Kipling’s verse about the Boer War, oft-quoted by Sir Anthony Eden in reference to the Suez debacle of 1956, can be applied less urgently (or at least less importantly) to the state of Rangers Football Club, June 2005.
The euphoria of the late turn of events at Fir Park has begun to die down now. While there is no mitigating the sense of joy at a 51st league title, it is imperative that the braintrust of this football club not use it as paper roses to cover whatever is missing from the cupboard that will keep Rangers from honestly claiming a place among the biggest football clubs in Europe.
In truth, the only elements currently present at the club that would qualify us for such an identity are 1) Support; 2) Ibrox, and 3) Tradition. The first is like old faithful and what will always make Rangers a special club. The 2nd is reasonably secure, and the 3rd is under some degree of duress (and I’m talking about identify, not song lyrics, but that’s another article).
This season’s SPL title will be memorable for Scott McDonald’s late heroics as much as anything, but is Rangers position in regard to our international standing really that different because of it?
It pains me to do so, but let’s go back to two December nights, one in Holland and one at Ibrox. Rangers needed just a point from either of these two matches to advance to the knockout round of the UEFA Cup. But faced with this challenge the squad that management has put together failed woefully. Earlier in the year it had been against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League Qualifying Round, but the result was the same, the team falling to a talented but certainly not unbeatable opponent.
Now the lesson to me is in two parts. The first is somewhat obvious, yet it seems a subject to avoid in the inner sanctum at Ibrox. Rangers do not compete well in Europe.
Since failing to score at home that night in 1992 against CSKA Moscow, Rangers’ record in European competition has been deplorable. A memorable win here or there does not change the fact that on the stage by which major clubs are judged, Rangers have come up lacking year after year after year. Even when Dick Advocaat was allowed to spend to his heart’s content, at a shockingly reckless rate as it turned out, the club could only threaten to succeed, but it never did.
There are more excuses out there for Rangers’ failure in Europe than from the schoolboy who forgot to do his assignment: Good players won’t come to Scotland, The SPL competition isn’t good enough, There aren’t enough good Scottish players, Hugh Dallas slapped Van Bronckhurst on the bum. There is an element of truth to three of these, but since when are Rangers a club making excuses? Shouldn’t we be dealing with reality and overcoming the circumstances?
Now if it’s agreed that I’m not stretching too much to say Rangers have been god-awful in European football (and I’m presupposing that supporters of the club WANT to see it succeed in European competition), than the 2nd part of the lesson follows along somewhat easily. Rangers player policy has been an abject failure.
Rangers are a Scottish club. Always will be. The desire to compete in England, understandable as it is, ends up being a distraction, or at best is tilting at windmills. Rather than try to change the goalposts, why not deal with reality the way any number of other clubs in Europe’s smaller footballing nations have done.
That paragraph isn’t a misplaced aside, it leads into the fact that for Rangers to succeed in Europe it is going to have to do so with primarily Scottish players. This year’s team reminds us that while we might be able to buy enough players to defeat the players Celtic have bought, it will not put us in any sort of competitive position in Europe.
So if we need to develop homegrown talent, what has been the club’s record this season in regard to that?
I have to be fair and say in some ways the situation is improving. The buzz around George Adams work at Murray Park continues to be positive. There are at least young players worth considering. And there were more sniffs of first team action for younger players, particularly in the first half of the season, then we ever saw under Walter Smith for instance. While Advocaat gave a regular first-team spot to Barry Ferguson and introduced Maurice Ross and Stephen Hughes to the squad, he too was more inclined to buy than to home-grow. McLeish record on giving young players’ opportunities, kind of like his overall managerial performance, has been mixed.
At the end of last season, we at least saw some new talent coming through the ranks. This year during the season the club brought in six players from outwith, while the younger players largely disappeared from the team sheet. Once again the tyranny of the urgent won out over youth development’s pinnacle – the introduction of players into the first team. Similarly, in the aforementioned UEFA Cup matches, Rangers had one and two Scotsmen in the lineup.
(I should point out that 21-year old Alan Hutton is something of an exception to this, as the fullback commanded a semi-regular place in the first team before breaking his leg in February. I should also point out that at a number of clubs having success in smaller nations, the young players breaking through are 17 and 18, not 21 and 22).Meanwhile guys like Ross McCormack, Bob Davidson, Allan McGregor, Hamed Namouchi Chris Burke and Charlie Adam seem stuck in the role of unused substitute. They were never going to get an opportunity during the fight with Celtic for the league title, and so the team continues on as before, apparently unwilling to make the tough ecisions that could ultimately lead to it being competitive in continental play.
Of course I don’t know more than you whether these young players eventually will have the stuff to help Rangers make it big in Europe, but I do know that comparable football nations have clubs that have succeeded on the big stage using primarily their own national talent, with a few signings sprinkled in. I have yet to see Rangers show any intent to move in this direction and so, European mediocrity will remain with us for the foreseeable future.
Sorry for the doom and gloom but I fear club management have learned NOTHING.