Just two months after appearing in the UEFA Cup final in the City of Manchester Stadium in May. Glasgow Rangers have been knocked out of the UEFA Champions League by Lithuanian side FBK Kaunas, who are part owned by the same man who owns Heart of Midlothian Vladimir Romanov.

No doubt there will be chuckles of belly laughter in Glasgow and Edinburgh at the fact that losing over the two legged tie has cost the Gers around £12m in competition and television revenue. The embarrassment comes days after Celtic manager Gordon Strachan complained about not being able to compete with English clubs in the transfer market after his side slumped to a two-nill defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in the Feyenoord Jubeleeum. Which begs the question why can the two big Scottish clubs not compete when they get capacity attendances every week, they have global followings buying club merchandise and they appear every year  in European competition?

Strachan commented that Spurs manager Juande Ramos may not be able to do what he has done in getting to the last eight in the Champions League if he had the same budget and no stars. But as normal he is comparing apples and orange in his own charming manner. The competition for the Champions League and UEFA Cup places is less fierce in Scotland than in England. So Ramos needs the big stars and even bigger transfer budget, to get near the European competition places.

In comparison to the Old Firm, Tottenham have a much smaller stadium, a smaller global following which should translate to a much smaller budget. However they have the benefit of the Premier League television deal and they appear to be managed much better financially than the Old Firm.

Rangers manager Walter Smith confessed that his side were not in the game against Kaunas and that it will be difficult to motivate his players following the crushing defeat that will deny his team another glorious run in Europe. News that will not impress the Rangers fans who give anything to play at Ibrox.

After suffering an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Hearts at the weekend, the last thing that Rangers needed was the visit of the Bundesliga Champions. Things got worse for Walter Smith’s side as they went a goal down on fifty-six minutes when Gomez put Khedira’s cross past Rangers keeper McGregor.

Charlie Adam Puts Gers Back On Level Terms

With the help of the near fifty thousand strong crowd Rangers were not behind for very long. Eight minutes after they went behind Charlie Adam put them back on level terms when he curling the ball in to the Stuttgart goal past a helpless Schafer.

Penalty Gives Rangers Opportunity For Three Points

With fifteen minutes of the ninety left on the clock, Hutton was brought down inside the box by the Stuttgart captain Meira, leaving referee Farina with no alternative other than point to the spot. Darcheville confidently dispatched the spot kick to secure the victory much to the delight of the 49795 fans inside Ibrox.

Gordon Strachan’s Celtic side continued their abysmal run of away form in the Champions League. The Scottish side were unable to transfer their domestic form to the Champions League.

The match was effectively over as a contest before it was ten minutes old, after five minutes Brandao put the home side ahead, putting a through ball from Fernandinho past Boruc.

Celtic were two down just three minutes later as Lucarelli nodded home a left wing cross from Rat. Rat provided more danger and only the off-side side flag was able to deny the home side a third goal as Brandao put a Lucarelli rebound past Boruc.

Celtic have a mammoth task ahead if they are replicate last seasons success, and reach the knock-out stages. Strachan will have to motivate his charges to get two results in Milan and Benfica, a tall order considering their best away result so far has been a draw. Although two draws may be enough if Celtic can manage three home wins at Parkhead.

Home                                                 Away

Oct 3, AC Milan (h)                            Sep 18, Shakhtar Donetsk (a)
Nov 6, Benfica (h)                               Oct 24, Benfica (a)
Nov 28, Shakhtar Donetsk (h)         Dec 4, AC Milan (a)

Having needed penalties to help them qualify, Gordon Strachan’s Cetic will have to put that behind them and focus on the task ahead. They face last years winners AC Milan for the second year running. They also get to visit Portugal, home of their famous European Cup victory in 1967 against Inter Milan which will please Celtic fans and give the former players another reason to celebrate their win.

Home                                 Away

Sep 19, Stuttgart (h)         Oct 2, Lyon (a)
Oct 23, Barcelona (h)       Nov 7, Barcelona (a)
Dec 12, Lyon (h)                Nov 27, Stuttgart (a)

Rangers first game in the group of death sees Walter Smith and Ally McCoist prepare their men for the visit of the German Bundesliga Champions Stuttgart. Then they have a trip to France where they will play the French champions Lyon, before they play Barca at Ibrox. It will be an uphill struggle for the Gers to even make the UEFA Cup place from this group, however the bank manager will be happy with the funds the group stage will bring home to Glasgow.

The new board at Sunderland have sanctioned the highest transfer fee for a goal keeper in Britain, the nine million pound deal is more than a million more than Manchester United paid for French World Cup and European Championship winner Fabian Barthez.

Gordon has signed a contract that ties him to the Black Cats for five years. Manager Roy Keane will hope that this huge financial investment will pay off over the course of the season, and that Gordon will make the important saves to score the points that justify his price tag. Gordon may feature at the Stadium of Light on Saturday where he will play against his England counterpart Paul Robinson, although the Spurs front line might put the Scotsman under more pressure than the Sunderland strikers will put Robinson under.

The City of London asked local forces around the country to execute raids on Portsmouth, Newcastle and Glasgow Rangers as part of their investigation in to corruption in the game. The Police have indicated that this investigation is separate from the on-going Steven’s report that had unearthed dodgy dealings in transfers.

Newcastle were quick to release a statement indicating that they were assisting the investigation, but that the club was not the subject of the investigation and that they may have been a victim of criminal activity. However both Pompey and the Gers only released statements indicating their co-operation with the investigation with no further comment.

There will no doubt be immense speculation in the coming days about a variety of transactions involving the clubs and the different staff at those times, or perhaps the culprit is an agent that has sold players to the clubs being investigated, but until the police decide to let the fans know what is happening we will remain in the dark.

Okay it might just be another in a long line of rumours but now Freddy Adu – the 18 year old American wonderkid is being linked with a move to Celtic. Seemingly a meeting is lined up for next week in Denver when Celtic fly out for their game against the MLS All Stars.

Again a stumbling block is the idiotic way the MLS controls the player contracts rather than the individual clubs – hence the reason why Celtic have failed at times to sign Shalrie Joseph from New England Revolution. But they are likely to renew their interest later.

If Celtic put an offer in for Adu then they may face competition from clubs all across Europe, with Manchester United and Chelsea as the main threats – both clubs have watched the youngster several times over the past few years with Manchester United taking him on trial last year. However Celtic could give him the platform to sell himself to the richer clubs in Europe after a few years by gaining experience in the SPL and European Football with the Hoops.

Celtic and Scotland International Striker Craig Beattie has signed for West Bromwich Albion in a £1.25 million tranfer deal, with
a further £500,000 after appearances. Beattie had been on the fringes of the Celtic team since he made his debut in 2003, unfortunately
Inury has curtailed the number of games he has played for Celtic.

Tony Mowbray tried to buy Beattie last year, while he was Hibernian Manager however the two clubs could not come to compromise over
the transfer fee to be paid. Now Beattie has left Celtic Park for the Hawthorns and will look forward to helping West Brom try to return to the
Premiership after losing out last season.

David Marshall today signed for Peter Grant’s Norwich City today in a reported £1 million transfer from Celtic Park.
Marshall’s chances of First Team action had been limited at Celtic after the arrival of Polish International Artur Boruc and
so he went on loan to Norwich during last season, only to have it cut short through injury. He left a lasting impression on
the manager and the club as they have now got his services on a permanent deal.

Marshall rose to prominance after a legendary performance against Barcelona at the Nou Camp in the UEFA Cup.
Including saving a Penalty from Ronaldinho, unfortunately his performances after this match were inconsistent and he lost
the number one jersey when Boruc came to the club.