What Will Rangers Fans Now View as a Successful Season? (And Why It Changes Every Saturday)

Rangers supporters do not really do context. We pretend we do for about five minutes, usually right after a bad result, like drawing at Easter Road, and then we remember who we are, look at the badge, and decide the only acceptable outcome is winning everything in sight.

That is not arrogance. That is Rangers. It is a club built on standards so heavy they bend managers in half.

Which is why this season has turned into a brilliant wee psychological experiment. What happens when you start the season in a mess, then somebody comes in and makes you believe again?

Because we have basically lived two campaigns, have we not?

The bit we would all rather forget

The season did not start the way we hoped. But it did start the way many expected, with that sinking feeling in your stomach that tells you, aye, this is going to be one of those years.

Russell Martin’s tenure ended sooner than some hoped, but later than most wanted.

He always seemed to be one bad 45 minutes away from “under pressure”, except Rangers do not do “under pressure”. We do “one more of these and it’s pitchforks”. Then the club made the change and brought in Danny Rohl.

Rohl: not perfect, but vital

Rohl did not walk into a project. He walked into a fire.

And here is the thing. It is not that Rangers suddenly became the vintage 90s Rangers. We have not been gliding through teams, playing one touch triangles while opponents applaud and ask for selfies.

But he has done something far more important at this club.

He made Rangers win again.

Some games have been ugly. Some have been “get it in the bag and we will talk about aesthetics later.” But until Easter Road, he had been dragging points out of matches Rangers would previously have contrived to turn into a three act tragedy.

And the truth is, for a huge chunk of the support, that is the job. Rangers is not built on “good patterns of play”. It is built on results, medals, and the sweet sound of opposing fans greeting.

And this is where it gets dangerous

Because once you start winning, you start believing. And once you start believing, you start doing that very Rangers thing.

You stop saying “let’s get back to being competitive”, and then you start saying “right, go win the league then.”

And before the draw at Easter Road, that is exactly where the support had gone. Most still are, even after a frustrating 0 0, because the bigger point remains true.

Since the start of Rohl’s tenure, the bar has moved. Not gradually either. Rangers fans do not do gradual. The bar does not creep up quietly, it gets launched into orbit.

When Rohl came in, most fans wanted three things:

• pride back

• a manager they could get behind

• a team that looked like it understood the basics of being Rangers

The title felt like something you spoke about out of habit, because we are Rangers and winning is in our DNA, even when reality is shouting “be serious”.

But now Rangers are back in the title race and suddenly the support is acting like we have been top since August.

Which brings us to the real question, and one that plenty will be asking themselves after Hibs.

If Rangers do not win the league, is it still a successful season? The answer depends which Rangers fan you catch, and what minute of the match it is.

Now add in the board backing him with signings. Three in the door so far, with at least one more expected. Decent money by our standards. The manager saying they improve us immediately. That is not just recruitment. That is a message.

And messages at Rangers come with consequences:

• if you spend, the fans expect momentum

• if you raise ambition, the fans demand delivery

• if you tell us we are building something, we reply: “Aye, build it with trophies.”

So yes, the pressure is on. But it is the right kind of pressure. The pressure that only exists when people believe you might actually pull it off.

So what will fans call success now?

Here is the uncomfortable bit that fans quietly ask themselves……If Rangers miss out on the title but:

• win a trophy

• fight to the wire

• and look like a team with a clear identity and real bottle

then a lot of the support will grudgingly accept it as a season that turned from a write off into a platform.

But if Rangers miss out because:

• we bottle big moments

• we fall away too easily

• or we start playing like a team hoping rather than a team demanding

then it will be framed as the usual Rangers crime. Having a chance and making an absolute meal of it.

And nobody at this club gets applauded for “nearly”.

The bottom line

Rohl has restored belief, and belief is brilliant, but it is also lethal.

Because belief turns “improvement” into “expectation”, and expectation turns into the oldest Rangers demand of all.

Win.

He has earned the right to be judged by Rangers standards again.

Now comes the part every Rangers manager learns sooner or later.

At this club, you do not get credit for making it close.

You get remembered for finishing it.