What have we just stumbled into?
Originally posted on http://debriefsports.co.uk/ Alistair brings us his new blog
Does anyone know how we got here? It’s a good job the Scottish Premiership isn’t a TV series
or critics would have blasted the current season for jumping the shark and being too far-fetched.
We of course took a lead role in this nonsense from the start with the hiring of a manager who
bemoaned his curtains and a propensity to sweat as reasons why he was an unpopular figure at
Ibrox. Players were banished, others refused to play, arguments between directors and fans
took place in hotels and airports all over Europe before Martin was relieved of his duties under a
police escort in Falkirk.
In the midst of this an unlikely contender started to emerge. Tony Bloom’s Hearts started with an
impressive eight wins out of their first nine games, including comfortable defeats of each of the
Old Firm. The gap between Hearts’ and the two big Glasgow clubs’ 24/25 revenue was
proportionally wider than Leicester City’s was to the EPL’s big earners* in football’s ultimate
underdog story.
Celtic themselves appeared to engage in multiple acts of self-sabotage. Brendan Rodgers, their
board and fans locked in a three-way war culminating in the resignation and public burial of their
two-time manager.
After an extensive search they hired a man who has lost more opening games than any Old
Firm manager ever, has said it doesn’t matter if they win or lose and that he’s well equipped for
Scottish football because he nearly joined Carlisle once.
The events of Wednesday night were amusing, the Celtic support clearly not sharing the same
‘Let him cook’ sentiment as Thierry Henry as they voiced their anger following a second half
collapse. Nancy took just four games (14 days) to get the ‘Get tae fuck’ treatment that Martin
managed to avoid until our trip to Brugge - a whole five games (70 days) longer.
There is a real sense that we may have just stumbled our way into an unlikely title fight. A
feeling that will be multiplied at Tynecastle where they will know this is their best chance at a
title in many of their supporters' lifetimes.
It is the first Rangers-Hearts ‘six pointer’ of the century. Yes, Hearts fans may rightfully say they
beat us in a title fight in 2015, but I have chosen to block out any memories of that era, and we
were so far behind we were never actually in a title fight anyway.
Sunday will be a real test of Danny Röhl and a Rangers side that, whisper it, are beginning to
show a little more character than previously displayed. This is a welcome sight after a start to
the campaign that included deliberate sendings-off, fan ‘shushing’ and defensive calamities.
Collapses after short-lived ‘title challenges’ have become something all too common at Ibrox in
recent years. The stat detailing Danny Röhl’s impressive 20/24 possible points since he tookcharge has done the rounds on Twitter, but fans don’t have to cast their minds too far back to
remember previous false dawns. Michaell Beale (43/45) and Philippe Clement (28/30) both
enjoyed a strong run of results when taking charge mid-season, before ultimately falling short.
With Hearts being the league's top scorers by a fair margin, we will likely need to reply with a
few of our own, something that has eluded our front three so far this season. To date, the £20m
trio of Youssef Chermiti, Bojan Miovski and Danilo have scored fewer league goals this season
combined than Lawrence Shankland alone. A stat that becomes even more frightening when
you consider the Hearts captain was available on a free all summer.
Three clean sheets out of the last four league games gives hope that many of the issues that
plagued our start to the campaign have been improved. You would be challenged to find
someone overly impressed by Nasser Djiga this season, but his departure to AFCON raises
questions, especially if Röhl is to stick to the back three which kept a clean sheet last time out
against Hibs.
Dujon Sterling and Emmanuel Fernandez you assume will start, but they could be joined by an
out-of-position James Tavernier or Clinton Nsiala, who recently made his way back into the first
team after being frozen out by the aforementioned Martin. Tavernier has had a poor run of
games of late, but the lack of recent game time for the French youngster makes it a coin flip to
see which one would get the nod.
Whatever the result on Sunday, Rangers will look to strengthen in January and Andrew
Cavanagh has said already that there is money there to be spent in the upcoming transfer
window. We will of course have to spend this money far wiser than Stewart, Thelwell and Martin
did in the summer, but now the matchbox has been taken off the chief arsonists, we have more
reason to be optimistic.
*2024/25 revenue figures; Hearts (£24.4m, Heartsfc.co.uk), Rangers (£94.1m, Rangers.co.uk),
Celtic (£143.6m, celticfc.com)
2014/15 revenue figures: Leicester (£104.4m, lcfc.com) Manchester United (£395.2m, Deloitte
Money League)
@DebriefRangers
