Rangers Standards Dying Infront Of Us

Rangers have always been defined as a winning side. They held various records for league wins, trophy counts and domestic success, which most sides can only dream of. This is perfectly encapsulated by two of the most common quotes in relation to Rangers, “we welcome the chase” and “Rangers Football Club – do not enter unless you are ready to put yourself second and that should be the one and only time second is good enough for you.”

Since 2012 a lot of managers have tried to take us forward but it could be argued that only one has truly grasped the importance of these standards to the wider fanbase. Steven Gerrard, a hero at Liverpool who also have similar expectations, fully bought into the club, the history and those very standards we are discussing today.

He lived and breathed it in everything he did on the touchline. He demanded it from his players and those that didn’t meet his standards (Eros Grezda is a great example) were swiftly moved on. He demanded the board made updates to the stadium, to the training ground and more. Anything that would give his side an edge in the quest for glory was fair game and he made sure those around him lived up to his (and the fans) standards.

Gerrard left following our solitary league win since 2012, unhappy with the board who failed to “fix the roof whilst the sun was shining.” This became a defining moment for the board at that time; with many fans believing their lack of investment was crucial in us bombing out of the UCL qualifying and failing to retain the league. In short, it became a defining moment in their tenure running the club and something that was never forgiven by many fans.

In the 4 years since he left, there has been a merry-go-round of managers in the Ibrox hotseat and although we’ve had some great moments, such as cup wins and that European final, we’ve completely failed to break Celtic’s stranglehold on the league. To this day, many go back to that moment in the 2021 close season as the key problem and that would have hurt the board at the time. They were Rangers fans and whilst you may not agree with their actions, I think we all know they acted in what they believed was the best manner for Rangers.

The situation has changed incredibly over the last six months and we no longer have “Rangers men” leading the club. Andrew Cavenagh and team came in, to much hype and fanfare. This was the fresh start we needed to truly kick on from the stop / start hope we had over the last few years. We were supposed to be gaining some corporate governance which had been missing previously.

When the board appointed Russell Martin, many fans were decidedly unimpressed. Whilst we may not have wanted Martin to be given the job, I don’t know a single Rangers fan who didn’t want him to succeed. Many of us worried he was the wrong man and loudly said so but we were all hoping to be wrong.

Well damn, we weren’t wrong and damn, Martin has gone above and beyond to prove those fans right. Standards? What standards are they, because at present we seem more aligned to the standards of Falkirk or Livingston than we do of serial winners.

We sacked multiple managers, simply because they couldn’t close the gap to Celtic. Whilst we may have been 9, 10 or even more points behind them, we were still ahead of the chasing pack and our club decided it wasn’t good enough. Now, under new ownership we are sitting in 8th place in October (not a typo!) Are we to believe that our new owners have such low standards that 8th is now deemed acceptable?

We aren’t just one game in and a false position. It’s October, we’ve played 7 games and managed to win just one of them (against newly promoted Livingston via a last gasp winner) We’ve scored less than we’ve conceded, we’ve given away more shots on target in those 7 games than we did the entire 55 campaign and in a season where our greatest rivals look to be shaky, we have completed the hold my beer meme with much worse performances.

We are accepting a manager telling us the players mentality is at fault, despite most of them being players he signed, despite him having the exact same comments in his previous clubs and despite the fact we have a squad full of internationals playing against Scottish Championship players and coming out worse.

I’ve heard lots of people taking about sacking Stewart, Martin and Thelwell but for me this goes deeper. It’s actually a crisis point for Andrew Cavenagh and the board. Is this really the Rangers they promised the support? Do they actually think being 8th after nearly a quarter of games played is acceptable? Do they think the turgid dross on the pitch is anything like what we were promised?

Cavenagh wont care about legacy in the same way as King, Park and Bennett did as he hasn’t invested for love. He has invested for profit and the only way he sees a profit is fans being onside, paying to go to games, paying for strips and other merchandise.

He really needs to think about his next steps carefully as one sure way to lose the fans of our great club is accepting mediocrity. The only chase we are currently welcoming is from the relegation spots. The second place which isn’t good enough is but a distant dream. This is not the Rangers I recognise and I’m sure many other fans feel the same way.

If he doesn’t act quickly, he may permanently sully his tenure in charge, simply by sticking by a man that everyone in the stands can see is a lame duck. Sack Martin and he buys some time from the fans, stand by him and things only become more toxic. With an international break, now is the time to act. He must be decisive for our sake, and his own!