Since 2012, Rangers fans have endured more lows than the highs that have been celebrated, even if the highs couldn’t have been much higher.
There is a greater appreciation of success now after the Ibrox trophy room spent so many years bereft of the major Scottish trophies.
This doesn’t make it any easier when Rangers don’t win though, the standards are still as high which is why Barry Ferguson has been brought back to the club where he name joins 94 others in the Hall of Fame.
Ferguson has made difficult decisions as Rangers manager already with the biggest not being a change of shape or formation, but dropping Jack Butland for Europa League quarter-final against Athletic Club.
Jack Butland reveals the pain of Rangers defeat
The timing couldn’t be much worse given some of his recent mistakes, however, Butland has revealed what the impact of losing a game at Rangers does to his personal life:
“No, here it’s the end of the world and you feel it,” Butland said on Fozcast, speaking to fellow England international goalkeeper Ben Foster.
“It’s not just what, when you’ve been up here for long enough and you understand what the club’s about and you understand what the demands are and the expectations are, you feel it, you don’t need the fans to remind you, you know, it’s like things happen, you lose a game and you know, you just want to get home back in doors and it’s like, it is the end of the world.
“You know, because you feel like that, but you know that the fans feel like that as well.
“So, you’re not even going to try and push anyone the wrong way, do anything you don’t want to do, plans cancelled, brands of golf cancelled the next day that we’re booked in because you’re thinking, we win this game, I’m going to have a good day with my friends.
“No, cancelled, done, right. It’s not the right time because it means that much.”
Can Butland make a come back for Rangers?
Butland being dropped wasn’t a surprise, however, if it wasn’t for his heroics against Fenerbahce, Rangers wouldn’t be in the quarter-finals.
What is reassuring for the 31-year old, is that the current Rangers boss won’t be in charge next season.
There will be a fresh start in the summer led by the San Francisco 49ers takeover and Butland has shown what he is capable of seeing as it was only a year ago it looked like he was going to get an England recall off Gareth Southgate.
What Butland’s comments show, at least, is that he gets it. He understands that losing isn’t accepted at Rangers and that there is a standard that must be met.
And he has learned that the hard way.
