Continuing their sudden flurry of transfer activity, Rangers are now supposedly in for Toronto FC's Maurice Edu for £2.5 million, subject to him getting a work permit.

Anyone know anything about him? WOM? (Not that he's likely to stumble into this thread.)

I had never heard of him until 30 minutes ago but I now believe he is one of the best young players in the world. Probably the next Maradona.

Just out of curiosity, what's your take on the Murray/Bain/Smith situation, AMMS? Do you want them all out, as a section of the support are calling for?

What's your thoughts on the protests arranged for tomorrow, and on the RST?

Apologies if you've talked about this before and I've missed it.

I think a section of our support have become so detached from reality they are a danger to themselves. The Kaunus result was a shocker no mistake and Smith deserves criticism for it as he picked the team. However we massively over achieved last season in Europe and have massively under achieved this year so the truth lies somewhere in between.
A section of the support just don't like Murray and want rid of him. Fair enough, many football fans don't like the chairman and they are entitled to voice their displeasure. However Murray has already said he wants to sell so whats the point, until someone wants to buy the club he can't sell it. I think, on balance, Murray has been good for the club.

The stadium is better the training the facilities are better and we've had some good times along the way. He has said some stupid things, as chairman often do, and nearly bankrupted the club but he covered the debt and has us running within our means again. I have a real fear about who could takeover, I look at Hearts and panic. Murray has many faults but at least he isn't Romanov. I'd like Murray to sell sooner rather than later if his heart isn't in it but not to just anyone and I'd worry any sort of protest bandwagon might lead to him accepting the first bid that came along.

I wasn't best pleased when Smith came back, I'd have stuck it out with Le Guen, but that's ancient history now. Smith is a good manager, not the best, but better than first time round and he knows the Scottish game better than anyone. I'm not going to protest against a manager who took us to a Euro final, won 2 cups and only lost the league on the last day under exceptional circumstances because we've had one bad result.
Don’t get me wrong we've been really dreadful in preseason and without Ferguson our midfield is really poor but that can all be rectified.
No, the team needs support just now not criticism. They are playing badly but they'll get better, I've seen them play badly before.

I really don't think any protest, if it goes ahead, will be big as I think most fans think like me. We're not happy with the current performances, we're puzzled by some of the summer signings, but we're ready to give the team at least a few more weeks before we burn the place down.

Celtic are beating Dundee United 1-0 at Tannadice thanks to a Paul Hartley shot that took a deflection before going in.

United should have had a penalty a minute ago when Caldwell lunged in characteristically brainless fashion at Roy O'Donovan and took his legs, but Charlie Richmond for some reason waved play on. A terrible piece of refereeing.

Dundee United really miss Noel Hunt buzzing around in attack making a nuisance of himself.

Sandaza, United's Argentinian sub, equalises with a near-post toe-poke after Caldwell didn't cut out a low cross from the left. McManus should have made more of an effort to mark Sandaza tighter as well.

Dundee United haven't created too many chances in this game, but I guess they deserve that one after being denied a penalty. The referee Richmond went off injured a few minutes ago after colliding with Nakamura, who got subbed a minute later himself.

Setanta decided to broadcast live hurling in preference to the United-Celtic game last night which they showed on delay at 3am. I don't know anything about Setanta's viewing figures but I would have though football was the main reason people subscribe to it especially if Celtic or Rangers are playing.

Anyway, United haven't beaten Celtic since 1999 so happy with the draw.

Rangers played well on saturday and probably got the breaks over the piece as Hearts played well. If they'd had a cutting edge up front they may have caused us more problems.
Mikolaunus is probably the stupidest player I've ever watched.
Lafferty amd Mendes looked good as did Bougherra and Thomson played as well as I've seen him, thrived on having Mendes alongside him I felt. If Hearts don't sack their manager they'll do OK this season.

No Rangers players have yet pulled out of the Scotland squad although one has pulled out of the NI team, strange days indeed.

Alloa 1 v 1 Raith Rovers

At least we've got our first point of the season, albeit a fairly lucky one after Raith dominated possession for most of the game. We did start playing some decent football in the second half, however, and hopefully we can move on from this game and start to reach the levels we were at last season.

Positives to take from the game are that the defence looked reasonably solid, Pat Scullion at last started to look like he could be a decent signing and John Grant played some very good football when he was able to get on to the ball.

The main negative remains the lack of pace we have up-front, watching Graeme Brown consistently being second to any ball that is played anywhere other to his feet gets very frustrating indeed.

QUOTE:
No Rangers players have yet pulled out of the Scotland squad although one has pulled out of the NI team, strange days indeed

We've lost Hughes, so probably we've lost (Biggles McCartney also misses out with altitude sickness).

Caledonia's defenders will need to readjust for some combination of small skinheaded strikers, plus the postman and Shiels. Hopefully he'll get a good run to celebrate a good sporting week for Upperlands Co. Londonderry (pop 583 and one Olympic silver already).

Interesting stuff up there, AMMS, and I think you're absolutely right in what you say. Puffed up egomaniacs like David Edgar claim to be acting in the best interests of "their" club but they're doing nothing except causing needless problems while preening themselves and enjoying the high profile they're getting. I encourage it.

Meanwhile, Strachan seems less than enthused about the Glenn Loovens signing:

"Glenn is at a good age and is years away from his peak," Strachan said.

"What we have got to do is prepare him for his peak, get him ready to play at this level and to do well in the UEFA Champions League.

"He'll gain experience and hopefully get better and better.

"It would be great if we had £20million to spend but, if I did Glenn, wouldn't be sitting here, it'd be Rio Ferdinand.

"But we have a certain amount of money and this gives us our chance to develop our own players and that's exciting and is good for us.

"Speaking to him, he does want to get better. So it looks good for us. We have to try and get the best of what we can of raw materials and make them better."

Motherwell have signed John Sutton (ex-St Mirren) from Wycombe Wanderers.

The BBC website article makes no mention at all of him being Chris Sutton's brother. He'd probably be happy about that.

I don't know why David Edgar gets any media attention (ok well I do) but the guy is an idiot and if he is really supposed to represent Rangers supporters then they have some problems indeed. If there are other members of this club then they should consider ousting him.

And as for Loovens, I don't really understand it. He magically appeared on the Celtic radar just as Rangers might have the funds to buy him. Yet if Strachan needs central defenders and this guy isn't ready for first team play action then why send Kennedy to Norwich?

I don't like either Old Firm team but i'm still angry at Rangers for making me hate watching football last season.

I'm taking an American friend to see Aberdeen Hibs in October. She's actually excited about it, poor thing.

Kennedy is too fucked to ever be much use to Celtic again. He looked very hesitant and slow in the opening months of last season, and then promptly wrecked the same knee against Shakhtar Donetsk.

I'll be surprised if he ever plays for the club again.

Rangers have finally completed the signing of Steve Davis for £3million, taking their summer spending to not much less than £20million.

Which makes Celtic's lack of spending, particularly given that fact that they have Champions League games to play (and revenue to look forward to) look all the more puzzling, and foolish.

If Rangers have a decent cushion in the league by Christmas, which on current form looks entirely possible, serious questions will surely be asked. Signing McCourt, Crosas and Loovens for a combined total of about £3million doesn't look like a particularly great bit of team-strengthening, and nor does it suggest a great deal of ambition.