UPDATE -  Maurice Edu is officially a Glasgow Ranger after the hearing panel in Hampden took just over an hour to grant him his Work Permit and seal his 2.7 Million Pound switch.

And the first game he’ll be eligible to play in, The Old Firm Match on August 31st at Parkhead (Celtic).  Wow.

I was lucky enough to train with Rangers back in 1997 for three months and I can tell you first hand as I was able to see two Old Firm matches at Ibrox (Rangers) and one at Parkhead, it’s one of the craziest games you’ll ever see up close.

Toronto FC’s Coach / GM / Director of Football / Trade Maestro Mo Johnston has a great interview over at the Evening Times of Glasgow about everything that IS Maurice Edu.

From his time at Maryland, the MLS Combine, MLS Draft, MLS Rookie of the Year, Olympic Team Qualification, Full National Team call ups, Olympics to his 2.7 Million Pound Transfer that is only held up as of now by a Work Permit, the former Celtic and Ranger man quotes it all.

And yes, that Five Year Deal is something that proves that Ranger’s boss man Walter Smith is very high on the Inland Empire (909) product.

Imagine a midfield of Barry Ferguson, Pedro Mendes, DaMarcus Beasley and Maurice Edu. Won’t have to much longer.

One of the more underrated players in the Premiership, Portsmouth’s Pedro Mendes has made a 3 Million Pound move to Walter Smith’s Glasgow Rangers.

Add in the Maurice Edu rumors and Smith will have a nice little summer signing period under his belt.

Talking about the Old Firm match at the end of the first month of the season, Mendes said, “It is a very big game, I think it is a massive game, and I think it is a game when you’re at home and you’re a football player and you see the game on the TV and think, ‘I wish I could be involved in a game like that’.”

I’m still trying to wrap my head around Fernando Torres and Robbie Keane up top for Liverpool, but I’m loving what I see from N’Gog so far.

DaMarcus Beasley will be out a minimum of 3 weeks after pulling up during Glasgow Rangers 1-nil win over SC Preussen Munster.

While the injury means Beasley will miss out on Ranger’s Champions League Qualifiers next week, there are no long term worries concerning the hamstring strain.

But Beasley isn’t the only injury concern for Walter Smith’s Rangers as club and country Captain Barry Ferguson is set for ankle surgery.  Ferguson, who has had ankle surgery to repair ligament damage back in April 2006, had to have injections throughout the 2007/08 campaign to keep his season on course.

The Captain will miss a minimum of 4 months, meaning he will miss the start of Scotland’s World Cup Qualifying Matches as well.

image via BBC

I love when stories come out like this after the match.

If you’ve ever been through something like that where it’s the night before the big match, once you realize you’re safe and there’s really nothing wrong, you just laugh.

It’s happened to me with alarms next to the bed (one of the more brilliant ones because it was the maid), wake up calls at 3:30am, fire alarms or where 3,000 supporters from Chile are singing below your window in Sydney the night before the Bronze Medal match.

I’m just surprised they pulled the alarm at midnight and not around 4am.

image via Edweb

Language - Sounds like this all started because there had been plans to broadcast the game on a big screen in the town center and it didn’t happen because of technical problems. Don’t you think you should have done a few tests to make sure that everything was running as smooth as possible for an event like this?

I can definitely see why you’d be pissed about that, but there’s absolutely no excuse for this to happen.

Dude just dropped his own supporter.

More Videos After The Jump

(more…)

Beans and I just got back from watching the Uefa Cup final at The Fox and Hounds in Studio City with Christian Miles.

Nothing like a great pint (maybe a couple) of Stella and a Scottish Premier League Cheeseburger (Turkey Burger).

If you were a Rangers fan it was a bad result, but for the Zenit fans it was a dream come true again.

Now we’ll see what happens with the celebrations in City Square.

What’s your shout?

Zenit had to beat Spartak Moscow (2-2 A), Marseille (3-3 A), Bayer Leverkusen (4-2) and Bayern Munich (5-1) to get to the final.

Rangers has gone through Panathinaikos (1-1 A), Weder Bremen (2-1), Sporting Lisbon (2-0) and Fiorentina (0-0, 4-2 pk) to get to Manchester Stadium.

Zenit will be without the top striker in the competition, Russia National team forward Pavel Pogrebnyak (10 goals in Uefa competition) due to yellow card suspension.