PARTY’S OVER.. WE’RE BACK IN GOLD ROUTINE
Connor concentrating on grabbing Euro glory with title won
beaten Galatasaray in the playoff round, topped a group that included Benfica and Standard Liege and smashed nine past Royal Antwerp in the last 32, Goldson believes there should be no fear in the Ibrox ranks.
He said: “We had a meeting about it yesterday. The pressure that comes from being champions is completely different to being chasing and being the underdog and finishing second for the last how many years.
“Now we need to go on and prove we’re worthy of being champions and that begins this season.
“I’m not going to say we didn’t enjoy the weekend because we did and I think we deserved that after all we’ve put in. We haven’t been able to celebrate like that before, we haven’t been able to have a night together as a team this season, so to say we didn’t enjoy it I’d be lying.
“As soon as we came in yesterday and got back into training, we had a meeting with the team and the gaffer showed us what this month is.
“We’ve got the two Slavia games which we want to go and prove in Europe we’re good enough to compete at this level and not just domestically, then we’ve got the Old Firm at the end of the month.
“We’ve got three huge games coming up and it’s all about refocusing. Now we’re champions we’re there to be shot at. We want to prove the season and how hard we’ve worked, we want to put it into full effect and see how far we can go in Europe.”
Goldson was one of Steven Gerrard’s first signings and has experienced all the highs and lows of the journey.
The 28-year-old paid tribute to the work his manager has done in completely turning around the fortunes of the club, and not only on the playing side.
He added: “Did I think it would be three years? Probably not.
“I didn’t know how far behind Rangers were at the time. I didn’t realise that until I came up here and played that first season and then, yeah, you do have doubts.
“At the same time we’ve worked our socks off. Recruitment has been brilliant. You look at the club I’m in today, it’s 100 times better than the club I joined. That’s not just the playing squad, it’s around the place.
“What’s been done in the canteen, the training ground, Ibrox. Every place has improved and that’s credit to every single staff member, from the board to the chairman, and what they’ve put in to make this club successful. It has paid off.
“I still don’t think it’s sunk in properly, what we’ve actually achieved. It’s a weird one. Whenever I’ve won things in the past you’ve been going on holiday, going away straight away with your team or your family and we’re only in March so there’s a lot of the season left to play. The focus is straight back on football and back on a huge tie we’ve got ahead of us.
“At the same time I’ve still got goosebumps now thinking about it because it was amazing and, yeah, probably the best day of my career.
“The boys who’ve been here a few years probably predicted the reaction, probably knew it would happen. I said to a few of the new boys, ‘Welcome to Rangers’ because they haven’t seen that over the last 12 months maybe. They haven’t been able to witness the fans and how much they follow this club.
“I’ve been able to witness that for the last three years and that’s why I think the boys who have been here a bit longer, it hit home so much more with the emotions we’ve had over the last few years.
“The failures we had and now to turn it to a positive and to actually be champions is so much more worthy.”
Goldson is now bracing himself for possibly the test of the season, although he remains confident it’s another examination that can be passed.
He said: “These will be very tough games, very intense. We’ve watched their games against Leicester and previous matches in the Europa League and they look a very strong side.
“They have a lot of powerful players and a lot of powerful running, a lot of intensity up and down the pitch. We’re going to have to be ready for that. “We know they beat Leicester and we know the form they’re in domestically so I’m sure it will be a tough game.”
We’ve three huge games coming up and it’s all about refocusing CONNOR GOLDSON IS UP FOR THE NEXT CHALLENGE
DAY after day, week after week, Steven Gerrard reined in the expectation and talked down achievements because nothing had been won.
All that pent-up restraint was released on Saturday night in a crazy Klinsmann-style dive across the floor of the home dressing room at Ibrox, through a crowd of cheering players as he was finally able to celebrate a title success confirmed the next day as Celtic faltered in Dundee.
The Rangers boss lapped up the celebrations as much as any of his players but yesterday the gameface was very much back on as he turned his attention to trying to turn a good Europa League campaign into a great one.
Until he was asked about that dive and slide.
The mask slipped, the grin appeared and, fleetingly, he was back there.
“I think that’s just getting lost in the moment,” he said. “I was goaded into that by the players. I’ve goaded them for so long and demanded so much from them the least I can do is get lost in the moment I suppose.
“It’s nothing a bit of Sudocrem hasn’t sorted out, I’m back in the routine, I’m hydrated and I’m ready for the next challenge.”
That next challenge is Slavia Prague in the Czech capital tonight in the first match of a double-header that can lead to the Europa League last eight.
Negotiating this hurdle will take Rangers a stage further than they travelled last term and would be another huge statement in terms of the progress being made under Gerrard.
It will also pencil in another impressive paragraph on a CV that doesn’t need talking up, given the success he enjoyed as a player, but Gerrard doesn’t think it’s possible to compare managerial feats with when he was pulling on the boots and bossing midfields for club and country.
He added: “I haven’t had time to reflect and really think about the last two or three days and compare it to other achievements in my career.
“I don’t think it’s fair to compare achievements. What I achieved as a player was fantastic but I’m on a different journey, I’m on a different career path, I’m at a different club.
“It’s not really about me from a personal point of view or me making up for previous highs or lows. It’s about Rangers, it’s about achieving our first massive goal together. It’s all about the players and the supporters for me. I’m extremely proud of both.
“First and foremost for the players for doing the majority of the job and doing it in style but also the backing we’ve had since the first day I came in has been incredible as well.”
He insists there’s no chance of standards dropping now the league has been won – pointing to this European campaign, an Old Firm game next up in the league and a Scottish Cup campaign on the horizon. There’s also little doubt Gerrard and his players have targeted an unbeaten Premiership campaign, even if he won’t say so publicly.
He said: “Externally you know
me well enough now that the mantra will always be next game, next challenge. We want to add to what we’ve already achieved.
“We’ve got internal targets, we know how we want the rest of the season to look. We’ve got two incredible fixtures on the horizon in terms of the Europa League, we want to go further than we did last year. We want to build on what we’ve already achieved this year which has been fantastic, and obviously we’ve got a huge Old Firm game to look forward to then the Scottish Cup begins and the split games.
“There’s so many exciting challenges internally we want to try to achieve and that’s the way it is at Rangers.
“It’s not about resting on your laurels and downing tools because you’ve achieved something so big. It’s about adding to that and making sure the season is even more successful.”
Which brings him on to Slavia
Prague. The Czech league leaders made a huge statement of their own by knocking out Leicester City in the last 32 – winning the away leg 2-0 – so Gerrard is acutely aware of the challenge facing his side tonight.
He said: “They’re an efficient team, really strong and powerful. They run a lot and also play from a technical point of view. We have to be at our very best to complete this challenge.
“Slavia’s performance over both legs was extremely strong. Leicester are a very good team with a good coach who have had an excellent season.
“Instantly it made you aware of the size of the challenge we’re going to face. This is a team going extremely well domestically so we have major respect for the opposition, for the players, for the coach.
“We know we have to be at our maximum performance to get this job done.”