saintant

With due respect football is a little different. Will Still will have access to hours of tapes to show him exactly what each player at his disposal is either capable or not capable of. He doesn't have to rely on asking the opinions of those at the club as he can use his own eyes to come to his decisions. Anyone looking at footage of Stephens wouldn't take long to discover his limitations and his two sending-offs last season should immediately flag that he is not captain or leadership material.

I strongly suspect Stephens will be first choice for our opening match. How long he stays in the side is anyone's guess but most on here are in accord that extending his contract was both mistaken and not necessary. Should have been allowed to see out his contract and then released.

If Will Still is as thorough as I suspect then he'll surely have done an in depth look at each of our players. If so and it led him to believe Stephens is worth an extended contract and retention of the captaincy then alarm bells about our new manager are ringing loud and clear. Hoping he had little to do with this particular bad decision.

No doubt about that.

He's still the captain and my guess is that he'll be the first name on the team sheet when the new season starts. Got to hope Will Still works out very quickly that he should not be relying on Jack Stephens. Frankly this is a mess we could have done without and has pissed off a large chunk of the fan base.

Look, Jack Stephens is clearly not the sharpest tool in the box. He got a red card for hair pulling and also mouthed off at officials after another deserved red. In my book this lack of awareness and intelligence mean he should be nowhere near the captaincy of our football club. The contract extension is a complete joke but is compounded by the fact that he has retained the captaincy despite his obvious shortcomings when it comes to the attributes needed to make a leader. it reflects badly on those making the decisions.

No chance he's secured a three year extension on less money. This club never seem to learn from past mistakes.

Thanks for that 🙂

This is the bloke with the leadership qualities which saw him get sent off for pulling some Spanish geezers hair! Madness to give him a three year contract and a pay rise. Now he'll be the first name on the team sheet until, hopefully, Will Still gets wise to his limitations.

How about the team in general? Can't be denied.

Not sure where he's been slagged off for chance creation. More a case of being surprised that Ranger's fans don't seem aware that Martin's sides are notorious for getting the ball to the winger then turning back, recycling followed by rinse and repeat. We saw it all the time and it was frustrating to say the least. Maybe he's learned some new tactics but every time I've seen him interviewed he's repeated the same mantra and insisted he'll never change.

Read this on the Rangers fans forum today; "I'm excited by Russell Martin talking about players not wasting time dropping deep and looking for the ball when their job is final third chance making/shot taking/chaos creation. The new signings and targeted players are exactly what we've long needed to replace wingers who think it's their role to take the ball off the fullback, run 5-10 yards, check back/in and pass the ball to someone behind them to essentially kill all momentum of a move. I feel we have a Manager who at least understands how we need to play and who we need to help us achieve it - that alone is a major shift in the right direction." There was someone else suggesting Martin will play 4-2-3-1 They clearly have no clue about him.

Rustle Martin always did prefer a carthorse.

Still not sure why we got rid of Rustle Martin.

This is my big concern. Hopefully Will Still will do his homework and, if he does, that should alert him to the fact that Baz should not be our number one 'keeper.

Decent enough players but both could do with a bit of serious weight training to build up some strength. Would make them far more effective.

Yeah, Everton and West Ham are after him. Burnley would have kept him if he'd signed a new contract.

Love this. Great team bonding exercise 🙂

Of course with the caveat that it was against lower level opposition.

Good squad player but wouldn't want him starting too many games unless he goes on the weights and bulks up.

Agree. Unless another club makes a decent offer for him Stephens will almost certainly be retained as captain and in the starting eleven for the opening game.

Well, you always know best so I must bow to your superior intelligence but I would class AA as more of an inside forward than a wide man. If he was a wide man helping out his full back regularly then his return of 24 goals is even more impressive yet many want to sell him potentially to one of our rivals.

Or Rangers where he is highly rated by the manager.

Yes, as a striker. A striker for me is a player who plays up front and scores regularly. I get that AA didn't get his goals from playing through the middle but, for me, he is a striker. I guess it is down to interpretation of the word striker.

Thought Adam Armstrong registered 24 goals that season?