If there was one thing Ibrox Noise noticed about last night’s tub-thumping Youth Cup Final, it was the embarrassing absence of anyone Rangers at Hampden, aside our youth team.
Celtic had a tonne of representatives, including Stavros and ex-CEO Peter Lawwell, and a tonne more fans as well.
Rangers? Absolutely no one aside the youth coaches and our team. Plus about 6 supporters.
If there is any doubt about a lot of things wrong with Rangers right now, this showpiece occasion at Scotland’s national stadium highlighted them.
Apparently there were good luck messages from senior Celtic people, including their manager, to their young squad before the match – we’re not aware of a single interaction from Rangers’ higher ranks towards the Academy kids before they took to the Mount Florida turf.
We know this is a summer of change at Rangers, and we really hope the changes are root to tip, because stuff like this is ugly.
It’s just not good enough. That the kids went out to Hampden with no messages or support from the club, and while they put in a great wee shift and didn’t disgrace themselves (including a false red card for simulation when Lovelace was clearly fouled) they lacked club support.
As we say, even the fans gave this one a miss. The Parkhead fans might not have been in their thousands either but there were many dozens of them, and they made all the noise.
ALL the noise.
Rangers fans numbered barely 5 and there wasn’t much of a peep from them all night.
Rangers are going through a transitional period, a tough period in our history, where we’ve sunk more or less back to Warburton and Pedro days. It’s not QUITE the banter years, but it’s not far off and it needs reversed.
To go from where we were in March 2021 and even Sevilla and a historic final, 12 months later we’re a joke.
That’s hard words for a lifetime Rangers fan to type, but we shouldn’t be in this position, and yet here we are.
But that Michael Beale and his staff disregarded the kids really sums up why we are where we are.
It’s just miles short of Rangers standard.