When will we see another league flag flying over Ibrox?

[Rousseau 10,607]

I'm extremely pessimistic at the moment, but that is coloured by recent results. A month ago I was optimistic as we were doing well.

 

When you take an objective view, I think we're getting there. I thought it would take a good 5 years after promotion, and since then we've progressed, but not enough; I had hoped to really give them a go this year (which was my thinking when we got promoted), but we're not there yet. 

 

Warburton got us 3rd. Pedro improved us, and then it went to the dogs. Murty improved us a tad again, but we're still inconsistent.

 

To be honest, I think Mark Allen has done the most to improve us; his recruitment was excellent, ellevating the quality of the squad, and allowing Murty to improve us that little bit. 

 

We've gone from being nowhere near Aberdeen, to getting close, to damn well expecting to be above them by a good 5-10 points -- that latter has not materialised but I would argue that's where this squad should be. 

 

I think we're behind a bit now, from where I thought we'd be. There has been progress, but it's not enough, and it's been in drips and drabs; too many steps forward then two steps back. We really need a decent appointment.  

[Rousseau 10,607]

I went for 2021, but when I think about it: at our best this year we looked to be well above Aberdeen and 5-10 points off Them; that's not bad. 

 

If we can get some consistency at that level, with a good appointment, and continue our recruitment drive, we should be comfortably 2nd next season. 

 

Not sure about that jump to pumping them, though. It could take another year, perhaps more...

[Uilleam 5,932]

i selected 2020; it's a vision thing. 

[pete 2,499]

I wonder what will be first. me learning German or us flying the flag. My German at the minute is getting a crate of beer from the supermarket so I hope the Rangers are nearer to 55.

[der Berliner 3,744]

So, the unthinkable happened and we lost an Old Firm game, sadly, but sure not entirely unexpectable. Then we managed to put on as poor a show as any against Killie and didn't live up to the fight we always face against Motherwell. And then Aberdeen win at Fir Park (oh dear, we must be poor!) and TLB's hammerthrowers beat Accies. The heat is on again, doom pending!

 

Wooooosh, out comes the pessimistic brigade and looks for some votes.

 

Did we have similar ahead of the OF game when most of us were sure full of at least a certain level of optimism? Well, I spare myself some thread necromancy and dig as far back as then, but out of my head we hadn't.

 

What usually baffles me with these kind of essentially pointless questions - though people shall obviously feel free to voice their opinions, concerns, and all that - is that those asking them aren't about for 5 months or say even 2 years in the game. Thus, they would know that title wins and series arevery much determined on a season or even half-season basis, rather than in 2,4, 6 or 10 years. Exceptions to the norm are there, like the first 4 or 5 titles of the Yahoos, who virtually had no-one remotely close to challenging them. Even now, BTW, they have a team costing 20-30odd million more than their closest rivals. That's like Bayern Munich marching through Bundesliga 3 for as many years.

 

Yet, after all the troubles we have behind us off the field, we have for a year established a solid footing for the financial side of things and ploughing money into the team again. The latter is always a trickery game, even before Caixinha spending 4odd million on two players who never really met expectations (one due to constant managerial shortsightedness, but that's just MHO). Yet, in January we got half a handful of really good folk in who have or will enhance the squad in the future. At the end of the day, we may dream of European success, but if you watch the CL games or indeed tomorrow's EL stuff, you will note that it will take us some time and a very solid and well-oiled squad to manage anything of note.

 

Speaking of time here, the coming months will be important. We'll have to wait and see how the share issue goes, whether we get a decent sponsorship deal, and - indeed - if Morelos goes to the World Cup and is being snatched from our hands by some foreign side. All factors that one can hardly put a finger on and say with any great conviction how things will transpire. Not to speak of the managerial decision. So how can we reasonably predict the next few years of title challenges? If we do it now, we will get a result that is diametrically different to one we had received 5 days ahead of the Scum game at Ibrox.

 

What we have seen this season though is a core of a team that works reasonably well against most teams in Scotland. John, Jack, McCrorie, Murphy, Docherty, Cummings, Morelos, Candeias have sure improved standards considerably, Cardoso, Alves, Dorrans and Goss too. Others have made their mark too, Holt and Tavernier spring to mind, Windass because of his goals.

 

What have held us back were appaling suspensions, injuries, loss of form and tactical inefficiency and experience off the field. If we can avoid all the latter things AND manage to get ourselves a strong midfield character (I think James McArthur is Ibrox-bound in the summer) or two, we are on a good way to leave most of the rest in Scotland behind us.

 

IMHO, this season was marred by lack of leadership and tactical awareness from the sidelines, as much as missing leadership on the park. Those utterly silly defeats at Ibrox virtually cost us the title, for make no mistake, despite all their monetary power - and they still might win the title by 20odd points - Scum FC is hardly a great force. WIll they spend next summer with all the European money flooding into their coffers? Most likely. Yet, they also have a 20odd million bill coming up next summer, when the CoOp bank loan runs out. And they will pray that they make next season's CL group stages ... or someone snatching Dembele of them for hilarious money.

 

All ifs and buts. IMHO, strong / intelligent characters with some tactical awareness are required, the nucleus of the team is there though (should we get Murphy and Cummings). While at this moment in time, it is hard to see us getting any silverware this season, but the fat lady isn't even dressed just yet, both for the league nor the cup. So how would one reasonably predict next season or the seasons thereafter? This season will probably go down in history as THE season of missed chances on oh so many levels. Even without being overly optimistic, I would hazard a guess that somesuch will not repeat itself all too soon.

 

 

[Gonzo79 15,293]

How on Earth can we be anything but pessimistic after the last three games?

 

Things need to change and until that happens, there's not much to be optimistic about.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Gonzo79

[Soulsonic5791 408]

Despite my voting for 2020 for the purposes of realism, I really reckon that everyone should pull out the stops to win the league next season.

 

Without starting an online rumour, I have heard some encouraging news in the last 48 hours which says to me that there has finally been a realisation that 'you get what you pay for'. And after two false starts, it could be a case of third time lucky.

 

 

[Rousseau 10,607]

27 minutes ago, Soulsonic5791 said:

Despite my voting for 2020 for the purposes of realism, I really reckon that everyone should pull out the stops to win the league next season.

 

Without starting an online rumour, I have heard some encouraging news in the last 48 hours which says to me that there has finally been a realisation that 'you get what you pay for'. And after two false starts, it could be a case of third time lucky.

 

 

[Soulsonic5791 408]

As I said Rousseau, I can't divulge too much. But let's just say that for all of us clamouring for the board to give us reason to believe that they are serious about the task at hand then what I've heard is encouraging.

 

[Gonzo79 15,293]

3 minutes ago, Soulsonic5791 said:

As I said Rousseau, I can't divulge too much. But let's just say that for all of us clamouring for the board to give us reason to believe that they are serious about the task at hand then what I've heard is encouraging.

 

Managerial appointment?