Never did a ‘meaningless’ trophy mean so much, with Rangers today facing a date with destiny at Hampden.
Ever since the European space was taken away from the League Cup, the trophy’s value hasn’t been of the same gravity, but if ever a behemoth of a club needed silverware, it’s Rangers, and it’s today.
That our city chums are floundering badly, and that a win today gives Rangers an almost comical shot at the treble means so much to the blue side of Glasgow, but make absolutely no mistake:
Aberdeen will be a million miles away from being mugs.
They dumped us twice at Hampden semis under Steven Gerrard, they’ve done us effectively twice this season already including under Philippe Clement – anyone who even remotely thinks their league position or that 6-0 loss at Parkhead means anything is deluded.
This will be a mega-scrap – this will be tough, and the Dons want this as much as we do.
Clement will have to get the team bang on – this isn’t the same match as midweek’s heroics v Betis, this is a down and dirty Scottish Premiership team who have had a bit of an Indian sign over Rangers for a long time, and in Miovski especially they have a striker who has the measure of Rangers’ ‘best’ defence.
He ripped apart Goldson and Balogun in the 1-1 and while Ibrox Noise prefers Souttar and Balogun, we’re not going to get that.
So this is ‘red’ alert all the way – just because we theoretically have the ‘better’ squad (or, more to the point, more expensive one) doesn’t mean a right to win at all.
This is a cup final – every Dons match Rangers fans call their ‘cup final’ against us.
Well this really is one, and they’ll be even more determined to take the cup.
We 100% have to be a triple-a game for this one, for as much as it’s date with destiny, Robson will have them primed to burst.
Both clubs are off the back of incredible European wins, even if Dons’ was a complete dead rubber v Frankfurt’s Z-team, and both teams have no excuse in terms of tiredness.
No, Rangers will have to be 150%, because anything less will gift our rivals the cup.
It’s been an amazing week for Rangers – let’s not spoil it now.