Last week, I had the (dubious) pleasure of watching Rangers play at home in the Champions’ League against Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni. With a prime seat right in front of the away dugout, and within easy shouting distance of the home dugout, I was looking forward to a home win. After all, the team Rangers were playing are, on paper, by far the weakest in the group, and Ibrox doesn’t tend to be an easy place to play at.
How wrong could I have been? What should have been a comfortable 3-0, 4-0 or 4-1 victory turned into a 4-1 loss to a side worth less than a tenth of the value of the Rangers bench. Rangers took the lead within 5 minutes from a corner kick as a shot from the edge of the box took a deflection and looped over the keeper’s head and into the net. Harsh, but you make your own luck. It was looking good. A strong, attacking start gave an early reward. More of the same and the ‘Gers would be fine.
Except they weren’t. They sat back, defending deep in their own half, soaking pressure up and then sitting on the ball, going nowhere. No-one rose to challenge headers, and slowly the pub team from Eastern Europe crept down the wings, through the middle and into the box. Mendes’ opening goal was cancelled out by an equaliser from Bilasco. Rangers won a penalty, which Steven Davis missed. At half time, the teams went in at 1-1. The frustration was clear, with a number of comments flying towards Ally McCoist in the Rangers dugout. Most were to do with Jerome Rothen, on loan from PSG. To say he wasn’t popular is an understatement. The mood amongst the fans was clear – send him back to PSG and put Nacho Novo on in his place.
Rangers did make one change at half time, and it was not met with appreciation in the stands. Rothen stayed on, whilst Mendes, who picked up knock in the first half, was replaced by Kyle Lafferty. Unfortunately for him, he poked the ball in his own net within five minutes, and then Lee McCulloch did the same ten minutes later. The crowd, which was subdued when the first goal went in, was stunned into pin-drop silence. At 2-1, you could have heard the players breathing in the centre circle. At 3-1, the stunned silence was replaced first by approximately 10% of the Rangers supporters making their way to the exit, and then by those left in the stands openly booing the players loudly for some considerable time. By the dugouts, the atmosphere was openly mutinous.
At 4-1… I don’t really remember that bit. I suspect all eyes were still on the dugout. Soon after, the stadium was little over half full. No-one could quite believe the ‘Gers were losing, let alone losing so badly.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like anything will change soon. The club are £30 million in debt and have no money to buy new players. They are struggling to hold on to the players they have already. At the weekend, they drew with Hibs. Earlier in the season, they player out three 0-0 draws in a row. There doesn’t seem to be much light at the end of the tunnel. How can Rangers turn around? Is it even possible, or are they finally paying the hard price of playing in a league that doesn’t provide them with enough of the competition that it required on the European stage? And, regardless of the European stage, why are they struggling so much against Scottish teams?
The current instability at board level can’t be helping, but it also can’t be the whole story.