Rangers

Image source, Getty Images

Dan Neil will remain a key player for Rangers despite his mistake leading to the side dropping two Premiership points at Dundee, according to goalkeeper Ivor Pandur.

Steven Pressley's side took the lead at Dens Park through striker Bradley Fink but Badredine Bouanani's first goal for the Ibrox club three minutes later and Nico Raskin's magnificent strike turned the game around.

However, Neil fumbled in possession and Dundee midfielder Callum Jones fired past Pandur to earn Steven Pressley's side a deserved draw.

It was a frustrating setback for Rangers after seven straight wins but Pandur was quick to take the blame from the shoulders of Neil, who was captain in the absence of the injured Lawrence Shankland.

"You cannot take anything for granted in football," said the Croatia goalkeeper.

"The reality is Dan Neil is a great guy, an unbelievable player and really important for our team. He'll continue to be important for us. It can happen to everybody and it does.

"For us, it's about not getting into that position where one mistake really costs us the game. We could have been more in front and had an easier ending.

"Mistakes will happen in football. It's a game of beautiful moments and of mistakes. One day it's one player, another day it's the other.

"But we're not a team who points fingers. We created a lot and should have scored more. But it's not about individuals here.

"If we want to be a title-winning team we need to act and behave in that certain way. We're on the right path but it was a frustrating game for us.

"It's not a nice feeling, especially coming from a winning run and we're not happy about it. But we're in this together and we'll have these moments in the season."

Andrew Cavenagh could follow up the sale of his company with a huge new investment in Rangers' finances, according to former Aberdeen chief executive Keith Wyness. (Football Insider)

Rangers fear Olwethu Makhanya could have his head turned by growing interest from a number of Premier League clubs. (Football Insider)

Read the rest of Monday's gossip.

Watch all the highlights as Dundee came from behind to hold Rangers to a 2-2 draw at Dens Park in the Scottish Premiership and prevent Derek McInnes' side from moving top of the table. Available to UK users only.

Rangers fans, we asked for your views after Saturday's 2-2 draw away at Aberdeen.

Here's what some of you said:

Billy: Emmanuel Fernandez is a huge concern. There needs to be a sense of urgency from the start and this begins with Ivor Pandur. Playing football for 45 isn't good enough

Chris: It's a disappointment as we didn't deserve to win the game. Dundee were the better team first half. The biggest frustration is that when we played well we looked worthy of the win but didn't hit that level for long enough. We need to play well for 90 minutes to win these games.

Edd: Until we get a true holding midfielder, someone who can sit in there and dictate the game, we will keep losing cheap goals.

Ron: Same old Rangers. We beat Celtic twice home and away then struggled to beat bottom side Kilmarnock and are now failing to beat Dundee. The players need to get down and dirty if they are to beat the teams below them. This has happened far too often over many years.

Brian: Turning up for only 25 minutes of a game will not win games of football against teams who show more urgency and fight, so it proved at Dens Park. I look at Fernandez and see a player who jogs his way through a game as if he is on a different planet - no urgency whatsoever and certainly no vocal presence to motivate or cajole team mates. The game was there to be won in the second half but it was beyond this Rangers team so fair play to Dundee for a spirited performance.

Derek: Absolutely diabolical, played for 30 minutes out of the 90. What was Dan Neil thinking about? Back to the old story. We can't win the bread and butter games. We could've been buried by half time, then coasting, and blow it again. This league is so open, anyone could win it.

Rangers (£132m) have the 23rd most valuable squad in British football behind the 20 Premier League clubs and Championship duo West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Celtic (£104m) at 28th, while Heart of Midlothian (£21m) are 49th and Hibernian (£15m) two places below. (Transfermarkt, external)

New Scotland Under-17 coach David McCallum says Rangers midfielder Kyle Glasgow, currently on loan to Alloa Athletic, was promoted from his group to the under-21s because the 16-year-old was ready for the challenge of playing against players five years older. (The National, external)

Former Airdrieonians player-manager Rhys McCabe, who was made Scotland Under-16 coach last month, says Kyle Glasgow's promotion to the under-21s will inspire his contemporaries and lead to more talented prospects moving up the age-group ranks in future. (The Herald, external)

Former Rangers centre-half Connor Goldson, now 33, has returned to training with Apollon Limassol after open-heart surgery. (Glasgow Times, external)

Read Sunday's Scottish Gossip in full.

Image source, SNS

Rangers manager Derek McInnes tells BBC Scotland: "We corrected a few things at half-time, the speed of the pass to wide players, winning more duels and we defended much more confidently than we did in the first half.

"On the back of the first half, Dundee deservedly went in front. We knew ahead of the game that their forward players work the system really well and they would ask us questions, but for us in possession was the problem. Min-Su Kim had to play closer to Naderi, and we had to try and get our wide players isolated more with their full-backs and that means passing with a quicker tempo.

"Bouanani's goal before half-time is a top class finish and when we got him into those kind of situations like in the second half, Gassama and him tortured their full backs and got us up the pitch.

"It's a magnificent goal from Nico, but we had so many more chances, we need to make better decisions, we shouldn't need to score more than two goals to win a game of football.

"That 25 minutes of play, shows what the team is capable of, when we play in that manner we're a very good team.

"We've made a mistake for Dundee's equaliser and it was like a balloon popping and we then had to dig deep and go again, and we never quite managed to get to the same levels.

"It does feel like a missed opportunity, but in fairness to Dundee they were good value in the first half, it shows you why they are where they are in the league, but I was more concerned about what we needed to do against it, but we can't come away from home and have to score three goals to win a game.

"I feel Dundee have got a good thing going here, they have partnerships all over the pitch, a good balance about them, they will ask questions of teams, but we just needed to play with more speed in our possession game and get more support to Naderi first half.

"We have to play for a bit more than we did second half to see the game out. The effort was there, I think the fans believe in this team, as I do and I think the team believes so it's a disappointed dressing room as it feels like a defeat, and that is the way it should feel."

Rangers missed the chance to return to the Scottish Premiership summit as they played out a captivating draw at Dundee.

Read the match report

Have your say

Image source, SNS

Rangers centre-back Emmanuel Fernandez says the players "want to die for each other" as he continues to play a key role in the side's upturn in form.

The 25-year-old Nigeria international joined the club last summer from Peterborough United and has been ever-present in the side this past year.

Rangers have recorded five clean sheets in their last seven games, including two big wins over city rivals Celtic.

Another win over Dundee at Dens Park on Saturday would send Rangers back to the top before Martin O'Neill's side's face Hearts on Sunday.

"For us, we just need to maintain togetherness and focus on the next games and show what we can do," Fernandez said.

"I feel like, throughout the whole week, we've had more time together, more time to work on things and I feel like that's something that is going to benefit us in the long run.

"I feel like whenever there's a bit of a sticky spell, everyone's going through a crisis and it feels like the world is coming to an end.

"The game before Aberdeen, we lost in the Europa Conference League. I feel like that time period that we had together - we went straight to the hotel after the game - was the best time period we could have had.

"Everyone wants to play for each other.

"Everyone wants to die for each other. And I feel like that's what you need in a team, just to stay together and stick together through every moment."

Brian McLauchlin
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

Image source, SNS

Steven Pressley has been impressed with the way Derek McInnes has turned around Rangers' fortunes following a difficult start to the campaign.

The Dundee head coach is hoping to end the Ibrox club's good run when they visit on Saturday but said: "One of the great strengths of Derek's teams is that they have great variation in the way that they play.

"So it's actually difficult to stop them. You can't just set out and say, 'Okay, these are the specific patterns and movements', because they're highly adaptable.

"They'll build, they'll play forward, they'll cross, they'll ask questions of you.

"The things that I've spoken about this week with the group, have been the basics. If you don't do the basics against Rangers and Derek's Rangers, they'll run all over the top of you."

The central defensive partnership of Ryan Astley and Owen Bevan has been a cornerstone of Dundee's performances this season and will no doubt come under pressure on Saturday.

Pressley, who was a centre-back himself, has been encouraged by the understanding developing between the pair and the trust they have built within his team.

"Ryan Astley has been with me now for 14 or 15 months," he said. "We've grown a great bond between us and we trust each other.

"And, of course, Owen Bevan has come in and been amazing. It takes longer to build that, but I trust the two of them."

Rangers manager Derek McInnes says Dujon Sterling's simmering rage at how their title challenge faltered last season has inspired the 26-year-old right-back to go from fringe man to regular starter. (Daily Record, external)

Olwethu Makhanya is already attracting serious attention, with Brentford and Sunderland among the clubs interested, only months after the 22-year-old centre-back joined Rangers from Philadelphia Union for £3m. (TeamTalk, external)

Read Saturday's Scottish Gossip in full.

Image source, SNS

Dundee will give fitness tests on Drey Wright (knee), Ryan Finningan (ankle) and Charlie Reilly (broken toe) while Zan Besir returns from suspension.

Joe Westley (ankle) is out for four weeks and Bobby Wales (ankle) has returned to parent club Swansea to see a specialist next week. Simon Murray, Finlay Robertson and Jack Moorhouse (all ACL) are out long term.

For Rangers, Ross McCrorie has picked up a little hamstring issue and will be out for the next three weeks.

Cammy Devlin remains out with a hamstring injury picked up before the international break.

Dujon Sterling has trained after shrugging off a bout of illness and a hamstring issue.

Lawrence Shankland (hamstring), Youssef Chermiti (knee) and Daisuke Yokota (groin) are still out.

Image source, SNS

Rangers manager Derek McInnes will be happy to have a "calm" January transfer window.

Fourteen new signings arrived at Ibrox in the summer, along with McInnes and his backroom staff, but a similarly busy winter window seems unlikely.

Club chairman Andrew Cavenagh told Rangers supporters at a recent fans forum not to expect much activity in January, barring unforeseen circumstances, as he sought to focus on stability.

Before the trip to Dundee in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday evening, McInnes was relaxed about the short-term change in transfer policy and stated that getting Lawrence Shankland, Cammy Devlin and Daisuke Yokota back from injury in December as expected will act as new signings.

"I think we can cope in terms of numbers," McInnes said

"The conversations I've had with both Andrew and Jim [Gillespie, chief executive] separately were a couple of weeks ago, after the Celtic game.

"We spoke about the need for January to be calm and not to become an unsettling one for us. We spoke about the importance of keeping the squad together.

"We feel that, by the beginning of December, we could have the boys I've just mentioned back fit.

"That will feel like signing three new players, with Cammy, Daisuke and Lawrence bolstering the squad.

"Again, what the chairman said reflects the conversation we've had. We don't expect to be busy in January at all.

"For me, that's really good to hear and good to work towards. Hopefully, the players can just work towards this season and we can be as strong as we can.

"Obviously, the window gives you the opportunity to deal with injuries, loss of form or whatever. These things are always there.

"But, unless there's a figure that comes in way over the top for any of the players, I think there's a feeling from everybody, and obviously the chairman has said it, that we want to maintain what we've got in the building."

Image source, SNS

Rangers manager Derek McInnes has been speaking to the media before Saturday's away game against Dundee in the Scottish Premiership.

Here are the main points:

• McInnes says the club have shown a "readiness" to cope with their injured players missing from the squad, but says this is part of football and can happen at any time to any team.

• Asked about long-term absentee Youssef Chermiti, McInnes says it can be a chance for the striker, ruled out with an ACL injury, to "see the bigger picture" and come back "bigger, stronger, and even more motivated".

• McInnes offered "a lot" of the players returning from international duty an extra day off, but he says not one of them took it and all came to training.

• "Everything feels a wee bit more as you were, as opposed to last week's game," he adds, after resuming domestic duty following the international break.

• Dundee will require Rangers' "full attention" and they "have to be ready for it", with McInnes expecting a tough test against Steven Pressley's side and says he does not want to see such a drop-off in performance as in the second half last week in their home win over Kilmarnock.

• On Andrew Cavenagh's comments recently about the club being unlikely to make many changes in the January window, McInnes said there is a need for that window to be "calm" and avoid it being "unsettling" on the squad.

• "I like them, to be honest," he adds on whether he likes a late kick-off on a Saturday and said that it can add something extra to the atmosphere.

• On Saturday's opponents, Dundee, McInnes adds: "I know a lot of the staff here and I know how they work. I think they look like a good staff. I think they've got a good thing going."

• McInnes says it is "a bit early" in the season to view playing before other sides as a chance to put extra pressure on them in the league, adding that you simply have to just try and win each game as they come.

• Dujon Sterling has trained the past few days and is good to go, but Ross McCrorie has picked up a hamstring issue that required a scan, which will rule him out for three weeks.

Norway midfielder Thelo Aasgaard says leaving Rangers for Anderlecht on loan was the right move after the 24-year-old deciding he needed a change. (Glasgow Times, external)

Former Rangers chief executive Charles Green has revealed he hoped to buy Stafford Rangers and rename them Rangers before transferring first-team players to the Northern Premier League side and fielding a first-team in England while keeping a reserve side in Scotland. (Keys And Gray Unleashed, external)

Read Friday's Scottish Gossip in full.

Image source, SNS

• Rangers' Djeidi Gassama has won more fouls (24) and had more touches in the opposing box (56) than any player in the Scottish Premiership this season, also completing a joint-high 15 dribbles.

• Rangers have won each of their last six league games and could win more in a row for the first time since February 2024 under Philippe Clement (9).

• Dundee have won both of their last two league matches, last winning three in a row in December 2025/January 2026.

• Rangers have won six of their last eight away games against Dundee in all competitions (D2), keeping five clean sheets in this period.

• Dundee are winless in 20 meetings with Rangers in all competitions (D4 L16) since a 2-1 league victory in November 2017.

Image source, SNS

Graeme Souness pinpointed the arrival of Terry Butcher as the signing that ignited his trophy-laden reign at Rangers.

The centre-back left Ipswich Town to join the Govan club in 1986, the same year former Liverpool and Scotland captain Souness became manager at Ibrox.

Butcher was a pivotal figure during Souness' tenure, with the former England captain leading the team on the pitch to three league titles in four seasons.

"When we got Terry Butcher, that really meant we were on our way," Souness told BBC Radio Scotland.

"We had signed an England captain. Both Tottenham and Manchester United wanted him, you know? What a statement that was."

Souness managed Rangers during the early stages of one of the most dominant spells in Scottish football, as the club began a run of nine consecutive league titles.

That success was helped by the calibre of players Souness was able to attract to the club.

"I had a stature which made it easy for me to get to the players," he added.

Despite the success he ultimately enjoyed at Ibrox, Souness also revealed that the Rangers job was much tougher than he had initially expected.

"When I turned up in Glasgow, I was thinking, I'm Scotland captain, I've been around big players and played at big football clubs, so this won't be anything too different," he said.

"And, boy, was I wrong. I mean, the west of Scotland is just a forest on fire 365 days a year."

Listen to Liverpool, Rangers and Scotland great Souness' full BBC interview on The Saturday Show this coming weekend

Middlesbrough manager Kim Hellberg says "good player" Connor Barron's lack of game time on loan from Rangers is because the 24-year-old midfielder is in the same boat as many summer signings who are only starting to break into Championship starting line-ups. (Northern Echo, external)

Former Rangers striker Duncan Ferguson is among the leading candidates to become Glentoran'snext manager. (Belfast Telegrah, external)

Former Rangers left-back Gregory Vignal, who has previously worked in the Ibrox club's academy and with Dundee, wants to be a manager in his adopted home of Scotland after the 45-year-old recently left his role as Blackburn Rovers Under-21 boss. (Daily Record, external)

Read Thursday's Scottish Gossip in full.