Season Over? What Now?

On Sunday, the Scottish Cup, the clubs best chance at silverware and entry into the Europa League, was sent over the bar by Tavernier and Gassama. The League Cup, of course, was a similar trite tale of crumbling to Celtic in the decisive Old Firms. There hasn’t even been the typical drug of midweek Europa League euphoria to take away the pain of the weekends. It has been one of the most challenging seasons in recent years. The fans are careworn and the club feels drained. But as the side exited the cup on Sunday, every Rangers fan had to ask the same, bleak question – now what?

With the league being the only front the club are fighting on, all hopes are now pinned to a first title in five years. But you’d be hard pushed to find many fans who don’t think that even being cautiously hopeful is ambitious. Quite frankly, this side has no title credentials.

Now, ‘Title credentials’ is a clichéd, often reductive, football term regularly thrown at sides who haven’t won a trophy, but it is a cliché for a reason. This crop of Rangers players, like many before them, do not seem cut out to fight and win the league this year. There are exceptions of course. Mikey Moore has perhaps been Rangers best player this season, bringing effervescence, quality, and fight to a team that has sorely missed all three. But like Vaclav Cerny and Abdallah Sima before him, our best player is only on loan. Even when it comes to players, Rangers are only ever shown an open doorway to a brighter future, before it is then slammed shut.

But, just in case there are any fans out there who still retain some hope of number 56, let’s explore the league table and the two teams that now sit above Rangers. Sitting just one point behind Celtic with nine games to go isn’t an awful place to be. Provided the gap doesn’t open up to more than 3 points between now and the next Old Firm, then the final league position for both teams may come down to the last meeting of the sides this season. But with the malaise around the club just now, there will not be too many Rangers fans confident that they can even maintain the current gap with Celtic, never mind beating them at Celtic Park when the Old Firm comes round.

But what makes this season so unique is that Celtic aren’t the team to be chased. Hearts sit top of the table, 6 points ahead of Rangers. Whilst they have the 2nd biggest xG differential overperformance, their compact and aggressive defence and quality in attack makes them favourites for the title. They are first for a reason. And even if they were to regress to their mean, the gap they have built already will not be easy to surmount.

As this is becoming a bit of a doom piece, perhaps some optimism won’t go amiss. Whilst there is no precedent for a team in 3rd place overhauling a 6-point gap with nine games to go, Rangers famously had a near capitulation in the 2002/03 season. At the time of the split, with 5 games to go, Rangers sat 5 points clear. Having lost to Celtic before drawing with Dundee, they only won the league on goal difference, thanks to Mikel Arteta’s iconic late penalty versus Dunfermline.

So to come back from 6 points at this stage of the season is far from impossible. However, it can only happen if the team take lessons from the Celtic double header. Agonising Old Firm experiences are one of two things. They can either be chastening incidents that refine the teams weaknesses and transform them into a stronger team.

Or, they are simply crushing. They crush the spirit, the soul, the energy and the mood. The fans, the players, the whole club, are left listless. Too often, Rangers find themselves in the latter category. If they are to win the league this year, and it is still a big if, then they need to use the recent soul-destroying games against Celtic as a form of metamorphosis that transforms the team from losers to winners.

And that starts with Sunday versus St Mirren, followed by Aberdeen, Dundee United and then Falkirk. Should Rangers win the last four games before the split, and Hearts and/or Celtic drop even just two points, then the fanbase can have reason to be positive again.

It is also pertinent to bear in mind that when Russel Martin was sacked (sorry for bringing his name up, the PTSD never fades), the side languished down in 8th place, 11 points off Hearts in 1st. Despite a difficult few weeks recently, Danny Rohl has done a terrific job at not just getting a tune out of a previously dissonant team, but instilling some belief and positivity in a fanbase which quite literally had none after eight games of the season.

So with nine games to go, perhaps all is not lost just yet. As the old adage goes, every game is a cup final. Win them all, and you wouldn’t bet against the title coming to Ibrox at the end of the season. Slip up in even just one, and the damage may be terminal.

Rangers’ season is on a tightrope. Perhaps you’re more pessimistic like me and think we’re destined to fall off. Or maybe you’re hopelessly hopeful and believe, slowly and steadily, we will reach the other side. Either way, don’t look down. It’s a long way to fall.