Fan loyalty is one thing King needn’t fret about
DAVE KING and his fellow Rangers directors don’t exactly have their problems to seek these days. Taking its obvious place at the top of the list, highlighted in bold, is the absence of a permanent managerial appointment after Derek McInnes snubbed the opportunity to leave Aberdeen.
Supporter unease has grown ever since Pedro Caixinha was fired almost seven weeks ago. Gratitude for the 2015 rescue mission King and his colleagues staged has been superseded by mounting concern about the leadership currently being exhibited. If not quite a winter of discontent, this is certainly the most testing period yet for this incarnation of the Rangers board.
It begs the question of how long the admirable supporter loyalty shown in attendances might last. Speaking at the recent club AGM, King admitted fearing the number of season-ticket holders could slide if Rangers cannot become more competitive at the sharp end of the Premiership.
‘There is a worry a lack of success will see some fans drift away, that’s an absolute fact,’ said the Ibrox chairman. ‘If the fans are not getting value for money, they are going to spend their money elsewhere and that’s something we are very alert to.’
Rangers great Willie Henderson believes this is one issue where King can rest easy. Indeed, Henderson reckons the South Africa-based businessman has misjudged the mind-set of the support if he thinks they will desert attempts to restore the club to past prominence.
‘He probably doesn’t know the fans then, does he?’ said Henderson of King’s comments. ‘I don’t think that will happen. Rangers supporters will never let their club down. They’ve been through a tough time for the last few years and I hope it eventually gets better, but the fans will always be here.’
No fewer than 48,139 were there to see Rangers recover from a goal down to defeat Ross County 2-1 on Saturday afternoon. It was another fillip for interim manager Graeme Murty. The man still on a contract as Under-20s coach has achieved something Caixinha never could: three wins in a row.
Murty is due to remain in charge for the final five matches of 2017. Although not currently on the table, a longer-term appointment would become more likely if success could be sustained through tomorrow night’s trip to face Hibernian and beyond.
‘I’ve been very impressed,’ said Henderson. ‘He’s a young coach and I’m quite sure it’s an experience he’s had that he probably didn’t realise would come so quickly in his career.
‘He’s been under a lot of pressure, like anybody would be when put in the position he’s in just now.
‘He’s had two games against Aberdeen and Derek McInnes — and his tactics have been spot-on twice. I think he’s done absolutely brilliant under the circumstances. It might surprise us where it all ends.
‘The club have said they’ll give him until the end of the year. We’ll see if he can follow up what he’s doing just now. Then we’ll see if the club has plans in place.
‘Obviously it’s a difficult time for the club but I hope that somewhere down the line it can be sorted out.’
The difficulties facing Rangers are inevitably exacerbated by Celtic’s success. Unbeaten in 68 domestic game and five points clear in the Premiership, Brendan Rodgers’ side now have a Europa League tie against Zenit St Petersburg to anticipate in the new year.
Yesterday’s draw helped to rekindle past memories of Scottish clubs in Russia. Henderson was there 35 years ago. The story of how Scot Symon’s team went undefeated in a three-match tour behind the Iron Curtain is captured in a new book, Rangers in Russia.
‘It was 1962,’ said Henderson. ‘It was a situation that cropped up when Scot Symon said, before the Scottish Cup final on the Saturday (against St Mirren), that the club would give us a fabulous world tour afterwards.
‘It was a fabulous time for the club, so the following Tuesday we were to go to Ibrox to find out where the fabulous world tour was to take us. Some of us wanted to go to Miami. Some of us wanted to go to Barbados, the Caribbean. It was a big deal.
‘We were all keyed up and Scot Symon came down and put a notice on the board. We all dived over to see where it was — we flew to Moscow and were staying in a hotel just up from Lenin’s tomb. It was an eye-opener.
‘The great thing about it was that, by the third game, the Russians were panicking. The third game was against Dynamo Kiev.
‘There was a strong rumour that the Russian president was going to be at the game. There was also talk that they were bringing in players from the Russian international team but it didn’t matter. We played the game and came back undefeated.
‘We got back to Glasgow Airport and thousands of people ran onto the tarmac after we arrived. It was a great thing for the club and it helped strengthen the connection with Russia, which had been there since 1945 when Moscow Dynamo came to Ibrox — and someone counted the Russian team and they had an extra man!’
l‘Rangers in Russia: The Story of the 1962 Tour’ is available for £5.00 from the Rangers Youth Development Company Office in Broomloan House at Ibrox Stadium now. Profits go to the Rangers Former Players’ Benevolent Fund. Email rydc@rangers.co.uk or call 0141 427 4914 for more information.