We have spoken about this so many times on Ibrox Noise. That is what Barry Ferguson said back in 2006 under Paul Le Guen when Rangers domestic record had gone to the dogs. And this was long before Danny Rohl’s Rangers.
Barry Ferguson and the magic number
The former captain famously spoke to the press during Rangers downtime. He explained that he would not believe things had turned around unless the team won or went unbeaten ten matches in a row. Certainly, with a majority of wins, ten was the magic number for Barry. He believed ten wins in a row or ten unbeaten, majority wins, showed things had turned.
Now, of course, that is quite literally twenty years ago. But the principles of football are still about winning.
Danny Rohl and the current run
If we are absolutely honest, Danny Rohl is winning. The last defeat, of course, was at Hearts. Rohl has successfully negotiated eight wins in a row. We cannot actually remember the last time we achieved that. Consequently, we think it was around Clement start or maybe Beale. But it was a long time ago.
Winning is what Rangers do. Is it convincing? Even at 3-0, it is not super convincing football. It is winning football, however.
Effective rather than pretty
Walter Smith did not play great football either. It was winning but it was effective. That is a crucial word, effective. We maybe cannot say Danny Rohl’s football is effective. Then again, it is hard to say it is not, given it is winning right now. It is even now winning in Europe.
Eight in a row in all competitions is nothing to be sniffed at. We are not convinced everything has completely turned around. It is not all plain sailing right now. But we do see clear improvement, as we have said before.
The table and what comes next
Nevertheless, second place is still not good enough for Rangers. The only time second is good enough is when you put yourself second and the club first. Walter quite rightly once said that. The fact we got gaslit so badly by Russell Martin back in the day makes things seem better now. That is even though we are still not first.
It is now about hunting down Hearts. It is about getting top. We are currently five points behind the leaders. They held Celtic to that draw. Not having watched the match, we are not sure who deserved to win. It does not really matter.
What matters is they drew and dropped points. We got the result there we needed. It gave Rangers a significant opening. We closed the gap and pulled away from Celtic. That was the best all round result Rangers could have asked for at Tynecastle.
Waiting and watching
So now what happens? Now we watch and we wait with Danny Rohl’s Rangers. Simply put, Rangers are on a good run. They are on a form run. Keeping it up will see Rangers go top of the league.
Whether we win the title this season is another matter. We can see Celtic wanting to bounce back big time. Their draw will have felt like a loss. Nevertheless, it is a nice sign of what could happen. Rangers have won yet again. We have closed the gap. Top of the table surely awaits.