Rangers Beware!
After a couple of years of automatic qualification, the Gers must negotiate the minefield of the Champions League qualifiers but we shouldn't be too unhappy with the draw. Malmo predictably had too much for Torshavn in the previous round but, as opposed to the grind of a long haul into Eastern Europe, we face opponents who are just a relatively short flight across the North Sea from a very hospitable country, Super Ally and his backroom team will be well clued up on the Swedish champions and, if we are honest with ourselves, if we feel we are worthy of a place in the Champions League we really should be able to cope with whatever Malmo throw at us.
But we all bear the scars of previous qualifying debacles against Gothenburg and Kaunas so there is absolutely no danger of Rangers treating their opponents lightly when they get down to business for tonight's first leg. Where we are still at the pre-season stage, Malmo are well into their league programme so, although they have blown hot and gold and are well down the table, they will be ready for us and, no doubt hoping to frustrate everyone at Ibrox, will fancy their chances.
Their striker Daniel Larsson has been shouting his mouth off about what he'd like to do to us so I'm sure his words will have been brought to Sir David's and Bougie's attention - or will it be Goian? - and he'll be wishing he hadn't allowed the Sunday Liam to set him up for a big fall. My only worry is that he and his team-mates will be a bit sharper and could rise to the occasion. My fear was aggravated by what I saw at our place on Saturday.
While each and every one of us expects (demands even!) the Rangers to progress to the group stage, despite having a passionate fanbase, Malmo aren't over-burdened by any great sense of expectation. They go into the game as underdogs, if they lose it there will be no recriminations, whereas Super Ally knows there are so many waiting to pounce at the first indication that the job might be too much for him. If he read any of the rags over the weekend he will know exactly what (and who) I'm talking about and, having seen him deal very assertively with the BBC, my money would be on him to sort out his critics pretty quickly.
Playing such an important game so soon does our new manager no favours. From the moment we clinched our fifty-fourth title, however, we knew we would face a qualifying tie at this early stage so, while the bid to bolster the squad with new faces hasn't quite worked as we hoped it might, there can be no excuses for not being prepared for the task ahead. Nobody needs to spell out what playing in the Champions League means, both in terms of prestige and finance, the players owe it to themselves to produce an extra special effort to get this new season off to a flying start.
In recent years Rangers have tended to do their best work away from home in Europe but I'd hate so see us traveling to Malmo next week needing to do something special. I'd settle for any kind of lead, preferably without the loss of a goal, and I'd be quite confident of us scoring over there to book our place in the play-off round. And with a few more weeks together and another couple of games under our belt, I'd reckon our team will then be ready and able to book our place alongside Europe's elite yet again.
Lets all get right behind the team and create the sort of atmosphere which lifts our guys. One of the best ever nights at Ibrox was the qualifier against Parma - God, was that really twelve years ago!!! - but, despite the best efforts of the Blue Order and the Union Bears, the atmosphere at the weekend left much to be desired. We need to let the Swedes know they are facing a major football power, instead of getting on our own players' backs after just one bad pass or one poor cross.
We know only too well what can go wrong but we also know what we have to do and what it means to our club. Losing isn't an option. It would dump us in with the Scum Of, facing another qualifying game just to maintain our interest the Europa League. We surely don't want to go there.
Just get the job done, Rangers.
ERWIN G.