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I’ve been doing some New Year thinking. Given what is going on at the club, and has been over the last, say, 10 years, it’s time for the whole enterprise (board, club, fanbase) to get its collective head up and start really horizon-scanning (sorry…) as to the medium and long-term future.
The narrow issue (will we stay up or be relegated to League One this season?) is now a given – it just insults anyone’s intelligence to think that this is even a live issue anymore. There’s no point endlessly slagging off players, managers, coaches or each other from now on in. As this excellent website (author(s) and contributors) has commentated , it’s time to address the deeper issues which surround not just Rangers but football in general - and our place in it.
I think we are going to have to carefully reposition ourselves through at least the next 5 years as a well-run developmental L1/L2 club. Now you could laugh at this and say, “that project is going just fine and ultra efficiently on its own.” But I think the key here is more about intent, organisation, and real control. Getting a grip on what the club is doing rather than drifting through seasons, rolling the dice, and hoping something will somehow just click and happen.
I hate to say it, but perhaps we do have to really commit and get on with the Brentford-style journey. It is the only way in 21st century football for clubs like us. It took the Bees years/decades but the key to their success (imho) was the amount of time they spent at L1 level building a foundation, as opposed to us flailing at it from the Championship level with the pull of the Premier League always there to distort/disrupt our plans (see the Mark Warburton era).
I don’t think now we have any room or choice but to do the same as our Hounslow friends over a considerable period. A said, L1/L2 is fine (it will help us develop) as long as we avoid a spiral into the National League– which should be v.unlikely if we are controlling events with a careful plan and committed ownership.
And the Brentford example is important because it brings in another massive factor for Rangers which, simply, is London. Or the West London footballing goldfish bowl to be specific. In many ways, its easier for clubs like Luton, Watford, Norwich or even Reading; they are all the single clubs of their town with a fixed fanbase and catchment area. In our small pond there are three Premier League clubs a bus stop (!) away. Until those clubs (or a good few of them in the Capital – Fulham, Palace, Brentford) fail there is no room for us, anymore than there is for Charlton or Leyton Orient. In the meantime, we can spend this time re-building to be in a position to challenge in the future when some of our rivals, inevitably, do fall back.
I won’t go on – but what I saw yesterday was a watershed for me. It is not being negative or ultra-defeatist to take honest and realistic stock. It really is time to plan and do the hard yards for the future of our great club. Ironically, once we commit to those yards, they probably won’t be as hard or unenjoyable as the torture we are going through at present.
At odds with the far happier 'wakey, wakey' thread - but we should mark it really.
I was gutted, but we gave it everything that day and it was one hell of an atmosphere at the Millennium Stadium. An exciting time for the club, despite the result.
Being reported (BBC) that Ian Holloway's in the final three for the Fir Park job vacancy. Intriguing if it happens - the passion of Scottish football could be too much even for him. Would not be dull.
FA Cup 4th Round, Fleetwood off to Hillsborough - where we would have been promptly despatched with utter impunity, with precious little financial gain (?) (Sky money/gate receipts) etc.
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