from inside Ibrox takes our great club another step
closer to the point of no return...and the precipice
might not be too far away.
On-field events are the public face of Rangers and it
is in this area we've seen Alex McLeish and Paul Le
Guen fight losing battles to reverse almost a decade
of downsizing imposed from above. The baton has now
been passed to Walter Smith and the club has turned to
his wealth of experience to halt the slide and plot a
new and promising future. But there is no room for
error.
This could be one final throw of the dice which simply
cannot be allowed to fail. Our rivals are seeking to
exploit Rangers' lack of direction, tapping into new
markets to finance other initiatives which are geared
towards pushing us further into the background. The
task of drawing the line in the sand and taking the
first steps on the road to recovery has been trusted
to the man who delivered nine-in-a-row and he was
quick to get down to work during the January transfer
window...but the clock still ticks steadily towards
our day of reckoning.
Step One: THE TEAM BEFORE THE CLUB
At the end of his first two months back in the hot
seat, Walter Smith succeeded in restoring some
credibility to Rangers, if only by modestly sorting
out a couple of problem areas and buying some time
before he has to make sweeping changes to the make-up
of his squad. But Rangers' future cannot be built on
loan deals for a couple of thirty-something defenders
or the raw potential of youth. Genuine quality must
step up to the plate, inspire team-mates and show the
new management team there will be no recurrence of the
nonsense which prevailed in the all-too-recent past.
Fire-fighting is the name of the game for now, with
potentially lucrative entry to the Champions League
hingeing on the team's ability to meet the hardly
unreasonable goal of finishing above Aberdeen and
Hearts in second place in the SPL table. If such a
modest achievement once more proves to be beyond our
team, Rangers' status as a genuine power, even within
the domestic game, will be seriously compromised and
could become increasingly difficult to regain with
each passing season. Lesser clubs genuinely fancy
their chances of enjoying some success at our expense
and there can be no let up until we return to the days
when our team was handing out hammerings as a matter
of course.
The club's prosperity, with all its accompanying
benefits, is directly dependent on the players'
ability to deliver success on the field. With such
stark reality in mind, Walter's team building strategy
will be meticulously scrutinised. He can't hide behind
the inexperience or the cost-cutting regime which got
Big Eck the benefit of the doubt for a few years, or
the Continental mentality and lack of insight into
Scottish football matters which seemed to excuse PLG's
actions. As an experienced manager with a proven track
record, he will find there is no slack to be taken up.
The media choose to portray Rangers fans as arrogant,
impatient and fickle when, in truth, we have been
tolerant of so much over the bulk of the past decade.
Both Big Eck and PLG got a relatively trouble-free
ride because we could see they were being impeded by
the club's iffy finances. Walter, however, will have
been only too aware of the financial climate and,
having accepted the job under these circumstances, he
will be expected to initiate change, otherwise he will
be seen as collaborating with behind-the-scenes
mismanagement.
Furthermore, there is no new Rangers support out
there. The club's future prosperity requires that the
current generation of Bears be kept sweet. Despite the
best efforts of Laurence McIntyre, we steadfastly
refuse to go away but, if there is no tangible
improvement in the quality of football served up by
our team, there will be an inevitable dip in the
numbers and, with any significant reduction in season
ticket sales, there can only be further diminishing of
ambition from upstairs.
No dramatic slump in attendance figures is
imminent...for now. There has been much talk amongst
the fans about season tickets not being renewed but
these murmurs of discontent are par for the course.
Even during the nine-in-a-row years, with the price of
a season book climbing but various measures reducing
its true value, there were frequently threatened
backlashes, only for the revolt to be outflanked by a
big-name summer signing or the promise of a brave new
dawn.
Even in relatively recent times, when the football has
been as poor as anything served up in living memory,
special events like Helicopter Sunday or the arrival
of Paul Le Guen have turned potential boycotts into
ticket stampedes. We want to believe so badly, a point
underlined by the return of the feel-good factor
amongst us in the immediate aftermath of the
Smith-McCoist appointment, but how many more false
dawns will be tolerated before a cold wind begins to
bite?
Whether we like it or not, those on the other side of
the city are currently leading us a merry dance.
League tables do not lie and, whilst they might not be
all that clever, it is hard to argue with a 19 point
gap. Such a massive differential on the field gives
them so much more clout when lining up off-field
ventures and, consequently, they are able to put
together better packages to attract better players to
Breezeblock Boulevard.
In the wake of recent takeover activity at various
clubs south of the border, many fans have hitched
their hopes on a super-rich sugar daddy being
attracted to Rangers. In Scottish football's current
financial climate, it just won't happen, guys. Our
only hope is to get things back on course on the
pitch, punch above our weight to push back into the
European reckoning, then hope the team's efforts catch
the eye and that a Rangers-minded Mr Moneybags (David
Burnside?) might fancy a slice of the action.
This is the challenge facing Walter Smith. Having had
to contend with the three-foreigner ruling for much of
his earlier stint in charge, he created a Rangers team
which reflected the ethos of the club and its
supporters. There are tangible signs that he is once
more moving in this direction. Throughout the
nine-in-a-row years, the team was inherently Scottish,
with the added talents of Butcher, Hateley, Laudrup,
Gascoigne, Albertz and others embellishing the scene.
At this early stage of his second coming, Walter is
surely relaying the Scottish foundations on which some
cosmopolitan magic can be added at a later (but not
too much later!) date.
And despite what some critics have had to say about
the signing of veterans like David Weir and Ugo
Ehiogu, the manager is clearly conscious of the need
to drive the average age of his squad down to a level
which suggests we might enjoy the best years of some
up-and-coming talents. Andy Webster (24), Kevin
Thomson (22), Alan Gow (24), possibly Scott Brown
(22), Steven Naismith (22), Kirk Broadfoot (23) and
one or two others, could form a new backbone to a
brand new Rangers. Whether they have what it takes to
make it at Rangers remains to be seen but alongside
Ferguson at his best, the developing talents of Smith,
Burke and Boyd, plus a wee bit of imaginative wheeling
and dealing on the transfer market, there could indeed
be light at the end of the tunnel.
The excesses of Rangers going Dutch when Tricky Dicky
was at the helm plunged our club into a decline which
has yet to bottom out and PLG's French connection has
left us in a pretty sorry state so, given current
financial constraints, we could do a lot worse than
return to basics. There is no great transfer war chest
available to the new manager, nor is there likely to
be one in the near future, so getting back to the
tried and tested maxims which served us well in the
past is the safest option. Immersed in the heritage of
the club, Walter and Super Ally undoubtedly offer the
safe hands to resist further decline and turn things
around.
It would, however, be a big mistake if extra
skill-focussed training sessions and special attention
to the players' diet were to be abandoned in the wake
of PLG's departure. While some old ways worked well
for the nine-in-a-row team, the game has moved on,
standards are different and Walter Smith is cute
enough to recognise that work on set-piece routines,
additional sessions to improve various aspects of
individual players' game and greater all-round
attention to detail can only benefit Rangers.
Every other aspect of our club's well-being is reliant
on Walter getting it right. Just a wee bit of success,
the slightest sign that we may be about to turn the
corner will generate the optimism which could once
more make Rangers an attractive proposition to
potential investors. If Walter Smith can get the team
moving in the right direction and possibly attract
fresh money to the club, maybe even encouraging
ambitious new ownership of Rangers from within the
business community, he will have succeeded beyond our
wildest dreams. And if the Burnside thing comes to
fruition, he will have done so well ahead of schedule.
Nobody can overstate the importance of Walter's first
steps, the steadying of the ship, then going on to
make a good start to next season. The alternative -
more short-term fixes and prolonged mediocrity - just
doesn't bear too much thinking about because the
unforgiving march of time moves on and we are well off
the pace. The clock is ticking.
LITTLE BOY BLUE
Next: DOING THE BUSINESS
Are Rangers doing enough to encourage greater involvement
with the business community and generate new income for
the club?