Rangers, of course, have lost back to back home games with identical, embarrassing, scorelines and are in no better a position to see post-Christmas Euro football. 1-4 against Sevilla is perhaps understandable - they are a top team from a top league filled with players of a standard we can only currently dream of seeing in the light blue of Rangers - but losing by the same margin to a side playing only their third Champions league game and made up, for the most part, by unheard of players from unheard of places is nothing short of a humiliation.
Rangers' own failings are down to Rangers, but should all the areas of the club that need over-hauled receive the most drastic of treatment, the achievable levels will still be some way short of those desired by the support.
This decade has seen both halves of the old firm reach a European final; Celtic 'cheated' out of a win in Seville by an obviously superior side and Rangers confounding all the critics time and again against some very good sides on the road to Manchester. These results are, however, isolated and almost freakish. Rangers followed up that Manchester appearance with a fall at the first hurdle a scant three months later, and Celtic have a simply laughable overall record away from home in any European competition, with a home record that is doing its best to achieve parity. Aside from the Glasgow two there have only been two other Scottish sides to progress past the initial qualifying rounds of the lesser European competition in recent times: Hearts and Aberdeen.
As a nation Scotland has a history of both producing world class players and top European teams. Alongside Rangers and Celtic, Dundee Utd. and Aberdeen have both performed to an exceptionally high level in European competition in their histories and Scottish players have won medals at the top level in teams across Europe. Today Rangers and Celtic view the champions league last 16 as the pinnacle of achievement and there is understandably far more importance placed on the financial rewards over the intrinsic value of performing in front of the watching world. The shift in attitude is simple to explain - other leagues generate more money from TV and advertising than the SPL, to such a level that individual sides in England receive more TV money on their own than every club in Scotland combined. In order to try to redress this imbalance, European cash is vital but it has meant now that simply appearing in the Champions League is the goal, not trying to progress through the rounds.
Celtic, the media constantly tell us, have a far healthier balance sheet than Rangers. Their obviously sub-standard stadium holds ten thousand or so more punters (on the very rare occasion they achieve a full house) and a series of supporter-taxing share issues have helped to keep the club closer to 'even' than Rangers. This state of affairs has been shown as a real factor in spending over the last few seasons. Rangers spending on players under Smith has been in the region of £30 million. This figure must be balanced with the twin issues of some £20m incoming monies from player sales and the fact that the club has been teetering on the edge of an abyss off the back of player purchases. Celtic, on the other hand, have been able season on season to spend cash to a greater or lesser degree and have seen no significant exodus such as that seen from Ibrox. Even with that advantage, Celtic have in recent times made no significant advances on a European level since their final appearance, and in fact have regressed to a large degree in both performances and results.
It would be wildly inaccurate to say that Rangers own dealings and off field performances have had no part in our predicament; there are some pretty glaring deficiencies at every level within the club and the bulk of our problems involve at least an element of foot-shooting on Rangers part. While pointing out these areas it is also necessary to take into account the factors outwith Rangers control. Scotland simply does not produce the calibre of player needed to win the big European trophies and has not for some time. Rangers could and should be at the forefront of addressing this fundamental aspect of football 'futures', but in a country that has no significant youth development programme and a culture that sees children turn to drinking, smoking and crime rather than running, jumping and playing as 'social' activities there is limited scope for a single club to find real talent and nurture it while keeping said talent away from the evils of the society we live in.
Former Rangers great Arthur Numan, a graduate of the Dutch school of football philosophy, was recently asked by a supporter if he would like to see a Dutch style of development implemented by Rangers. Numan, as is the case with many of our foreign imports, has taken the club very much to heart and so at first glance it may be surprising that his answer was 'No'. When you look at the reasons given though, it is very easy to understand. To employ (for example) an 'Ajax model' you need a surrounding framework that supports those ideals and modes of operating; you need a national set up that is willing to encourage new ideas as well as commit time and money towards reaching new levels and you need a society that is geared towards a 'cleaner' lifestyle where children are brought up with an over-riding love of activity rather than a desire to drink, smoke and play on their games console.
Rangers, of course, could and should be doing far better with the current budget. The players we do unearth never quite seem to live up to their potential and the proven players from abroad occasionally thrive but all too often slip into a comfort zone of mediocrity, but while we are shackled to the backwater that is the SPL there is limited scope for improvement. I, like every Rangers fan, demand success and improvement and Rangers should always be looking with one eye turned towards the future but in todays climate there needs to be a sense of realism attached to all complaints. Rangers have recently been run in a financially unsound manner, indeed it could be argued that this has been the case for much of the past ten to twenty years. This state of affairs must be addressed and new business models put in place that allow us to operate at the absolute top level achievable. That top level will always be limited, however, by dint of the fact we play our games surrounded by an organisation that is as old and outdated as it is backwards and inwards looking.
Celtic's recent results should never be used as a barometer to gauge the level Rangers play at, to do so would lead to a simple attitude of beating them being good enough, but we should certainly be aware that the performances of all Scottish sides against foreign opposition gives us an accurate indication of the standard of play within our own league. Rangers, as well as looking to improve our own performance on and off the field, must start looking to force change across the wider Scottish game. Until Scotland as a nation begins to address some of the socio-economic problems that have become common place and the bloated SFA and SPL organisations stop being run as self-serving units more interested in preserving their own privileges than serving their constituent members, the scope for Rangers improvement is narrowed considerably, and with it any real hope of future impact in the European game.
We should never look for excuses when discussing failings at the club, they are glaring in some areas and merely evident in others, but they exist in abundance and can, for the most part, be treated with a little intelligent planning and foresight. The problems that are simply of our own making can and should be addressed as a matter of urgency but while the necessary changes are put in place we also need to realise that changes in the games structure are also required and for us to truly become as good as our potential allows, changes at the pinnacle of the game must be made in order that our progression will bear fruit. Celtic's continued failure is nothing for us to shed a tear over, it is however evidence of problems that run far deeper than simply poor management on Rangers part.