As Rangers boss Steven Gerrard is charged by the SFA for comments made about a disgraceful challenge on Alfredo Morelos, it’s had more than a few Gers fans screaming injustice.
The club themselves say they’re “bemused” by the charge which relates to comments Gerrard made about a challenge from Dundee United’s Ryan Edwards on Morelos which went unpunished on the day.
An SFA panel – rather incredibly – found that Edwards was not guilty of a retrospective red and in the weeks afterwards have decided to charge Gerrard.
Here’s what the Gers gaffer told RangersTV after the 4-0 win as Morelos was left with a gaping wound above the knee:
“I don’t want to make headlines and say a kid should have got this or that, don’t want to be that type of manager.
“But I’d be very interested to see what the decision would’ve been from the officials had the shoe been on the other foot and Alfredo had made that tackle.”
Couple the charge with the fact it was Kevin Clancy in charge against Dundee United – yes, the same smitten Clancy who talked up 10IAR and “what is at stake” this season – and Gers fans are feeling aggrieved.
The principle hearing date of October 8th and the threat of a touchline ban being in place for the Celtic match on the 17th certainly isn’t helping the suggestion that there’s something dodgy afoot here either.
That’s before we mention the entire Hibs debacle, with many of the club’s supporters feeling their aggressive performance against Rangers at the weekend embodied the excessive physicality which is often allowed to be shunted onto our players.
Rangers fans – quite simply – want better protection for their players and want to be assured that the club’s stars are being held to the same standards as everyone else.
But there’s a growing feeling that we’re swimming against the tide – perhaps an even stronger one than in the past – and that we’ll get no help or protection as we look to regain our footing in the game here.
Our players must be watching this with aghast, well aware by now that the colour of their shirt at the very least is enough to spin a polarising, partisan debate over these sorts of incidents.
But Rangers – the backroom staff and the team – have got to use this feeling of injustice to grow more ruthless, more embattled, more determined and more focused.
Against Hibs, the match should’ve been out of sight before their resident hammer throwers were calamitously afforded the opportunity to celebrate a draw like a victory.
Because if we’re not going to get any help from the outside, this should at the very least be a wake-up call to the team that we need to do everything we can to help ourselves.
