An insult to the jersey – it’s time for this Rangers flop to go…

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An insult to the jersey – it’s time for this Rangers flop to go…


Ibrox Noise will bring you a full analysis and appraisal of Rangers’ outstanding performance today in due course, and we look forward to it, but if there was one huge blot on the copybook it has to be Niko Kranjcar.

To describe his ‘display’ as disgraceful is generous, for we can barely remember a worse Old Firm display from an individual Rangers player in years.

We are delighted with the performance overall, and the result was more than deserved, but we reserve a huge chunk of anger over how staggeringly poor Kranjcar was today, and the 80+ cap Croat more than deserves called out over it.

For it to take him till the 63rd minute to successfully deliver a pass is one of the most incompetent, lazy, and frankly insulting displays we have ever seen from one of our own, and it is not like the lad made up for it with hard work.

He barely moved!

It is not often we take time these days to attack individual players – we have been more critical of late of the overall picture in Govan. Certain individuals will have bad games but while we can always critique the quality of their play, it is rare that we feel compelled to attack their attitude.

From finding things funny, to taking a stupid amount of time to do his laces, to failing to even hold onto the ball even once in the match, we are bewildered as to why he both started, and was not hauled off at half time.

We know the guy is back from injury (is he not always) but it does not excuse the complete disinterest he evidently had in this match. Maybe he knows he is going next month and simply does not care, but on his few cameos since regaining fitness the guy has been a disgrace.

Kranjcar has delivered in one competitive match – the mighty Peterhead in the cup, since he arrived in 2016. He was also very decent against Marseille last summer but that was a friendly. When it was Niederkorn he went something below feeble.

To call him out as a waste of a wage does not paint the full picture.

And his corners were abject as well today.

We get it – everyone can have an off match, and it would be absurd to make a big deal of it. Call the match a bad match but do not call the player a bad player if he has been good or even honourable otherwise.

Kranjcar has been neither of these and the sooner he is released from his deal and we can sign a competent replacement, the better.

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21 COMMENTS

  1. if the 22 players who started the match today were all at the peak of their careers then niko would be the best of the lot, but sadly his peak is a long time ago, you can have all the ability in the world but its useless if you cant move, its like giving gazza a game, we played with 10 men, surely young barjonas would have been a better option, well played to the guys anyway.

  2. Gents.
    I'm sorry to say that latest injury seems to be the final nail in his coffin.
    He once was a world class player unfortunately it's time to hing up the boots.
    Don't be to hard on him the head knows what to do shame his body doesn't.
    I wish him all the best in the world when he moves on or retires.
    All the best Niko!

  3. Let's not be horrible, but being honest he was finished long before he came to ibrox – I'm sure he's trying!

    Let's just hope we learn from this mistake. Players need mobility for spl

  4. GERS WERE MAGNIFICENT TODAY ESPECIALLY THE FANS ,YES KRANJCAR ,ALVES ,PENA HERRERA ,HAVE OFFERED NOTHING FASTER THERE OUT THE DOOR THE BETTER ,THINK THE ONLY REASON HE WAS PLAYED WAS EXPERIENCE ,AS WE HAD A LOT YOUNG PLAYERS PLAYING .WEE MURTY NEEDS A BIT PRAISE HIS TACTICS WERE SPOT ON .WAS GOOD TO BE A BLUENOSE TODAY

  5. Best player on the park in my opinion was Bates. Always watching and there when he needed to be. Niko was worse than a pedestrian and I'm pretty sure Peña touched the ball more in 10 minutes than he did.

  6. I’m not sure it’s his attitude, he just isn’t capable anymore. Every coach that has worked with him has only ever given him a 100% positive feedback. But he’s 33 now and the legs are absolutely gone. Add that to the fact that he just can not operate in the chaos that is an old firm game and he doesn’t have a chance.
    The tying of his shoes was a pretty desperate attempt to catch his breath and it was quite sad to see from a guy with such an impressive highlights reel.
    I’d be surprised if he is picking up too great a wage, and hopefully he is good for the young guys on the training pitch, but he really shouldn’t be playing in games like these anymore. He is a vs. Bottom half player and no more.

    • On Wednesday he was best player in team. Absolute class with best touch by far. But he is old and slow now and Wednesdays game against a team with 10 men behind ball is quite different from game today. We do need a midfield player to pick open defences . Home games only. It’s a pity he had the injury last year as he may have served us well.

  7. Maybe his legs are gone. But I’d bet heavly that Murty will want him around in training. Having a player with so many caps and experience can only help the team and especially the younger players. We had 3 players on today 21 or younger. Time to mix the youth with good players. We can only improve if we do

  8. Agree with the other comments…..shame we never saw even a glimpse of Niko's best. All the best to him but needs to free up a wage.

  9. Whilst Niko did not contribute anything today in his defence he has had very little game time up to today. However he was not the only player not to contribute just look at Windass non show again. Apart from those two we were magnificent

  10. That was a great performance from 10 Rangers players today. I like Murty but the Team was carrying a passenger today and it wasn’t Pena ffs…Niko your days are over that was beyond pish to say the least… I like Murty but why did he not sub him before 1/2 time? That mob was there for the beating if we didn’t carry Nikos lazy Croatian arse…Bates McCrorie have shown today that they can do it – Tav best game by a country mile! Players will take a lot of confidence from that and rightly so 🔴⚪️🔵

  11. We played out our skin and they were rank rotten and we still couldn’t beat them. Agree with you Bawbag they were there for the taken. Gutted!!

  12. Niko looked like a shrewd signing but he's on a high wage and he does have flashes of brilliance in thefew times he's played but it's time to move him on , in his defence he's married to a supermodel and had an offer from China to play there , so he wasn't chasing money . Alves must go too , he looks good in the Portuguese defence as they play 5 at back , he reads game well but has never had pace and never really was a hard tackler . I'd rather we just played youngsters or proven players in spl as we are fast running out of money .How far is it going to go before people start protesting about the board ? King said he was going to give us £30 and if it needed more he would give his kids inheritance up too , now apparently he doesn't have any money as it's in his families name , so he is a complete liar or the nicest guy in the world as he has signed over all his millions to his family , he promised transparency , well we never have had it but it's transparent that he won't be putting anything more into our club .

  13. nae need tae bad mouth the guy, thanks niko we wish you well in whatever you do! we do it the the rangers way, with class.that's what made us what we are.

  14. Dado Prso warned Warburton at the time that Krancjar's legs had gone – and he has been proven right. Thankfully he is out of contract in the summer.

  15. Another Warburton mistake, kranjcar was a fantastic player in his prime make no mistake but his playing days should be over, it is sad to see a player who has so much talent unable to perform due to old father time catching up with him . To say he isn't trying is simply wrong .

  16. If Niko is finished so is miller Alves pena has never worked out neither has herrera but questions must be asked about our scouting team were three of these players watched and if so what did these show and why have they failed to show what their worth to our supporters haliday brought nothing the first time round why bring him back

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