Clement’s men can still enjoy ‘special’ season by pulling off double
Numan calls on Ibrox squad to speak up
JUST a few weeks ago, it looked as though Rangers were shaping up for a season to remember. At the moment, though, it is one the majority of their fans would rather forget.
Phillipe Clement had inherited from Michael Beale a bedraggled squad shorn of belief, hauled them up by the bootstraps and manoeuvred them into a position where the league title was in their gift. Then, in a four-day period when they visited Dingwall and Dens
Park, the wheels came off.
Defeat at Celtic Park a couple of weeks ago, their third from four matches against Celtic this season, all-but confirmed their Premiership fate. A late collapse at Tynecastle on the league season’s closing day meant they finished eight points adrift of their fierce rivals, and now go into Saturday’s Scottish Cup final on something of a downer.
But, according to a former Ibrox hero, and a man who therefore knows about such things, all is not lost.
The league may be, mind you, which is always the main goal. But with the League Cup already tucked into the Ibrox trophy cabinet, Arthur Numan believes that if his old side can add the Scottish Cup on Saturday, this can still be a season for Rangers supporters to recall fondly.
If they are to do that, then they will have to do something they have yet to manage this season, and defeat Celtic. But if they can, not only does the Dutchman think that can give their fans some succour for the summer, but it can propel them to bigger and better things next season, just as the cup double his team won back in 2002 did for them.
And their opponents that day at Hampden? Celtic, of course.
“When I first signed here in 1998, we won a treble, then a double,” Numan said.
“But then Martin O’Neill came in and started winning a lot. So, we’ve gone from being heroes to getting slaughtered. We were under pressure because it’s all about winning trophies.
“Alex McLeish took over mid-season, but we were 11 points behind. I thought we cannot win the league anymore so we must focus on winning the League Cup and then the Scottish Cup. That’s why this year’s Scottish Cup is so important.
“Okay, Rangers haven’t won the league, but they can still win a double and that makes it special.
“What did that give my side going into the next season? Belief, confidence. When we won the League Cup that season, the biggest moment came in the semi-final with that screamer from Bert Konterman.
“I think that was the most important goal of my entire five years here, because that changed everything. You could see the belief return and the next season we went on to win a treble.
“For this team now, they need to focus on doing something similar. I’m sure Clement will get the whole squad together and say, ‘Okay guys, this is the final game. We should go for it.’
“Clement has done a very good job to bring the confidence back to the players. They are starting to believe again. Up until the 3-3 game at Ibrox, then in one week we gave it away.
“But they have to leave the league behind now. All the focus has to be
FORMER Rangers hero Arthur Numan has said that the current crop of Ibrox players need to start digging one another out as they did in his era, believing that the modernday men Philippe Clement is working with are too quiet on the pitch.
Numan was part of hugely successful Rangers sides under
Dick Advocaat and then Alex McLeish, but when things were not going well or a team-mate was in need of a talking to, there were a host of experienced players only too willing to deliver it.
He does not see that from the Rangers players when he watches their matches now, and he thinks there is a place for some home truths to be delivered when it is required if a team are going to be successful.
“Sometimes you need experience in some positions, players who can maybe coach the other ones on the pitch, that is very important,” Numan said. “I notice nowadays that sometimes on the park they’re very quiet, it’s not like in our time when sometimes you would be shouting at one another.
“You miss that on the park. Sometimes you have to tell each other the truth. When someone shouted at me, I might have needed that. You would want to show them that they were wrong, but at least that gives you some motivation.
“You would want to say, ‘f*** off’, and they would give you something back as well.
“Sometimes I miss that on the park. You see someone making a mistake and they are looking around and no one is saying anything.
“That is the same at a lot of clubs these days, it’s different from 20 years ago. We were telling each other the truth, but only for one reason for the result.
“After the game, we would shake hands and then go for a drink.” on this game. It’s a chance to make history. It’ll be special, in front of an amazing crowd at Hampden. As a player on the park, you look around and think, ‘this is what it’s all about’.
“When you lift the trophy, you become a hero.”
It was not all plain sailing for Rangers that May 22 years ago, falling behind twice on the day before prevailing by three goals to two in the last minute, and having to deal with a fire alarm disrupting their pre-match preparations on the eve of the game.
“We were in the Crowne Plaza,” Numan said. “It was the middle of the night when the alarm went off. You thought, ‘what’s happening?’ “I think it turned out to be the best preparation for us because it kept us sharp. We were all standing outside the hotel in our underwear freezing.
“I don’t know what caused it. Maybe someone interfered with the smoke detector. But it was so strange. One minute you’re getting yourself ready for a cup final, then all of a sudden, the alarm goes off at 4am and you’re standing outside. But we still won, because it kept us sharp!
“That cup final was so special. It went 1-1, then 2-2 and then that amazing goal by Peter [Lovenkrands].”
Lacking the mental strength to cope with such moments of adversity has been a charge laid at the feet of this current Rangers squad, though, and Numan says that the players have to find fortitude within themselves if they are to have any hope of upsetting Celtic on Saturday.
“Of course, winning big games like this comes down to mentality,” he said. “When you are sitting there in the dressing room, you have to be focused on the fact you can win a trophy, because that’s what the game is all about.
“For this side, a few weeks back before the 3-3 at Ibrox, everyone though they could maybe win a treble. Since then, the results haven’t been so good, but you have to draw a line under that, forget it and focus on Saturday’s game.”