As Rangers fans enjoy the club’s 55th league title win, the club’s supporters are well within their rights to savour this moment.
The Gers fans’ celebrations might not have been to everyone’s liking but the Ibrox side are Champions and I suppose that’s not to everyone’s liking either.
But the Rangers success story puts an end to a decade where Scottish football ate itself alive and found itself in the wilderness, fascinated and focused on Celtic and their drive for 10IAR.
This to many was enough during Rangers’ time working their way back from the events of 2012, a time defined by bitterness, rancour, and a lack of proper humility to the tenderness of the situation and what it actually meant for the state of the game in Scotland.
Over the course of the decade, Celtic got too comfortable and let Europe slide, their fans laser-focused on getting “the Ten” simply to eternally get one over on their Old Firm rivals.
An Old Firm which apparently doesn’t exist.
The media too lapped it up, Rangers’ demise seemingly apt justification for letting the game north of the border become reduced to a laughing stock anywhere beyond Berwick.
Sometimes even within its own borders.
Steven Gerrard’s arrival at Rangers signalled the changing of the guards but it’s in the attitude of those who salvaged the club and their steadfastness to rebuilding it which is most admirable.
Even in victory, the likes of Dave King have been humble in their interpretation of the events, even willing Celtic to step up their efforts in Europe to secure an automatic Champions League spot for Scotland.
Rangers’ involvement in Europe has transformed a coefficient propped up only by ultimately disappointing efforts by Celtic on the continental stage, Scotland’s standing in Europe the biggest collective calamity stemming from the events of 2012.
King’s comments are in stark contrast to the small-mindedness of not only Celtic and much of their support but a complicit press which has held back Scotland for a generation.
This isn’t an influential Ibrox figure gloating in victory or indulging in the tears of our rivals – even if he did open an expensive bottle of wine for the occasion – but it’s someone willing the division and the league to prosper for the betterment of everyone.
Modern football requires clubs to work more closely together to harness the power of their respective leagues.
Last summer we saw the bitterness and selfishness which defines Scottish football played out in realtime, the suit and blazer culture of Peter Lawwell heralding a title victory which was – whether you like or not – secured in the boardroom, sending at the very least Partick Thistle hurtling towards relegation in the cruellest of fashions.
The SPFL too were complicit, an organisation in a continuous state of crisis-management, devoid of leadership, overpaid and underwhelming.
Since Rangers’ demise, there has been a culture of gloating and a lack of ambition from our biggest clubs to be better and help each other reach heights we’re consistently told by those who run the game aren’t possible.
The same people who can’t even secure a main sponsor for the Scottish Premiership.
Rangers’ crowning moment might be controversial but it has sent a rupture through Scottish football which we are still to fully understand at this moment in time.
Now – led by the words and openness of Rangers’ management and directorate – is a time when Scottish football needs leaders and individuals to work together to get the most out of the game we all love.
Rangers’ Championship victory shouldn’t just signal a change in footballing terms, but it’s time we dropped the narrow-mindedness and worked together for the nation’s game, once and for all.
Rangers fans have been reacting to the news that a leading broadcaster finally wants to settle its dispute with the club, moments after they’ve been crowned Champions.
