RANGERS STAR RYAN JACK VOWS TO END HIS EUROPA LEAGUE AGONIES:
SAYS RYAN JACK
IT has become a painfully familiar scenario. The year-long toil to get there. The hope and expectation at the outset. The crushing disappointment of yet another dream dashed.
Ryan Jack has put a foot on the path to the group stage of the Europa League in each of the past four seasons. On all occasions, the journey has remained incomplete.
In the colours of Aberdeen, the road blocks came in the shape of Real Sociedad, Kairat Almaty and Maribor.
Last year, unfathomably, his new club Rangers were headed off at the pass by Progres Niederkorn of Luxembourg.
For the 26-year-old, a failure to conquer these qualifying rounds has become something of a personal obsession.
His resolve to finally change the wearying narrative has never been stronger.
‘Every year I always want to go further than I did the year before,’ said Jack.
‘If we do get further, or we get to the group stage, it would be a big achievement. But we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves and get carried away.
‘We just need to look at the job in hand every round. We know this will be a tough one, so if we get through this one, we will look at the next one.
‘You always want to do better than you did before. Getting knocked out is always disappointing. You come back the year after and you want to do better. You want to come as far as you can.’
It would be entirely wrong, though, to label the player’s experiences in Europe as an outright failure. Far from it, in fact.
For all Aberdeen were unable to go as far as they desired, notable scalps were taken along the way in the forms of Groningen of Holland and Rijeka of Croatia.
Back in the latter country for tonight’s first leg against Osijek, Jack hopes to feed off the memory of a spectacular 3-0 win for the Dons three years ago.
‘It was a big result that night,’ he said. ‘I don’t know too much about the Croatian league, so I don’t know if the teams are similar, but Rijeka were a really good side. It’s probably one of the biggest European nights I have had in my career.
‘In the first ten to 15 minutes, you knew you were away from home. They had a big crowd. They were going to come out of the traps and try to get ahead early doors.
‘You ride that storm. You stick together. You believe in each other. And it just shows you what can happen and the results you can get away from home in Europe.’
A sliver of good fortune is often needed, too.
In Maribor two years ago, Aberdeen simply had none. Adam Rooney had a rare penalty miss that night while keeper Joe Lewis fresh-aired a Graeme Shinnie back-pass at the death to put the tin lid on another grim chapter.
‘It was disappointing,’ said Jack. ‘I thought Aberdeen were the better side and to go out again at the same stage was frustrating.
‘A lot of things happened in that 90 minutes. These experiences just make you more determined when you play in Europe the year after.’
It has not escaped Rangers’ notice that Maribor will most likely lie in wait if they clear this hurdle.
Even allowing for the fact that the Croatian league continually suffers from an exodus of young talent, looking beyond the side who finished fourth in their domestic league last season is fraught with danger.
Rangers were ultimately comfortable in their dismissal of Shkupi of Macedonia in the first qualifying round but Osijek are unlikely to be as forgiving of the kind of profligacy they exhibited over both matches.
‘It will be a step up in class,’ said Jack. ‘This will be a harder ask than the last round.
‘But over the course of pre-season and the last round, we’ve had decent work-outs, so we’re happy with where we are at the moment.
‘We’ve really stepped things up in training these past few days. We need to make sure we’re fully ready and I believe we are.’
The source of the burgeoning selfconfidence is not hard to fathom.
In Steven Gerrard and Gary McAllister, Jack’s opportunity to learn from two of the best midfielders these islands have produced is truly the stuff of dreams. Every day is a school day.
‘He and Gary pull me aside after training sessions and tell me what I’ve done well and the other areas in which they’re looking for me to improve,’ explained Jack.
‘After the game last week, he (Gerrard) had a meeting with Ross McCrorie and I. He spoke about what we did well together and what we didn’t do so well together and where we could improve still further.
‘As a player, that’s what you want and you’re learning off the best.
‘Ross and I haven’t played together in midfield too often but when you go
into a meeting and they tell you what they have seen and how they see it, you want to take their advice and try to replicate it on the pitch. ‘It’s things that, when you’re in the heat of the moment, you don’t think about because you are so focused on the game. ‘Especially around areas such as positioning on the ball and off it — and helping the team and how you can change the game positively.’ With ten new players at his disposal, Gerrard’s Rangers were always going to be a work in progress at this juncture. Osijek should be a decent barometer of how far they still have to go. While Shkupi scarcely laid a glove on them, two clean sheets suggested there was the making of a defence. There are no prizes for guessing what part of the team needs the most improvement.
‘Over the last few days we have been working hard on the attacking aspect of our play and, hopefully, that will pay dividends for us,’ said Jack.
‘We never scored over there (in Macedonia), so we need to improve the attacking side of our game.
‘These things don’t happen overnight. We have a new squad with a few additions to the forward line. It will come but it will take time.’
Were it to click tonight, the new era will truly have started.
Osijek are scarcely European heavyweights but events in Russia over the summer afford Croatian football a deep respect.
‘We have watched them and the manager has made it very clear how talented a side they actually are,’ said Jack.
‘They have talented players across the pitch and Croatia making the World Cup final just shows the country is doing something right.
‘It is going to be tough but we believe in ourselves that we can go and get a positive result.’