Rangers promised that the club’s 150th anniversary year would be one to remember and so far they’re threatening it will be for all the wrong reasons.
On the pitch Rangers’ annual post-Winter break collapse has seen the club throw away a six-point lead in the Premiership with the Gers now sitting three points behind Celtic.
Our Old Firm rivals in disarray at the beginning of the season, if Rangers cannot haul back the difference despite Celtic’s resurgence this will go down as a monumental failure.
January saw the club also move for four players, none of whom – up until this weekend with Aaron Ramsey’s goal – has had a tangible impact on the team.
This has had supporters already gunning for the directorate for sleeping on command with a perception that they have failed to properly invest in the squad.
This is also part of the reason why some believe Steven Gerrard was so quick to jump ship in November, including former chairman Dave King [Herald].
The situation already had fans tense with supporters – and the players – well aware that anything but a perfect seven game run on league duty will likely spell disaster.
Rangers still challenging on domestic and Euro fronts
It’s not all bad of course; the club’s monumental Europa League run has fans dreaming and everyone involved deserves massive credit as Rangers continue to fly the flag for Scotland.
But stopping short of winning the trophy, and surrendering the title to Celtic, will see the Parkhead club mop up the £40m and Champions League qualification that anyone being honest will admit Rangers put the hard yards in to secure for the Premiership winner.
But if on the pitch accusations of uninterested, out-of-sorts, unprofessional league performances weren’t enough to get fans blood boiling, off it, there’s been infighting galore.
Rangers used by Celtic in Australia Old Firm promotion
Not only have this Rangers team blown a huge advantage domestically but they’ve teamed up with Celtic off the pitch by way of Ange’s Homecoming friendly tour.
In the most tone deaf, egregious move of the season to date, Rangers arranged an Australia-based friendly with their Australian-led rivals and for some reasons expected fans to agree.
Not only do Rangers appear a footnote to Celtic in the club’s 150th anniversary year – something sacrificed for a quick buck – but the Gers have been used as a buffer for bad news across the city.
How anyone at Ibrox thought jumping into bed with Celtic – who refuse to even recognise our existence – in this year of all years is beyond me and criticism has rained down from the stands.
Some of it – such as the return of genuinely depressing sectarian and offensive singing – is stupid beyond belief and hands no-one but our detractors momentum. Fans have let the club down here too.
But others, such as stoppages in play, are now threatening to pour onto the pitch as supporters risk the ire of a team still challenging on three fronts for their success.
The friendly has to go – and soon. Rangers can retain some credibility by cancelling it during this international break, before they play their new-found chums in a not-so-friendly-literally-must-win-clash at Ibrox in a fortnight.
Thankfully it does look increasingly likely it will be scrapped.
Club 1872 launch scathing attack on Rangers board
Now, Club 1872 – a group of shareholders with whom plenty have taken umbrage over the years – have raised their head above the parapet to take a shot at Rangers.
The shareholders claim the Rangers directorate – naming specifically James Bisgrove, David Graham and Stewart Robertson – have “an extremely unhealthy disdain” for the support.
They take aim at the board for failing to listen to supporter views on safe-standing, disabled facilities and merchandising amongst many others, whilst they take aim at Rangers for fleecing fans via MyGers or the introduction of NFT fan tokens.
They accuse the club’s closed-shop fan media-led approach of misleading supporters on a range of club issues, from transfer targets to merchandising.
They also accuse Stewart Robertson of trying to force Club 1872 into signing a non-disclosure agreement that would effectively prevent them communicating freely to supporters.
At the heart of it all, Club 1872 claim this is all “to serve the interests of a handful of members of the Plc Board”.
Read it all HERE. Wow.
Now there’s clear legitimacy to the concerns and it’s obvious there’s a disconnect between the board, Club 1872 and the fans, but how the timing of all this helps or improves Rangers in anyway is beyond me.
Only one crowd benefit from all this infighting, and they’re not wearing blue.
Rangers left furious as they call out apparent Club 1872 self-interest
Rangers – snarling and bitten by the nature of the Club 1872 statement – have also came back fighting with a controversial statement of their own that does little to douse the flames of Club 1872’s petrol fire.
In it, there’s a markedly aggressive tone and Rangers appear to suggest that those who have a problem with the board simply want their jobs, branding the move a “propaganda war”.
Rangers accused “a small rump of supporters” of “causing damage to our club” and raised legitimate questions regarding the timing.
They claim those intent on causing “maximum disruption” are individuals who “have either enjoyed, or craved, a role within our club” amid a call for unity.
Read the entire thing HERE.
There’s something opportunistic about Club 1872 striking now as Rangers fan tolerance with the board has never been lower due to the Old Firm friendly.
But there is a real feeling – and sentiment – that too many individuals are looking our for their own interests in this murky battle and aren’t putting the club first.
As Rangers turn 150, like a family party gone awry, it’s the fans who could be left deflated, donning party hats and huffing into streamers as the adults fight and the party passes them by, on and off the pitch.
Meanwhile – as all of this goes on – Rangers have also handed Celtic an apparent ticket advantage ahead of the next two Old Firm matches.
