Iain Dowie was making preparations without him yesterday, but Daniel Parejo has received international clearance and as expected will play some part in the season opener tomorrow. What was holding up the clearance is anyone’s guess, before playing in the Emirates Cup last weekend it was the worst kept secret that he would sign for us so surely plans were in place to gain his clearance, or maybe someone at the Spanish FA was sipping San Miguel and still celebrating their Euro glory.

To have someone signed from Real Madrid in the squad tomorrow, as well as signings from Fiorentina and Newcastle amongst others makes a refreshing change from the squad to choose from last year and shows how far we have come with developments off the field. The players now have to show how far they have come on the pitch in a season where expectation levels are much higher.

This is the first season in a long time where we can enter a season with genuine hope for success and the singing of ‘Next year, we’ll be champions’ at the West Brom game is more justified than the cringe worthy airings of it in previous years after another lacklustre season closed.

How the player’s cope with the expectation is yet to tested and here’s hoping the rumours in the week of a bust up between Dowie and Briatore haven’t unsettled any of the players. Pre-season may not have had the mouth watering performances but come kick-off time tomorrow you can expect the team that goes out to face Barnsley will be ready to turn it up a notch.

Despite missing the quality of Rowlands, Buzsaky and Vine tomorrow there is still plenty of options to choose from and dilemmas for Dowie. He said before the Chievo game that the team he picked would be the likely starting line-up tomorrow. But with the additions of Parejo and Lee Cook now in the mix it would be unlikely that both would have to sit on the bench. In goal Cerny was chosen ahead of Camp but after all the fine work Camp put in last season to not start the new one in goal seems harsh.

Some of the players from Barnsley have been talking up their side’s chances to win but would expect the R’s to prevail here. We are a better side than the ones that have beaten Barnsley in previous years so it should be an enjoyable start to the season. But then, when was anything ever simple supporting Rangers?

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