Walters: Rangers can win league despite worst start in 29 years
IT has been 30 years since any Rangers team has made as poor a start to their league season as the current players are enduring.
The opening weeks of the 1989/90 campaign saw the club in “crisis” after two defeats from the first two games, at home to St Mirren then away at Hibs, were followed by draws at Dunfermline and Dundee and defeat to Motherwell on Premier League fixture number eight.
A certain Maurice Johnston had arrived in the summer, along with England international Trevor Steven for a record fee, while some more than decent players such as Terry Butcher, Richard Gough, Gary Stevens, Ray Wilkins and Ally McCoist were about the place. Their form was baffling.
The Rangers team of yesteryear recovered to clinch the title by seven points ahead of Aberdeen and Hearts. It was two points for a win back then, which ought to give Steven Gerrard some comfort.
Another star of Graeme Souness’s side was that wonderful winger Mark Walters who was in Glasgow yesterday to promote his autobiography charting a superb playing career that took place in a time when racism was a depressing reality for black players in Britain.
Rangers’ away Premiership record after their poor day at Livingston on Sunday reads two defeats and two draws. It’s not great. Walters can see that a problem exists, but he’s not about to rule out Gerrard following in the footsteps of another Liverpool captain.
He knows slow starts can be fixed.
“It can become a psychological problem,” said Walters. “Maybe, for Rangers, it’s just the pressure of being away that they can’t get over at the moment. Invariably, these things will turn round over the course of a season but your home record is usually better than your away record anyway.
“However, while it’s unusual for them not to have won away from home for that length of time, I can’t see it lasting for long with the players and the attacking mentality they have. It will get better for them – there’s no doubt in my mind about that.
“Steven has already made a big difference. The games I watched so far are more expansive, more attacking and tactically they seem better. They started well but they have had a little hiccup here and there, which is normal as he’s young in his career as a manager.
“I feel second is realistically what he could have hoped for but the romantic in me says if they can win the big games, do well against the smaller teams, then they could win the league.”
That’s a bold statement. Rangers’ season has been strange. Europe has been a great bonus, there have been a few highlights in the league and yet they sit sixth, eight points behind Hearts.