No Surrender

[ian1964 10,418]

Rangers should consider trying to make a few bob by sending their players out to host those feelgood, “how-to-make-your-life-better” motivational seminars.

 

They all seem unnaturally able to look on the bright side about absolutely everything in that dressing room. No setback is too grave for them to brush aside. They can sound like Monty Python’s Black Knight. Their arms and legs are cut off and they simply shout “’tis only a flesh wound”.

 

Rangers lose their top goalscorer, a guy who was being tipped to be their next captain, and the brightest prospect their youth system has produced in years, yet all they do is shrug their shoulders and soldier on regardless.

 

In all, six of their number have been moved on since the end of the season and so far there hasn’t been a replacement for any of them. But they have won two championships since last buying anyone and on Saturday they took care of a full-strength Newcastle side only a week away from taking on Manchester United at Old Trafford on the opening day of the Barclays Premier League.

 

The dwindling band of guys who have delivered these results all speak with an evangelical refusal to be broken, bowed or even fed up with the erosion going on around them. At times they would sound like they were clutching at straws, or stubbornly refusing to accept the bleedin’ obvious, were it not for the fact that they keep on digging out the sort of results which ought to be beyond them.

 

It was after their satisfying performance and victory against Newcastle that Steven Naismith became the latest to reach for an impressively upbeat interpretation of what it meant to be at a club which, metaphorically speaking, doesn’t have any money to feed the meter.

 

“It is a close-knit group of boys and I think the well-documented problems last season brought us even closer together,” said Naismith. “As a group, we are all quite pally. Everybody talks to each other in the dressing room. That is one of the biggest things going for us. You can’t buy that.

 

“It has obviously built up from when the manager came back. He has targeted players who will gel together and it has worked out. That togetherness can count for a lot. We do so much together. A lot of the families are quite close and that also helps. I can’t think of any player who you couldn’t sit down and have a chat and a laugh with.”

 

At some level Naismith might be on to something. There must be something unusual, something powerful, that grows within a group of players when they have to rely on each other as much as this Rangers team have over the past two seasons. At times they’re like the guinea pigs in a football experiment: build up a squad as usual but then turn off the taps, then keep flogging it, without bringing in replacements to give anyone a rest, and see how long it can endure before it collapses in an exhausted heap.

 

Rangers do still have some miles in them. Every one of the team which started against Newcastle was an internationalist. Two more came on as substitutes and another pair with caps were unused on the bench. Their first choice XI is acceptable. Sure, there is a lack of creativity and Kenny Miller often lacks support, but Walter Smith’s strongest hand is reasonable.

 

The real glaring problem is the alarming absence of strength in depth. Kyle Lafferty and Andrius Velicka offer options, as does goalkeeper Neil Alexander, but the rest of the substitutes were Andrew Little (a Northern Irish international, but a young and raw one), Andrew Shinnie, Gregg Wylde, Kyle Hutton, Jordan McMillan and Archie Campbell. Everyone of them might become proper Rangers players one day but they aren’t the ones Smith would wish to be turning to when all the injuries and suspensions kick in during the season.

 

Rangers’ back four is Mount Rushmore, there never seems to be any change to it. Steven Davis and Lee McCulloch were in front of them on Saturday and then a line of three – Naismith, Maurice Edu and Steven Whittaker – were behind Miller. There was little from them until Whittaker whipped in a cross and Miller stole in front of Fabricio Coloccini to score with a near post header in 24 minutes.

 

Newcastle were patchy and unconvincing. Rangers scored again when the impressive Davis made nimble use of the ball and released Naismith for a low finish after 66 minutes. “At half-time Coisty [assistant manager Ally McCoist] mentioned their defence was pretty high and I managed to make a late run through to get my goal.”

 

Peter Lovenkrands quickly pulled one back with an easy rebound after an Allan McGregor save from Kevin Nolan. The Dane exasperated the Ibrox support when he was one of theirs, but they applauded him generously. By the end Shinnie was in central midfield, Wylde on the left, and Velicka – looking alert and eager to be involved – supporting Lafferty.

 

“Bringing the young boys into the squad has brought the enthusiasm levels up,” said Naismith.

 

Well, what did you think he was going to say? Among Rangers players, life rolls along from one silver lining to another.

 

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