StrangelyBrown

What about Will Smallbone? Will, yes you can jog about a bit doing not a lot? 😄

Hopefully if the club suspect players will be going they will be moving mountains to line up replacements rather than leaving it all to the last minute

I agree with most of this but I'm not sure he's got a good engine - he looks like he's blowing within a small number of minutes and can't keep up with the pace of the game. It's actually one of the things I've been most surprised with as an athlete with his build ought to be able to keep running and running.

It's exactly that reason why I'd like Stephens to move on - id love it if it forwards played against him

Please tell me what you see in him as a footballer - I genuinely couldn't find anything other than you waffling on about character and experience?

So purely based on character and being a good guy to have around? What utter nonsense

What is it that you think is great about Stephens? He ball watches, he's poor at heading the ball, not particularly great at distributing it, frequently loses concentration, loses his head and gets himself into trouble and is a consistent part of our failures... Even in the championship he was bang average.

100% this. Edozie might have "no end product", but he at least has something about him and the potential to improve. BBD doesnt seem to have anything about him - woeful touch, poor positioning, slow, poor shooting - his 2 good scoring seasons seem completley out of kilter with his footballing abilities.

Would be an awful signing unless it was to help train our physios.

There seemed to be plenty of games where Archer made really decent runs that no one in the team seemed able to spot. This seemed to happen early on in the game and then his head dropped and he stopped doing anything much and became a waste of a shirt. My view is we simply weren't set up to make the most of his talents. Whether that changes this season remains to be seen, but I hope he gets paired with a centre forward who can hold the ball up (either as part of a 2 or 3 up top). Then I think we'll find out if he's any good or not.

I can't work out if you are being sarcastic, contrary or if you genuinely think that?

I'm really worried about this - it can only be fixed with snake oil

We also had Tijuana Tim super soccerball fan

Seems like a strategy we've already tried and failed with - BBD, Armstrong, THB, Downes, Bree, Manning, Archer, Wood - all not good enough. If we sign players they'll be on 3 year contracts minimum so if they're not good enough we'll be stuck with them. Discarding immediately if we go up just isn't going to happen meaning we're left with a squad of deadwood which has been our problem for some time. Taking a punt on lesser known young players from a minor foreign league who might be able to make a step up is also flawed too - the only recent success that comes to mind is Fernandes. Im beginning to think that the only way to stay up is to do a Forest and break the FFP rules keep a lean squad in the championship and then recruit like mad in the Premier League and take a hit on a points deduction.

Paul Telfer - the most bang average footballer of all time

It's not a proper transfer thread in my book until someone asks if we've signed Rudi Skacel yet

Buy one get one free???

Perhaps Russ is more interesting than the absolute nothing that is going on with us at the moment?

I see Russ is following his playbook and has kept Tavernier as his stag do leader (and undoubtedly shoein number 1) https://www.ibroxnoise.co.uk/2025/06/russell-martin-announces-his-rangers-captain-and-fans-are-fuming/ Needless to say he's already pissed off the fans by appointing someone who isn't rated by them, has been at the heart of their problems, but who is a proper good lad!

I wonder if that will be the trigger that sends Brentford spiralling down to their natural place in the EFL? That's bound to please the premier league as it would mean that a bigger club that will drive bigger commercial results like Leeds could have a space at the table.

If he managed 4th with us having the 3rd best squad, I wonder what that means for Rangers who are still some distance from Celtic? How much "scar tissue" is there at Rangers for Martin to overcome? How long will Rangers have to trust the process for? Will the Rangers players be brave enough to make Martin successful? How much will Rangers have to pay to get players like Bazunu and Manning on the bus?

This summer, winter and next summer...

Much as I hope we will replace him if we get back to the premier league, he's shown he can do a very good job in the championship. If we bounce straight back we've got 3 windows to assemble a team capable of staying up - Armstrong would be a player we could afford to replace in the 3rd window.

I'm not sure you need data to see that we're shit at defending and shit at set pieces. Just eyes and a very vague knowledge of the game is good enough. Hopefully he's also able to spot that we are woefully inept at scoring goals!

Welcome onboard Will. From the little I've read and heard it seems like he's got his head screwed on and he'll deliver some much needed pragmatism. It will be interesting to see if we abandon 3 at the back in favour of 4-3-3 - I can only hope so!