The best possible chance of Gers being a challenge to Celtic again will come from pulling together
A NUMBER of Rangers supporters have expressed concern about the direction their club is heading in just now.
They were underwhelmed at not getting any permanent signings for outfield players during the January transfer window. Then to lose 4-1 to Hearts added to their misery.
If you follow the team and pay money to watch them, then you are entitled to an opinion and their degree of frustration may well be understandable.
However, with all respect to them, and I mean that wholeheartedly, I think there needs to be a sense of realism and patience shown.
Remember, this is a football cub that went into administration just five years ago this month.
A few months later the club was playing in the bottom tier of Scottish football.
Less than two years ago they lost the Premiership play-off to Motherwell and only got back into the top flight last summer after Mark Warburton and the players won the Championship. Aberdeen, Hearts and St Johnstone. Rangers supporters and others inside the club are demanding they finish in second place. I get that and don’t think it’s unrealistic. It is most definitely achievable. But I also think that finishing in third place isn’t a disgrace. That wouldn’t be a bad effort.
Again, my reason for saying that is taking into account where Rangers have been in the past five years.
Long-term, I totally agree that third place wouldn’t be satisfactory but short-term, it’s not too bad.
Sure, I get that at some stage it’s not outrageous to suggest someone with power at the club will take a look and say: “Look, this hasn’t worked” and changes may be made.
But there needs to be a reasonable amount of time given to the manager and his staff.
There is no point in ripping up a project and starting again unless a proper length of time has been given to achieve targets.
It’s up to the Rangers managerial staff and players to show that progress has been made. They now have the final three or four months of the season to deliver.
They are still in the Scottish Cup and winning that would be a major bonus. I don’t think they should be regarded as failures this season if a piece of silverware isn’t won.
Realistically, Celtic are in the driving seat to win the Treble and few would argue against that. So, with that being the case, is it really fair to expect Rangers or any of the other clubs to win the Scottish Cup on May 27?
What will give Rangers a better chance of being successful is bringing in quality players.
I think they were unlucky in last summer as they brought in players such as Joey Barton and Niko Kranjcar.
Barton didn’t work out for a variety of reasons and Kranjcar has been unfortunate with injuries. Philippe Senderos also arrived but that hasn’t worked out.
Clint Hill was another new arrival and he is an old warrior who gives 100% in every game. He is a genuine fella and a good professional.
Last month, Emerson Hyndman and Jon Toral arrived on loan and they are quality additions.
Of course, in an ideal world they’d be at the club on permanent deals but Rangers aren’t in a position to do deals on that scale just now.
But you back the lads for now and the aim is for them to help the club finish as high up the table as possible and get into Europe.
In the future, Rangers may look at their signing policy and go for younger players when they are recruiting on permanent deals.
But there is no point in signing players for the sake of it.
You must sign better players than those you already have.
If that means waiting until the summer, then that is the intelligent thing to do.