At one point in 2024, everything looked rosy for Rangers as they sat top of the Scottish Premiership, were in the last 16 of the Europa League and had one eye on a distant, but possible domestic treble.
It was a far cry from how 2023 ended with Philippe Clement inheriting a disjointed squad, a team that looked like it was going out of Europe and a seven-point gap to Celtic.
After the dismal 3-0 Old Firm defeat, there is a stinging sense of deja vu which is refusing to lift the dark clouds above Ibrox, however, there is a small light in the distance above the Copland Road stand.
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Rangers return to Ibrox imminent as latest picture shows
Posting on X, the Four Lads Had a Dream blog revealed just how far along the delayed upgrade to the stand is with a return penciled in for the Premier Sports Cup quarter final against Dundee on the 21st of September.
After Rangers exited the Champions League, ending the transfer window still short of quality in one or two areas and going five points behind Celtic, getting back to Ibrox needs to be a catalyst for the season to have new life breathed into it.
To make things even better, the club announced that Rangers fans will return against Dundee albeit with the Copland Stand not quite open.
This should mean full steam ahead by the time Hibernian visit in the league.
Jack Butland keen to move on from Old Firm with Ibrox comfort
Speaking after the Parkhead shambles, Jack Butland, who didn’t cover himself in glory against Rangers bitter rivals once again, can’t wait to get back home for the sake of the team and the support:
“It’s not difficult to pick yourself up,” he said. “It hurts. It’s not what we want. It’s not what we believe our club’s about. But you have the beauty of being able to hopefully go back to Ibrox again soon, being back with the fans, and hopefully kicking on and putting this behind us.
“It’s huge, I think in general, just for the club. I think the fans are desperate for it. We’re desperate for it. But it’s no excuse. It’s something that we have to deal with. We have dealt with it fairly well, I think. We appreciate the fact that the fans have made differences and changes to their weekends to come and support us.
“Hopefully we’re back in Ibrox soon. But that’s by the by. We’re disappointed about Sunday. I hope that we’ve shown some things that the fans can be hopeful from. But we need to be better because we don’t want these results anymore.
“We’ve got some great fixtures, some great European sides to look forward to. The league is still our main focus, so we’ve got some work to do. While there was good signs on Sunday, we need to be better. And that’s why I’m here. I’m here to try to help that. It’s important that we do pick them up.”
The pictures from Four Lads Had a Dream look promising but there is a lot of ground to make up at the top of the table.
Hopefully, when it reopens, it won’t be as empty as Hampden has been.
