IT does not take very much to provoke the ire of football supporters, of those who follow the fortunes of Scotland’s leading clubs in particular, in these hysterical times.
Fans here seem to spend their days and nights searching for slights and injustices as intensely as Alfredo Morelos probes for an opening in an opposition defence on a Saturday afternoon.
The actions and decisions of governing bodies and political parties can, no matter how reasonable or well-intentioned they are, prompt social media storms in an instant and lead to protests in the stands.
The SFA, SPFL and SNP as well as UEFA and FIFA – no acronym is safe - have been targeted for abuse on a regular basis in the past and are certain to be again in the near future.
On occasion, something the aforementioned organisations have not done, as has once again been witnessed this week, never mind done can even spark an outcry.
There was a mass outpouring of fury, disgust and disbelief when it emerged that PSV Eindhoven would have a free weekend before the second leg of their Champions League play-off against Rangers.
Their Eredivisie game against Volendam at the Philips Stadium has been moved from Saturday, August 20, to Wednesday, August 31, in order to give Ruud van Nistelrooy’s players time to rest before the important fixture.
That the Dutch club will be taking it easy while their Scottish opponents are playing Hibernian in a cinch Premiership match at Easter Road in Edinburgh – a fixture which has proved problematic for them over the years - not gone down at all well in certain quarters.
Conspiracy theories have abounded. It was described by one irate online scribe as the “latest anti-Rangers SPFL scandal”. For another it was irrefutable evidence that this country is a “football backwater”.
No comment has been forthcoming from either Rangers or their manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst about the situation.
The Europa League finalists did not hold a pre-match press conference ahead of their Premiership match against St Johnstone at Ibrox today and the subject was not raised in the two recorded interviews with Van Bronckhorst which were emailed over to the media.
It will be interesting to hear the former Netherlands internationalist’s views on the matter when he is finally asked about it and find out if the commotion is justified. But my suspicion is he will have no issues whatsoever with playing on.
It would be an act of utter madness for Rangers to call off a league game this early in the season. It would jeopardise their chances of beating PSV and securing a £40m place in the Champions League group stages. The damage that interrupting their growing momentum can do has been ignored in the rush to condemn.
James Tavernier and his team mates performed well in their rematch with Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in Govan on Tuesday night and showed great resolve to win 3-0 and complete a 3-2 aggregate triumph. They can, though, play much better.
Centre backs Connor Goldson and James Sands passed the ball out of defence straight to an opposition player on no fewer three occasions between them. A better team than Union would have taken full advantage of those mistakes. And PSV are a far better team.
The St Johnstone and Hibernian games offer Van Bronckhorst the chance to give Sands more game time in a position he has not played in a great deal since joining back in January or to hand his new signing Ben Davies more much-needed competitive minutes.
Malik Tillman took his all-important goal superbly in midweek and ultimately clinched the play-off place. But it was the first 90 minutes which the 20-year-old has completed since arriving from Bayern Munich on loan last month. The United States attacking midfielder will be keen to keep on playing.
Games have certainly been moved in the past to help Rangers in Europe. Motherwell agreed to bring forward their league encounter at Fir Park back in April to give them an extra day to prepare for the Europa League semi-final meeting with RB Leipzig in Germany the following week. That made perfect sense at the end of a long, draining season.
But there is no danger whatsoever of Van Bronckhorst’s charges suffering from burnout just weeks into the 2021/22 campaign. If anything, they need more games to increase their match sharpness and fitness ahead. His new-look side, too, has to gel further as a unit.
PSV may well find that not having a game next weekend backfires on them. It certainly did when the SPL postponed Rangers’ league meeting with Gretna before their final Champions League group match against Lyon at Ibrox back in the December of 2007.
Walter Smith’s team had thumped Alain Perrin’s side 3-0 away in France two months earlier. They crashed to a defeat by the same scoreline to miss out on a place in the knockout rounds of Europe’s premier club competition.
The SFA – who, bizarrely, have found themselves in the firing line in recent days despite taking nothing to do with the running the Premiership - and the SPFL have often been deserving of the criticism which has been aimed in their direction by fuming fans in the past.
However, in this instance the paranoia is misplaced and the furore wholly unjustified.
