Rangers faced an uphill battle to progress for the European qualifiers this year in terms of one off games and not being seeded in some of the rounds for Qualification. To have come through that is tremendous and will bring financial rewards amongst other things to the club.
Any tie in Holland is difficult enough but we went there last week and we made it look easily routine. Galatasaray last night was no easy task but again there was a sense of quiet expectancy, that is the levels this club is now operating.
This Rangers team is organised and it’s also efficient on the European stage. All credit to the management team who has transformed and elevated the club on that stage. Only Leverkusen have beaten Rangers home and away if memory serves me correctly. What is even more impressive is Eleven European qualifiers have been navigated, ( nineteen games in total ) and we have come through them all superbly.
That has brought Rangers recognition they richly deserve and slowly we are putting our name back out there and gaining the respect it deserves.
To put it in context, Gerrard and co inherited a team that had been beaten in Luxembourg and were regularly being thrashed four and five nil whilst conceding five at Easter road.
From that to where we are now, teams like Feyenoord, Porto, Willem II and Galatasaray being dispatched almost routinely is a wonderful achievement.
The financial rewards brought into the club now scale the high millions and the faith this board have shown in the management has been rewarded in that fashion.
That is an exceptional.
However here is where it gets difficult because this is Rangers.
This is where our club belongs, this is the levels where we have to be operating at and whilst we should be proud and celebrate it, ultimately we need to be bringing trophies home before anyone can proclaim ‘We are back’.
We have been guilty of celebrating results too much in recent years, this is a fine moment and we should rightly be absolutely delighted.
In terms of the bigger picture it is fantastic and a huge moment, in terms of where we should be it is the minimum for our club and that is the standards we need to be setting.
This shouldn’t be seen as a slight or a criticism, it isn’t, it’s not meant that way but my own personal feeling is we have been too quick to ‘lavish’ praise on this team over things that our club should be demanding as a minimum. I’ll say it again, the European progress over the last three years is fantastic and everyone throughout the club deserve that credit.
They deserve the praise, they deserve the accolades but it’s gone and we now focus on the next game which is Ross County on Sunday. All credit to the manager because several times now, talking about Alfredo, Tav’s record and even last night, he has said it only counts in May when we are talking about trophies.
He’s absolutely spot on.
Goal records, assists, European qualifications, performances and personal accolades are all part of things but our club demands silverware. That’s our levels, that’s our standards and we should be absolutely striving for that. When we start doing that then I will recognise the records and achievements of this squad.
This is Rangers, our club is built on trophies and success, that’s the barometer and standards required, it’s time for this club to kick on.
The time is now
Ignore the nonsense, the irrelevant and the noise
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Four Lads Had A Dream 