The age old question: what came first. It’s a familar scene at Ibrox these days. Do the fans wait to be entertained before supporting the team, or does the support lift the team to perform? I can’t say I can remember too many occasions in recent seasons when the quality of atmopshere has been high. Sure, there have been some good days, usually Celtic games, or ones towards the end of the season when we’re in a tight league finish, or the odd European night. At these games the fans come in ready for it, give it 'laldy' from the word go, and get a response from the players, and then the fans pick up on this, and we all have a good time. Two ones to remember that filled this criteria perfectly were the 4-0 win over Kilmarnock and the 6-1 over Dunfermline at the tail end of the 2002-03 season. But those are - in football terms - a long time ago.
One word used to describe the SPL recently is “stale” and that perfectly sums up Ibrox on match days. Most (no longer all) seats are taken, but no-one expects much in the way of fun and despite the best efforts of TBO, CDL and others, we are not encouraged to make a spectacle and often fans today feel barely tolerated - far less wanted - at their home stadium. We have the odd piece of good play, a lot of mindless play, maybe a goal, maybe a controversial moment, but that’s about it. We got criticised in the Advocaat days when we beat teams by 4 or 5 goals regularly. It was boring; too easy; we had (or at least spent) too much money. Now we get criticised for grinding out a 2-1 win away from home. Three points is the key, but I’d like some entertainment along the way. Gone are the days when a Cooper, Laudrup, Gascoigne, van Bronckhorst, Albertz, McCoist or even Negri would do something special. Now we rave about a player able to control a ball within 10 yards, or hit a corner beyond the first defender!
I don’t want to single out anyone in particular at the club, but it looks to me like we have a team of average, journeymen pros. All honest, relatively hard working, but not ever going to consistently hit the heights. I do not think a single player at Ibrox today would make it at a top Premiership Club, and before anyone throws names at me, remember Cuellar? Outstanding for us a few seasons back, man of the match in almost every game in a marathon season. Now he occasionally gets a game at right back for Aston Villa, who will finish in the Top 10, but will not get near the Top 4.
Money to spend is clearly the first big obstacle, but the current squad wasn’t exactly bought on the cheap. We have spent around £30m since Smith returned to the club, although we have recouped a lot of that in fees for departing players. Even in today’s inflated market, that's not a small amount. What did we get for that? Truthfully, not a lot. Would be be better off if we had more money, or would we just be wasting more? I think probably the latter. There is a type of player that will come to the SPL. Rangers are a massive club, players want to play for us - they want to win trophies, they want to play in Europe - but they also want to test themselves against decent opposition, and whilst we struggle to win games, it's not really because the opposition are up to much.
Which brings me back to the original question. If the SPL is part of the problem,would things be better if we were playing in a lower English league or perhaps somewhere else? If we were lucky enough to get invited to an EPL2, I would jump at it. If it was more like EL2 it would require serious consideration. How many fans would buy season tickets, turn up for games like Rangers v Macclesfield, or Cheltenham, or Port Vale? Judging by European nights recently, the price would have to be right to fill the stadium. Sure, it would be easy if we got to EPL standard. Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool would fill the stadium, and get the fans’ juices flowing at the thought of a game like that, but we are a long way short of where we need to be to get the chance to be there and to get the players we need to compete at that level.