Whilst the main story was all about Rangers reaching the Betfred Cup final at Hampden after dismantling Hearts 3-0 in the semi, the subplot involving Steven Naismith wasn’t missed either.
The former Rangers striker got over half an hour to make an impression against his old club but mustered a yellow card, a clash with Ryan Jack and a pretty pathetic dive.
Despite winning six trophies at Ibrox, playing 132 times for Rangers and scoring 33 goals, he is routinely painted as a villain amongst fans and booed every time he touches the ball, but does he deserve it?
The entire thing stems from the immediate aftermath of Rangers’ financial collapse in 2012.
Steven Naismith and Steven Whittaker called a press conference to say they wouldn’t be transferring their contracts on legal grounds as “Rangers Football Club no longer exists in its original form”.
Cue anger from the Rangers fans who’d previously sung Naisy’s name when he helped guide us to three-in-a-row under Walter Smith.
The statement made by Naismith was and remains unforgivable to many Rangers fans. His on-pitch brinksmanship and wido behaviour is just a by-product of the atmosphere since.
It’s not that Naismith hasn’t tried to make his peace with Rangers fans either.
Naismith retracted his comments in 2017, saying he “regrets” the statement and was “wrong” to say things had changed concerning the football club and pointed to “panicking about the legal situation” [BBC Scotland].
For a large bulk of the Ibrox support, it’s all too little, too late. The general feeling is that if you couldn’t back us up when we were down, you don’t deserve our support when we’re back up.
At a time when the club needed everyone on side, Naismith broke ranks and drove a dagger into fans’ hearts.
Besides, with friends like these eh?
For others, having such an attitude to an ex-player who was worried about his career and future comes across as petty and bitter.
After all, there are plenty more figures, who did plenty worse, that Rangers fans could direct their ire towards.
Some feel that Naismith’s public statement has made him a bit of a whipping boy for the wider frustration about the entire thing.
Does Naismith deserve the treatment? Probably not, insofar as no-one deserves dogs abuse to the scale Naismith gets it, let alone an ex-player.
Has it tarnished his legacy? Absolutely. It’ll be a huge regret to Naismith and probably something he’ll never get back.
But is it about time we dropped the anger and resentment and left Naismith to live with letting us down nearly a decade ago?
Or is he booing going to continue up until he stops playing for Hearts?
