As Rangers’ latest shambles was underway against Aris Limassol, the apathy amongst the Ibrox support towards this squad is telling of an ominous disconnect.
This is an Ibrox team who has next to no relationship with the support and there are few players in this entire squad who inspire a fanbase growing weary and tired of being served up the footballing equivalent of day-old gruel.
Supporting Rangers has become a tiring slog for the legions of Ibrox supporters who’ve been to the brink and back and who deserve more than the utter rubbish we’re being served up from the boardroom to the dressing room.
But moreover, the passion, loyalty and identity of the Rangers support is not being matched by a squad and club desperately running out of ideas.
The fact there is not a single player in the Rangers squad who can be called talismanic is telling.
But we’re also lacking players who understand the role of a Rangers player in this country and how to stand up to both the on and off pitch scrutiny that comes with it.
Does this Rangers squad really understand what it means to us?
Whilst two Geordie boys were smashing in goals for a resurgent Newcastle United in a legendary Champions League win over PSG, there wasn’t a bluenose in the Rangers XI v Aris Limassol.
For many supporters the notion that we need Rangers fans in the building is tired but at the moment we are caught between two worlds and it is proving counterproductive.
On one hand we have this progressive modernisation with fans calling for skilled European managers and players to pull the club in the direction of the continent’s top leagues.
But on the other we’re being consistently let down by a lack of respect for the fact that in parochial Scotland, Rangers need fighters first and foremost and, perhaps most importantly, people who genuinely understand that.
What it means that whilst we focus on the football geekery a la Michael Beale, clubs like Aberdeen focus on our distinct lack of heart at the first sight of aggression.
This Rangers squad, and the bulk of the summer signings, do not have the fundamental understanding or grit that it takes to make it at Ibrox and I’ll give almost all of them a season or 18 months before they’re out on their backsides. At the moment it’s hard to say anything but good riddance.
The fact that Michael Beale has chopped up the Rangers team and replaced them with expensive journeyman rubbish has sent us spiralling backwards – and it’s absolutely no surprise.
Cyriel Dessers and Sam Lammers’ impersonations of footballers continue and they must not have got the memo that at Rangers, you need to show heart and desire and understand that for every team, we’re a cup final. They do not appear mentally capable of handling that fact.
When Rangers roll into town, be it in Scotland or on the continent against the likes of Aris, it is an almighty occasion and there isn’t a team on these shores or the next who don’t want our scalp.
This team do not understand enough – or do not care enough – about the culture of Rangers Football Club and the necessity of responsibility in representing the thousands who chant for them.
To a man – Brighton loanee Abdallah Sima aside and incoming goalkeeper Jack Butland aside – they proved unworthy of that responsibility as they collectively hid in the heat of Cyprus.
Rangers transfer policy has helped strip club’s identity
That we turned our noses up at Lewis Ferguson – now skippering Bologna – tells its own story.
This was a player who, fundamentally, understands what it means to play for Rangers but – as we cast our eyes to project players from afar – we opted not to make this deal happen.
Instead, we’ve got no-mark European rubbish who, with the greatest of respects, are better served toiling around the mid-tables of the continent that what they ever will be representing a club which is built on a foundation of success.
Amid Rangers’ insistence on modernisation in every degree we have lost the necessary essence of what it means to be successful here and with this squad of no-marks and perennial losers it’s hard to see how it ever returns.
Whilst we want to move on from the past, our rivals – of which there are many in Scottish football – view us as the team to beat even despite Celtic’s recent success.
We need to show a stronger face and understand that it is in the adversity of jealously and criticism that Rangers’ success has been built.
We are loathed to be the most successful club in this country and this is something which has always driven us forward.
But I have a growing fear that this Rangers team do not have the necessary fight, commitment, or identity to maintain that status as the club’s identity continues to be eroded.
