The new way to measure Rangers?

While on the face of it it is easy to say Rangers are not as good as we were. Yet all the time we Bears find ourselves debating over the quality of the current crop and find ourselves trying to elevate someone like James Tavernier to Alan Hutton level. In short, we try to big our players up to justify the simple fact they are Rangers players and should be furnished with ability accordingly.

Of course, it is a subjective measurement, and even here at Ibrox Noise we have been guilty (rightly or wrongly) of comparing someone like Jason Cummings with Steven Naismith. Indeed, we even condoned the club’s decision not to pursue the Norwich striker in the face of their acquisition instead of the Forest forward.

But just how do we know where we stand in terms of teams from yesteryear? Some might try to justify Alfredo Morelos and say he is just as good as Nikica Jelavic (or maybe not, right now (!)), or big up Ryan Jack and say he is on the level with a Maurice Edu or the like.

Others may think these players are miles off.

Who is correct? Well the simple measurement is international caps. The best way to compare your current Rangers team with your previous ones is to look at both how many have been capped for their country, and how many of those are current internationals.

If we go back to 2011 and a team filled with McGregor, Whittaker, Goian, Bocanegra, Edu, Davis, Aluko, Naismith, Lafferty and Jelavic, how many are/were internationals or current internationals?

All, is the answer.

Going back further to 2007 and Walter’s return, it was filled with Daniel Cousin, DaMarcus Beasley, Carlos Cuellar, Alan Hutton, Lee McCulloch, Kevin Thomson et al. How many of those were internationals and indeed current internationals at the time? All bar two; Cuellar and Thomson. And Cuellar was entirely understandable.

Now fast forward to the present day, how many of this Rangers squad have actually played for their country?

Russell Martin, Declan John, Lee Hodson, Ryan Jack, Jason Cummings, Lee Wallace, Kenny Miller, Graham Dorrans, Bruno Alves, and Jamie Murphy.

Doesn’t sound too bad does it?

Now how many of these are proper playing current internationalists? The answer? Barely two.

Martin is no longer called up, John only got a few caps before his recent return, Hodson is a fringe player, Jack got his first call up and cap only a few months ago, ditto Murphy with a 5-minute cameo, ditto Cummings, Wallace is a fringe call up, Miller is naturally past it, Dorrans stopped getting call ups some time ago, and while Alves regularly gets call ups, he is there now for squad depth with his country and is usually behind Pepe and Coentrao.

That is your barometer, and it really is quite stark.

Now look at Celtic, unpleasant though such activity is. If nothing else shows the gap Rangers must close, it is the internationalists one. And Celtic are absolutely chock full of them – Lustig, Rogic, Brown (ex), Armstrong, Forrest, McGregor, Griffith, Tierney, Bitton, Hayes et al to name just 10 are some of the currently international players Celtic boast.

In short, when Rangers have a team full of credible international players, that is when we will truly know they are where they should be on a squad level at least. Even Aberdeen have been far more successful recently on this basis. In fact, the top 6 are filled with current internationals for various nations – Hearts in particular, along with Hibs and to an extent Killie have a number of current senior internationalists.

We hate to look at Celtic, but their squad has a hell of a lot of internationals. Not as much as yesteryear in their case either, but still plenty of them.

Alves aside, Rangers will have no one at the world cup this year. And by then the Portuguese international will probably have left anyway.

That is where Rangers must get to.