Europe Beyond Christmas - A Must This Season

Last updated : 24 August 2005 By AYEREADY1985
Only a disaster tonight against Famagusta will halt our progress. There
have been so many false dawns over the seasons, however this season
European football beyond Christmas is a must.

There are no more viable excuses. I don't care how many people say our
squad isn't big enough yet or we don't have the necessary quality to
compete in Europe due to our restricted financial budget. Neither of
these are worthwhile excuses. Looking through the Rangers team, there
are players who have played at the highest level with both club and
country. New signings J P Fanfan, Brahim Hemdani and Julien Rodriguez
have all played at a top level in French football, all three captaining
there clubs at certain times and both involved in extended Champions
league and Uefa cup campaigns. These three signings along with Dado
Prso, Barry Ferguson, Fernando Ricksen, Stefan Klos/Ronald Watereuss
show we clearly have a very strong backbone in our team, all of the
above mentioned players have experienced playing at the top
levels either with club or country or in some cases both.

Along with these experienced pro's we have the engine of Ian Murray who
I feel can perform at any level due to his no nonsense style of play as
well as Alex Rae again another experienced campaigner who never lets
the team down. Nacho Novo last season displayed he can cut it in
Europe with accomplished displays against CSKA, Grazer and Amica Wronki
as well as guys like Michael Ball and Zurab who can all play at this
level and have done in the past.

Last season was an embarrassment, the defeats against Alkmaar and
Auxerre were not acceptable. It wasn't simply the fact that we were
defeated, it was the manner in which we were beaten. We are Glasgow
Rangers, we shouldn't fear teams such as AZ or Auxerre no matter how
well they are performing in there respective leagues. In hindsight it
appears we did worry too much about the opposition teams and not enough
about our own team.

This season we have improved in terms of squad size and quality within
team. Although many of the new signings are still to show what they are
made of, all of them have the pedigree and experience to compete at the
highest level in Europe. We need European football beyond Christmas, it
is a must for a club of our size and stature.

We have no excuses this season, we have the players to do it, we have a
squad big enough to compete, so hopefully there will be plenty of
highly charged European nights at Ibrox this season.

AYEREADY1985