You don’t deserve us (GERS … 0 Jambos … 1)

I suppose now’s the time to remember the targets we were setting ourselves last summer. We must try and glean some comfort from the fact everyone was sure the financial future of the club would depend on us qualifying for the Champions League.

In that sense the win in Copenhagen last August was the most vital result of the season. Mmmm. Let’s put it another way - the result in Copenhagen was the last truly memorable and meaningful reuslt of the season.

Since then its been a rapidly decreasing scope of ambition and an incresaing inability to fulfill it. Just as we give up on one target and lower our sights, Rangers duly fail to achieve even the consolation prizes.

We were never gonnae win the Champions League but at least we could finish above Panathinaikos and go into the Uefa Cup: The Greeks come to Ibrox and thrash us 3-1. The SPL race was over by Christmas but we could at least do well in the cups: Out in the semis of the CIS, out in the quarters of the Scottish.

Oh well, there was still time to give Celtic something to think about before next season: We lost every fixture we played against them and scored just one derby goal all season. A win over Hearts would secure the best home record in the SPL for 2003/3004 - Hearts win 1-0 … which also means we can’t now finish closer to first place than we are to third.

Prso and Boumsong are exceptional signings - Andrews and Rae make sense. But there’s a downward spiral to be halted here and the manager will need more new faces and a whole new attitude in the dresssing room. It’s called pride.

To actually discover a new potential accomplishment from the rubble of this season and then ruin the chances of achieving it is really quite difficult at this particular point in time. When I turned up tonight with my big German flag, spray-painted with a message of thanks for our player of the season, it really shouldn’t have been any surprise when Klos wasn’t playing - it’s been like that since last August: One disappointment after another.

The desperate need for cash was demonstrated by the sight of Michel Mols, both de Boers and maybe one or two others (Ricksen, Arteta), playing their last match at Ibrox in an AWAY strip. The sense of this blatant marketing move was then demonstrated by a team so bereft of ideas and inspiration that I almost wished our new change colours incorporated a Red Hand - judging by the popularity of the orange top, this would have guaranteed millions of sales and enough dosh to add another three or four stars of Le Championnat to prop up the crumbling facade of our team.

The game was awful and Hearts deserved their first win at The Palace for eight years if for nothing else other than the fact they wanted it more.

As the de Boers got their compulsory moment of hero worship it stuck in my craw somewhat. I tried hard to remember Ronnie’s good times - and he has been a class act when available and interested - but I think most of us punters who hung around for the final whistle were applauding and singing for ourselves: The cacophony reassured us all we are fans of a great, great club and maybe embarrassed those who know they’ve let us down this season:

Apart from that, over the last eight months we’ve mostly needed to provide our own entertainment.

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Published:
05.12.04 / 11pm
Category:
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