There’s a real punch to the guts of Rangers fans, and it’s not just the diabolical record our team set as the worst-ever side to darken the Champions League.
No, it’s even worse than that – it’s that our Europa League final opponents, Eintracht Frankfurt, and of course eventual winners of the competition, have, by the flick of Aaron Ramsey’s boot, condemned Rangers to purgatory while themselves strolling into the KO stage of the UCL.
By the mere flick of the Welsh international’s boot, by Kent’s miss, by Goldson’s horrible defending, by a litany of crimes, Rangers missed out on not just the UEL trophy, but the Promised Land of glory and open doors that gifted the winners.
Frankfurt got the riches, they got the UEFA Super Cup Final, they got the trophy itself: but even better, they got a guaranteed slot in pot one of the UCL, plus the financial rewards for that.
Now they sit pretty, comfortably through to the KO stage after a solid group campaign losing just two and winning three, and look forward to what comes next. They are also fifth in the Bundesliga now comfortably in range of the top four. They also shelled out £27M in the summer on new recruits, while bringing in double that in sales.
What we are saying is the sliding door of that UEL final shows Rangers what could have been. Where we could be now had fortune favoured us. Had we been the ones to be given the gilded prizes on offer – as we said before kick off in Seville, winning was everything, and it would give us unspeakable glory, riches and opportunity.
It’s Eintracht who got it all, the earth, while Rangers sunk into oblivion. We sold our best two players, signed mostly pap, and got absolutely destroyed in the UCL to new levels never before seen in that competition.
Are we jealous? We’re sad, is what it is – what difference it could and would have made to our club had we been in Eintracht’s position, where we could have gone with that.
As it is, Europe-wise we’re now a joke, gone from the coveted glory and respect we had 6 months ago to the ignominy we now are.
Eintracht were the better team on the night, and they earned their glory – it’s hard to begrudge them it. But at the same time it could have been ours.
Those sliding doors.
If we had won in Seville, sold 2 players replaced them with injury prone players, who as you could expect, happen to be injured.
We would have been the first pot 1 team with the worst ever record in CL history and the ignominy and embarrassment would have been even greater
When the window was still open the manager insisted his squad was good enough and no further signings made. Not only that we got rid of two centre backs in Balogun and Katic.
I don’t have a UEFA coaching badge, but looking at that group, I could see we needed signings. Signings within our budget but a little higher level in the market we have been buying.
After the first game comments were made that we could not compete at the CL level. I was not aware that a player’s price tag or wages, governed how fast or far they could run or stamina levels or physicality. That is a computer game. In real life surely the oppositions quality and income would be a motivator. As for skill, a couple of hard tackles is a levelling up process. The road to Seville we managed to compete with top teams, so did the comments drain the team’s motivation, they are not stupid either, looking around they can see the investment and backing was not good enough.
In Seville they had a chance to be legends. I remember looking at Bassey and thinking he was totally focussed on trying to attain that status. If a couple more had been in that zone, things may have been different.
Hero to zero in 5 months. The names of those responsible for this CL campaig will go down on history.
It seems everyone has become somewhat deluded by our successes last year. We had 12 players missing and are clearly not playing at our best. A club like us with our resources cannot handle that against the European elite. We’ve been making losses year after year and have done extremely well to now make some money and get back to this level. It is incredible how quickly this is forgotten by our fans. It was painful to watch but it was a reminder of where we actually are. Last year was an anomaly against some good but not great opposition. We will need calm heads and belief in the process rather than turning on people.
Would have been, should have been, I only see hasbeen, get a grip and wake up, all these maybes are just delusional.
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