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Ex-Rangers man Numan urges Smith to go on the attack



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Published Date: 16 July 2008
FORMER Rangers full-back Arthur Numan believes Walter Smith must employ a more attacking ethos next season.
Smith's cautious approach reaped rewards last season as Rangers won both domestic cups and came within one match of adding the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and UEFA Cup to their haul.

However, there were murmurings of discontent in the Ibrox stands throughout much of the season as Rangers relied on a lone striker in many of their games.

While Numan understood the need for caution after two barren seasons, a man schooled on total football is looking for Smith to throw off the shackles to some degree.

The former Holland international said: "Sometimes it is inevitable that you play more defensive, especially in Europe, especially when you play away from home, when it is important you don't give away many chances. But, especially when you play at home, you hope to see your team attack and that they will score some goals.

"It is important to find the balance, because some of the games I have seen were too defensive and it was all about getting a result.

"Hopefully we will see a lot of entertaining games this season."





The full article contains 207 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 16 July 2008 10:20 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Rangers FC
 
1

Daillyman,

16/07/2008 14:46:12
We are all hoping for more entertainment Arthur.
2

chazbud,

16/07/2008 15:55:33
surely it cant get any worse.yes we want attacking players and flair players,but our club have NO ambition.EG not paying 500k more for Davis, not agreeing wage demands with a championship player-Danny Sh*ttu, being linked with more championship players-Loovens, signing Velicka and Miller, Being Duped by Liewell and Chesney for Lafferty, stadium is too small has been for years, Weir new contract, signing Dailly, desperate signature of Cousin etc etc..is it worth £400 season ticket money to come second AGAIN? Its almost embarrassing.
3

stefano,

Brum 16/07/2008 16:20:47
Chazbud, geez peace. We paid £2m for kevin Thomson and Steve Davis is on a par - no reason to pay twice that for a player who isn't twice as good.

Ditto paying £20k in wages for a Championship playing 27 year old. His loss, not ours.

Lafferty has huge potential, Velicka is a great signing and let's wait until the window closes rather than commit hari-kiri in July.
4

chazbud,

16/07/2008 20:41:29
i personally wouldnt sign davis or shittu, but its the fact we CANT negotiate, why dont we have other targets,why are we are linked with NO-ONE, again today, LOOVENS, a guy from Cardiff, is that our standard?, is that where we are aiming? All that money made last year, selling our best player to replace him with Broadfoot a FREE from ST MIRREN and bringing in DAILLY who DIDNT get a game at Southampton or West Ham...is that Rangers? Im sick and hari-kiri or whatever you call it, its not, im being TOTALLY honest, take your blue specs off and ask your self, is it worth 30-40 pounds a ticket to watch that? no thank you, im expecting us to spend at least 8m on 2 class acts (4 each) probably a Centre Half and a Midfielder who can pass and run and hit a freekick(we have NO set piece specialists-Celtic have over 6! FACT-Matchwinners/Goals), we have no one who can do that just now.And your support of Thommo is baffling, he has taken so long to settle at Rangers, he thought he was Franz Beckenbauer in Manchester for Uefa Final..too greedy not strong enough...he has the lot to prove.If it was upto me Barry would be away and the team would be built around Boyd, Cuellar and Mcgregor.Maybe Le Guen was right about him??!!?? Lafferty should be a legend in the making for 3m at 20! and Velicka will be good. And whats wrong with 27 Stefano? Our average first 11 age is over 30....Weir, Dailly, Fergie, Mcculloch, Hemdani, Velicka, Miller, Cousin, Darcheville ALL on about 20k a week....any more?
5

BEMUSED EXILE,

16/07/2008 21:21:14
chazbud

Your frustration is obvious, but I'm afraid that the reality is pretty much exactly the way that you hope that it isn't!

RFC were officially around £16 million in debt this time last year, BEFORE Walter went on his £10 million spending spree. We've already spent around £6.5 million on Lafferty, Miller and Velicka, which will increase to about £10 million if we sign Davis. The rumour is that we may swap Cousin for Loovens (a decent player anf former Dutch Under-21 internationalist, BTW), so no money will be coming in for players sold.

That adds up to £20 million on players over 2 summers. There's no way that the money for Hutton added to the CL/UEFA money will come to more than £20 million after deductions, so that is effectively already spent, and SDM is not keen to further increase the debt.

Welcome to the 21st Century order!
6

Timothy Malloy fan of the champions,

16/07/2008 21:28:09
Chaz I'll give you something. You're honest and are right to be disgruntled.

Your team punched above it's weight last season and achieved a lot - but the truth is they are second best to let's say "not the greatest Celtic team ever" and as you say for a club Rangers size it's not good enough.

To be honest, I think Murray is lokking for an exit strategy, he knows in the long term he won't be there and he also knows the sectarianism and violence from a substantial minority is dragging the club and his business down. Times have moved on and if RFC are to survive they have to change and free themselves from the scum that binds them.

On the playing front, it's hard to see a swift return to the days when RFC could afford and attract players such as Gazza and Laudrup.

Celtic too have had to cut back but they are prepared to spend a bit more and in WGS we have a real treasure. The wee man is slagged off by both sets of Celtic and Rangers fans but to be honest he knows his fitba. Ok he's made a few mistakes with some players who haven't delivered but he's still a gem - and the signing of players like Boruc and Naka are proof of his football savvy.


7

Timothy Malloy fan of the champions,

16/07/2008 21:36:58
BE

A decent post and your rationalise well, but the truth is Lafferty, Miller and Velicka are not prolific. They may have some qualities but I doubt they will be any more potent than say Novo or Boyd or even Cousin.

Velicka is probably the best of them and even he has his limitations.

I also think BE you should re-visit the Math. RFC's Euro run brouight in £20m alone. Plus Hutton's deal and a few others such as Sebo etc = £30m. You talk about deductions but the fact is WS and DM have to spend wiser than WGS & DL otherwise the Celtic diomination will continue.

One thing for sure, Celtic will not be as unlucky or as poor as last year. They are a fairly young team and will have benefited from that character building title win. I am not saying a cantor next year but I believe before the split it will be pretty much a certainty.

Incidentally Chazbjud does have a point - would you pay £40 to watch RFC in a boring 0-0 v say Falkirk?
8

BEMUSED EXILE,

16/07/2008 21:48:46
I've been repeating the same mantra in recent days Tim. Another very close title race, but Celtic deserve to start as favourites. I said throughout last season that it would go to the wire, and although I changed my mind a couple of times regarding which side would prevail, I was fundamentally accurate in my judgement.

As for "luck", RFC certainly carried plenty of it in all cup competitions last season, but I don't think that it smiled any more on them than it did on Celtic over the 38 SPL matches.

Rangers narrowly missed out on the title because, quite simply, they were slightly inferior to Celtic. Nothing more and nothing less. Celtic are making a couple of moves in the transfer market now, while Rangers have already made a few. Your disdain for Miller, Velicka and Lafferty are well documented, but FFS, they have to be a step forward from the unfit Darchville, the disinterested Cousin, and the useless Sebo, so I'm confident that we'll be sharper up front this time around.

We'll all have a better idea when we compare the final squads when the proper action begins, but for me, another tight race beckons.
9

Timothy Malloy fan of the champions,

16/07/2008 21:59:20
BE

I have no real disdain for Miller - I thought he was a godd hardworking player but he's not going to win RFC the title. Lafferty - 13 goals in over 100 games is hardly prolific and Velicka is a decent player but again lacks consistency and IMO pace/robustness.

Whatever you say about Darseville he bagged a few crucial ones for RFC last season as did Cousin. (agreed on Sebo though Miller isn't that far behind him)

As for luck - well I don't want to start but think back and consider before you reply. Celtic had a lot of bad luck last season and RFC had a fair amount of luck, I can start listing evidence if you really want to go there. It was that bad that WGS said not one or twice but many times - we only deserved to lose one league game all season - the 3-0 defeat at Ibrox. I tend to agree with that having watched every single kick of the ball last season.

10

BEMUSED EXILE,

16/07/2008 22:08:48
Tim

I think the problem is that we both tend to remember any lucky breaks that the opposition get, and curse them for it, while at the same time convince ourselves that our own team deserves every good thing that comes to it.

In the SPL, I tend to remember the extremely fortuitous OG that gave you a home win against Killie; the offside goal that beat Falkirk; the soft (to put it mildly) free kick that saw off St Mirren; and most of all, understandably, the two poor decisions in the last OF game that saw an offside goal stand and a penalty given for an offence outside of the penalty area.

Indeed, if the officials had got those 2 OF decisions correct, the title would have gone to Ibrox. That's how close the whole season was!

I'm not complaining about any of that though, because I don't think that Celtic had significantly more luck than Rangers in reality. I reckon that it probably just about evened out, and as I said in my previous post, Celtic ended up winning because they were just that tiny bit better.

But I haven't seen anything happen yet to make me believe that the gap has in any way widened, which is why I predict another tight race.
11

Timothy Malloy fan of the champions,

16/07/2008 22:19:32
BE

My list is as long as my arm - think Hearts keeper punching the ball into his own net. Think Brown going through at Ibrox being fouled staying on his feet with no pen being awarded when it was clear infringment. I will not mention the detail in the robbery at Inverness or the bad luck at Easter Rd when the bobbly pitch beat Artur, or the bad luck v Hibs at home (murphy's equaliser) OR St Mirren at home when we drew 1-1 depsite pulverising them as we did DU at home or even the likes of the DU game at Ibrox when McCurry got exposed badly. The list goes on and it would be interesting to see how many pens Celtic got compared to RFC and how many times CFC hit the woodwork compared to RFC.

I agree there is bias in our perceptions but I cannot remember a season when so much went against Celtic.

We also had horrific injury lists. Played most of the season without a right back, or a settled centre back pairing, had key players like Boruc and Naka out for long periods (during our worst spell co-incidentally) then also the injuries to Hartley and VoH and the unsettling influence of poor TB's demise (God rest him).

I can't believe next season can be any worse in terms of luck for Celtic. That's why I think it will be over by the split.

12

Timothy Malloy fan of the champions,

16/07/2008 22:22:10
Anyways let's agree to differ, got to hit the hay - up at 5 again tomorrow. No rest for the wicked eh?

GN & GB

13

BEMUSED EXILE,

16/07/2008 22:26:51
Tim

Every night could be my last night of unbroken sleep for a very long time, so you don't need to convince me!

 

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