Our owner David Murray knew this to be the case and took full advantage in appointing Smith and McCoist as the management duo to succeed Paul Le Guen. What better way to deflect any flak than appoint the manager who contributed to the winning of our greatest modern day achievement of 9 In A Row and the goal scoring hero who was the poster-boy throughout the glory years. Murray was aware that there were a demographic of supporters who didn’t know anything other than the 9 In A Row/Smith era.
So in came Smith to turn Rangers fortunes around. He might have cost us £10m after getting knocked out of Europe by Kaunas, as well as serving up Anti-Football and inconsistent bad results but he was always given the benefit of the doubt for an achievement over a decade ago. And his UEFA run satisfied many. However, embarrassing performances and results have been quickly forgotten, far too easily forgotten in fact.
Knowing that the Rangers support show far greater patience with players who are allegedly Rangers supporters, Smith drew up a convenient and parochial transfer policy.
The likes of Lafferty, McCulloch, Davis, Naismith, Weir and Broadfoot were brought in to install a bit of classic Rangers passion to the proceedings. Ability was a minor issue, Lafferty at £3.75, Davis at £3m, Naismith at £2m and McCulloch at £2.5m have totalled a whopping £11m alone.
Ultimately these players are just plain not good enough.
Naismith runs about a lot but has no end product. He runs aimlessly into the opposition defenders and gives the ball away. No assist and no goals, the hard facts are there to see or, in this case, not to see. Lafferty is another who claims to be a die=hard Bear, but ask him to shut down a defender or make a run off the ball in the box and it’s another question entirely. He lacks the basic skills and - for a player just short of £4m - you expect a hell of a lot more. McCulloch has been one of the biggest wastes of money in our history; he is devoid of any talent and lacks the commitment required as he goes hiding. Weir, despite being experienced, makes schoolboy errors and is extremely careless with and without the ball, costing us goals. His time is surely up. Davis looks uninterested and doesn’t offer anything out of the ordinary. We paid £3m and over £20k a week for him but he shows more passion and skill in a Northern Ireland shirt than a Rangers one. The question you have to ask to all the above and more is why?
Why do they claim to be such big Bears yet don’t show the necessary passion, commitment and heart out there on the pitch?
I would rather have a team full of talented footballers who are professional and committed in their approach than a collection of alleged Bears who can’t pass the ball more than 5 yards and can’t be bothered working hard for the team. Ultimately they are not good enough and that’s really all that matters.
Not until the manager is removed can we rid ourselves of these underperforming players, masquerading as supporters living the dream. So it’s a case of playing the waiting game: but there is no doubt that as each game passes it becomes harder to naively cling to the belief that they can’t and won’t let us down, as they slowly kill off our hopes, dreams and pride.