Steven Gerrard has revealed his Rangers side isn’t ready for the Champions League and trying to get there was ‘punching above our weight’.
The manager, speaking pre-Dunfermline, was in sanguine mood as he soberly reflected on the worst week of his post-playing career, telling the press about the dreadful mood in Rangers’ camp while stating we need to flip the climate quickly.
But it was his brutal assessment of Rangers’ European progress and words which echoed our own on Ibrox Noise when he said we’ve proved we’re a last 16 team in the UEL, but we’re not ready for the UCL, and were pretty much taught a lesson by Malmo.
Ibrox Noise had stated the last 16 was our European limit, and one gentleman suggested he didn’t agree on that. Well, Stevie G himself has alluded to the same thing, so perhaps he’ll take the manager’s opinion more seriously.
And the boss is right on this one. Rangers not only aren’t ready for the CL yet, they are in fact nowhere near it.
Walter’s Rangers struggled in many qualification phases, and often benefited from going straight to the group stage or only having to negotiate a sole qualifying round. So this is no shame on our manager or our squad today, who have been colossal the past 12 months.
But they have hit a limit for now on Europe, and the UEL is about it.
CL is simply too strong.
We frequently described it on this site as the ‘Promised Land’ – well it’s one we’re some distance away from competing in, and if we want to avoid 6 losses in the group stage next year, assuming we win the SPL, we have a year and 3 windows to try and build a better squad capable of it.
At present, we’re a mile off.
So it really is all about the league – the UEL is there, but it’s little more than a distraction this season.
Winning the league earns Rangers a lot of money, for CL group certainty.
But right now, as a squad, we’re miles below the standard required for the CL proper. Hell, we’re miles below the standard needed for the playoff round.
Stevie soberly admits that.
We just hope this is one fans can accept.
It’s good that everyone is soberingly accepting that we are not CL level at present. But IN you did expound the £35/40 million riches , and sadly a lot bought in to this dream hope. Well we are where we are. We are still on our day the best Team in Scotland, the Team and the Manager need to re-realize this and get going. . Onwards 56
Yes, that was factual though. But we were the only site repeatedly pressing how hard this was going to be to achieve – we added enough disclaimers to please a lawyer…
I still think the side we had out should have been enough to defeat Malmö. Across the two games we had the lion’s share of possession yet failed to be as clinical in front of goal as we have been, resorting to the old tactics of cross and hope when chasing the game rather than playing through the lines. The main difference, in my opinion, between this fixture and many of the others was in not having the ability to start Jack, Kamara and Roofe. 3 often trusted lieutenants when it comes to European fixtures. Gerrard and yourselves are probably right however, that the group stages games against the likes of PSG etc would be a step too far, which considering the gulf in finances between us and the major players is unsurprising. Losing against Dundee United alone shows that this team isn’t playing to the level it can, nevermind losing three on the bounce.
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