Regime change is a necessity and it can’t happen soon enough

6^th March 2021. As Steven Gerrard slid across the champagne-soaked dressing room and fans partied across the country, little did we know that the long-awaited euphoric high of returning to the top of Scottish football would prove to be a short-lived climax before the bell-curve of progress tipped downwards at an alarming rate of knots. 

After a thumping win against St Mirren that day we even had the hubris to celebrate prematurely having not officially been crowned as champions, something that would be confirmed the next day when Celtic dropped points.

As we gloated proudly at the ease of our victory – an invincible season – foreseeing that this was not to be maintained was not something our blinkers allowed us to envision. 

From the moment Gerrard was appointed Rangers as a club and a team started trending gradually upwards. Standards were reestablished, infrastructure was rebuilt and slowly but surely Rangers became recognisable to the support which had seen their loyalty rewarded only with failure and embarrassment since our return to the Premiership. Okay we can debate the impact of the Covid curtailment but with that taking place we reached a crescendo which saw us crowned as Kings of Scotland once again.

Reaching the summit of that particular mountain though was supposed to signal a return to normality, an equilibrium of performance levels that would see us there or thereabouts every season. That’s not so say we expected things to suddenly be like the 90s but Rangers were supposed to be back, challenging for titles and winning silverware on a consistent basis. And we absolutely should have been.

Only incompetence on a cataclysmic level has robbed us of that. 

Yes, Gerrard’s departure coincided with a domestic spiral that may or may not have been in the post – that’s speculation for another day. We surrendered the league to Postecoglou’s Celtic in quick time and despite the amazing European journey that took us all the way to Seville, that proved to be but a silver lining on an otherwise dark and stormy cloud. 

Since then managers have come and gone on an almost annual basis, failing in their own right but with their demise being aided by some truly abysmal recruitment across numerous years. Fans traipsing out of an already empty Ibrox after a third consecutive home defeat now under caretaker management feels like the culmination of years of bad decision making, expensive mistakes and downright incompetence from the investor group and various boards. And we can only hope there is some light at the end of this long, dark tunnel of failure. 

That glimour of hope of course now comes not in the shape of a manager stepping in to put things right, but in the shape of 49ers Enterprises and the US consortium rumoured to be interested in taking over the club. In truth as I sat looking around our stadium wondering quite how we’ve fallen so far, so quickly, it feels like it can’t come soon enough. 

Dave King, the Three Bears et al will be given their place in history for rescuing the club from Mike Ashley and delivering our 55^th league title. It took time but they undoubtedly rebuilt our club from its knees and made it a known force in Europe again while winning the league championship that we craved for a decade.

But that legacy now has a very dark shadow hanging over it.

While credit is rightly given for their rebuild of the club, they have also in the latter part overseen its rapid decline which has set us back many years and many millions of pounds. The consistency of the incompetence has almost been an achievement in itself, one that has encompassed all aspects of the club from the Academy, infrastructure, the executive team, the first-team management and the recruitment of the squad itself. 

Highlights are inclusive of but not limited to: 

• Edmiston House which may not pay for itself for three decades
• The Copland Road fiasco that may directly and indirectly may have cost us upwards of millions
• The Sydney Cup embarrassment and associated costs
• The failure to ‘fix the roof while the sun was shining’ in 2021.
• The summer of 2022 recruitment.
• The decision that we didn’t need a DoF, the formation of a football board, the dismantling of the football board and the search again for a DoF.
• The appoint of Michale Beale, allowing him to spend £21m on project players all of which we will lose money on and then paying him off within a year.
• The contract extension given to Philippe Clement months before sacking him. 

This extensive list is only highlights and is only recently. The new Sports bar another thing we are left wondering, whilst things do change, why not tell us? King Chairman era we were never out of court and there is plenty to comment on there also.

It is a catalogue of fuck ups which left the club at one point without a chairman, chief executive, football operations officer, head of academy, sporting director and commercial director.

Broxi Bear was reported to be next in line for promotion before John Gilligan dutifully stepped in to steady the ship. 

The investor group have failed to recognise the value of investing proper funds at the top of the club, instead opting for cheap internal promotions instead of finding the best person for the job.

The much maligned ‘bowling club’ approach has been an unmitigated disaster for Rangers and one which has ultimately ushered in this now burning desire for regime change. 

In truth the investor group and board(s) are extremely fortunate that the fans’ patience has lasted this long and that boycotts and protests did not become widespread long before now.

Each new manager provided us with false optimism that each was the right man to set things right and turn around our fortunes. Each time we were left disappointed. 

It is now time for change. It is time for the custodians of this club to step aside and let someone else try to drive Rangers forward. Their legacy is watching Celtic overtake our titles and records, humiliating us along the way.

The odd cup victory is the new success and while it is fair to acknowledge their actions were always with the best of intentions, intentions I’m afraid to not fill the trophy cabinet. 

The team on the park is now back to 2016/2017 levels of dross and mental fragility but at double the cost. We have quite rightly over the years allowed players to leave as we sought to upgrade but each time, almost without fail, we have found replacements who are actually worse, and at significant cost. 

The decision for me now is between rolling the dice with the US group and sticking with the known failure of the status quo.

There is no logical or credible reason to believe the current setup are capable of delivering success and for that reason alone change feels like the only viable option even if it comes with risks. 

As the board have taken criticism I’ve never been one pushing for them to suggestively start flashing their legs at any passers by looking for a football club. The world as we have learned is littered with Craig Whytes, Charles Greens and Mike Ashleys. Forcing them to sell by boycotting also came with the risk that we’d drive the club into the hands of another opportunist. 

But the US consortium comes with credibility.

49ers Enterprises and Paraag Marathe have the funds and come with a track record at Leeds United, a club that looks set to clinch promotion back to the best and richest league in the world while at the same time are investing in the upgrade of Elland Road. 

They are no fly-by-night chancers like some of our previous ‘custodians’.

None of that guarantees success at Rangers of course. My goodness they’ll have their work cut out for them given the crumbling mess they are inheriting but right now we need fresh eyes, fresh ideas and fresh drive to start turning this ship around.

Even some moderate competence should see an upturn from recent years. 

Fans will soon be asked, as another trophyless season peters out, to delve into their pockets and renew their season-tickets. It would be nice, as the renewal emails hit the inbox, to have some hope and excitement that new ownership might bring. The thought of this board appointing another manager and throwing mud at the wall and hoping it sticks fills me with as much dread as it does depression.

We’ve seen that movie one too many times and it’s now very much time to change the channel.

The end of the season can’t come soon enough.

For me, nor can the end of the ownership of the current custodians.