Rangers have had to listen to a lot of noise in the run up to the Scottish cup game this weekend past and I said last week I had hoped they would use it as an incentive. Let’s be completely honest, it is disrespectful the lack of credit our club have been given and even in the aftermath of Sunday’s stroll the same disrespect was offered.
Rangers have destroyed everything in our path in a league season which is four games away from invincibility. But yet every excuse has been offered, from no fans to five subs. From no penalty kicks awarded against us to no red cards received. From no coronavirus cases to no injuries.
Every single excuse or opinion has been given in an attempt to diminish our efforts.
Not many are brave enough to offer the opinion that the reason this is happening is because of one simple thing;
Rangers are the best team in Scotland, with the best players and the best management.
That’s the cold facts of the matter right there and even in the run up to our match there were still paid professional journalists/pundits telling us that we wouldn’t be victorious on Sunday because it was Celtic’s game to win etc etc blah blah.
I was enthused by the tone of Borna Barisic in his press conference last week when he said he thought that Celtic being better than us was the ‘Biggest joke he had heard this week’ because he is absolutely correct. That gave me a quiet confidence that this team would be out to prove a point and that they certainly did.
Scott Arfield won the last place up for grabs, as Joe Aribo pushed up front, in a decision which proved to be a match winner. In certain games that’s exactly where I like Aribo to be and his influence created both Rangers goals at a time when we simply upped our gears and took the game.
That’s the situation now in most games for Rangers. We up the gears and score the goals to win the game. Against Hibs it was evident we played within ourselves and again on Sunday I thought, at times, we were doing similar.
But there is something to be applauded about that because it shows how good and confident we are in ourselves. We started well on Sunday and zipped it about leading to us taking the first real opportunity handed to us.
Connor Goldson intercepted and fed the ball centrally to Ryan Kent who twisted superbly to send their ageing captain to the shops. He zipped it to Alfredo who controlled it for Aribo to surge on and his shot deflected into Steven Davis who acrobatically sent it home.
There was several beautiful moments in the goal. That mob are terrified of Ryan Kent and again here he showed why, they can’t live with him. Joe Aribo is unstoppable when he is running at folk on his left foot and is key to what we do. Then there is the finish from a man with player of the year written all over him, yet arguably, might not get it. It was a beautiful goal and another goal of the season contender, which even in its brilliance, won’t win it.
The second came along shortly after when Joe Aribo turned the superstar AC Milan full back inside out and left him for dust. He gives me hope that I still might be signed for AC Milan incidentally, but sure he did tackle a lot during one European game. With Ryan Kent on rushing, Kenny superbly finished into the top corner and Rangers were home and dry.
There was time for Rangers to miss several chances in the second and it could easily have been four if Alfredo had shown a little bit more composure and Aribo had got to the superb Steven Davis cut back.
At the other end Allan McGregor was once again immense as he made a number of superb saves as Celtic did have their moments. But he is simply unbeatable and even when they did get a spot kick for an incredibly weak ‘foul’ in the box, he simply saved that too.
The argument or debate surrounding who is better between him and Andy Goram is an intense one. From someone that has seen both, it is a pleasure to say that McGregor is having a season every bit as good as Andy in his prime of 1992 era.
It was a canter for Rangers and that is the simple truth. When we needed to we simply upped the gears and took the game. In my opinion, despite the tremendous efforts and hard work, we still played within ourselves slightly in the sense at two nil it was done and we didn’t need to over commit going forward. In my opinion and I think it’s quite obvious, that if we did want more goals, we could have got them but being a cup tie there was no need to risk anything.
Rangers are miles ahead with quality throughout. Patterson, Helander, McGregor, Goldson, Davis, Kamara, Kent and Aribo all stood out individually whilst Arfield, Borna, Alfredo all played a team part. It was a team performance.
That’s the biggest compliment to this team that if we needed it we could have simply upped it and got more. It’s evident in everything we do. We are in a very good place and could finish the season on a real high and this will go down as one of the finest ever in the club’s history.
That’s the fantastic thing about the football club at the moment, we are being extremely well run all over the club as a whole. Contract renewals are being quietly done all over the place. Forget the ‘sources’ and second guessing, from Alfredo to Goldson, no one knows when things will be announced because Rangers don’t share info and those that do have it, don’t share it. The way it should be.
The players and management are as one, years of working together has brought them to this point where we are fighting for a successful double on the pitch.
Off the pitch we have a boardroom which selflessly steered us through a global pandemic and keeps the club going. Recently raising £9.88m from 49.4m shares hitting the £10m the board were looking to raise. That is a phenomenal effort and fundraising to help the club.
Amongst that £10m investment, Rangers have a new Shareholder Perron Investment LLC, owned by John Halsted. They have invested around £3m & now own 4.16% of the club. Reputed to be extremely wealthy. This is fresh shares issued by the board and fresh investment, obviously a new investor sanctioned by the board
In a time when corporate greed threatens to rip football apart I am delighted we have real Rangers men at the top of our club.
We have a Rangers we can be proud of and a Rangers who are undoubtedly back to where we belong.
Kings of Scotland for a 55th time. Live it up and enjoy it because the truth is in the league table everyday.
We welcome the chase, if you can see one….
Four Lads Had A Dream 