Rangers’ Old Firm collapse at Celtic Park might’ve been predictable, but it doesn’t mean it hurt any less.
The limp 3-0 going on 5-0 defeat at the home our fiercest rivals continues to linger over Glasgow with Rangers supporters in something of a malaise before the season’s really even got started.
It’s not just the fault of the team, mind you.
Rangers have just gone through a tumultuous 2024 to date, the negativity surrounding the club’s stuttering collapse in the Scottish Premiership title race of last season seeping into this.
The summer brought with it fresh positivity, as did the umpteenth promise of a long overdue ‘rebuild’.
But amid the on and off field change, the nonsense that is the Copland Stand rebuild and the club’s costly Champions League failure, hope has turned to an anger which is now dangerously teetering on apathy.
With the defeat to Celtic capping what’s been a disastrous few months for Rangers in almost every sense, following September’s international break the Ibrox support are faced with no choice.
They must dust themselves down, start to look forward and throw their full backing behind the team from the first whistle at Tannadice because, by God, it looks like they’ll need it.
Rangers manager contract an admittance of failure
The job of Rangers manager doesn’t just involve putting a winning team together on the pitch.
It is one of the only jobs in football where the man in the blue suit and brown brogues is a voice, a whipping post and the figurehead of 50,000+ souls beyond the XI on the park.
It’s not for the faint of heart.
It is a job which weighs heavy and for a man who likes a challenge, it was never one Philippe Clement was going to walk away from.
But let’s not shy away from the pressure that is mounting on the Belgian in an eerily empty Ibrox.
Rangers chairman John Bennett threw his support behind Clement with a new contract on the eve the new Premiership season.
It was a statement of guaranteed support through the predictable tumult of the next few months, perhaps even the next season, as Rangers’ endemic failure at every level finally came home to roost.
It was also an indirect public admission that the club – and those driving it – have got it terribly wrong over the last three years.
Ibrox failures gift Celtic title dominance
Bennett branded the player trading model a ‘myth’ with Rangers’ failure to bank on their biggest assets post-55 costing us more than just a veritable fortune.
The reign of Douglas Park – which saw through to completion Dave King’s post-2015 mission – was in retrospect one plagued with major errors and more than a touch of arrogance.
Rangers’ lack of investment cost them Steven Gerrard, who jumped ship at the first opportunity, whilst the money raised from the Europa League Final run, Champions League qualification and the few high-profile big-money sales the club have made has been misspent.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst worked wonders on the road to Seville but was the sacrificial lamb as the Ibrox hierarchy lost their brief grip on Scottish football’s thread.
The board then backed Michael Beale – signed due to his familiarity with Gerrard’s squad – in a disastrous £21m summer at Ibrox last season.
At the same time Rangers’ medical department has been nothing short of a permanent embarrassment.
Any sentiment it’s just bad luck is lost on fans with the best part of 30 months dominated by injury issues.
To this day high-earning, big money signings continue to be sidelined with issues, such as £6m Brazilian striker Danilo.
Rangers have also seen almost a full squad of former assets walk out the door for nothing at the completion of their contracts.
Ross Wilson claimed it was all under control, Philippe Clement begs to differ.
Alfredo Morelos, Ryan Kent and Filip Helander kicked off this exodus, with John Lundstram, Borna Barisic, Ryan Jack and Kemar Roofe joining them in the summer.
These are all players who could’ve at one point banked us money to reinvest; instead Nils Koppen has had to replace them on a shoestring budget.
And all of this whilst Celtic, first under Ange Postecoglou and then Brendan Rodgers, have reasserted their domestic dominance.
Rangers’ failure to stand on the necks of our rivals whilst watching them spend millions on a new-look squad has come back to bite big time.
Rangers put up meek resistance to Celtic’s consecutive Champions League qualifications and the fortune that has come with them.
This is something which irks fans on a deeper level given it was the Ibrox club’s European exploits which earned an automatic slot for the Scottish champions.
Celtic’s long-established, functional player trading model also has their bank balance swelling in the face of Rangers’ systematic collapse, allowing them to go out and spend over £20m on two players this summer.
They’re also one league title away from matching Rangers’ world record haul of 55 domestic championships.
If Clement didn’t know what he was getting himself in for beforehand, he certainly will now.
Whilst we feel sorry for the Belgian, on his shoulders doth the hopes of the Rangers legions rest.
Philippe Clement breathes fresh air into Rangers
It is not all doom and gloom, of course, as Philippe Clement has been keen to stress.
Rangers still have everything to play for this season and whilst the financial and playing gap between the Ibrox side and Celtic is there to be bridged, patience is a fundamental.
At the same time, Rangers fans need to see an evolution away from the same old mistakes which have cost us in the face of the Old Firm battle.
Persisting with insanity is one of the reasons why James Tavernier finds himself at the centre of scrutiny.
Whilst there are major doubts about the capabilities of this squad, which is still two or three players short of its full complement, Rangers have finally extinguished the Gerrard and Wilson era.
This is a team built in the image of Philippe Clement and whilst the Belgian didn’t have it all his own way this summer, we’ve certainly begun to slalom down his path.
The likes of Connor Barron and Mohamed Diomande are bright sparks, whilst there is some cause for excitement around the likes of Jefte and Hamza Igamane.
The addition of Vaclav Cerny, if only on loan, also looks to have been a shrewd piece of business whilst the stage is set for Robin Pröpper and Nedim Bajrami to prove their credentials.
But on the face of it all collectively, this is a young team who are taking their first steps at Ibrox and who are not responsible for the shameful failure of the club’s custodians over the last 36 months.
Philippe Clement too is immune from that corporate and footballing mismanagement, but he isn’t from criticism.
Yet to defeat Celtic, context is wearing thin and Clement also stuttered in Champions League qualification despite some questionable refereeing interference.
The League Cup trophy is one of three and it is a saving grace for a manager staring down a heavily reinforced Celtic assault on yet another treble. We have doubts he’ll survive one.
Like the new-look Rangers squad, Clement still has everything to prove and such is his role at Rangers the scrutiny will be almost omnipresent.
For those in the background, you usually have to wait until it comes out in the wash to analyse the scale of these systemic failures.
Much like the club’s stadium, the hierarchy of Rangers is currently still being rebuilt with fan scrutiny on corporate decision-making heaping the pressure on appointments.
On the park this young Rangers team will face greater tests in the season ahead with the chaos of the summer being suitability capped off with a hiding at Celtic Park.
Rangers fans, as they prepare to return to Ibrox, must find a way to put the past behind them.
They will be the force that galvanises a club and leadership picking through the ruins of recent failures and without them, Rangers are going nowhere.
