Welcome to Rangers
Goldson’s message to latest recruits on title win:
WELCOME to Rangers. The message from Connor Goldson was received loud and clear at the weekend but it is the one delivered on Tuesday that is now important at Ibrox.
As fans filled Edmiston
Drive and supporters swarmed George Square, the full magnitude of the achievement from Rangers would have hit home. The scenes weren’t unexpected for most but they would still have taken some by surprise.
Goldson has learned enough about the club over the last three years to develop an affection for it and he has been through his own highs and lows under Steven Gerrard’s guidance. Those moments make occasions like Sunday all the sweeter, though, as Rangers were crowned as Premiership champions.
“The boys that have been here for a few years probably predicted the reaction and knew it was going to happen,” Goldson said. “I said to a few of the new boys ‘welcome to Rangers’ because they haven’t really seen that over the last 12 months and they haven’t been able to witness the fans and how much they do follow this club.
“I have been able to witness that for the last three years and that is why the boys that have been here a bit longer, it hit home so much more and the emotions of it all and what we have been through over the last few years. The failures that we have had, we have turned that into a positive and to be champions is so much more worthy.”
Victory over St Mirren on Saturday all-but secured the title for Rangers and Gerrard and his players would savour the time in the home dressing room and with the supporters outside Ibrox. The following day, Rangers would gather at Auchenhowie to witness history being made.
The achievement will never be forgotten but Rangers can’t ease up this season. The main job has been done but the dynamic has now changed as Rangers have progressed from challengers to champions.
“Amazing,” Goldson said of the scenes of celebration on Sunday as Celtic drew with Dundee United and Rangers were confirmed as champions. “I still don’t think it has sunk in properly what we have actually achieved. It is a weird one. When I have won things in the past, you are going on holiday and going away straight away with your family. We are only in March and there is a lot of the season still to play.
“It is a weird one but the focus has got straight back on football and straight back on this huge tie that we have got ahead of us. At the same time, I have still got goosebumps thinking about it. It was amazing and probably the best day of my career.
“Definitely [we have the hunger to go on and do more]. We had a meeting about it [on Tuesday] and the pressure that now comes with being champions is completely different to chasing and being the underdog and finishing second for the last how many years. Now we need to go on and prove that we are worthy of being champions and that starts this season.”
The signing of Goldson was one of the first that Gerrard made when he was appointed as manager three years ago. It has proven to be one of the most significant, too, as the defender has played a huge role on and off the park at Ibrox.
Gerrard would travel south to meet with Goldson and
convince him to make the move from Brighton. It may have taken longer than expected, but the ultimate ambition has now been realised as this squad have written their names in Rangers folklore.
“Firstly, yeah, it was part of the vision,” Goldson said. “Did I think it would be three years later? Probably not.
“Before it, I didn’t know… I’d probably say how far behind Rangers were at that time. I didn’t realise that until I came up here and actually played that first season.
“You do have doubts. But, at the same time, we have worked our socks off and the recruitment has been brilliant. You look at the club I am in today, and it is 100 times better than the club that I joined. That is not just playing squad, it is around the place and what has been done in the canteen, what has been done at the training ground, what has been done at Ibrox.
“The whole place has improved and that is credit to every single staff member that works here to the board and the chairman to put in what it takes to make this club successful. It has paid off.”
The party may have stopped for now but there will be further moments of celebration to come for Rangers as they prepare to lift the league silverware come the end of the campaign.
There is the prospect of going through the Premiership term unbeaten, while the Scottish Cup has to be won. The first focus is on the Europa League, however, as Rangers prepare for the trip to face Slavia Prague in the last 16.
Goldson said: “I am not going to sit here and lie to you and say that we didn’t enjoy the weekend because we did.
“I think that we deserved that for all that we have put in. We haven’t been able to celebrate like that before and not even have a night together as a team this season.
“To say that we didn’t enjoy it would be a lie. But, at the same time, as soon as we came in on Tuesday and got back to training, we had a meeting in the morning as a team and the gaffer told us what this month is. We have got the two Slavia games and we want to go and prove in Europe that we are good enough to compete at this level and not just domestically. We have the Old Firm at the end of the month so we have got three huge games coming up and it is all about refocussing now.”
I still don’t think it has sunk in properly what we have actually achieved. It is a weird one
THE very fact that Celtic, Rangers and a host of top English Premier League clubs have been linked with moves for precocious Wigan striker Kyle Joseph in recent weeks is an indication of his ability. For Billy Stark though, who coaches the forward with Scotland’s under-19 side, the indications are there is also a lot more to come.
Former Celtic midfielder Stark has been bowled over by the infectious attitude, work ethic and willingness to improve exhibited by the rangy 19-year-old since his arrival on the Scotland scene, and he is far from surprised to see some of Britain’s biggest clubs fighting it out for his signature.
Celtic have a strong interest in bringing Joseph to the club to increase their striking options, with Odsonne Edouard expected to leave for pastures new this summer, and Stark is intrigued by how the frontman would handle such a move if his old team do get their man.
“I can give Kyle a great recommendation, he’s a lovely boy,” Stark said. “He’s a Liverpool lad actually.
Bruce Rioch’s son Gregor is the head of the academy at Wigan, and we obviously have a scouting network, so he was recommended to us a couple of years ago.
“We brought him in, had a look at him, and he has featured every time since then.
“He’s 6’ 2”, he’s mobile, and he’s improved I must say. Technically he wasn’t the best when we first had him, we definitely felt it wasn’t the strongest part of his game coming towards the ball and having his back to goal, that sort of thing.
“What he has got is pace, a great appetite to run and work for the team, and his goalscoring record throughout the levels was excellent at Wigan.
“He’s injured just now, but he’s carried that on in the firstteam, most notably scoring a hat-trick.
“His finishing has improved as well, so he’s a great package for any club at 19-years-old, and there is plenty of room still for improvement too.
“The basics are there to improve him, and he’s a boy who is desperate to learn. I can’t speak highly enough of him.”
Despite his tender years, Stark is certain that Joseph would more than handle himself among the rough and tumble of the Scottish Premiership. But he warned Celtic that they will have to move fast if they are to secure his signature, with his other stand-out qualities making him a hot commodity.
“I’m sure there will be a host of big clubs looking at him,” he said. “He’s had a big impact, and though he hasn’t played that many first-team games for Wigan, he’s shown qualities that are so attractive for clubs.
“That mobility and pace is pretty crucial in terms of middle to front players now, it’s a real asset. And when you marry that with his willingness to work his tail off for the team, which was really apparent from the start, then you have a player on your hands.
“I’ve still got the footage of a game we played against Azerbaijan over at a facility we use over in Spain for our preparatory games.
“They were quite physical, to put it mildly, and there was a ball played up the touchline. Kyle curved his run and was getting onto it, and the centrehalf came onto him square on and gave him a real dunt.
“He jumped over the wall, straddled a few seats, then immediately came back down, got on the pitch and was ready to go again. It was amazing, and showed a real impressive temperament. Anyone else would have been down trying to punch the lad.
“That is another example of a quality that will stand him in good stead.
“I know he’s 19, but he’s still a young player. I can only go by the raw materials that he’s got, and the fact that he’s shown an improvement over the couple of years that I’ve had him.
“He’s still got plenty of room for improvement, but the fact he is that type of character who wants to learn and do his bit for the team, that attracts people as well.”
Joseph has scored five goals in just 12 starts for Wigan
this season, form which has seen the likes of Arsenal sniffing around him with an eye to poaching him for their under-23 squad.
The promise of more firstteam opportunities may be a factor Celtic could use to tip the scales on their favour, but Stark says that even though Joseph possess all the tools that should conceivably make him a success at that level, predicting who can cut it at either of the Old Firm clubs is still an inexact science.
“It’s too big a question that to be honest,” he said. “All you can say is that he has the talent and the personality, but sometimes that’s not enough.
“We only have them for a short space of time when they’re on international duty, so you can’t know them overly well, but personality comes into it when you’re playing for the Old Firm, and he’s got a lovely personality.
“He’s shown that determination that we’ve seen, but Celtic and Rangers have paid big money for players and they’ve not been able to produce what they hoped they would get. I’ve not been able to see how he is when his confidence is low, and how he reacts to that, for example. He loves coming away with Scotland and he’s always bouncing into the camp full of positivity.
“There’s too many deeprooted questions to predict whether someone will be a success at the Old Firm, especially a young boy.
“Speaking generally, if he was on the books of another Scottish Premiership club, he’d be getting game time, there’s no doubt about that.
“But there’s lots of different questions to be asked over whether a player can handle the Old Firm, and it’s only when you pull that jersey on that you know for sure whether someone can handle it.”
That mobility and pace is pretty crucial in terms of middle to front players now, it’s a real asset
IT took Dave Cherry 12 years in senior rugby to reach the top of the mountain, and when he finally got there, he was delighted to find that the view was everything he had hoped it would be.
Admittedly, being part of the Scotland team which secured a first win at Twickenham since 1983 was a particularly glorious day for his first cap, but the following weekend’s frustrating loss at home to Wales didn’t dampen his overall exhilaration – and as he looked ahead to Sunday’s crucial Six Nations clash against Ireland at Murrayfield, the 30-year-old hooker reflected that his journey should reassure any aspiring young player that dreams can come true, as long as you continue to believe in yourself.
“It shows the benefit of sticking at it,” he smiled. “If you’re a little boy who dares to dream then you never know what could happen. That was me and here I am today.”
It has been a remarkable journey. Having failed to pick up a pro contract in Scotland during his first couple of years of leaving school in the late 2000s, Cherry packed his bags and spent the best part of a decade grinding out a living in the second tier of English rugby and the fourth tier of French rugby, before finally getting his big break with hometown club Edinburgh during the summer of 2018.
That gave him the platform to demonstrate his work ethic, his technical ability at setpiece and breakdown, and his overarching desire to become the best player he possibly can be. It was an opportunity he grasped with both hands. Injuries to Fraser Brown and Stuart McInally may have opened the door during this
Six Nations, but Cherry made absolutely sure that he – ahead of Grant Stewart at Glasgow Warriors – was first in line to walk through.
“The time I thought it had passed me by was when I was a lot younger and playing in the Championship,” he recalled. “It’s a notoriously hard place to get out of, and there were times there when I wondered if I was ever going to kick on or not, because time was marching on.
“Then I then went to France which was a bit of a sideways step to go forward, but I’m here now, because I always believed in myself. Sometimes you need a bit of luck but that’s life. I’ve created my own luck by working hard and I’ve been given my opportunity. I’ve taken it with both hands and I’m relishing every moment that I’m in camp or on the field
“It’s all panned out for me now thanks mainly to my own resilience. I have the mantra of never giving up and I guess that’s paid dividends for me.
“To have my first cap at Twickenham and win the Calcutta Cup, you couldn’t write that, especially with the journey I’ve been on in my career.”
As much as Cherry will always – understandably – cherish that moment, he is old enough and wise enough to recognise that at this moment he needs to keep his focus on the next challenge coming over the horizon as he seeks to make sure that he is not a oneseason-wonder.
“I think you have to settle in as quickly as you can – that whole first cap experience has been and gone – so now you’ve got to concentrate on the next game,” he said.
“They keep coming. Yes, it was a great experience, I loved it and I’ll never ever forget it, but it’s on to the next game and continuing to learn, continuing to try to get better.
You never know if it is going to be your last game or not, so that’s how I’ve always treated every game, and I’ll continue
If you’re a little boy who dares to dream then you never know what could happen. That was me . . .
to do that for however long my career goes.
“I’ve learned a lot during the short time I’ve been here, and it is now just about getting things right for the weekend, so I’m working as hard as I can to do that.
“For me, it comes down to small moments which can make a massive difference. Speed of thought is everything, and it’s just that little bit more intense [in international rugby].
“We’ve spoken a lot about the physicality because Ireland are a really physical team, and hot at the breakdown as well,” he continued. “So, it’s all about winning the race to the breakdown which is something we did really well against England. We have to carry that into the Ireland game and hopefully dominate that.”