It’s 5:15pm on Sunday, September 13, 2009 and my husband and I experienced a day of music in the heart of Newburgh.

Neil Alexander, his group Nail and guests showered us with 3 hours of the best sounds I have heard in a long time. It was called “A 400 Year Musical Journey,” which is part of the continuing celebration of the anniversary of Henry Hudson sailing from the Netherlands to New York.

With music from the 1600s to modern day, we were treated to unique renditions of Johann Sebastian Back, to Duke Ellington, Hank Williams, John McCartney to Nails own music.

I captured some of his music with my Flip camera. I must admit it doesn’t do justice to the quality of play we heard. I will include it in this blog as soon as it uploads to YouTube

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Ciao Fiorentina, Hello Manchester…

It wasn’t pretty, but Sir Walter Smith’s (I’ve just knighted him myself, so shaddup) strategy worked flawlessly as Rangers held the Viola scoreless in Florence, then sacked up during a nervy round of penalty kicks, including the deal-sealer by Nacho Novo (above). Here’s the report.

Rangers are through to their first European final in 36 years, and will face a Zenit side that served up a 4-0 drubbing of Bayern Munich in the other bracket.

Fiorentina may have been the classier side — I’m anticipating Aloysius’s forthcoming comments on the Telegraph message boards already — and they can soothe themselves with that knowledge as they watch the final on television. Snigger snigger.

Now, if Rangers can only survive their final six domestic fixtures to claim the SPL crown, in doubt in large part due to their unexpected European success, how sweet it would be.

With his side decimated by injury and suspensions, Walter Smith’s Rangers bent but didn’t break Thursday, battling to a 0-0 draw on the home leg of the UEFA Cup Semis against a comparatively healthy Fiorentina side, occupiers of the fourth position in the Serie A table. Here’s the report.

Rangers now face with the proposition of advancing to a European final on away goals — never easy, but it seems to be the currency with which Rangers have traded during their 2008 European campaign. Just ask Sporting Lisbon.

Now it’s home to Glasgow for two days’ rest before an Old Firm clash for the ages on Sunday — with the SPL crown potentially hanging in the balance.

Where else can we start but with the Franny Jeffers saga? Only Ipswich could spend two months negotiating a fee only to then find that we couldn’t meet the player’s wage demands. Given that Franny was at the club on loan it seems ridiculous that nobody bothered to ask him what sort of money he’d expect to earn should the move be made permanent. A fully fit Franny would have given Jim’s squad a massive boost, but sadly it was never to be.

Jeffers aside, Jim’s transfer strategy has been sketchy to say the least. At the start of the summer my feeling was that the side needed perhaps three new players; a pacey forward, a new left winger (preferably a dead ball specialist) and a new left back. I was therefore surprised when Jim came out and said that his top priority was to sign a ‘ball winning midfielder’. Given that our current ‘ball winning midfielder’ Sylvain Legwinski had just won player of the season it looked as though Jim might be planning a full squad overhaul.

Certainly he had the money, with Town collecting around £2.5m as part of Darren Bent’s move from Charlton to Spurs. However there seemed to be more speculation about who might be going out rather than who might be coming in. Rumours continued to abound that Lee and Williams may be on their way and whilst at the time of writing they are still at the club, I wouldn’t put money on either player being with us come the start of the season. Jim seems unable to get along with either star and certainly Williams seems to be doing his best to test his boss’ patient. Nevertheless both are still here, and to my mind Jim should be building his side around these guys, not freezing them out.

Surprisingly Owen Garvan has also been the subject of much speculation, however it remains unclear what has really been going on with the young Irishman. Garvan has evidently been unhappy about something, but the true story is yet to leak out. What is clear though, is that he has the potential to be one of the best players in Britain and we would do well not to unsettle him. As he showed against Derby last season, Garvan is capable of single-handily turning a game, and were it not for the fact that he was recovering from injury and illness for most of last season I think he may well have been poached by now.

Thankfully for now at least, Lee, Williams and Garvan are all staying. So how exactly have Jim’s transfer dealings worked out? Well, we have a new forward, but pace is hardly his middle name. In fact I cannot ever really remember him running at all, which given that he will be partnering either Lee or Walters is a bit of a worry. Nevertheless former Blue Pablo Counago has scored goals at Championship level before and he didn’t actually cost any money which was a bonus. However, having said that, I have to admit that I am rather sceptical about the impact that he will make. He never looked particularly fit in the four years we had him before and always seemed to spend more time fighting the opposition than actually playing any football.

However, the re-signing of Pablo looks inspired when compared with the return of Tommy Miller. Joe Royle spent three seasons trying to accommodate the luxury that is Mr T Miller into his side and I for one was immensely relieved when he finally left for Sunderland. Miller is probably the most frustrating Ipswich player ever in that you never felt that he should be left out of the team, but at the same time he’d ruin the shape of the side whenever he played. Put him in the centre and you’d get ripped apart, put him on the wing and he’d never get a touch. Presumably Jim intends to play Miller in the centre alongside Legwinski, however quite where that leaves Williams and Garvan I do not know.

Anyhow, Jim’s third summer signing so far – the only one not to have player for us before – is Cardiff goalie Neil Alexander. From what I’ve seen of Alexander he seems alright, however I’m not sure he’ll be all that much better than Price – who we have shipped off to Derby. It’s pretty much like for like in my book, although we have made around £200k out of the deal and it’s possible that Alexander can use his age and authority to marshal the box a little more effectively than Price. Nevertheless Alexander’s arrival is hardly likely to kick-start a push for promotion.

In fact, whilst the squad is now two players deeper all the same old frailties still remain. Without a dead-ball specialist we will continue to waste set plays with alarming regularity, whilst Harding will almost certainly cost us goals from left back. I’m also slightly confused as to what Jim thinks his strongest side will be with so many central midfielders to pick from. Thankfully though, there is still plenty of time to rectify the situation and Jim must have money to spend. Lets hope he does so wisely, otherwise we could be in for another tough season.

Players In:

Neil Alexander (Cardiff) – FREE
Pablo Counago (Malaga) – FREE
Tommy Miller (Sunderland) – FREE

Players Out:

Lewis Price (Derby) – UNDISCLOSED (Est £200k)