‘There’s an expectancy at certain clubs to win
The Cup final that season was an epic game. Winning it against Celtic was one of the best days of my football life
THERE can be no standing still at either Celtic or Rangers. Quicksand beneath the feet commands a perpetual forward motion as managers of either side feed the machine. Steven Gerrard is firmly assured of his status at Rangers after becoming the man to stop Celtic winning a 10th successive title. But having delivered the first Ibrox championship in a decade there will be a fairly keen appetite to make it a double celebration.
It is 11 years since Rangers last won the Scottish Cup but the portents would suggest it will sit alongside the championship this season.
Beaten only once so far this term – St Mirren’s success in the Betfred League Cup denied any talk of a treble – Gerrard’s side go into the latter rounds of this tournament with the look of a team who expect to win it.
And little wonder. A paucity of goals conceded, more scored than any other Scottish team and a commanding record on home soil have been the ingredients that have injected a confidence and belief throughout the Ibrox side. St Johnstone will take heart from their performance at McDiarmid Park on Wednesday night but with the league long won, there will be an entirely different vibe to tonight’s meeting between the teams, as former Ibrox manager Alex McLeish can appreciate.
McLeish won both domestic Cups in his inaugural season at Rangers and a treble in his following campaign. He knows a little about the complexities of continually delivering.
“On my first day in the job I was asked by the press how I felt about the underwhelming welcome from the Rangers fans,” he said. “Dick Advocaat had been a foreign coach so there was maybe a tendency that the club would only go down that road. But my answer was that it was up to me to prove to fans that I was right for the job. And of course, the Scottish Cup final that season was an epic game. It was one of the greatest memories of my football career. Winning it that day against Celtic was genuinely one of the best days of my football life.
“There’s an expectancy at certain clubs to win trophies and that will never stop at Rangers or Celtic. It’s a case of on to the next one. As soon as you win one, it’s a case of moving on to the next. Because there’s an expectation level that you have to keep doing it. It’s a high pressure game, a high pressure club. To be able
to do that, lift those trophies, is exhilarating. And you know that you’re making the fans happy. Steven Gerrard comes from a club where there’s that expectation to win trophies. When you win one, you then have to try to win the next one.
“That expectation will always be there at Rangers while they’re dominating the game up here in Scotland.”
This week’s football agenda has been dominated by the botched European Super League attempt with McLeish inevitably adding his voice to the chorus of disapproval for the tournament that never was. The inevitability, however, is that there will be some kind of re-arrangement of the format of European competition after a decade in which the Champions League has continually contracted to make it harder for teams from leagues outwith the elite five to get in. It is difficult to envisage another Rangers manager doing what McLeish did and taking the club to the last 16 of the Champions League, the only Ibrox manager to do so.
“I do think it is becoming increasingly impossible looking,” said McLeish. “We know that sometimes you could get to that level but the smart money is not on Rangers and Celtic not making it to those stages any more because of the financial weight of the other clubs and their ability to sign the very top players.
“It’s been here for a long time for now and it would be such a travesty if teams don’t qualify for the Champions League despite winning their own leagues. To see Rangers appearing in the Champions League and hearing that again would, pardon the pun, be music to everyone’s ears. The Champions League is still prone to making changes and one of them is trying to make sure all the clubs that win the leagues have a bigger say in getting there.
“The Champions League is still prone to making changes and one of them has to be to try and make sure that all the clubs who win their respective leagues have a bigger say in getting there.”
Since the turn of the century
Celtic and Rangers have sought access to other avenues which would significantly bolster their resources but would also leave Scottish football at risk of becoming even further removed from the European top tier. McLeish, who was at the helm at Rangers where there was a season of perennial talk of moving to England, has watched with interest this week as a re-emergence of a British league has surfaced.
“Walking away from Scotland would be difficult for other clubs but at the same time then it genuinely gives other clubs a chance to say ‘we can go and win this league,’” he said. “They would have a chance of winning their own league. I am sure that would be exciting for any supporter. If Hearts or Hibs were to win the league would their fans say ‘oh, I wish we had Rangers and Celtic back?’ The Atlantic League as well was mooted some time ago too with the Scandinavians, Belgians and Dutch involved. Everyone is trying to think of the way forward, get corporate money into the club to pay the big wages and buy the best players.” n Alex McLeish was promoting exclusive live Premier Sports coverage of Rangers v St Johnstone today from 6pm. Premier Sports is available on Sky, Virgin TV and the Premier Player. Prices start from £10.99 per month