coalman

But he'll be facing it with much better players relative to his opposition. More so than his Championship season with us. That being said he's going to have weeks where he drops points against those teams. He's also going to have the fans on his case pretty quickly if he doesn't start well.

That's what I'm afraid of.

It's a great move for Martin. He gets Champions League football and the reins of the 2nd horse in a 2 horse race. It's a great move for us as it gets his wages off the books and may result in some of his core players moving with him. All the best to him.

It's on Sky News now as breaking news "Rangers close to appointing Russell Martin as new head coach"

Reports say the new owners are injecting 20 million for transfers.

Well played

As long as we don't go signing any strikers by mistake...

Who'd have thought I'd find Russell Martin exciting in a footballing context again. Leicester hearts may be about to be broken. Or not. Scenes.

I think the phrase about a stopped clock being right twice a day covers our transfer policy. When you buy enough players eventually you luck into a good one. Trying to derive a strategy from that doesn't get you anywhere.

With a manager dogmatically sticking to his system... And a billionaire meddling in the running of the club

Who's been quiet on here for the last few days?

I'm hoping for another Poch Lambert conversation where a senior player goes to complain about double sessions

The takeover should be done this week so I guess we'll find out.

Can they afford not to? Apparently the board has ghosted him for a while now perhaps in the hope he'll just quit and save them compensation

Russ will be holding out for Rangers. Champions League at his spiritual home north of the border. You don't do the whole low lighting Lineker kitchen interview unless you're going places.

It seems like Martin is a good person to have on your manager shortlist so your fans can be delighted with whoever your board chooses instead of him.

Oh man. It's the hope that kills you

Armstrong's goal scoring record in the Championship means he should have a place in the squad but, in the same way I wouldn't build our defence around Bednarek and Stephens, I would want him in addition to better attacking players. Whether that's a striker or wingers.

It's stage two of the grieving process.

They also said Martin is 100% not happening and it's Rohl instead so 🤷‍♂️

You'd want data to help identify potential targets along with first hand scouting. Data can help you identify targets you may not have been aware of that you want to scout. You want first hand scouting to validate what you're seeing in the data. You might also want to sanity check what your scouts are seeing with data. Doing data without validation is madness. Doing scouting without data is inefficient. A club in our position can afford neither madness or inefficiency (somehow we've managed the worst of both worlds since Sport Republic took over) However - you should only use data if you have a clue how to interpret it. If you don't you wind up getting excited by anomalies without seeking to understand the why behind them.

I'm not sure we ever gave Downes a chance in the Premier League. It felt like we set up so he'd be overrun in midfield every single game.

I'm 100% satisfied that the season has went. Was 0% satisfied during it.

Yes

It already seems like he's on the case. After last summer this is a very refreshing change.