20 Aug 2026 10:00:40
Angus I'm creating this thread as it's pages down and not sure you'll see my response to you but look at what I said. I get it you want to settle on a manager and give him seasons to get it right and that's fine bud nothing against that at all.
But like I said here we are judged by being able to beat Celtic consistently and finish higher than them in the league or at least being able to close the gap on how many points they beat us by (usually double figures btw) But I also stated European competition as a barometer to measure said progress.
So last year we finished 3rd that was regression not progression, we finished the EL campaign with 1 win 1 draw and 6 defeats with -9 GD again compared to prior seasons that is regression not progression. This season we have been dumped out of the EL at the first time of asking and after 2 league games we already sit 5 points behind our biggest rivals. I think you see where I'm going with this right!
20 Aug 2026 11:17:04
Bbj, the time to judge regression or progression is at the end of the season. Huge turnover of players. Judge it on a couple of games if you want, but it is a pretty poor measure.
20 Aug 2026 11:29:10
JFM, I will judge it on what I see. This isn't against the manager but more the club as a whole.
We are under a new regime, and all we have done is go backwards as I stated above. I even left out the humiliating defeat against Brugge!
But to judge progress you first need to see it, and so far this summer we have been let down by recruitment. I know EHL states they have done a fine job, but they haven't, prioritised the wrong positions at the wrong time, and only started bringing in defensive cover when it was too late.
Then we could use of maybe a wee cup win would show progress, right. Well, our last cup win was the win over Aberdeen in December 2023, yep, let that sink in, so a whole 3 years minimum since we last won anything.
Also, who's fault is it that we have yet another summer with a huge turnover!
20 Aug 2026 11:40:08
But in your post BBJ, you talk about year v year. To be a fair comparison on, the team that DM is building it should be the same. I totally agree that it is the fault of the new owners that we had to have a huge rebuild again. The managerial recruitment and some terrible senior appointments have made our regression rapid and obvious to see.
I firmly believe and have said on many occasions that we need to let a manager build and stop the knee perk reactions. I will judge DM and his squad at the end of the season. The only manager I haven't done this with is Martin, as I knew he was a mistake as soon as his name was mentioned as being in the running for our manager.
20 Aug 2026 11:52:21
The year on year comment is because each year we have regressed, pal, so how can we judge progress when we don't make any.
I know I posted about DM, as I was mad af with his stupid decisions at the time, but after some reflection, he does deserve a chance with a complete squad before we pass judgement, and hopefully he is done making daft choices.
But to see some progress, we need to win something this season, but I think he knows that.
20 Aug 2026 11:58:48
Championship manager stuff, unfortunately, Jim, you don't go out and buy players at the supermarket. So how do you know what the priorities were that the scouting team were given? It may well be they agree with you and did have priorities that unfortunately didn't work out. Doesn't mean they aren't priorities but may be they still aren't resolved.
20 Aug 2026 12:38:37
It's hard to judge now for me. Chermiti, Aasguard both slated last year but are good players. I'm certain McInnes will build a team who work hard and become hard to beat. I also think that as pieces move on the transfer chess board, we'll see some more creativity come in. Shankland, McRorie, Devlin are players the most team can trust to instill the essence of Rangers.
The Serbian lad looks good, Penrice looks good, Yokota looks good. Give it time, BBJ,
I don't think this is a false dawn but we're not giving up because we're 5 points behind after a defeat and a draw to 2 teams that did well against us and Celtic last year. Celtic look to be improving, I'll say that, but I'm happy to say we're 10-20 points above anyone else come season end.
20 Aug 2026 13:10:15
The regression is due to sacking managers constantly, not backing them in more than 1 window & has been happening since before the new owners. The biggest mistake was hiring Russell Martin instead of allowing Clement time & money or getting someone like Marco Rose in. We also stuck with him far too long before sacking him.
McInnes chose which areas to focus on first & we did bring in defenders earlier: McCrorie & Godfrey. Not recruitment, they go, scout & show their findings to the manager, Stig & Cavanagh, like EHL said, then they pick who they want.
I'm all for giving managers time & a chance, but would you be saying the same if it was Rohl in charge & we had this start? McInnes got his tactics & selections wrong in past games, & I didn't see the whole 2nd leg, but everyone said we were fine in the first half. Then he changed it & messed things up, went defensive too. We need to play more like we did against St Mirren going forward & not be so defensive.
Hearts & Motherwell have changed managers & had high turnover of players. They seem to be firing fine & playing good football.
20 Aug 2026 13:32:51
All very good points above, but it was criminal to start a season where 1 injury could leave us in a defensive crisis, which is exactly what happened while we had already brought in 3 cms an area we knew we had plenty of cover.
That is criminal from the recruitment team or whoever made those choices for them. Only now, once we are out of the EL, have we started to address this issue and we are still short by at least 1 ch.
20 Aug 2026 13:42:47
Regression/Progression should be tracked on a continuous basis.
Waiting to look back on an entire season would be foolish. If we used a period of one year, Russell Martin would still have been in charge at the end of last season.
I think Halliday's recent comments have hit the nail on the head. Recruitment has been a major problem, with the approach being to bring in any undervalued player that we can afford, and hopefully they turn it around.
This has led to a lot of mediocre players on the wage bill that we can't seem to get rid of. I think we are seeing DM pushback a little bit on this approach compared to previous managers. He's been advocating more for players he trusts (Devlin, Penrice) vs hoping the new guys will come good.
20 Aug 2026 16:19:38
It's not just the hiring and firing of managers. It's also the lack of a plan and structure behind them. The club has had no real identity or successful style of play, so recruitment is scattergun each season. Even in the last year we've had 3 managers with 3 totally different ideas, so we need wholescale changes.
Look at the like of Brighton, how they are run, so that regardless of if the manager is sacked or moves on, they stick to their system and keep progressing year on year.
20 Aug 2026 17:52:18
Exactly Kaiser, I stated this on another post that I had done.