WORK US INTO A FIRENZE!!

BARRY FERGUSON - this is YOUR NIGHT. I suspect this is the one you’ve always wanted. Make this yer greatest game in a Rangers jersey and everything which happened between us in December/January last season is forgiven. I always loved you - always will - but this will take away the last of the hurt. This will let me sing your name again. This will prove you were right. Do it tonight, Barry. Do it. Show the world what Ibrox has always known. I was there the night you took over from Ammo. I was there the night ye came back from Blackburn. Let me be there the night ye lead Rangers out for a European final.

No matter what happens in Florence, this has already been our greatest ever season in Europe. From the last day in July 2007 to the first day of May 2008, our club has been playing in meaningful continental contests. Only the month of June will prevent Rangers completing a full year of wall calendar pages in UEFA competition. We’ve overcome Red Star Belgrade, we’ve held Barcelona at home, we’ve defeated Sporting Lisbon away, knocked out Werder Bremen and Panathinaikos and given VfB Stuttgart a slighlty harder time than they gave us while also achieving arguably our finest ever one-off performance with the 3-0 win in Lyon. From Zeta at home to Fiorentina at home we’ve played SEVENTEEN European games - none of them against mugs, some of them against World beaters - and we still have an 18th match to go. Spanish behemoths, French champions, German champions and a Portugese Legend have all felt the Rangers bite in 2007/2008. The Barcelona Bears of 72 lifted a trophy - the glory of silverware always outweighs the technical brilliance of qualifying for both the Champions League Group Stages and the Uefa Cup semis in the same season - but if the current team makes it to Game 19 all arguments are over.

I also think it’s now more relevant than ever to remind the viewers at home that we prepared for our Champs League qualifying games with a sensationally competitive 2-0 friendly win over Chelsea, the VERY same Chelsea who have just made it to the Champions League final.

We’re loving it. Hey - we were needing it! We need more - more Euro glory is needed - and the Bears and Bearettes have more than enough love to make it happen. But what I will say is that the Stadio Artemi Franchi on Thursday 1st May 2008 is not the biggest match in Rangers’ history. If we make the final we can begin to debate if the City of Manchester Stadium this year is more important than the Stade Velodrome, Marseilles in 1993 or the Nou Camp in 1972. If we then won the UEFA cup, we would probably all claim it as our club’s greatest achievement yet. I happen to believe winning the Cup Winners Cup doesn’t match up with barnstorming our way undefeated through the first ever Champions League, knocking out the English Champions with home and away wins to get there, and coming within a goal - nay, within a decent pass! - of the final, all while winning the 1992/93 domestic treble. But you’re always more biased towards what you remember personally - or what was filmed in colour rather than black and white! And the glory of this current TEAM, like Walter’s previous legendary Euro line-up, will be augmented by what they do domestically this season.

All I know is that I was less than three years old when Rangers last made a European final. And tonight will be the third time in my life I’ve watched Rangers knowing they could be in a European final by the end of the game. For only the second time in my life I’ll be watching a game knowing Rangers have it in their own hands to be in a European final at the end of the game. In terms of matches I’ve attended, last week was the most important of my life. In terms of what I’ve watched from the sofa - this is half-way between Marseille away on 7th April 1993 and CSKA Moscow at home two weeks later.

If we do the business tonight, I will finally have the chance to ATTEND the most important Rangers match played during my life so far. If we don’t riot in Manchester (it’s up tae the polis - don’t go all “Guarda Civille” on us and we’ll let ye aff!) and we win the UEFA Cup - BANG! - that’s it! - we’ll have beaten as many teams of as much calibre in the UEFA Cup alone this season as we did in the Cup WInners Cup in 71/72, but we’ll also have added a domestic bauble or two, or three, as well as a hell of a go at the Champions League group stage. Best season ever - OFFICIAL!

But the whole world - except a wee spot in Europe - expects Fiorentina to make the UEFA cup final, not Rangers. Most of the footballing planet would laugh me out of the Internet cafe for even FANTASISING about even REACHING Manchester, far less - guffaw! - “winning” the Uefa Cup itself when Rangers are going to Florence, home of Fiorentina, “La Viola”, with not even as much as a lead to our name. Even if we were 1 goal up from the first leg, no-one except Rangers fans and a few Scottish punters give Rangers any kind of chance of overcoming Fiorentina. Especially not when there’s a place in a European final at steak.

And they’re mostly correct - it’s a hell of an ask. If making a Euro final would be heaven for Rangers then having to negotiate our way past the 4th-placed team in Serie A to get there is certainly the kind of obstacle you should have to overcome to earn that blissful state. To be honest, it’s only this last couple of days I’ve begun realising the two propositions are directly connected. Beating Fiorentina over two legs was one thing - reaching the UEFA Cup Final was another. In my mind, the former was an almost impossible task, the latter was some barely credible ambition which had captured the Rangers imagination simply coz the final was taking place in such close geographical proximity tae auld Glesgie toon. I couldn’t really cope with considering one as being linked to the other.

But now I know that could be an adavnatge to Rangers. The “semi-finalness” of the occassion tonight COULD put the home side off! Naw - it’s true - honest - hear me out …

The reports from Italy this week tell us Fiorentina aren’t THAT much better than they were at Ibrox. Don’t get me wrong - that’s still more than good enough! But they didn’t just “hold back” at Ibrox because they didn’t have much more to give. They held back because they have bigger fish to fry. We’ll have Bazza and Kevin T back in the line-up and, just as importantly, Fiorentina will see us in terms of the UEFA Cup Final rather than the SPL. To explain, Fiorentina are also widely reported to be more interested in securing 4th place in Serie A and to qualify for next season’s Champions League than they’re interested in making this season’s possible European final. The Italian football world, especially amongst bigger clubs like Fiorentina who’ve already played in all three of the major European finals - only really rates the Champions League as being the equal of their own domestic set-up. The Florentines would be castigated by their tifosi if their UEFA Cup exertions caused them to lose 4th place in Serie A. In other words, “if we can keep it tight for the first twenty minutes …”

Ahh, the language of ifs and buts again. Yes, okay, it could all be OVER for us after twenty minutes. If Fiorentina are 3-0 up at half-time tonight they will ALSO save enough energy to maintain their domestic upsurge and we’ll still be oot on our arses. BUT keeping it tight for half the first half would disabuse the home side of any over-confidence they felt from the fact they were playing an “SPL team”. Suddenly we’d be the tough European proposition everyone else knows us as - suddenly they’d see us as requiring that extra push, the one they want to keep for Serie A. And, let’s not forget, FOUR of the away results we’ve gained in Europe this season so far would eliminate Fiorentina this evening, another - the 0-0 in Belgrade - would take it to extra-time and possibly pens. This is far from un-doable.

We have to thank Celtic. Yes, we do. The only event in Scottish domestic football which can possibly prepare you for going to Florence for a European semi is going to Parkhead looking for a league draw against a Celtic team with only the Lleague to play for. The on- and off-field assault on the senses at Parkhead is not as powerful as what we’ll face in Tuscany but - fair’s fair - Celtic ARE a Champions League last 16 team. We lost both games at Parkheid - but we scored in both and instinctively felt we didn’t need to win either of those games. All this is great preparation for Florence - and I did say that winning the league with a result at Parkhead may have moved the UEFA Cup into “bonus” territory. Losing to Celtic is horrible but on this occassion it may just have left us with enough mean moodiness, enough to prove to ourselves, enough anger to rise to the bigger occassion in Florence.

We may also have to partly thank Celtic - sarcastically or otherwise - for the fact we all kinda believe our team is more than capable of doing this tonight. Look, let’s be honest, when we remember Celtic getting to Seville in 2003 we all piss ourselves coz they won fuck-all that season. Straight away we realised that if a team we beat to all three domestic trophies can get to a European final then so can we. Barry Ferguson scored against Italy themselves last time he was up against opposition from that part of the world and I think many of the Scottish players in our team - the ones who mix with and often beat players from the Celtic team which got to a UEFA Cup final so relatively recently - will have even more belief about Rangers’ chances than the foreign players in our team. Celtic benefitted from Rangers’ work on Scotland’s UEFA coefficient down the years. We’ve been past Xmas in Europe for three years on the trot now with three different managers. We’ve succesfully negotiated a Champs League Group withn the last three years. We won in Tuscany just last season. From our manager and his assistant to our travelling injured players, there are men in this Rangers set-up who’ve experienced beating France home and/or away. There is nothing here in Firenze which is alien or beyond us. This IS doable and we need look no further than Lyon away this season to see why this game in Florence may not be a 3-0 drubbing for Rangers or a nail-biting 0-0 followed by pens if we do get through.

We don’t have Mcgregor, Beasley, Hutton or McCulloch - yeah. That’s a sobering thought. But Fiorentna aren’t as good as Lyon, and, frankly, they don’t want this as badly as we do. I wouldn’t be surprised if we won this game tonight - and won it in normal time.

I was gonnae do a big seven-piece, daily build-up week on the blog for this game, troops but, as I’ve been saying, I quickly realised that only a European final merits that kind of pre-match attention for The Rangers. We ARE a European final team. By kick-off tonight we’ll know who awaits in the final. Zenit or Bayern will be out by 19:45hours and Rangers will be one of only THREE CLUBS left in this season’s UEFA cup. That in itself sends shivers down my spine but for a club our size, with our capabilities, I’m not gonnae idolise UEFA cup semi-finals. I’ll idolise the team that got us there - no matter tonight’s result - but we’ll do the special “big match pull-outs” when it’s a game truly befitting our club. We want a European final.

Frankly, troops, my entire mechanism’s gone - I have no nervous system left. The more confident I get, the more shit-scared I get because I’m not used to being confident. Wehenever I have been optimistic in the past the consequences have usually been disastrous. My counter-intuition is therefore making me think things like this:

Even if we make the final we could still get destroyed - remember Middlesbrough against Seville - and after Celtic making a game of it against Porto so recently it would make us look like we’d come up short if we suffered a 4-0 doing by either Zenit or Bayern - not an unlikely proposition.

Or

The only two previous times a Scottish team made the UEFA Cup final, they both won nothing domestically after challenging for the league as well as the UEFA cup. Celtic in 2003, Dundee United in 1987. So we’ll lose the UEFA cup final like they did if we get there, AND we’ll chuck the league and the Scottish Cup - like United in 87.

But, then again …

I noticed New YORK Rangers lost the third traight game in their conference semi against the Pittsburgh Penguins - let’s hope they’re getting all the bad luck for Rangers teams in blue. And tonight I reckon we’ll be wearing white, eh.

Also, my mate was at the UEFA Cup final in 2003, supporting his team. He and I were at last season’s UEFA cup final together - watching Seville v Espanyol: So it would complete the pattern just nicely if I then got to go to see MY team in the 2008 UEFA Cup final. One together - one each on our own.

And …

Celtic and Dundee United perhaps both lost the UEFA cup final BECAUSE they won fuck-all else those seasons. We’ve already won the League Cup. Like them we’ve played the first leg of our UEFA Cup semi at home and drawn it - they both then won away (against Moenchengladbach and Boavista) so we’ll share that bit of history while finally winning the UEFA Cup because we’re also about to win the domestic treble, right??!!

How weird would it be to play against Dick Advocaat in a European final when he was brought in to replace Walter Smith BECAUSE Walter couldn’t get us to a European final … but we thought Dick could … but he couldn’t … and yet here he is, in a European final .. with someone else … and Nando Ricksen … ach, I’d rather play Bayern - they’ll think they’re too good for us and we always give Germans a go!

A Manchester team are already in a Russian European final this season - surely a Russian team will now get to a Manchester European final? And didn’t we play a Russian team in our last European final, after Bayern had gone out in the semis …?

I’ve been doing all these junior grounds lately. With The Teds playing on a Sunday and a Thursday or Wednesday and what with the light nights coming in I’ve been trying to gain membership of the 100 grounds club by topping up my current list with the Junior stadia I haven’t previously managed. Been going to see the likes of Vale of Clyde, Glenrothes, Largs Thistle etc on a Saturday, Monday or Wednesdays like tonight. And we think WE’ve got fixture congestion!! - these guys are playing four times a week for TWO MONTHS!! I wanted the City of Manchester stadium to be my 100th stadium but I won’t manage to get to 99 grounds before 14th may - I’m only on 92 after tonight’s trip to Fullarton Park, Tollcross - but I wonder if my usual anorak lust for football has been increased by Rangers doing so well. I remember coming out of Fortuna Dusseldorf’s Paul Janes stadium a few years ago to hear that Rangers had lost, in bonnie Scotland - day was ruined, whole weekend was ruined, trip was ruined. Suddenly my lust for German football was cold-showered. Why was I here, in this foreign land, when my club needed me so back home??!!

I’ve always tended to get closer to Rangers when we’ve suffered most but this most recent resurgence seemed to happen amidst so much turmoil that no-one really realised we’d gone from booting out managers after six months to being one game away from a European final without any palpable taste of fairy dust or sustaining whack from a magic wand. We just stuck by our very big team and suddenly got far more reward far quicker than our basic loyalty was due. It’s okay for me to dally with other levels and arenas of football when Rangers are okay and the more okay we get the more football with which I can dally.

But if rangers are losing, or hurting, then I can’t be with anyone else. Tonight we’re on the point of freeing me to buy an Albion Ropvers season ticket. Tonight puts us on the verge of the kind of result which allows me to die happy .. or might even kill me in itself.

I hope all the Bears out there have a safe time. I hope all the Bears everywhere have a fabulous time tonight. I hope Davie Weir and Steve Davis are fit. I hope this European season doesn’t end tonight. I KNOW this European season will stay with me forever. I hope this game is the most meomorable yet.

BARRY FERGUSON - this is YOUR NIGHT. I suspect this is the one you’ve always wanted. Make this yer greatest game in a Rangers jersey and everything which happened between us in December/January last season is forgiven. I always loved you - always will - but this will take away the last of the hurt. Do it tonight, Barry. Do it. Show the world what Ibrox knows. I was there the night you took over from Ammo. I was there the night ye came back from Blackburn. Let me be there the night ye lead Rangers out for a European final.

Come

On

Ye

Gers.

Aye Ready!