Glenn Gibbons: Reminisces of past Rangers 'battles' do not bear scrutiny

Published on Friday 4 December 2009 23:12

IF, AS LP Hartley suggested, the past is a foreign country where things are done differently, perhaps it only appears that way because people often look at it with a squint.

When, for example, the former Rangers captain, Richard Gough, reflected this week on the Ibrox side's European exploits during his time with the club, he drew a picture that would be unrecognisable to many of those who shared the experience.

The main thrust of Gough's musing was a then-and-now comparison of the respective Rangers team's physical and mental fortitude, with the present-day representatives taking some serious flak over their wimpishness in the recent Champions League campaign which saw them lose three successive home matches while conceding ten goals.

Gough was particularly animated by a quote from Alexander Hleb, the Belarus midfielder who was the most accomplished player on the field during a 2-0 victory for Stuttgart in which Rangers were so comprehensively outplayed that the margin of defeat might have been trebled. Hleb expected a rough-and-tumble, perhaps even brutal, match and was surprised to leave the field without so much as a minor knock. Gough insisted, in his day, this would have been considered totally unacceptable.

He illustrated his argument quite colourfully, saying that Hleb would have been "black and blue" and that "in my day, our mindset was that if they (opponents) came into the area, they will get hurt."

Curiously, despite involvement in all of Rangers' milestone matches of the period, this (admittedly ageing) columnist has no memory of any Juventus player hobbling wounded from the field after an 8-1 aggregate victory in group matches – 4-1 in Turin, 4-0 in Glasgow – in 1995.

Nor is there any recollection of the mass evacuation of casualties the following year, when Ajax (5-1) and even Auxerre (4-2) beat Rangers home and away and Grasshoppers' opening 3-0 win in Zurich left the Scottish champions with five defeats and bottom of the section with three points from six matches for the second successive season. Should the current squad take a point from their trip to Seville on Wednesday, they will match those "achievements".

Failure to qualify for the group stage on the back of defeats by Gothenburg, AEK Athens and Levski Sofia and a first-round elimination by Sparta Prague add up to six embarrassing campaigns from the seven attempts during Walter Smith's first managerial tenure, the period in which Gough and the players whose toughness he eulogised could be said to have been in their prime.

Whatever else Gough's so-called fighting men may have accomplished, they didn't seem to leave much blood on the carpet.

REPORTS that the Scottish FA are to ascertain Walter Smith's readiness – or reluctance – to be re-appointed manager of Scotland may be the most significant indicator so far of the likelihood that the field of contenders is hardly up to Derby standard.

This is no slight on the veteran Rangers manager's capabilities, as he appeared suited to the national team during his previous tenure, whatever fluctuations of fortune he may have experienced over the years at Ibrox and Everton. It is, however, legitimate to recognise his insistent dissociation from the job in the aftermath of George Burley's sacking. The SFA clearly does not have the breadth of choice of Europe's wealthiest clubs, especially in England. Indeed, the annual pretenders to domestic and continental triumph south of the Border consider themselves such an elite that, on those occasions when the managerial chair becomes vacant, only former Champions League winners need apply.

The consequence of this exclusivity is that an Alex Ferguson nowadays could not accede to the Manchester United throne as he did 23 years ago. The very idea of a successful manager of Aberdeen – or even of Celtic or Rangers – being elevated to a Big Four appointment in England would be regarded as ludicrous.

FOR all Scottish football's present ills, a phenomenon was witnessed in midweek which would have all but one or two of England's Premier League clubs – the exceptions would be Manchester United and, possibly, Liverpool – looking north with envy.

It occurred at Celtic Park, where 35,010 watched Tony Mowbray's harassed side play Hapoel Tel-Aviv in the penultimate match of their Europa League Group C series. Curiously, the crowd was viewed by most observers in this country as a certain sign of dwindling interest among Parkhead fans.

Compared to the 60,000 capacity turn-outs for Champions League matches in recent years, the diminishing numbers are undeniable. But it is those earlier figures that are freakish, produced as they have been by a club in one of Europe's smallest countries from a city with a population of 620,000. In similar circumstances to those faced by Celtic on Wednesday – a dead rubber against largely unappealing opponents – the biggest clubs in Italy would have struggled to reach five figures.

A poor Celtic team made the second-biggest crowd in Europe.