake! That cup win also allowed me to enter at number 19 on the worldwide hall of fame.

My best games of the season so far have been; Our 4-0 demolition job over Celtic, what a game and what a result, I love beating Celtic. Phillip Cocu has since taken over the managerial reigns at Parkhead after Belarusian Vikor Goncharenko left the club to join Everton. My next favourite game was an obvious one, Ross County a couple of weeks ago.. We smashed the poor Staggies 10-0 and achieved another record at the same time, we overtook Celtic's biggest ever Premiership win record of 9-0 v Aberdeen, dating back 21 years. A special mention has to go to my main man and favourite player Tony Herd for his efforts this season, the big man racked up 18 goals in his first 12 league games! He's eased off a little bit now though with just the 23 goals in 21 games but at least he hasn't peaked too soon! Could he match Sam English 44 goal haul this year? I truly hope so. In terms of our overall squad I am so much happier with the balance and the consistency we have this season, we have options in most positions and it's really good options too. Matthew Love has taken his game to another level since coming back from his loan at Hibernian in the summer and young Allan Wilson has impressed me whether it's been from the bench or as a started, either 2/3 of his goals have actually been from the bench. Ali Wilson has impressed while Teddy Landais needs to do more with the chance he's been given this year and my final shout out goes to Bobby Docherty who has been sharing more game time with Shogo Nakamura this year but hasn't complained once he's been fantastic, as has his goal to game ratio. We were disappointed to lose Steven Wright a month or so ago as he was really coming onto a game for us and becoming such a key player so to be ruled out for up to seven months is a great shame, we're just hopeful he can recover well. We've had a couple of injuries now and having checked up on how our loanees have been getting on we've decided to recall Martin Finnie as he wasn't getting enough game time and Dean Wilson as he can step into Steven Wright's shoes. Those two will definitely be getting games for us but of the other two we've recalled, Liam Begg & Ruaridh Burns, it will be a case of trying to find either a permanent move for them or a better suited loan deal.

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 - 319 League appearances
Tony Herd - 265 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 246 League appearances
Tony Herd - 185 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 154 League goals
Alfredo Morelos - 32 goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 12 League titles

That lead in the league is excellent to see and it is also great seeing the progression in the Champions League this year. The Spurs game will be tough but hopefully you can work a tactic out to ensure victory. Herd continues to impress and at 23 he still has so much time to carry on scoring goals for you!

2019-08-28 14:23#260790 TheLFCFan : That lead in the league is excellent to see and it is also great seeing the progression in the Champions League this year. The Spurs game will be tough but hopefully you can work a tactic out to ensure victory. Herd continues to impress and at 23 he still has so much time to carry on scoring goals for you!

Thank you mate I wholeheartedly agree haha! Has been a much better and stress-free(almost) season. Working on it! Aye Herd is just unreal but he never garners much interest, never moans about a new contract or anything, rarely injured.. It seems that I focused on THE perfect player to base my goals around! Despite all that he does his overall ability probably isn't even on par with Docherty or Nakamura and his stats are nothing special really either.

Losing to Falkirk wasn't the ideal way to start the domestic campaign! Fair to say there has been a massive improvement since then though and you're now well on your way to the league title (again). In Europe, there has been a major change in mood it seems. That victory against Hertha epitomised the excellence of your group campaign and hopefully you'll now be able to see-off a tricky challenge in Spurs to continue your route to the trophy. I reckon it has to come soon, so why not now?

Moving on some of the senior players seems to have done very little damage if any!

2019-08-28 19:27#260801 ScottT : Losing to Falkirk wasn't the ideal way to start the domestic campaign! Fair to say there has been a massive improvement since then though and you're now well on your way to the league title (again). In Europe, there has been a major change in mood it seems. That victory against Hertha epitomised the excellence of your group campaign and hopefully you'll now be able to see-off a tricky challenge in Spurs to continue your route to the trophy. I reckon it has to come soon, so why not now?

Moving on some of the senior players seems to have done very little damage if any!

No it definitely wasn't but I guess it saved me further grief down the line by just getting it out the way on the first day hahah! It has been mate yeah, I had to have a look at the team and figure out what I needed to do and I'm happy with the way we're heading now. Aye and it's been well overdue! I feel like we've maybe went back a bit in terms of actual ability in my CL squad but come on leaps and bounds mentality wise so it'll be a case of seeing what comes out on top in the end.

Rangers: 2030/31 Review
Fixtures
League table
Season review
Club awards
League awards
Squad

Season number thirteen is now complete! In a season that looked to have so much promise throughout it ended up being a little disappointing in the end. We only managed the double of the league and Scottish League Cup this time around. Our actual league season was a little better than last years as we didn't have as many bumps in the road and actually held our spot at the top of the table from match day 5 as opposed to 20 or whatever it was last year. Tony Herd looked on course to smash Sam English league goals record of 44 goals in a season but fell short by 7 goals in the end. Had he made those extra 4 starts in the league then who knows what might've been all I do know is that he's closer than ever and a certainty to get that record. A couple of records he did get were those previously held by Henrik Larsson and Carlos Tourinho. Larsson had held the record of most goals scored in a season in the Scottish Premiership and Herd managed to sneak a couple ahead of the former Celtic player. The other award was that of most man of the match awards in a season and Herd's 12 overtook the 11 previously set by our former Brazilian superstar. When playing Celtic last time out I noticed something for the first time in a while, their starting line-up had just once Scottish player in the side. Now if they are really wondering how they go about getting the fans back on board, some passion in the team and actually challenging for second spot at least then the answer is simple; focus on bring some local lads through, hire a Scottish manager, stop throwing money around on foreign players on big wages that have very little heart.

As ever, European success was elusive for us once again. It was looking good after we managed to sneak past Tottenham and even against Chelsea when we managed to come back from a pounding to obtain a respectable defeat with two away goals into the bargain it was looking alright for us going into the second leg. We took the lead on the 1st minute of the 2nd leg and it looked like our dream might be alive but for a stubborn Chelsea defence and the torment of Carlos Tourinho who scored against us in both legs. It wasn't too bad a scoreline or performance across both legs but it was an indicator that we are still a little bit short of quality when it comes to this level. I have confidence that the squad we are building is capable of reaching that level with just one or two additions in key areas and then we are on our way!

In our youth intake this year we recruited two players with some potential in Daniel Brown and Iain O'Neill but we found what can only be described as a player of his generation in Shaun McStay, this lad can be world class. The ability he has and attributes in his locker at the age of just 15 is incredible and as soon as we got him signed up he was straight into the first team and became the youngest player to feature in the Scottish Cup and the Scottish Premiership in back to back games. The future looks incredible for this guy although we now have five right backs at the club, two seniors in Blair Thomson and Willie Craig and two fellow youth players in Steve Gray and Ben Hutton. Now, the youth players needn't be an issue as he is head and shoulders above both lads and in actual fact he is almost on a par with Blair Thomson which leaves his future up in the air. If a bid comes in for Thomson this summer then there is a fair chance we will be parting our ways despite his ten years of loyalty. Unfortunately loyalty doesn't win you Champions League trophies and that is the main goal right now. As well as those players we got through the youth system we signed another young centre back in Colin Doyle which now leaves us in a very healthy position with defenders at the club. The key attributes about the youth players we have been signing of late is that we are now zoning right in on their mentality from the start to figure out if they have what it takes to make it here; can they handle big matches, can they handle pressure and will they be consistent players? These are all things that have to be a priority going forward as we've settled for 'really good on occasion' for far too long. We have recruited further for next season already and have four more youth additions and, again, they all look incredible young talents.

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 - 324 League appearances
Tony Herd - 282 League appearances
Bobby Docherty - 262 League appearances
Tony Herd - 199 League goals
Bobby Docherty - 165 League goals
Tony Herd - 37 league goals in one season
Christopher Burns - 13 League titles

Rangers: Pre-Season, August & Transfers
Fixtures
League table
Transfers
Squad
CL group stage draw

Unlike our past couple of years, which have been quiet, we decided to go on a couple of tours and play varying sides across Europe and America this pre-season. It went so well for us as the camaraderie and togetherness shone through in our results as we demolished side after side. Those results trickled through to our competitive matches in August as we scored eighteen goals in six matches, unfortunately a couple of those matches ended in a draw. However, despite those draws we still managed to come out on top of the league by the months end. In addition, our dismantling of Falkirk in the second round of the Scottish League Cup puts us through to the next round where we face an exciting tie against Celtic! Our Champions League draw was deja vu all over again as we will face off with Atletico Madrid once again! Hopefully our past with them can inspire us to victory this time around, one can only hope anyway.Dynamo Kiev and Feyenoord also pose their own threats but as the saying goes 'if we play to our own strengths we should beat them. On a sidenote, Celtic now have a another new manager! Phillip Cocu jumped ship to join Benfica and has been replaced by Paco Jemez.

Once again we had a bit of a reshuffling of the first team squad and we had a major outgoing this summer; Adam Morrice has left us to join Brighton for £90m! Morrice has looked like a real player for us since we signed him for £5m from Motherwell eight years ago and he's went on to become a key player for us in that time. Despite this, he had a couple of major injuries which have hampered him and he struggled in the big games and with consistency too. In the end it has turned out to be a major plus for us to bring in such a huge sum for a player, save on his bigger wages and we also have a ready made replacement for him in young Allan Wilson who I've no doubt will step up and be counted. We moved on Mark Rankin this summer too as his inconsistency and recent injury problems have affected his development and with a couple of young wingers at the club itching for a chance to shine it became clear that his time was up. Diogo Afonso was a tough player for us to suss out, we knew he had the quality to match the strikers already in our squad but our main worry was could he match their mentality? We didn't think so and the decision was made to sell him. I would've liked him to go abroad and ply his trade but with only Livingston willing to pay that money for him then we just had to accept it. I was disappointed in a couple of players this summer, namely; Julian Weller, Mark Potter and Ruaridh Burns. All three lads were offered moves to the English Premiership and all three of them turned down the moves which would've seen our coffers swell by another £30m+ combined had they left. I've no idea why they want to stay as their wages can easily be matched elsewhere, they have no chance of making it here and we were actively looking to sell. We were able to loan Weller out to Aberdeen but the other two are going to be in the reserves until January, at least, which just seems silly.

I was hoping that we would receive some bids for Blair Thomson, Adam Munro or Kenny McAvoy this summer which would have enabled me to promote some of our younger players to the starting line-up. Shaun McStay will soon overcome Blair Thomson that is inevitable and I won't worry about the progress of him as he's still only 16 years old anyway. I was hoping that our two main defenders in the league would garner some interest though as I was wanting to utilise Martin Wilson, Scott Alexander and Colin Noble in their positions going forward. That never materialised though so Wilson and Alexander were sent out on loan and Noble is going to step into Ross McCrorie's shoes after we asked our captain to take a step back to allow our younger players to start developing. McCrorie being the man that he is duly obliged and I couldn't be any less surprised as he is the beating heart of our club and has been for well over a decade now, he loves to see us thrive and what better way for us to continue thrive than to help the next generation. We have allowed twenty-four players to leave the club on loan this year and I can be honest and say that there could be a future for around 30-40% of them so I just hope they can go and impress.

Unfortunate that you were unable to go any further than the Quarter Finals in the Champions League last season, but overcoming Spurs is something to be content with. I think positives can be taken from the campaign there, although losing to Motherwell in the way you did is disappointing... to lose a semi-final like that is very annoying.

The sale of Morrice is huge. It's an incredible profit of £85,000,000 too, so I commend you for some excellent business there. I suspect there may be plenty more profits to be made in the near future. The Champions League group is a lot more comfortable than perhaps anticipated but it's important not to discredit these sides as an upset may still be on the cards. It's an excellent chance to extract revenge on Atletico though!

2019-08-29 16:04#260821 ScottT : Unfortunate that you were unable to go any further than the Quarter Finals in the Champions League last season, but overcoming Spurs is something to be content with. I think positives can be taken from the campaign there, although losing to Motherwell in the way you did is disappointing... to lose a semi-final like that is very annoying.

The sale of Morrice is huge. It's an incredible profit of £85,000,000 too, so I commend you for some excellent business there. I suspect there may be plenty more profits to be made in the near future. The Champions League group is a lot more comfortable than perhaps anticipated but it's important not to discredit these sides as an upset may still be on the cards. It's an excellent chance to extract revenge on Atletico though!

It was disappointing as we had a really good chance and Chelsea didn't look sensational! Just need to persevere and build the squad up I guess. The Motherwell game was a complete pain but completely my fault as I played too many youth/reserves in the tie. I'm very happy with the sale of Morrice as he was a player I wanted to move on. I have another couple of dispensable cash cows in the squad that's for sure! Let's just be clear that I now hate Atletico.

Rangers: September - December
Fixtures
League table
Squad
CL group stage draw

September was a bit of a mixed month for us across all competitions as in the league we won three matches and scored fourteen goals and then we drew 0-0 with Atletico which is a decent result considering past games and then we went and bottled the Scottish League Cup quarter final against Celtic. Raging with the cup game as that meant we weren't going to be adding another treble to our current haul. We were flying in the league and Champions League in October as we smashed almost all of our opposition but for Celtic, yet again. Novemeber and December were also good months for us as we continued to rattle in the goals and tasted defeat just twice. We lost against Atletico again as they showed us up this time around and it's clear we have a lot of work to do against that calibre of club. We also seem to be having a bogey season in the Old Firm games this season as Celtic ended our 2031 with another defeat, a defeat that finally ended our unbeaten run too. Celtic games aside, we're doing quite well in the league and had we beat them in that last game then we'd be fourteen points ahead of them going into the New Year, that being said, eight is still a pretty decent tally.

Our forwards and wingers are just firing on all cylinders this season and there are a couple of others banging in the goals too. Tony Herd, Shogo Nakamura and Bobby Docherty have each had their little dry spells but have managed to reach a decent tally thus far. Matthew Love and Dean Wilson have just gone from strength to strength this year and have just excelled on the wings in our important matches. Love's form has been so good that he only went and won the European rookie of the year award as well as the European Golden Boy award! A magnificent feat for the young lad and we are buzzing with him. He joins the likes of Tony Herd, Willie O'Halloran, Carlos Tourinho and Robert Navarro in winning either or both of the awards with us in recent years. We had a bit of a goalkeeping crisis at the club in December as both our starting keepers got injured but we managed the situation with young Ewan Gallagher stepping up from the under 18 side to claim three clean sheets in four games. Ahead of the transfer window we agreed a deal to bring in Bobby Cowie from Hamilton and I believe he is a player who could have a real future at the club. Having received feedback on our young players that are out on loan it looks like most of them are impressing and the young strikers certainly appear to be making the most of their chance by bagging plenty of goals. I am absolutely thrilled to share the news that our training facilities have been upgraded to keep up with the modern technology but the best news possible is that after years of me telling the board that we should look at building a brand new stadium they have finally decided that it's time! We will be building a new 84250 capacity stadium and, all going well with planning permission and building, should be given the go ahead to move in on 30/06/2033 but there has been no confirmation on a name as of yet.

A lot of positive news has been reported back to us in this particular post! Aside from Celtic appearing to have your number at the moment, the results have been excellent and progression in the Champions League is great to see. It was a favourable group admittedly, but you still had to ensure the job was done. PSG will be a tough side to beat, but you demonstrated you have the ability to beat quality sides in the RO16 when you defeated Spurs last season. The league form continues to be impressive. Congratulations to Matthew Love for winning his respective awards, it shows he has the ability to become a special player at Ibrox - or whatever the new stadium will be named once it is ready for usage, very pleasing to hear about the significant capacity increase that comes with it! And one special mention to Ewan Gallagher for stepping up when required and performing admirably.

2019-08-30 16:09#260835 ScottT : A lot of positive news has been reported back to us in this particular post! Aside from Celtic appearing to have your number at the moment, the results have been excellent and progression in the Champions League is great to see. It was a favourable group admittedly, but you still had to ensure the job was done. PSG will be a tough side to beat, but you demonstrated you have the ability to beat quality sides in the RO16 when you defeated Spurs last season. The league form continues to be impressive. Congratulations to Matthew Love for winning his respective awards, it shows he has the ability to become a special player at Ibrox - or whatever the new stadium will be named once it is ready for usage, very pleasing to hear about the significant capacity increase that comes with it! And one special mention to Ewan Gallagher for stepping up when required and performing admirably.

Haha yeah there was a bit! Aye that's very true they seemed to have us figured out for a while there. Matthew Love done fantastic this season but when you see the next update you will see how close him and Willie O'Halloran are in abilty and stats, a great problem to have. I have had so many goalkeepers come through the ranks it's unreal, Gallagher could be the next one to get his shot! The increase in stadium will be incredible for the clubs finances if you consider the season ticket money and general ticket sales. Not that money has ever been anything of interest for me in this save due to my frugal spending. Thanks for the feedback Scott!

What a big bit of news the Stadium upgrade is! 84250 is massive! Maybe just maybe it could be named after you A shame that the 45 unbeaten run was broke, by Celtic no less but still top of the league by a fair distance and qualification from the Champions League again! PSG will be another tough test!

2019-08-30 18:23#260845 TheLFCFan : What a big bit of news the Stadium upgrade is! 84250 is massive! Maybe just maybe it could be named after you A shame that the 45 unbeaten run was broke, by Celtic no less but still top of the league by a fair distance and qualification from the Champions League again! PSG will be another tough test!

Too right it was mate! Well, see below