Michael Beale is right when he repeatedly talks about change being required at Rangers this summer.
But it can’t just mean players going in and out of Ibrox. No, after Sunday’s defeat to Celtic in the Viaplay Cup Final, it has to be more than that. What must happen is a shift in mindset – and that might just be the manager’s biggest challenge. It has been said before but there are definitely mentality issues within that squad. Nobody can doubt the ability of these players. We’ve seen it.
Rangers’ performances in Europe last season were outstanding against some of the best teams around. They showed a togetherness, a spirit – and quality – to overcome high-level opponents such as Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig. But in those games Rangers were the underdogs. And that’s the big difference. Domestically, almost every week, they’re overwhelming favourites. And last Sunday, quite rightly, Rangers supporters expected them to beat Celtic and win the first trophy of the season.
That’s the deal when you play for this club. Players have to thrive on it and perform to their best level when it matters, but what we saw at Hampden was nowhere near that.
It was a team yet again falling short in a cup competition, albeit against the strongest side in Scotland. Fashion Sakala got it wrong last week because Celtic are a better team than Rangers.
I want to stress the word TEAM. They’re more cohesive, more connected and every player is on the same page, off the ball they know exactly what their team-mates want.
Some Rangers players, individually, are better than some Celtic players but others aren’t. The disparity between the players isn’t massive, but the difference in them as teams? That’s far bigger, it then comes down to mentality.
"Are these Rangers players really hungry for more success? Anyone can say it but the proof is in the pudding. In the past, Rangers teams have gone on lengthy winning runs, winning title after title, doubles and Trebles.
Celtic have done it in recent times. They’ve been relentless in their pursuit of success, winning a quadruple Treble and showing a ruthless desire to WIN.
From a Rangers perspective, it’s not nice to see, unfortunately, this current crop at Ibrox have yet to show that type of mindset. Because of how big 55 was, it was like: ‘That’s it, we’ve achieved it. We’ve reached the top.’ Listen, I know people inside the building will dispute that.
I’ve played with a lot of them and know them as people, they’ll say I’m talking rubbish but have yet to prove I’m wrong. Past Gers teams have gone boom, boom, boom. Trophy after trophy, title after title.
This team haven’t. It used to be a rarity for Rangers to go through a season without winning anything. Not now and if they didn’t, the following year there would be a big response.
When the players talk about winning 55, it’s like the Leicester City players hailing their Premier League triumph in 2016. But winning a title at Rangers can’t be a one-off occasion.
It’s as if 55 was the be-all-and-end-all. Stopping 10-in-a-row was treated like the holy grail, it’s now this fabled title win but the reality is, it shouldn’t be.
It was just one of 55 title wins over the club’s history. Of course, the significance of it should never be doubted, that team will go down in history as the ones who halted Celtic in their tracks.
But they have to understand what it is. It was big and important at that time but what now has to come is 56, 57 and 58.
Again, people at the club will say they’re well aware of that and take umbrage to what I’m saying. But it’s a fact that when Rangers had the chance to keep their foot on Celtic’s neck after 55 – they took it off.
Complacency set in with a lack of desire the following season because of the emotion that surrounded that title win. Remember, I was there when it all started after the club got out of the Championship and back to the top flight.
Mark Warburton was wearing a magic hat, we’d outplayed Celtic in the Scottish Cup and the 55 banners were out. That took five years to achieve but after they got there, the club have rested on their laurels domestically.
It had to be the first of many, at Rangers you can never take your foot off the gas, the squad that Michael puts together have to put trophies in the cabinet every year – not every three years. Since 2014, St Johnstone have won more cups than Rangers.
That can’t go on. When I talk about mentality I take guys like Allan McGregor and Steven Davis out of the equation, they HAVE done it, they’ve been there, lived it, won it, but there are others who have been in the building for a while now.
They all talk about how big the club are and how Rangers need to be winning this and that. OK, so go and do it, forget talking about it – do it.
When you get opportunities, like they had at Hampden on Sunday, you have to take them. Even if you’re not on top you find a way to win.
In two of the cup finals I played in for Rangers – against Falkirk and St Mirren – we were rubbish. We were down to nine men in one of them but we still won both.
We found a way to ensure we were lifting that trophy at the end of the day. That’s the difference and that’s where the valid questions at this time about mindset are coming from.
A lot of people have said to me that having no fans at grounds in the 55 season helped Rangers win the league. I’ve always disputed that and still do, I don’t buy it.
But when Rangers continually don’t turn up for big-pressure cup ties – like Sunday past – it feeds into that theory. We’ll find out for definite now if these players can handle 50,000 supporters on their backs.
They had a chance to prove they could last week but didn’t take it. What Michael needs to find in the summer are the missing ingredients, the right player or players to bring it all together.
Someone who leads, who helps his team-mates and makes them better. The best example I can think of is Barry Ferguson. You’d need a lot of money to buy someone like that now.
But Fergie ran games for us. Every week he controlled things. Even when he was having a bad day, he was still a driver, a motivator, a presence. He brought everything together. He linked back to middle, middle to front.
He scored, defended, passed, tackled – he did everything. What Fergie had was real influence on Rangers and I think that’s what Michael has to get in the summer.
Across the city, Celtic have it with Callum McGregor. He knows the role he has to carry out for his club – and what his team-mates need from him.
Fergie did that for Rangers. Pedro Mendes was another. He wasn’t a big-money buy but he was a clever signing at the time. He wasn’t a huge talker but what a footballer. His brain was on a different level to most and brought things together for Rangers.
If you have good players with high levels of football intelligence, they normally see the same things. That’s what I mean when I say Celtic are a better team than Rangers.
These boys are on the same wavelength, when that happens, stuff comes together. And I just don’t see that with Rangers right now.
