With Scotland fans booing Rangers players and wanting them to fail, the national team is close to pushing the club away.
Ryan Jack made just his second appearance for Scotland against Belgium on Friday night. Yet, for the second consecutive time, the midfielder was consistently booed when in possession. The first came against Holland towards the end of 2017 at Pittodrie.
With the game against the Dutch being at Pittodrie, you could excuse it. The Aberdeen faithful clearly came out in their droves and decided to give their former captain some flak. Fair enough, that was understandable even if it was tasteless.
Yet, at Hampden Park, in the home city of Rangers, fans continued to criticise the former Dons man. The burning question here is why?
Jack made the correct move to get out of Aberdeen and move to his boyhood club Rangers. The midfielder is an ambitious man and seen the Ibrox club as having a greater chance of success than Aberdeen.
The old saying continuously gets used, but if you get an offer of a bigger job with bigger pay, don’t you take it?
That’s all Jack has done. Yet, he’s consistently getting verbal abuse from his own apparent supporters when he tries to do a shift for his country.
It’s scandalous and typical of the mind-set of many supporters in Scottish football.
Gers on the up
Rangers are on the up, and are getting better under Steven Gerrard. Some will point to the poor domestic start, but with Europa League qualification tied up, it’s been a great beginning to the campaign.
One day, the club will have a plethora of players that Scotland will want to play for them. But if this kind of verbal abuse continues towards the likes of Jack, will they want to?
Why turn up and represent your country when you hear disdain and nonsense all around you, just because of your club?
Scotland as a country needs Rangers to get back to its strongest. Doing so will have a positive effect for the national team, but more has to be done to sort out the bigotry. Too often are supporters getting away with chastising Rangers players for no reason.
You can’t help but feel sorry for Jack. An honest pro looking to make his mark at competitive level. His mistake cost Scotland the fourth goal against Belgium. The sad part is, there are people who would’ve wanted that to happen.
Soon, Scotland’s much-adored Tartan Army will run Rangers players out of the international scene. If they do, they’ll start to feel it on the park.