McDiarmond Park – 17/10/09 – 1230 BST
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Match Odds: St Johnston 6/1  Draw 3/1  Rangers 1/2

St Johnstone captain Kevin Rutkiewicz may be forced to delay his return to the defence from a knee injury after picking up a slight back strain.

Steven Milne and Peter MacDonald are still missing through injury, but Filipe Morais, Jody Morris and Kevin Moon have returned to training.

Rangers striker Kris Boyd could be a surprise inclusion in the squad despite a fractured eye socket.

Defender Kirk Broadfoot and midfielder Maurice Edu remain sidelined.

St Johnstone manager Derek McInnes:
“My players have shown a confidence. They feel they can mix it with the best in the country.

“Obviously Rangers is a tough ask, they will be buoyant after the Old Firm game.

“I think they are probably stronger as a team than they were last year.

“But the reason we worked so hard over the last year was so we could pit our wits against the likes of Rangers.

“If we can show the same confidence and the same ability that we have shown for the majority of the games then we can do well.”

St Johnstone (from): Main, Mackay, Grainger, Gartland, Anderson, Morris, Davidson, Hardie, Craig, Morais, Deuchar, Samuel, Smith, McCaffrey, Moon, Rutkiewicz, Reynolds, May.

Rangers (from): McGregor, Whittaker, Papac, Weir, Smith, Mendes, Davis, Naismith, Miller, Little, Novo, Boyd, Lafferty, Loy, Fleck, Wilson, Rothen, Alexander.

On holiday, no updates till 29/09/09

Looking at the freeze frame above, I would say no.

The Motherwell player is well on his way down and there is no contact, have a vote below in the poll.

Alistair Gourlay 14/07/09

During the summer we have become accustomed to seeing players come and go since the first transfer window was introduced in 2002. Walter Smith recently stated that every Rangers player is available should the right offer come in, but what is the right offer?

Charlie Adam’s value was eventually agreed to be £500,000, a small sum compared with the transfers we regularly see south of the border for players who seem far less talented.

That said for a 23 year old who doesn’t look like he’ll be breaking into the first team anytime soon some could say it was a good deal especially as he will be on larger wages than alot of the players he would be competing the left midfield spot for.

Other players who are likely to generate a bit of interest value might be a bit more difficult to decipher ;

Allan McGregor - After his childish antics in a dark blue jersey rather than a royal blue he was benched and never player again inthe season. During his spell on the bench Rangers went on an unbeaten run which lead to winning the League and Scottish Cup Double.

Last summer he was linked with a move to the premiership with a value of £6m now we would be lucky to get half that. A bid of £2m would likely see the talented keeper move to the Premiership and would be great bit of business for any English club.

Majid Bougherra – The fans player of the year was excellent last year, taking the step up from Charlton with ease. He helped erase the pain of Cueller joining O’Neil at Aston Villa and is another great defensive find by Walter Smith. Signed for around £2m his valuation has at least tripled since joining Rangers.

He has not had the chance to showcase his talents in Europe yet, it is unlikely that any club shall meet this valuation. If he has a similar season and does well in the Champions League then expect him to leave next summer with an even bigger price tag.

Kirk Broadfoot – Has a cult following around Ibrox due to his determination and extra effort he has made to stake his claim in the team. Had a great start to last season, capped off with a Scotland cap and a winning goal against Iceland.

Despite this he is simply not good enough and never will be, a concrete bid of £500,000 would be more than tempting.

Pedro Mendes – Flashes of brilliance throughout the season has made the veteran midfielder a firm favourite at Ibrox. His vision and first touch passing is an outstanding talent which no-one else in the league comes close.

Unfortunately inconsistency has had critics saying he can’t perform outside Ibrox, this despite having scored all four of his goals for Rangers away from home.

At 30 it would be likely that a recoup on the £3.5m paid for him last summer would see him leave.

Steven Davis – Steve Bruce has already declared interest in the Northern Ireland captain. An offer of £5m will be likely to come in before the window ends and seems good money for a player bought for £3.5m just one year ago.

At 24 Davis is a player who a team can be built around, clearly happy at Rangers it would be a huge mistake to let him leave for a profit of £1.5m

Barry Ferguson – Not a lot hasn’t been said about the controversial star. Stripped of captaincy and benched after his involvement with McGregor in the Scotland squad his time at Rangers looked to be at an end.

Came back into the team for the final few games of the season and everything went back up into the air. Still the best footballer at Ibrox his influence in the team seemed to diminish by the game last season.

Bids will be listened to and considering he only has 1 year left on his contract £1m will be an adequate amount releasing large wages also. If he does go then be prepared for him to prove a few people wrong at his new club.

DaMarcus Beasley – The guy described so often as ‘not suitable for the Scottish game’ when in reality this is not the fault of Beasley but that of the thugs who are allowed by incompetent referees to bully the American.

I’ve lost count at the amount of times the 27 year old has beaten a full back for pace only to be assaulted then booed by the morons following the opposition.

At £700,000 he really should have been a bargain but now he must be sick of our backward football and a return to mainland Europe will be the answer.

Kris Boyd – We already know his value due to the accepted £3m bid mid season from Birmingham. Would potential Premiership football be enough of a temptation to move him away from his home?

Would a more mobile forward line mean better football and even more goals for Rangers? All this remains to be seen but love him or hate him he will score goals.

There are other players who might interest potential buyers and we can hope that guaranteed Champions League cash flow means that no player has to leave without an above average bid. For us to bring in the desired centre half we must sell first.

Barney Gumble

Alistair Gourlay 07/07/09

As we are well into the summer with little transfer activity happening at Ibrox it will be interesting to see how we shape up for the coming season.

The current management team will stay put despite recently Smith admitting he considered his future for after winning the league. He has built a capable young squad and it made sense for him to stay on for a further year, in this financial climate it would have been tough to replace him with a more assured candidate and McCoist is not experienced enough to take over from him at this stage.

We only have to look across the city at the candidates Celtic were linked with to see there are not a lot of proven managers out there to fill the position. Smith has always delivered results since his re-arrival despite his overly defensive tactics and some strange team selection. Reliability is something that he obviously respects in a players character and this has lead to players like Dailly, Weir and McCulloch getting a lot more game time last season than most fans would have wanted and expected at the beginning of the season.

At the back it is clear that we need a replacement for Weir, as fantastic a job as he has done for us he cannot go on forever. At 39 winning his first league medal and as captain was a terrific achievement for him, what makes it more amazing is that he played the most games out of anyone in our squad.

This shows he is worth his year extension and you must admire the attitude and desire of the man. A no nonsense type defender will have to be brought in.

Despite his effort Broadfoot is no better than backup in any position he plays. As highly rated as Danny Wilson is he is still too young and inexperienced to fully command a first team slot although I would hope he could get a few run outs against lesser opposition next year, preferably with Weir alongside him keeping him on his toes. We have been linked to Tonel and he would fit the bill in terms of playing style but the price tag means we will have to wait to sell before bringing someone in.

The rest of the defence picks itself so long as Whittaker keeps up his late season form and Papac and Bougherra stay clear of injuries. There is a lack of depth there but we must not revert back to resigning Dailly. He is simply not good enough to play for the Rangers. McGregor and Alexander are both capable keepers and if McGregor stays then they will continue to fight for number 1 position.

An unusual scenario has popped up in midfield where we look to have an excellent choice of first team players. Should Ferguson leave we will still be left with Davis, Thomson, Edu and Mendes to fight for places. There is a chance where all four might play together, especially in Europe where we are likely to continue with our defensive 4-5-1 formation.

Smith seems happy with playing Davis on the right no matter the formation so the central positions will be fought over between the other  three. Similar to last season when Ferguson was injured it left Mendes and Thomson to start the season together.

This time it looks as if Edu will miss the first month or two, which is a shame for the lad as he put together a terrific run of performances at the end of the season and will give the others a fight when he does make his return.

The most interesting position to be filled will be the left hand side, it was a problem for most of last season as might continue to be.  Novo, Lafferty, Naismith, Fleck, Beasley and Adam all had a chance to make that position their own but couldn’t quite make the adjustment. One thing this does bring is competition between the forwards for that spot, it means that if one player isn’t working in a certain game then a change of personnel might be all that is needed.

It seems Adam will leave but with Aaron staying despite the wishes of his club Valencia another option is there. It’s nice to see another Spaniard taking our club to his heart as has been done before him.

This leaves us to our forwards which on last years for when playing two up front it picks itself. Miller, leaving aside personal opinions about the guy himself, was a very useful addition to our team last year. Most of our quick breaking attacks will involve him and Steven Davis. We know he lacks a finishing touch when he has too much time to think but that’s where his strike partner comes into play.

Kris Boyd equals goals, it’s that simple. We can hope and expect his improved work rate at periods of last season will continue but so long as he is scoring then most will be happy. If his work rate does not continue to improve then we will more than likely see him continue to sulking on European games and Old Firm derbies and rightly so.

I would expect that the players who I have mentioned fighting for the left wing spot will also be looking to establish themselves in their more natural forward position, especially Lafferty who looked very promising when he did get a chance up front.

To another eventful season and hopefully another championship and matching the big dogs in the Champions League.

Barney Gumble

Here we have Thommo modelling the new 2009 Rangers home kit, isn’t he just dreamy?

EVERY Rangers fan is eagerly anticipating the release of the new home kit for season 2009/10 as the Light Blues get set to defend their magnificent League and Cup Double.

And you will be able to see it first right here on the official web site from 9am on Monday morning!

Midfield stars Kevin Thomson and Mo Edu are giving a bit of a strip tease in our pictures but you will be able to see it all next week.

Be one of the first to have the new 09/10 home kit delivered to your door. A limited number of kits will be available to pre-order from Monday July 6 until Friday July 10* to allow fans worldwide the chance to secure their strip for launch day

You can pre-order online on the official web site or via mail order on 0871 702 1972 from Monday on a first come first served basis.

Fans pre-ordering will also receive a limited edition Kevin Thomson print!

The SPL Champions will officially launch the new home strip on Thursday, July 16 and it will be available to purchase exclusively from Rangers outlets including the Rangers JJB Megastore at Ibrox Stadium, the Argyle Street Rangers JJB store, online right here on rangers.co.uk and via mail order on 0871 702 1972.

SO COME TO THE OFFICIAL  SITE ON MONDAY FOR THE FIRST LOOK AT THE NEW STRIP

Sorry for all the upheaval over the last few days, been upgrading the hosting, installing the software, picking a new theme and trying to get all the loose ends tied up before I get back to business on here.