Another season is about to begin at Ibrox, and yet more off-field troubles continue to brew in the background at Rangers.
For close to a decade, Rangers supporters have been subjected to a mixture of financial calamity, the utterly depressing retail vice grip of Mike Ashley’s grubby, and almost certainly sweaty hands, and the lunacy of wide-eyed Sevco bloggers.
The latter is arguably the worst – some of them actually appear to be masquerading as journalists too!
But despite all the hysteria concerning the Sports Direct ruling and the fact the club must pay approximately £450k in legal fees with damages to come – not to mention an order restricting the use of Hummel kits next season – there’s still the small matter of contesting trophies on the pitch.
For Gers fans, attaining 55 is the real Holy Grail. It’ll be the title win to end all title wins, and the title-winning party to end all title-winning parties.
Stopping Celtic winning 10 in a row is just to be the cherry on top. This is about us, not them – it always has been.
But what these off-field troubles really do, despite the mixture of misinformation, legalese and outright agenda-driven nonsense making it near-enough impossible to dissect them, is ramp up the pressure on the pitch.
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Never have Rangers been so close to challenging Celtic’s recent dominance of Scottish football.
Never have the fans truly believed that more.
And never, with the backdrop of financial issues hanging over us like a sodden, old sock we’re getting slapped with by our annoying next-door neighbour, would a title win be more timely.
You get the feeling that – whilst it isn’t 55 or bust – this season is the one where Rangers can, and arguably must, take that step to a title and potential Champions League riches.
So whilst I refrain from trying too hard to make head-nor-tail of the legal and financial ramifications of the Sports Direct debacle – mainly because they haven’t been fully decided yet – I will pass judgement on the state of play on the pitch.
This season we can wrestle the title back from Celtic. And should we achieve it, it’ll relieve such a burden – financial, emotional or otherwise – from the club’s very broad shoulders.
No pressure, lads.
