Nobody said it was going to be easy. Rangers enter their biggest week of the season so far with a monumental task ahead of them. And, refreshingly, some quiet optimism.
But with a mouth-watering clash against stumbling Celtic on the horizon, fans must resist the temptation to switch concentration too early. There is a huge tie against FC Ufa first. Not to mention 6000 miles between us and the first Old Firm match of the season.
Resist the temptation, Ufa remains priority
Gerrard’s Rangers revolution has seen 12 players come in and 20 players go out. You can also expect a couple more to come in with deals for Eros Grezda and Joe Worrall reportedly close. Both could be involved against Celtic.
There’s strength in depth but the squad’s been so stretched already.Rangers have battled injury and tired legs to get this far.
The two weeks off in September can’t come soon enough or some.
That said, Rangers can’t prioritise Celtic over Europe. Even though there may be tired legs, there’s 180 minutes to go before a breather. Focus fully on FC Ufa first.
How much another six games in the Europa League would mean to the fans and the club shouldn’t be understated.
It’s easy to get sucked up into the furore of Old Firm week, but the FC Ufa game comes first.
Get through, and it’s a massive boost before Sunday.
Week’s like this are what football is all about
Football is a funny old game. Whilst 6-0 hammerings every week would be brilliant, you don’t get the nail biting, sweat dropping last 10 minutes either.
Our hearts couldn’t take it all the time, but weeks like this are what being a fan is all about.
This Rangers team are 180 minutes from becoming heroes.
There’s still such a long way to go, but this tremendous start to the season under Gerrard would definitely be overshadowed by what might’ve been in Europe, and a four-point gap with Celtic.
At the end of this week, yes, Rangers will have a better idea of what we can expect from this season. The mere fact we’ll be in Europe or not sees to that.
But it’s important we don’t read too much into what happens between now and Monday.
Unless of course, we win both matches.