A Rangers season which began with typically lofty expectations could in effect end before May Day. Defeat by Celtic in Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final would extinguish the one lingering hope of silverware from a campaign during which Rangers have continued to wrestle with the frustration of being second best in a two-horse race.
Knockout football is such a fickle beast that some would rail at any assertion the winners of this Old Firm clash will lift the cup. Unfortunately the gulf between Celtic, Rangers and the rest of the top flight is stark enough without contemplating the prospects of second-tier Inverness and League One Falkirk, who meet in Saturday’s first semi-final. Odds of at least 20-1 for either to win the trophy almost seem to underplay the situation.
A key talking point will and should surround the preposterous assertion of the Scottish Football Association that a crowd of considerably fewer than 20,000 should trot along to the 52,000-capacity Hampden Park on Saturday when the match would be far more sensibly hosted at Tynecastle or Easter Road. The Scottish Cup has no sponsor, the Scottish game very little positive image beyond its own parochial boundaries. Those in high office, who will look on silently from cosy seats as sectarian verse pollutes the Hampden air on Sunday, need to raise their game.
That this game constitutes Rangers’ last stand will add to the sense of fervour from their end. A desire to do something, anything, to show Celtic can be bruised has lurched towards desperation. There has even been the rising and nonsensical suggestion that Michael Beale, Rangers’ head coach, should come under pressure if he fails to seal a June return to Hampden. This notion resonates in the antiquated notion that winning is everything at Ibrox; Rangers have won precious little in contemporary times without material change occurring.
“We are not that far from them,” the Rangers midfielder Nicolas Raskin said of Celtic. On the basis of head-to-head meetings – and Raskin has been in Glasgow only since January – the point has a degree of merit. The league table presses home a deeper story. With five fixtures to play, Celtic head their oldest foes by 13 points and have a far better goal difference. By every available metric relating to squad performance or value, Celtic are superior. A glance at Scotland’s domestic trophy spread over more than a decade dictates this as a concerted period of Celtic dominance.
Rangers are likely to lose Sunday’s semi-final. Beale, as the man standing front and centre, will field criticism if they do, however it plays out. Neil Banfield, Beale’s assistant, did his boss no favours last week by breathlessly comparing the 42-year-old to Arsène Wenger, Julian Nagelsmann, Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino. Rangers duly lost tamely, 2-0 at Aberdeen.
The key point is that in November Beale took over a club that basked so much in the title success of 2021 that in domestic context it forgot how to improve. By the onset of the January window Beale presided over an injury-prone squad which included goalkeepers aged 40 and 35, wholly unconvincing defenders, a one-paced midfield and, in Alfredo Morelos, a moody striker who had quite enough of Scottish football long ago (the feeling is generally mutual). Millions have been squandered on players who make no serious impact on the starting XI. The Rangers board accelerated summer moves for Raskin and Todd Cantwell in an attempt to prove to supporters that revolution was forthcoming. Beale’s summer work must be even more radical. Without that, Rangers are stuck in a cycle of watching Celtic profit on and off the field.
Beale is not without error. He made rookie mistakes during the League Cup final defeat by Celtic. Nonetheless, he has rapidly discovered that Rangers can look fluent against dross in the Scottish Premiership without being at all convincing when stakes are raised. He is worthy of an opportunity to alter that, including by pressing home knowledge of the club he is so keen to stress he garnered as a coach under Steven Gerrard. Beating Celtic on Sunday would deliver a morale boost but in bigger-picture terms Rangers need to rejuvenate themselves as an efficient and effective club. Neither presently applies.
The case of Ross Wilson emphasises how quickly life can come at you as a Rangers employee. Last May, after Rangers sampled rare domestic glory in the Scottish Cup, the sporting director was posting Union Jack emojis on social media in a lame attempt to ingratiate himself to a supporter base who within months were holding up banners calling for his removal. Wilson, who is very good at talking the talk, has shuffled off to relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest.
John Bennett – whose mantra for Rangers of “best in class” is rather undermined by performance – is the new chairman. James Bisgrove will step into the shoes soon to be vacated by the managing director Stewart Robertson. With Bisgrove as commercial director, Rangers have attracted a level of partners which would make Elizabeth Taylor blush. In the domain of Scottish football and its complex politics, though, he is a lightweight; this looks like rearranging deckchairs.
When dust settles on an inevitably fractious Hampden clash, Rangers will trundle through a handful of meaningless league games. A Scottish Cup final beyond those five humdrum fixtures would increase the club’s sense of status. Thereafter, and more importantly, Beale needs to trigger a seismic shift. Even in this madcap football world, it seems fair to allow him a decent chance at that.
