Rangers are thriving, not just surviving says Johnston
● Ex-chairman hits back at ‘new club’ jibes
Former Ibrox chairman Alastair Johnston has taken a swipe at Celtic fans who claim Rangers are a new club.
Many Celtic supporters, and indeed some fans of other teams in Scotland, maintain that Rangers ceased to exist when it went into administration in February 2012 before going through liquidation, and that it was another incarnation of the club which emerged in the bottom tier of Scottish football.
Johnston’s chairmanship ended when Craig Whyte took over in 2011 before the club’s financial implosion, but he returned to Ibrox as a director in 2017. He believes the 2-1 win over Celtic on Sunday, Rangers’ first victory at Parkhead since 2010, demonstrated the self-belief at Ibrox going into the new decade.
Reflecting on the dark days of 2012 and the fall-out, Johnston said that Rangers not only survived but are now thriving.
“I left after we won the title for the third time in a row in 2011, and I wasn’t believing my ears about what was going on at the club and where it was going,” he said.
“You were hearing all the words like the Rangers have disappeared, they have died, it was a new club and all the stuff which self-interested people tried to maintain.
“I always wondered about the mentality of certain Celtic supporters, not by any means most of them, who basically said our club died in February, 2012.
“You know what? If that was the end of Rangers and Celtic and if that was the end of the big game that started in 1888 [the first Old Firm meeting] all the way to 2012 – we won that game.
“The way you determine it by the number of times [54] we won the top division [Celtic have won the Scottish title 50
times, including the last eight in a row] – we were ahead in February, 2012 and in head-tohead victories, we were ahead of Celtic in 2012. So if you wanted to say the old Rangers of 1872 died – we beat you 2-0 and when the game started again in 2012, it will be 120 years or so before you can tie with us.
“So you were dealing with that sort of mentality, with Rangers fans being defensive.
“But the reality is Rangers survived and not only did they survive, they started to thrive again.
“What we are seeing is much more of a thriving Rangers than a surviving Rangers.
“We have left survival behind us and it is now all about thriving and seeing how far we can go.”
Rangers’ first win at Celtic Park in almost a decade confirmed the “sense of belief” that has returned to Ibrox, according to former chairman Alastair Johnston.
Sunday’s 2-1 victory, their first at Parkhead in the league since October 2010, took Steven Gerrard’s side to within two points of their Old Firm rivals at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership table with a game in hand.
Johnston was chairman at Ibrox from 2009 to 2011 before he left following Craig Whyte’s takeover and before the club’s financial meltdown in 2012 saw them re-emerge in the bottom tier of Scottish football.
While it took Rangers four years to return to the top flight, Celtic became all-conquering and have now won the last eight league titles and the last ten trophies on offer in Scotland.
Johnston, who returned to the Rangers board as director in June 2017, said: “Sunday was important for the fans. It is always important to keep their enthusiasm going and that was terrific. Psychologically, not just the victory on Sunday but the performance three weeks ago [in the Betfred Cup final defeat by Celtic], if you put those things together there is a sense of self-belief in the entire club, that we are back.
“It may not be level terms because certainly the values of the players and the amounts being paid at Parkhead are not close to what we are paying.
“But I do think there is the sense that we are in reach and the mistakes that we made last year after the winter break – let’s hope that we have learned from that experience.”
Johnston was referring to the fact Gerrard’s side had beaten Celtic in the last game of 2018 to go level on points with the Parkhead side at the top, only to fall away after their return from the winter break.
The 71-year-old businessman, who splits his time between Scotland and the USA, believes the Govan club are now better prepared to put an end to Celtic’s domination.
“Last year was certainly disappointing because we did feel that we were in reach at the turn of the year, after the victory at Ibrox [over Celtic], but then there was a reality check,” he said. “Steven and the new team had to have time to bed in. I said Steven was going to be a better manager in the second year of his tenure. This year was the one, certainly from the board’s standpoint, that we have invested for. There is no question about that.
“We are encouraged by the first half of the season but certainly not satisfied. Satisfaction does not come into this thing until April or May, to see how we have done in the competitions. But I tell you what, we are better positioned than we have been for a long time.
“We are playing against a club [Celtic] who have a very good team and a very good management system. That was the difference a couple of years ago when we got pushed around by them in ways which were very uncomfortable to all of us. They had better players right across the board than we had but I think that landscape has changed.
“We are getting closer to having parity on the field. We would never underestimate Celtic, they have a lot of experience, a lot of very good players.
“But having said that, the last coupleofmonthshavegivenus aspiration that in the second half of the season, we can produce the results that will end up winning something and not just having a quality season.”
“We are getting closer to having parity on the field. We would never underestimate Celtic... but the last couple of months have given us aspiration that in the second half of the season, we can produce the results that will end up winning something”
ALASTAIR JOHNSTON