Fans or customers? Just exactly how do Rangers view those supporters providing the club with its financial lifeblood is a question the Ibrox faithful are asking themselves more and more these days.
Only last week the punters currently trying to navigate their way through the savage cost-of-living crisis were informed they’d have to shell out a minimum of £150 to witness their team’s three games at home in the Champions League. And that’s in the supposedly cheap seats. After 12 years locked outside the European elite, there’s no wonder the Gers board are eager to milk this opportunity for all its worth ahead of their glamour clashes with Napoli, Liverpool and Ajax.
But perhaps they could have sweetened the deal by throwing the hard-up supporters - who have already had to fork out for season-tickets, MyGers memberships and endless drops of Castore gear - a deadline day dividend, something to convince the fans that the eye-watering ticket prices offered value for money.
Right now after Saturday’s brutal Old Firm dismantling, the fans will probably get more satisfaction out of forking out for their sky-high energy bills. And it’s not as if the club doesn’t have the spare cash lying around.
The profits from the sales of Nathan Patterson, Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo, combined with Rangers' European exploits this year and last, have filled the Ibrox coffers with a wad of notes that can’t be far off £100million.
Even with legacy debts accrued during the long refurbishment works required over the past decade, Gers should have had the financial clout to have given Gio van Bronckhorst at least one further fresh face to add to the seven he brought in over the summer.
That reluctance to reinvest, however, came back to bite with a vengeance on Saturday as a Celtic team dripping in fresh energy ran riot against a Light Blue line-up that is fast showing its age. There’s no way the Ibrox gaffer would have planned on starting 37-year-old Steven Davis in a game that looked like it was being played on double-speed.
James Tavernier and Connor Goldson have started the season looking very much like two weary men who have barely missed a game in four years, while Ryan Kent’s bank of ideas is running out as quickly as his contract.
Of the seven new arrivals brought in before the start of this season, only Malik Tillman and Antonio Colak started at Parkhead but neither matched the impact of the Hoops who hounded them for every second they were on the pitch.
OK, Tom Lawrence and no doubt Ben Davies would have started had both been fit but Ridvan Yilmaz, whose £4million signing Besiktas would have led you to believe he’d be a stick on to play in front of Borna Barisic, has been trusted to start just two games since arriving from Turkey while Rabbi Matondo is clearly not the answer to the Rangers’ long-running problems in the wide-right slot. Not yet anyway.
Then we come to Alfredo Morelos. While his manager’s decision to drop the temperamental talisman for last month’s win over PSV Eindhoven came as a huge shock to the Ibrox support, van Bronckhorst insisted the situation had been “building up” for a while.
It might yet prove to be a masterstroke if the Colombian responds to his brief exile from first-team duties by knuckling down and shifting the excess timber he’s currently carrying.
But again it raises the question of why did Ross Wilson and the board not sanction a late move in the transfer window given they knew his attitude and fitness levels were not up to scratch, especially with Colak their only other fit option with yet again Kemar Roofe injured?
Van Bronckhorst was clearly at the end of his tether with the 26-year-old when he opted to bomb him from that Champions League crunch in Eindhoven - but the Ibrox gaffer’s former Gers team-mate Ronald de Boer reckons it was a straight forward decision.
The Dutch legend told Record Sport : “In my eyes, it was an easy decision because he’s not fit. When I saw him at Ibrox doing the warm up before the first leg against PSV I thought, ‘Jesus! His training shirt was almost bursting apart it was so tight!’
“It was a shock because last time I’d seen him he was fit and lean but now he looked 10kg too heavy. I spoke with Gio’s assistant Dave Vos, who I have a good relationship with, and he told me he’s coming back from an injury and isn’t fully fit yet.
“But then later I heard he’d been suspended from the group. I think it was easier for Gio to drop him at that stage because of two things - his mentality was not good and he’s overweight.
“Those are two reasons that nobody can deny. If he’s fit, then people will think Morelos can make a difference. But he’s not fit and everybody can see that.
“So it was the right time to sanction him and it will give Gio respect from the group, so well done to Gio for doing that. It shows he’s the boss.
“Even if you’re the top scorer, it’s a team game you. You may be the star but you have to behave like a team player. OK, if you’re Cristiano Ronaldo or Leo Messi, you get some privileges. But for the rest there are barriers and Morelos crossed those.”
The best way for Morelos and the Rangers board to repay the punters who will this morning be running scared of their Celtic-supporting friends and work-mates is to produce a result in Amsterdam against Ajax. But the fear already is that the failure to strengthen further will prove too costly for their domestic title ambitions.
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