Red-faced Rangers haunted by two ghosts, Louden Tavern call and gleeful Hearts as key men's judgement clouded
Euro exit against Jablonec adds to McInnes’ woes as Ibrox side lurch into crisis mode again
These are (more) difficult days for Rangers. It’s just been confirmed that the Original Louden Tavern in Dennistoun, one of the longest-standing pubs associated with the Ibrox club, will close its doors for the final time as soon as this weekend.
The owner has announced there will be “one last party” and included a warning to frequent Rangers bars while you still have them, with the unspoken sentiment being: you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
That view could certainly apply to Cyriel Dessers, the once derided Rangers striker who scored a last-minute penalty for Panathinaikos against Hradec Kralove on Thursday to take the Greek side into the group phase of the Conference League and has now struck three times in three games this season.
It could even apply to Danny Rhol. On the same night Rangers suffered a new European low by exiting Conference League qualifying at the hands of Jablonec, the manager many Ibrox fans were happy to see make way for Derek McInnes earlier this summer masterminded a comfortable 4-0 aggregate win for Red Bull Salzburg over Mjallby. It took the Austrians into the Europa League group stage.
What is it about climbing the marble staircase at Ibrox? Does it turn good players into poor, unfit ones, good, inspirational coaches into doomed panic merchants?
Maybe it’s the insistence that managers dress like Rangers manager of old and wear suit and tie on the touchline. McInnes, for all that he’s a Rangers man, has never looked comfortable in this garb on the sidelines. The buttoned-up look appears to be restricting the flow of blood to the brain. He seems to be struggling to think clearly.
It’s been well documented that McInnes changed Rangers’ shape on five occasions in the Czech Republic and yet still couldn’t devise a way of taking control of the game. In fact, the team got progressively worse before being dumped out of Europe completely on penalties, following a 1-0 defeat on the night. McInnes has now made eleven half-time personnel changes in just seven games to date, including three against Jablonec.
Normally you might credit a manager for being unafraid to shake things up if it isn’t working. But why isn’t it working so often? A manager who seemed so assured as recently as May, including when he inspired a 2-0 win over Rangers to seemingly tighten Hearts' grip on the Scottish title, now looks like he’s the right man in the wrong place. Maybe Scotland was his destiny after all.
The muddled thinking in the dugout perhaps reflects what’s happening in the boardroom. Very little is making sense.
What was the rationale behind Nico Raskin’s exclusion against Jablonec? Transfer speculation? McInnes confirmed afterwards there had been no offers, yet the midfielder didn’t even travel. Meanwhile, an offer from a Turkish club for Youssef Chermiti, reported to be as high as £22 million, was received before the game against Hibs earlier this month, yet the player in question did play. Chairman Andrew Cavenagh explained at the recent shareholders’ meeting in Glasgow that the club won't kowtow to anyone when it comes to their own players.
“Just because someone lobs an unsolicited offer in on one sheet of paper, you don’t yank a player from a really important match,” he stressed. Despite Chermiti suffering a season-ending injury against Hibs, he emphasised there were no regrets.
The fall from grace of four years ago
All eyes are now on Cavenagh, who might have reasonably assumed that Jed York, the Rangers and Leeds United co-owner, being arrested for allegedly soliciting a prostitute in an Ohio trailer park would be as embarrassing as things got this week.
Never mind the Original Louden Tavern, is it now approaching last orders for McInnes? That would be absurd. So many of Rangers’ problems can be ascribed to a hire ’em and fire ’em approach that saw the club dispense with Giovanni van Bronckhorst at the first signs of trouble. Again, you don’t know what you've got until it’s gone.
It’s hard to believe that a team that looked so painfully lacking against Jablonec, who struggled to string four or five passes together against a very ordinary looking European team, reached the final of the Europa League four years ago.
Even uber Rangers fan, former player and now pundit Andy Halliday was moved to exclaim on Radio Scotland on Thursday night that he didn’t even know what sport it was Rangers were trying to play in Czech Republic. “That wasn’t even football,” he said. “I don’t know what I watched.”
A lot rests on the young shoulders of young Korean winger Minsu Kim, who has been bought for £8.5 million from Girona. As much as he is being backed, in fact because of this, McInnes will know he is skating on very thin ice.
Amid the anger and the stress post-match on Thursday there was a hint of melancholy in his voice. McInnes brought up Hearts’ performance the previous evening in Vienna and expressed his wish that his current team could have been more like his former charges. “You look at Hearts last night,” he said. “A team playing with real desire and togetherness and digging out a result when the chips were down.”
While this was seized upon with glee by fans of the Tynecastle club, it probably wasn’t what Rangers fans needed to hear. Nor did they want to be reminded of their own team’s deficiencies. “We are not strong enough in the challenges, we are not strong enough to win second balls,” complained McInnes. “We don’t win tackles.” Alarming in the extreme.
Hearts, meanwhile, are loving it – or at least the person running their social media output is. No sooner had the final whistle sounded on Thursday night than a post went out reminding fans that Hearts are in the Conference League, “with Wouter Vrancken”. McInnes, who controversially swapped Hearts for Rangers in the summer, has fallen at the qualifying stage of a European competition once again, as he did with Aberdeen and Kilmarnock.
Rummaging around the wreckage of Celtic’s disintegration in Linz on Tuesday night, it simply didn’t seem possible that Rangers could outdo their rivals in the misery stakes. But they have. Although Celtic are still coming to terms with Champions League elimination, and particularly the manner of it, at least they are still in Europe. And the Europa League is probably more commensurate with their abilities right now. What happened in Upper Austria, although undeniably traumatic, might turn out to be a blessing for Martin O’Neill’s men.
Rangers, on the other hand, are now out of Europe completely. Facing the challenge of Celtic in the last eight, they could be out of the League Cup by the middle of next month. They already trail their rivals in the league by five points after just two games. It could be eight points by Saturday teatime and that’s before Rangers even get to Pittodrie, when the heat really will be on McInnes and his team.
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