David

No, there won't be a transfer fee, but depending on the interest he sees in the summer there could be sizeable wages and a signing-on fee, which may put him outside our reach. That's if the manager even wants to bring him in. It could just be that he's a very good player who isn't suited to our side.

Is there no crypto companies that we could ask? They're chucking money at football teams. Surely they can send a few bitcoins our way?

We have 14 players either finishing up their time on loan here or who's contracts are ending. Our squad will be losing a lot of size automatically.

I think he'd be incredibly stupid to do that. Clubs who are looking to buy a player do more than just check his recent form and statistics. They check the personality, how they act and their attitude. If he's going in the huff and being problematic with us, potential buying clubs could think that he'd just as easily do the same with them, causing dressing room issues and so forth. I think he knows that if he doesn't get a decent move this summer, he could knock some goals in again next season (maybe not to the level of this season, but still a healthy return) and then get an even bigger move when he can leave for nothing. Either way, it's win/win for him, and he has said that he's not dead-set on moving, but simply that if the right offer came in that suited all parties he wouldn't be opposed to it.

The thing is, while I'm obviously happy that Van Veen could go on and earn a good wedge in his last big contract, my main priority is with the club, and seeing us get a fee for him that makes sense. If we're talking £200,000 then its not worth selling. Simple as that. It would need to be around £500,000 for it to make financial sense for the club I think.

He's not worth signing if the manager isn't going to use him, and all indications are that he wouldn't use him.

Then unless he's really pushing for a move this summer we should probably keep him and let him leave for nothing the following summer. He'd likely get a bigger contract if he does the business for another year and his next club doesn't have to pay a transfer fee for him. By my reckoning £200,000 is not far off the difference in prize money for finishing 7th rather than 8th. I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest his goals this season have made the difference between us finishing in 10th or even 11th and potentially 7th, which is a prize money difference of around half a million quid. Basically, his goals alone could be worth anywhere up to half a million next season to us again. So why punt him for less than half that and gamble on the next striker in the door coming close to replicating his form?

Some proper "Rangers fan without the bus fare" patter right there.

He may get his chance now. As you say, the manager has been getting both points and performances from his team without McKinstry, so it's definitely a case of working hard in training and awaiting your opportunity.

To be fair, it's the media that usually promote that agenda, not the club themselves. But it is a valid point. Back to the football, and despite hatred for one side or the other, what can't be denied is that Postecoglou has them on top of their game. They're absolutely relentless, and against sides with lesser quality they rarely slip up, so I'd grudgingly take a low scoring defeat at worst, and a draw at best.

You must know there was certain forum members just patiently waiting on us finally losing a game against a non-old firm team so they could begin their campaign against the new manager. That's how it works on here. I fully expect the same response if and when he lose handily against Celtic. With chat of how "other teams can beat them" but we can't and so on.

I think we can say that the honeymoon period is well and truly over.

And hopefully they quickly crash and burn upon doing so, heralding a return to the Stendel/Levein/Cathro era.

I was more meaning the whole carry-on with people leaving China having issues getting into other countries until very recently, and the obvious political slant to that with them seeming to side with Russia etc. Basically, even if they were offering the big money, it's not the place to be going at this time I wouldn't think. With no money I'd say even less so.

Didn't the old "mega-rich Chinese club" rumours die out when the arse fell out of their league and the big money being spent on players dried up? Didn't their governing body impose a strict salary cap on their clubs, enforce the "de-corporatisation" of club names which drove away lucrative buyers and sponsorship and basically bully clubs into playing young Chinese players instead? I mean, if they're offering mental money for someone in their early 30's then I'm sure the club will look at it, but anyone who heads to China now, with all the post-Covid shenanigans that's gone on is absolutely mental.

Even if top six is beyond us, we should certainly be looking to finish in 7th. The difference in prize money between 7th & 8th is around £300,000 by my estimation, and that money will certainly come in handy when we're looking to dish out a new contract or bring someone new in. Livi are sitting on one win from their last five, so they're definitely beatable, especially when they don't have the unfair advantage of that shambles of a pitch on their side. Six points from nine should be our aim.

Honestly, are you even reading what I'm saying? Or just skimming before climbing aboard your high horse? Where did I say the lads in the east stand are all wee angels and innocent? Please, show me where I said that. I'll wait. What I am saying, is that dawn raids have always been the tactics used when a suspect is considered armed and dangerous. Like I said, incidents that usually involve (or where there are suspected) firearms, large amounts of drugs or drug money, or indeed for gangland figures deemed extremely dangerous. Like this, and this. Apart from two other situations. Football fans and refugees. You don't need to like that, but it's what is happening. Like you can see here. For some weird reason football fans seem to find incidents like this acceptable. Where, for example, a 14 year old boy was part of a dawn raid for trouble at a Wrexham game. The charge? Affray. Are you honestly telling me that the cops couldn't have just arrived at the lads door later in the day and taken him into custody? Why the fuck do they need to treat him as though he's holding weapons or drugs? As I said in my posts previously, I'm not claiming any lads involved in violence are innocent. What I am saying is that the tactics used by police are entirely disproportionate to the alleged crimes. If you can't see that, then I don't know what to tell you.

You've not hit a nerve at all. I'm simply posting my opinion (I'd think that almost 40 years of attending games at Fir Park will allow me that going by your criteria?) that people like you are counter-productive rather than a positive in situations like this. If "all you thought" was what you initially posted then we wouldn't be engaged in this discussion. You didn't just say they needed to settle down and stop the nonsense (others have said that in this thread and I don't disagree with that viewpoint necessarily), you steamed in like you usually do calling them idiots and basically being a smug prick about their protest etc. Then proceeded to give it the big "i've been going to Fir Park for plenty more years than X,Y, & Z" and if it makes you a better supporter. It doesn't. Again, why do you assume the police have genuine reasons for using such heavy-handed tactics against football fans as dawn raids? We're not talking about a force that has a stellar reputation for being fair and reputable. Like I said, those kinds of dawn raid policing actions are normally reserved for incidents involving firearms, drugs, large sums of illicit money and gangland figures. The only exception to that is football fans and asylum seekers. Let me ask this. Do you personally think that someone who has been involved in a fight at the football, or who has taken a flare into a stadium should be subjected to the same policing tactics usually reserved for targeting individuals suspected of stockpiling firearms and large quantities of drugs?

If you read my post you'll see that I'm not "palming off" anything. What I'm saying is that we'd all do well to remember what we were like at that young age. Now, if anyone here was the type who doffed their cap to the good constables and have never thrown a punch in anger or in drunken silliness, fair enough. You're obviously a level above most. But for me, I think most of us have been there. And maybe it's just me, but I can also recall being a young lad and having condescending auld tits tutting and shaking their heads at me and my friends at the time. At no time ever did we take said condescending patter and holier-than-thou reprimanding and say "you know what? These moaning auld c*nts are right! We need to give our heads a shake and settle ourselves down." Basically, it's easy for some to post about how long they've been going to games, how they're so much more mature and level-headed, and how they're better then these lads who darken the reputation of our club and Scottish football by throwing punches and getting into fights. But just as it never worked with me, and anyone else who was ever young and a bit daft, it won't work here. That kind of patter will have zero positive effect. But that's not the intention of it. The intention is to put others down, while making yourself out to be a cut above. Which brings me to... And there we have it. "I HAVE BEEN GOING TO FIR PARK FOR PLENTY MORE YEARS THAN YOU/THEM/OTHER FOLK!" Honestly mate, I don't give a f*uck how long you've been going to Fir Park. That's not an accomplishment. All that means is you've been alive longer. It means nothing. I bet I've been going to Fir Park for longer than a lot of the lads in corner of the East Stand. Because I'm older than most of them. Doesn't mean I'm a better fan than they are, or somehow have a right to question them without response or reprisal. And you are entitled to your opinion. No one said you're not. But I'm also entitled to mines. And my opinion is that if you have so much to say on the matter, you should be more constructive and offer your undoubted years of experience of going to Fir Park and do something to help. Offer guidance. Maybe try to be a positive force on this occasion? Or you could just sit there behind your keyboard being a smug tw*t while sneering down at mostly young lads who, like most football fans throughout the country and indeed the world, are treated like absolute shite by police. No one is saying they're perfect, but the truth is I can go out on a Saturday night in Glasgow, get into an altercation, chin someone (or more likely nowadays, they chin me) and maybe get a knock at my door from the cops a few days later. Well deserved of course, but I doubt very much that they'll be forcing in my door in the wee hours of the morning as if I'm Pablo f*cking Escobar. That only happens to football fans. There's this weird situation where you can get into a scrap in a pub and face a certain level of policing, but if you happen to be within a certain radius of a football ground and look and dress a certain way and do the same thing you're treated far worse. But you already know that. Most football fans with a set of working eyeballs do. So yeah, these lads aren't angels. And I daresay some of them probably deserved to have the book thrown at them for their actions, but I would hope we can all see that the reactions of the police is simply not appropriate for the alleged crime. There's been far too many instances up and down the country where the cops have been caught acting out of line with football fans for anyone to palm fans complaints off as "well, they're young and daft so f*ck them, they deserve it." And you can piss off with your "perhaps previous dealings?????" shite as well. So what exactly warrants a dawn raid then? For the most part they're seemingly utilised in instances where the police have suspected and indeed collected large amounts of drugs, guns, money, been looking to capture suspected murderers and leading gangland figures. But apart from those instances they're also used regularly to hammer asylum seekers, and football fans, which kind of tells us all we need to know. How anyone can think that a football fan, even one who's been involved in a punch-up or a fight in a pub, is deserving of a dawn raid is mind-boggling. The same goes for asylum seekers. Unless they're believed to be really dangerous, or holding weapons etc of course. And let's be honest, much of the "support" from those who are hammering them now has always been grudging at best. What I'd say is, anyone who thinks that a young lad involved in football related shenanigans, be it fighting or whatever, is deserving of a dawn raid needs to take a long, hard look at themselves. Like I said, if they're scrapping and getting into bother then aye, send the cops round to pick them up the same way they would someone who did that on a Friday night in the town. Don't treat them like they're serious criminals holding firearms or stockpiling drugs.

If he doesn't fancy the abuse or threats then maybe the best idea is to not act like a Billy Big Bollocks behind a keyboard posting what amounts to holier-than-thou smug nonsense? I have zero skin in the game. I don't know any of the young lads up in the corner, and I don't know the Motherwell employee mentioned, but what I do know is that I'll always back a fellow rank & file supporter over the police unless there's evidence of a truly heinous crime having been committed. My opinion and observation is that there's far too many older fans who are quick to sneer and belittle a group of young lads who add a whole lot of atmosphere and positives to the club. Are they perfect? Of course not. Who wasn't full of piss & vinegar at their age? Especially after a few beers? I seriously doubt anyone here can claim they didn't get up to daft shit when they were young. I'm also old enough and wise enough to know how the police in Scotland operates. Which gives me enough reason to side with the supporters even more.

Yup. He uses it as an excuse to pick the guys he doesn't like, for whatever reason.

Why don't you join and then tell them all that in person?

Wait, what? This is surely concerning, no? Why are we offering concessions to a group of fans who routinely treat our fans like absolute scum?

Lawrence Shankland, for one. He picks up "a little injury" and misses, what? One game? And Clarke says that influenced his decision. Shankland was back playing this weekend! However, Lyndon Dykes, who was actually in hospital with pneumonia, missed almost two months of football, comes back and plays less than an hour and gets picked? He also keeps picking this Jacob Brown lad. 5 goals in 33 league games this season. Why even bother? He's never going to be of a high enough quality to really make an impact with us. He's not a young kid, he's 25. Where's Kevin Nisbet? I bet he'd have got picked if he'd made that move to Millwall.

So, it seems there's going to be a protest of sorts from a section of the fan group at the start of the Rangers game. For those who aren't up to speed, this is the general gist of it... It looks like this is set to rumble on a fair bit before a conclusion is reached.