WHY IBROX MEN HAVE FULL-TIME PROBLEMS
FOR Rangers fans, the recurring question is every bit as perplexing as it is infuriating. How exactly can a squad brimming with players who have proven their worth at the pinnacle of the Scottish game look quite so laboured when facing part-timers?
If the Ibrox club’s romp to successive lower-league titles has kicked the ‘substance-over-style’ debate into the long grass for much of the past two seasons, then a gruesome performance in the Ramsdens Cup Final has again brought it into sharp focus.
Put simply, the shock at seeing their side struggle to break down a largely full-time outfit like Raith Rovers now has some Rangers followers quivering in fear at what Dundee United might do to them.
But if it’s a comforting voice the longsuffering Ibrox fans are looking to hear, then former Rangers and United player Christian Dailly (below) is not the man to provide it.
The reason Dailly marks out his first professional club as favourites for Saturday’s semi-final has less to do with ability, however, and more to do with the part-time environment in which Rangers have become accustomed.
In short, in an extension of the debate on Rangers’ struggles against lesser lights, he contends that, regardless of where you have come from, playing week-in, week-out against players in the lower echelons of the game is no preparation at all for the shock of eyeballing full-timers once again.
‘United are probably seen as being the favourites but it’s going to be really interesting because, even for Rangers players themselves, it’s quite difficult to gauge where they are,’ said the former Scotland international.
‘When you’re not playing every single week against other full-time players — and Rangers have some very good players who can play in the Premiership in Scotland — it’s difficult to know where you are. And so this is a good game for Rangers to show where they are but United, with their young lads, have some good talent.
‘Most people seem to think that if United play well they could win it convincingly but it doesn’t always work like that. Rangers will be dangerous — there’s no doubt about it.
‘ It can be difficult. When I was playing, I always thought that I could go from playing in the Championship or League One to playing i n an international match, purely because I knew the level I was playing at, the level I was training at, the type of games I was involved in.
‘ You might get away with an individual mistake more but, in terms of your all-round physical conditioning, you were playing with professional players against professional players every week — really fit guys — and you could definitely make that step up.
‘If every week you’re not playing against full-timers, it might be difficult to raise it back up again for a higher level.
‘There might be an adjustment period required over a few weeks or months. That’s what I’m interested to see. What happened to Rangers — losing on the day (to Raith) — can happen.’
Dailly is also not without sympathy for a Rangers squad that has been repeatedly criticised for a lack of style despite clinching the League One title unbeaten.
As a relegated Dundee United player in 1995-96, he found himself trying to suddenly adjust to the rough and tumble of the second tier — with ultimately a play-off win over Partick Thistle being required to bounce back.
‘We played in the old First Division and some of the performances we had in that league were terrible,’ Dailly recalled.
‘We lost a Challenge Cup Final against St Johnstone when we were completely expected to win it. We played terribly and lost. It can happen.
‘I remember one of the worst games I played in for United when we went to Dumbarton and lost 1-0. We were absolutely shocking, but you come through it. Rangers have won nearly every game.’
Nonetheless, in his 18 months at Ibrox, Dailly was well schooled in the fact that no matter the occasion or the mitigating circumstances, only one outcome is expected.
‘You play for Rangers, you have to win every game,’ he added. ‘There are no excuses and I don’t think they’ll have any. Coisty knows exactly what’s expected there. Rangers will expect to win at the weekend. The whole place is built around winning.
‘When I was at Ibrox, that was one of the things I really liked. It was a good experience to be in an environment where you were expected to win every week.
‘From a personal perspective, I just wanted to try and win games, so going to Rangers was great for me. You always knew that you always had to overlap your winger, even if you were 1-0 up in the last minute.’
It’s now almost five years since Dailly left Ibrox but it might as well have been an age. Liquidation and relentless off- f i eld politics have rendered the club unrecognisable from the one which reached the UEFA Cup Final in his first season.
‘The trouble is that the people who are at the very top of football clubs control your whole existence,’ he reflected. ‘What happens up there filters down eventually, but I just found it a real shame it ended up like that at Rangers. ‘It is a chance to go back and rebuild, though. When Rangers went down there, I felt it was an opportunity to rebuild bridges with loads of teams and start all over again — although I think they are finding that a little hard to do as there is still lots of stuff going on.’