Fear and confusion in Glasvegas

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Fear and confusion in Glasvegas

These are extremely uncertain times at Ibrox. While fans do not, thankfully, have the direct fear of extinction of our great Club looming over our heads, nevertheless the depths to which the team plunged last weekend, itself following a dismal reverse as it stood, have left the Rangers support, by and large, thoroughly beleaguered.

While there is a portion of the fanbase who are not only content with where Rangers are but are in fact delighted (yes, they are really out there), the majority finds itself in a painful dichotomy of that limbo between where Rangers should be, and where we sadly sit.

As things currently exist, Rangers are miles behind Aberdeen, and cannot even begin to contemplate catching up with Celtic. That is a truly dreadful state of affairs for the Grand Old Lady of Edmiston Drive who sits proudly in Govan while the Club she hosts struggles for its place and its identity.

Who are we now? Are we the historic Rangers who are bewilderingly underperforming? Are we a new era of Rangers that truly has become a midtable team and who future generations of Bears will only know as at this level? Are we a team with a plan who are on its way back?

This paradox of expectation and reality is becoming a real pain in the neck, frankly. The Old Firm rivalry is dead, for now. There is simply no serious level of parity in these matches to justify calling it a rivalry. And that is the ultimate example of Rangers’ travails – we judge ourselves on the Old Firm, on the matches against Celtic, and right now we do not compete.

That, as things stand, is on the backburner. Rangers travel a few short miles to Firhill on Sunday to face a Thistle side who will more than fancy their chances. While Rangers ultimately deservedly won a couple of weeks ago in the reverse encounter, Partick more than played their part for the first 30 minutes, and while not terribly clinical or incisive, they certainly produced better quality football until Miller turned the tide with another of his many goals.

So Alan Archibald will more than believe in his side’s ability to secure something in this one. And another bad result following the two Celtic defeats would simply make currently worrying matters worse.

Indeed, those worrying matters have seen a number of wild and wonderful developments surfacing over the past few days;

•    A consortium led by Sir David Murray supposedly buying the Club back off Dave King
•    King heavily castigated for ignoring the Club while attending NARSA instead
•    Kyle Lafferty begging Rangers to bring him back
•    Director John Gilligan in an angry altercation with fans at the director’s box
•    Pedro Caixinha earmarking 12 new players and bidding on 3 of them
•    King violating terms of tribunal hearing over his stewardship of Rangers

It is a very unstable period in general – Rangers fans do not seem to know what their Club is doing or where it is going; and that lack of a coherent plan just makes everyone connected with the Club uneasy. And add all these crazy stories (mind you, Joey Barton was a ‘crazy story’ once) and it is undeniably unsettling.

It would be nice to have the good old days back, but it seems like that is a long, long way off.

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10 COMMENTS

  1. Good article guys well written .It is terrible times ..the silly rumours don't help. Pedro must be wondering how it will play …The board feel the pain too …Gilligan is a Blue Nose and feels the strain . We the fans we the Rangers people need to dig deep and Follow Follow There is no alternative

  2. Delighted? Holy crap. Where did you find them? While I don't think things are as mortally bad as many would have as believe, we are in a pretty rotten place at the moment. Until Pedro has had his chance at fielding his own team, he shouldn't be getting the bullet and as for the Board? Well, as shady as it all might be, who else is out there?
    Consortiums, fan-ownerships, oligarchs… all well and good, but unless it's a splash the cash situation, we're stuck for a bit.
    Only other alternative is a scouting system worth its salt that can come up with some young stars in the making that aren't injury prone.

    We're a club of missed opportunities at the moment. Our rise from the lower leagues should have been the forming of a young, strong, passionate Auchenhowie gang. Played together, fought together. Sadly we're stuck with some journeymen from the English lower leagues that for all their efforts don't have the sense of where they are and who they play for. They won't either until they leave Ibrox.

    Ups and downs, as per usual for us.

    • Well said that man ☝🏼👏🏼

      Delighted at the position the Club is in?? Fuck they must be Ashley supporters 😜

  3. I remember 7-1 trashing 1957, but we beat Celtic in the next game. No chance this time. Haven't heard of the Murray consortium involvement. I live in Dorset. Can you enlighten us Bears down here.

  4. This could all change by the summer. If we had been beaten like this by Celtic last season then no one would be caring. Give it until July. But it looks like there could be a few good players signing before then, if that happens then all will be good again. Jist a little patience is needed..

  5. An element of perspective should always be maintained.
    A return to the top table and challenging Celtic was never on the cards and as it sits finishing 2nd rather than 3rd will only net us a small amount of additional prize money.
    What has been unacceptable has been finding out we had a manager of less than 2 seasons actively touting himself around the lowers leagues in England. A manager that's signing policy has left our small transfer budget stretched to breaking point buying journeyman players with no heart for the club. It doesn't now matter if it annoyed at the time but Kenny Shiels article in the tabloids claiming that Warburtons tactics were easy to predict and counter now seem VERY true. Those are the things that hurt.
    Our new manager now has the task of cutting loose the dead wood and starting again. This isn't the same as having our club the victim of a fraud by criminals then see it punished further by authorities who should have helped. How many millions of pounds of players did we lose when Whyte did his worst? We will overcome. We are coming back.
    This is just a delay.

  6. Jeez does no one actually realise how perilous a state Rangers are in at the moment?
    Litigation battles left right and centre with multi million £ liabilities, a stadium in desperate need of repair (some say upwards of £5m?) and a chairman who is on the brink of having the Financial cold shoulder applied, Soft loans required nearly every month to pay wages and no credit facility with any bank. If DK remains at the helm it's likely that all banking facilities could be withdrawn. Apparently it's a much bigger thing than is being widely reported. Allied to that two of the best players will be returning to parent clubs.
    Not good !

  7. Jimmy

    Spot on, but sadly these things never become widely reported until shit hits fan and flies everywhere!!! You are correct in your assessment around the Financial cold shoulder, that fact has finally hit home with those running the club and why, so I hear, they are planning to throw King under the bus, to deflect the hardship such restrictions will have, on the club and their own business interests….no one will offer Financial services, credit or banking facilities to King or anyone fingered with him in his Concert takeover….this has only ever been implemented twice before in history….that's how severe this can be but people have the deflector shields up.

    Some of the things coming out in the Craig Whyte hearing is toe curling stuff and it beggars belief that anyone would think that crooked fucker Murray, who is responsible for this whole fkn omnishambles, should be mentioned and believed as an alternative to King and co…what fkn planet are you on guys, ffs surely you really cant think that throwing King in jail and replacing him with someone who should be stripped of his title and thrown in jail for what he has done financially to banks and our club….jeez I really cant believe anyone would think that's a viable option, incredible!!!!

    If King is out at NARSA as Chairman of the Board, with his begging bowl, and is turning his nose up at the Takeover Panel, then I fear the worst as the have the highest court in the land to do their bidding and inflict the punishment….and they do not take no, or the actions and disregard he is showing lightly….oh dear oh dear.

    GSTQ

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