Glenn Gibbons: Rangers fail to shake off shackles of mediocrity

The most depressing aspect of the general decline in the standard of Scottish football is that, at the top end, it seems to be not only readily accepted, but embraced.

• Madjid Bougherra showed the most aggressive instinct for Rangers as Walter Smith employed ultra-defensive tactics in the Champions League Picture: SNS

In this regard, Rangers, as champions, have the responsibility of representing the country. As such, they have been over the past couple of seasons the kind of ambassadors whose questionable comportment at times would occasion the need to take refuge in diplomatic immunity.

Of course, it is an old truth that supporters - especially those unused to the kind of regular trophy-gathering that is the preserve of the Old Firm - will acclaim success in any guise. It is very likely, for example, that Hearts' unconvincing penalty shoot-out victory over Gretna - after a conspicuously unimpressive 1-1 draw - in the 2006 Scottish Cup final was celebrated as intensely as their inspired 3-1 defeat of Celtic in the corresponding fixture 50 years earlier.

But, as the touchstone by which the level of excellence in the SPL is to be evaluated, Rangers in the last two Champions League campaigns will have left the impression around Europe of an old gem that has long since lost its lustre.

Walter Smith has been able to claim, with a degree of justification, a certain improvement in the performance of his Ibrox side in the group phase that ended in Turkey on Tuesday compared with that which left them seriously embarrassed last season. But, in truth, three goals scored and one victory gained - the latter by a single goal at home to a Bursaspor team who took one point from the series - in six matches is hardly the stuff of dreams.

Nor is the need to have come from behind to salvage points in six of 14 domestic league games this season, or to have won the same number of fixtures by a single-goal margin, on too many occasions leaving either Smith or his deputy, Ally McCoist, to tell the post-match media conference that "we weren't at our best today".

Coming through these various trials successfully is, understandably, acclaimed by Rangers supporters as an indicator of the players' unquenchable spirit. But to place such a positive emphasis on their character is to ignore the mediocrity that often necessitates the resilience.

Simply better-than-average sides, far less exceptional ones, tend to be, in the main, less troubled and more convincing than the Scottish champions have been at home and abroad these past two seasons. There could hardly be a more damning commentary on a team's capabilities than that which has been applied to Rangers - that they are at their best when they don't have the ball.

What should disturb the club's followers more than anything is that acknowledgement of the team's deficiencies begins not with media critics, but with Smith himself.

The manager has been regularly on record with the claim that his ultra-defensive philosophy, especially in Europe, springs from his conviction that his players are not good enough to flirt with a more open and adventurous style without being picked off by demonstrably superior opponents.

It is quite bizarre to note that the Rangers player who often shows the most aggressive instinct in their European games - who appears at times to have the unbridled instinct for flight of a prisoner who has gone over the wall - is the central defender, Madjid Bougherra.

Yet, to the neutral observer, it is often clear that skilful, inventive and potentially incisive players such as Steve Davis and Steven Naismith are shackled by cautiousness, conditioned to looking behind rather than ahead for team-mates. It is the tactical equivalent of playing in leg irons.

What should disturb followers of the other 11 SPL teams, including Celtic, is that, despite their imperfections, the reigning champions have shown themselves over the past two campaigns to be unarguably - and by a considerable distance - the best.