What a difference a year makes. On April the 7th 2024, Rangers earned a dramatic point against Celtic to keep them just one point behind, but with a game in hand.
The title race was over at one point, only for Philippe Clement to make an immediate impression as Rangers manager, collecting silverware at the first attempt too.
A consistent injury crisis made the feat all the more remarkable given the lack of options available to the now departed Belgian.
There was no indication of what was about to happen or just how big a drop off would be seen after the Rangers squad was rebuilt.
The winter recruitment from Nils Koppen’s first transfer window left Andy Halliday on Clyde Superscoreboard duty, suggesting that the title could be returning to Rangers.
When Andy Halliday tipped Rangers to win the title
The 3-3 derby at Ibrox had everything, decisions went against the home side and a disallowed goal for Cyriel Dessers came at a pivotal moment when it looked like momentum had shifted and there was only going to be one winner.
Instead, it was left to Rabbi Matondo to cut inside and repeat the goal that he scored against Hibs only a week before by finding the top corner in the most dramatic of fashions.
There was a feeling that a corner had been turned, and Halliday suggested why Rangers could win the title:
“I believe that the three January recruits Rangers have made could be – and I stress could be – the difference between where the title is headed,” predicted the former Rangers utility man.
“I thought you seen that in full effect on Saturday against Hearts. I thought the impact of (Mohamed) Diomande and (Oscar) Cortes on the starting XI has been a revelation to add to the squad.
“And Fabio Silva and Cyriel Dessers seem to be doing that ‘ham and egg’ role perfectly where one comes in, scores a goal and gets rested the next game and the other one comes in and scores a goal as well.”
Why did the wheels fall off the Rangers title bid
It is easy to forget exactly what happened during the collapse at this point last season.
Abdallah Sima and Oscar Cortes never played together, neither did Danilo, and the front four – Rangers’ best – of Sima, Cortes, Danilo and Todd Cantwell was also never seen, at any point.
Injuries can be an excuse, on this occasion though, they were a factor, a causative factor to Rangers falling at the final hurdle just as they had got themselves into the position to do something special.
When Rangers needed an injection of pace, players who could beat opponents in one v one situations, and a goal threat, they lost four of their best.
Instead, Clement regularly had to go with Ross McCausland and Dujon Sterling in key attacking areas; honest and hardworking, yes, likely to be difference makers and win games, no.
Silva has shown in La Liga what he would have been capable of if injuries hadn’t meant that he had to play on the wing, but it has been a year to forget for Cortes and Danilo who, at a combined £10m, have shown little more than glimpses.
Next season, they will have to be the difference that Halliday first tipped them to be.
