Rangers – why have the Scottish press ignored this?

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Rangers – why have the Scottish press ignored this?


We remember the “Nightmare of Niederkorn.” Those infamous two legs which are rightly ranked as Rangers’ worst European results in our history. They beat the Athens, Gothenburg, Graz disasters by a country mile and stand alone in ignominy.

A year later, Steven Gerrard’s Rangers not only exorcised that ghost by getting past the first round in the form of a similarly weak team called FC Shkupi, but well and truly crushed the demon and then some by negotiating a further three torrid rounds of European qualifying football with a squad he’d only just assembled, and as, himself, a brand-new manager, a rookie on the job.

To add more staggering stats to this, the form has continued in the group stage of the competition, with a stunning draw in Spain then an even more bewildering win against Rapid.

Rangers’ all-time record in Europe is 12 games unbeaten (sorry about the slight miscalculation earlier) and Steven Gerrard’s side is already at 10.

So, we have to ask – just why is so little being made of this truly impalpable achievement?

It is our genuine conviction, that if we take context, squad quality, manager situation, budget, and every other factor into account Steven Gerrard and his men’s achievement ranks up there with 9IAR, 1972, 1993, 2006 and 2008.

All these other five amazing squads and managers of the past achieved their stunning records with a stronger backbone; either a great manager, a great squad, a dominant team, a much higher budget etc.

In short, all those other achievements were a different era where Rangers were either the best or close to the best.

In this case today, Steven Gerrard, a brand-new manager on the job, and an outsider, has rebuilt a squad with a modest budget – yes, he has spent some cash, with Connor Goldson still the big summer spend at £3M. But compare that to the yesteryear spending of a clutch of players who would cost £5M each and it’s just a different world.

And now put into context where he’s taken a ragamuffin group of sub-par players who couldn’t even beat a mid-table Luxembourg side to.

We are now 10 games unbeaten in Europe, with a bunch of wins – and yet, it really lacks a lot of praise.

We have gone into the group stage the hardest way possible. We won four qualification rounds in a row, and have continued in the group stage.

And yet a real lack of credit appears to have gone to the manager or the players for this.

Few headlines talking about the sheer gravity of our history makers, who went from zeros to heroes over the course of a year.

Is this the Scottish press at their tricks again, not interested in giving Rangers our due? Have we overhyped the achievement ourselves and it’s not really all that after all?

Or, is it truly an astonishing and historical achievement which doesn’t suit the agenda in this country to praise, so it gets very little mention?

Perhaps it doesn’t matter. We know how big a deal it was.

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18 COMMENTS

  1. Its Because the Press/Media dont give a Toss when Rangers are doing well/Breaking records etc

    They are only interested when we are playing Shit or we are in some kind of 'Mess' …so that they can take a shot at us!

  2. FFS …If Celtic did it there would be Countrywide celebrations and Like England winning the WC in 66 we would never hear the end of it!

  3. We shouldn't be surprised the Scottish System the Scottish Media all hate Rangers…Why …they can't seem to swallow any good thing we do….When we win our rightful place as champions they will all be stunned in anger and silence Bastards the Lot

  4. Its a really good run we are on, but to compare this with 1972 or 9 in a row, sorry no where near these two massive achievements. WATP

  5. Quite aside from not giving Steven Gerrard and his staff credit for what they and the players have achieved the press choose to have a front page headline of a former Rangers player using abusive? language whilst the trial of a former Celtic boys club coach for allegedly abusing young boys and as you see I am using the word allegedly so not to cause any problems had began and was stuck away in a small column inside and did not mention his connection to Celtic add to that the BBC showing the shameful banner that the half witted Aberdeen fans had made with Ryan Jack on it enough said

  6. Obviously didn't read the two page feature in the Daily Record today where they spoke to Dave MacPherson and compared the amazing achievements of current team to that of Dave's 1993 team…..just saying…!!!!!

  7. Can you imagine if Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, or Kilmarnock had achieved the same results, it would have been front page news.

  8. Its a great achievement and I've thoroughly enjoyed watching the UEL games. However the quality of the opposition has to be taken into consideration. Villareal did rest 9 players and we sneaked a point imo. Rapid werent a great side and the others Id never heard of. I cant put it up there with other teams achievements. All things considered still a great run! Still looking at the squad as lacking that confidence and maturity we're used to over the years. Still feels like a group of underdogs…

  9. The run in the Europa Cup has been nothing short of brilliance by this group of players, put together in a short space of time, and yes we might still be good enough to qualify, so let's all get behind our team, and thank Steve Gerrard and his staff for giving us something to look forward to in the future. We now know that we are more than capable of winning something in the coming months and years, hard as it may be.

  10. Sure, its a great run, especially after the last 6 disastrous years, but you cannot compare it to Season 92 in the European cup where we were cheated by Marseille or 2008 in the final of the Uefa cup, if we won it then we have achieved the miracle but a long long way to go, l would take the league win first Europa cup 2nd

  11. The Scottish Press are the Green Press. I don't understand how we can do so well in Europe, yet still not beat Ceptic. Is it a psychological block, now?

  12. The papers the radio have mentioned it.alot of these rangers pages are starting to sound as paranoid as the green and grey brigade.get a grip."no one likes us,we don't care"thats always been the case.the songs not"no one likes us and it's just not fare"

  13. It's simply that the press like the SFA. ARE ANTI RANGERS. THEY HATE THE FACT THAT WE HAVE RISEN FANTASTICALLY AGSAGAI ALL THE ODDS. WITH A BRAND NEW TEAM AND MANAGER. AND AREATWO RESULTS AWAY FROM EQUALING OUR BEST TALLY IN EUROPE.

  14. Very very good point , but it’s rangers and we’re used to it. If we lose or Morelos has a tantrum, or we have an injury it’s news , if we do well it’s unrecognised completely, something I feel we’re all growing well used to in this era. Don’t think the article is comparing the teams but the run were on with the staff and resources available to it and the time scale we’ve had to assemble it and make it as functional as it is. And on that basis it’s a remarkable achievement to say the least. Any other team it would be news and spoken of greatly. We can always rely on IN though to gee us up and put it out there. WATP.
    I predict 2-0 tonight and no tabloid praise tomorrow.

    • Correct Paul, we're by no means saying the achievement beats 9IAR like for like, we're adding where we are into the mix. This Rangers team doing what they've done in our present day circumstances is up there as one of our club's biggest-ever achievements. Quite a lot of readers may have misunderstood our point.

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