TRUE BLUE NOW IBROX FALL GUY
Rangers may be struggling but loyal McCulloch doesn’t deserve to be a target for the boo-boys
THERE was a moment duri ng Rangers’ weekend draw with Falkirk that made the noise created by fingernails scraping down a car bonnet seem almost pleasurable in comparison.
Having already been culpable as Tom Taiwo had fired the visitors into a 2-0 lead, Lee McCulloch ran the length of the field to attack a free-kick in his opponents’ box, desperately hoping to make amends.
Already being vilifi ed by a significant percentage of the home support, the Rangers captain lost the ball in the sun. It ricocheted back off his head in the direction it had come from to inadvertently set up a Falkirk counter-attack. On another day, he might have been able to laugh at himself.
As the volume of boos aimed at him increased, McCulloch briefly pulled his shirt over his face. For the first time in almost 37 years, you sensed he would rather have been somewhere other than centre stage at Ibrox.
They are a strange breed, football fans. It’s not just at Ibrox where joined-up thinking and logic seem in short supply these days but, to outsiders, the treatment of the Rangers skipper those past few weeks is hard to fathom.
McCulloch is guilty of no more than getting older. The jump from the predominantly part- time League One to the virtually fulltime Championship has proved too great in the winter of his career. That much is plain.
Yet the vilification of him on the blogosphere and from the Ibrox stands is so severe that you could be forgiven for thinking he was guilty of some heinous crime.
McCulloch was poor again on Saturday — clearly at fault as John Baird teed up Taiwo for the Bairns’ second goal — yet he was only part of a defence that was collectively off the pace and part of a team that had completely lost its way in the game after a promising start.
It’s evident, however, that the veteran defender has now assumed the role of the local fall guy.
Perhaps with the Easdales and Derek Llambias no longer seated in the Ibrox directors’ box, he is simply filling some kind of void for those who need to jab a finger at someone come match-day.
Despite an equally audible group of fans attempting to drown out the boos f or the player with applause, manager Stuart McCall didn’t attempt to hide his disgust for what had transpired when he described it as ‘sickening’ in his post-match press conference.
Those who believe they can persuade McCall to select his team on the basis of who they barrack are liable to be disappointed when Rangers visit Tynecastle on Saturday. Not only is such abuse self-defeating, it’s also futile.
In an age when even the most modestly-talented players can become multi-millionaires over the course of their careers, it’s easy to believe that those who play the game are just going through the motions.
McCulloch will have been ha n d s o me l y re mune ra t e d throughout a career on both sides of the border but he remains, at heart, a boy who lived the dream.
Despite so far not commenting on the matter, he too will have been sickened by the recent turn of events.
Anyone who doubts that would be well advised to consult the opening pages of his autobiography
Simp-lee The Best, in which he leaves no room for doubt what signing for Rangers meant to him.
‘There are certain dates etched in my mind,’ he wrote. ‘ January 7, 2005, when my eldest son Callum was born. His wee brother Jack came into the world on March 14, 2006. Happiest days of my life. July 11, 2007 is another date that will never leave me. It was the day I signed for Glasgow Rangers.’
In the intervening eight years, McCulloch has won t hr e e Premiership titles, two Scottish Cups and three League Cups.
Three years ago, following Rangers’ liquidation, several big names — including Steven Naismith and Steven Whittaker — left the club un d e r TUPE ( Tr an s f e r of Undertakings Protection of Employment) legislation.
Despite doing no more than act within their employment rights, they were slaughtered by some fans for their alleged disloyalty. McCulloch, who stayed put, was lauded as a hero.
Fast-forward to the present day and t hat heroic captain of yesteryear is now being labelled a useless, money- grabbing, self-seeker.
You’d give more than a penny for Ally McCoist’s thoughts on the matter. A target of the boo-boys after moving to Rangers from Sunderland in 1983, last summer the then manager stressed that the input of McCulloch and Lee Wallace — another who stayed put to play in the Third Division — had been invaluable.
‘Lee Wallace has been fantastic for me. Along with our captain, Lee McCulloch, he has been absolutely vital in giving us the stability on the park after administration and liquidation,’ McCoist stated.
‘They have helped the guys who came to Rangers. They coaxed them through difficult moments.
‘If I hadn’t had guys like McCulloch and Wallace to call on, my job would have been so much harder. They deserve an enormous amount of praise from the supporters and from the management team for helping us through this period.’
How hollow those words now seem. Doubtless, some of the McCulloch detractors couldn’t spell hypocrisy.
You wonder how many of those vilifying him cheered Ian Black when it emerged he had placed a bet against his own team.
Or how many of them wouldn’t hear a word against Craig Whyte or Charles Green before their true motivation was made clear.
Whatever McCulloch’s limitations as a player may be, his commitment to Rangers’ cause is beyond dispute.
He can at least console himself with the fact he is now in esteemed company.
In the early 80s, McCoist endured such personal abuse from a swathe of the home support that it was said to have reduced him to tears.
Mark Hateley also felt their wrath upon joining from Monaco in 1990. Two goals in a league decider against Aberdeen the following season soon put paid to that.
Both players survived their baptism of fires and went on to cement their place in Ibrox folklore.
Sadly, the passing of time decrees that McCulloch — 37 next month — will have no such time to pen his own story of redemption.
“Lee is guilty
of nothing
more than
getting older”