An open Ibrox Noise letter

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An open Ibrox Noise letter


We’ve been receiving a few raised eyebrows of late over perceived criticism of Steven Gerrard. And it’s true, ever since the disastrous Old Firm (we’d been unrelentingly positive this season about him up till then, easily forgotten by some of the angry replies we’re getting) we have been extremely castigating of him.

The Old Firm was unacceptable – and few objected to our thoughts on that at the time. Livi was a shambles, and even then the opposition to our content wasn’t overly huge. But the international break left us in a bit of a pickle – we were remaining balanced, but on the back of two dodgy matches it was hardly conducive to stunning overt optimism.

So to go from that to us suggesting last night’s performance and result left everything peachy would be completely hypocritical.

So, just why are we so critical of Stevie at times? Why do we get so heavy on him?

Well, the vast majority of your Ibrox Noise crew are over 40, and we’re used to growing up around Graeme Souness, Jock Wallace, Walter Smith et al – absolute winners who produced the kinds of Rangers we took for granted.

That was Rangers – a Scottish titan managed by a patriarchal manager, that bestrode the league like a colossus.

Things have changed in the past decade, and we know this. Rangers are not the force they were, we’ve gone through 8 managers in 8 years compared with 4 the previous 9 years.

Things have altered a lot, and us older fans are still in 1995, or even 2005. It’s why we often criticise what we see – we compare James Tavernier with Gary Stevens, or Ryan Jack with Trevor Steven or Gazza – and while a number of our players genuinely are of the level of yesteryear (Allan McGregor certainly is) the overall picture isn’t.

And that leaves us looking at the man who defines it – the manager.

Gerrard has absolutely hiked the level from what it was when he took over last year – we’d never call that anything else.

But we ask for a little leeway from some of our readers who frequently foam at the mouth when we’re critical. We are supporters and we do support but we find ourselves stuck in an impossible dichotomy between what we expect from Rangers and what we actually get.

We also know that a lot of our audience are the younger social media generations – 16-30 year olds who have grown up surrounded by Facebook and Twitter and access to people and information that simply wasn’t around when Walter was destroying the league. Even his second spell only saw the very start of that revolution.

So, we ask for a little slack. From you all. Remember we’re older fans who only know an all-shattering Rangers who keep on being top of the table – a Rangers who always have the Indian sign over Celtic.

And for us, seeing us not top of the table, seeing us struggle against much lesser sides is difficult to handle. We’re winners, we’re Rangers, and seeing anything less is hard to ‘Bear’.

This is not to be unreasonable – one defeat all season is a hell of a record, even for the best Rangers, and we can clearly see massive improvements from the place we were in a couple of years ago.

But until this Rangers is winning the league, until it is clearly challenging for it, sustainably and concertedly, honesty from us is all you’ll get – calling it as we see it as older fans used to constant success.

We know the youngest generations are growing up with a Rangers who aren’t the best in Scotland – it’s all they know, and for them the rise from where we were 7+ years ago to where we are now is just amazing and why would we be negative about that?

But we’ve known and seen better, and we will always expect that. So we ask you to remember the angle we’re coming from the next time we say something negative about our manager or our team.

‘It’s nothing personal’.

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18 COMMENTS

  1. I totally understand what you are saying IN, but, when you keep constantly attacking Gerrard it does sound personal and it also sounds unhealthly obsessive

  2. I totally agree with you IN. No manager or player should get an easy ride if they are not performing to the required standards.
    Stevie G totally got it wrong against Celtic and he rightly too it tight for it.
    Are we just supposed to pay £600 a year for a season book and £30 a whip for away games and just take whatever we are fed?
    That's the problem, players are no performing and are getting an easy time for it.if they can't take criticism they are in the wrong profession

  3. Guys I love this site and I applaud you and I myself am in same category as you are early forties and used to yeater year Rangers. Unfortunatley that has changed and you need to realise that When we where all conquering in Scotland During nine in a row I hated going to Ibrox except old firm games and the sheep cos the atmosphere was lets just say shite. We alll and me included has this idea all we needed to do was turn up and we would win. Welll its alll changed and we are fighting under Stevie Gee to get back that winning feeling and it willll come we need time Who cares if the Celtic gwt nine or ten. It will always be tarnished. We need to group together an get behind us and btw we now have a great atmosphere at ibrox brought to us mainly by the younger generation. We will never forget out great teams of the past but we will support our team no matter what because without us as fans there would be no Rangers.

  4. As a 55 year old dinosaur season ticket man, well said. It's not our fault we're old ,grumpy and remember winning things, sad but not our fault, keep smiling, going to games, our time will come. WATP

  5. I too am of the older generation, who remember the good times of old. However, we need to live in the present, not the historic past. So whilst I do understand what you are saying IN, I would encourage you to be more realistic and live in the current time as things are now, not as they were in the distant past.

  6. I am 47 so of a similar age to yourselves but honestly can't remember seeing walter smith play good football with a far higher quality of player the difference being he played wining football. Gerrard doeasnt play backs to the wall defensive structures like we endured with out dear walter and his standard of player is much poorer so he deserves a break. We didn't get to the eufa final playing an expansive style we got there by being the anti football team that we so criticise when we come up against it in the league.

  7. Ive been watching the Gers from about 1975,and i agree with you and may i just add i'm not a Tav fan,i dont understand why some of our own think he's god,his defending is woeful,again ive been fortunate to have grown uo watching some great defenders😉

  8. You have to take the criticism from the young ones as TBH they are the lifeblood of the team, The young guys go to every bloody match they cheer the Rangers on & if they vent there frustration on your site well tough, If your gonna dish it out you gotta take it, I can understand why they are upset because this is there team that they follow & when people have a go at them they will react, They have had hee haw to celebrate over the years, what with all the Rats associated with the club, Ashley Then god help us Pedro, so just grow a pair & accept this is the business your in & accept criticism, Otherwise go write for a knitting site, (BTW I am a64 & do remember the good times)

  9. listen we have had a real bad time we will get back ti winning ways just takes time let sg do his job we r in Europe we am doing ok an a big sgout for Fernando ricken rip

  10. Some supporters are 'all about the players' but me personally, it's what's best, for the club. I'm not loyal to anyone player and get s**t for it, too. But those who are blindly loyal, are fools. In my opinion.

  11. Lets face it, we have been through the absolute wringer of a decade. Watching every other club in Scotland hate us as the rise in abuse over Social Media grows and grows. Look at the 1st comment in any media, a celtic fan is obsessed.

    Our recent players have been hit and miss. Mostly miss. Managers mostly crap but we are now seeing that trust we put to those eroded with SG once he makes a few mistakes. Yes hes a year older at Rangers but only a year older as a manager so lets balance the criticism.

    I think that IN points are mostly reasonable but i do think you read too much into things.

    Btw im 44 and so i actually remember the sounness revolution. The younger ones grew up on success cant handle it, i know of people who switched to celtic cos they were winning but as stated above, if you dish it out, youll get it back. Its an opinionated game where stupid arguments happen over lennon being sent bullets is as bad as lafferty getting a brick dropped on his car with his family inside.

  12. Ibrox Noise, let's get this straight. Gerrard has different teams for Europe and SPFL. Yes, its great to win our European games, but we also need to win our SPFL games and we wont do that consistently if we keep changing a winning side. That's what happened against Celtic! Gerrard dropped Morelos and also put in Karmara against them, absolutely crazy! So yes, Gerrard did not learn from last season.
    I won't drop my standards of what I expect from a Rangers team. Can I remind you, Celtic is out to win 9 in a row this season. A step forward to an historic 10 in a row!
    And you want us to lay off the manager? No chance! There always has to be an expectancy at our club to win the league, always!!!
    St Johnstone on Sunday is massive, but the team will change again. If we drop any points against a team who are rank rotten this season, then Gerrard has learned absolutely nothing from last season. Always play your best players and never change a winning team, call me old fashioned!!!

  13. Id like to say one more thing, criticism and praise is a 2 way thing. Keep it that way, dont let it affect you because you think of a player differently. Did we agree with Walter all the time? No. Advocaat? No. Mcleish? No…i could go on. But look at other things. SG has rearranged things around ibrox itself and Auchenhowie…..the obvious mistakes are there but i truly believe this is a sounness revolution modern style. It just takes time

  14. I too am old enough to remember the Wallace, Souness and Smith days but let me remind you it wasn't always great in those days, particurly with Wallace and Smith. Sure we won loads but the football wasn't always the best. As for the players we need to accept that players like Laudrup and Gascogne will never grace our pitch again. Scottish football is too much of a basket case for any player of that quality to want to play here. We have to bring the best players we can and not compare them to past players. We will return to the top of the tree some day soon so keep backing the club going forward and remember the past with fondness.

    • Totally agree, we have to learn not to compare past glories with current teams. Could pele get by zidane at peak of their game? No, different eras different abilities. Point is here i do think IN are being a little too critical of SG especially when SG has made massive improvements to Rangers. Is everything right? No. Has he made mistakes? Yes. Will he learn? Time will tell. We have high standards and criticism is part of life especially when social media is rife but sometimes we all need to step back, look at the whole picture.

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