The legendary Sir Alex Ferguson used to refer to the tension-filled final stages in a title race as “squeaky bum time”.
Well I can tell you from my Rangers experiences, there would be times at the start of the season too when it would be more than just the butterflies in your stomach flapping. Kicking off your campaign with vital European qualifiers is never easy – as I found out on a couple of occasions.
I played in teams that twice fell flat coming out the blocks as we suffered those infamous defeats to Kaunas and Progres Niederkorn and they were horrible nights to be a Rangers player. The Progres setback in 2017 may not have been a Champions League eliminator like the loss in Lithuania nine years earlier but its importance was just as big to the club at a time when it was looking to rebuild.
Thankfully for Michael Beale’s side, the sense of jeopardy this time round won’t be quite as sharp as they begin their quest to reach the group stage of UEFA’s top tournament. The draw for their opening qualifier takes place a week tomorrow and Beale will go into that first leg on August 8 or 9 knowing his side are packing not one but two parachutes.
Defeat in the third-qualifying round or the play-offs comes with a guaranteed soft landing in the Europa League group stage and, for me, that should take so much of the pressure off the lads. I wish we’d had the same back in 2008. I’d just rejoined the club that summer and the first leg against Kaunas was my first game back at Ibrox since my spell at Celtic. All eyes were on me and the other boys given they’d reached the UEFA Cup Final only a few weeks earlier.
We were expected to easily take care of Kaunas. But despite dominating in Glasgow, we just couldn’t get a goal. We were still favourites going into the away leg in Lithuania and got off to a flyer with Kevin Thompson netting an away goal.
But Kaunas scored with a screamer of a free-kick before snatching a winner right at the death to send us spinning out without the insurance policy of a place in the UEFA Cup. In my three-and-a-bit years at Ibrox working under Walter Smith, he didn’t have too many reasons to be angry.
But I can tell you he was absolutely livid that night. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the gaffer as raging as he was in the dressing-room after that game.
The reason for his fury was easy to understand. Back then, those games meant so much to the club financially and from a prestige point of view.
Had we got through that tie and went on to clinch a group stage slot, it would have been worth £10million and teed up three huge glamour ties at Ibrox for the supporters. But we failed to perform well enough over both legs and paid the price.
That was a huge shock but it was nothing on the Progres defeat. Let’s be honest, Rangers were not in a great shape at the time with some of the decisions being made off the park and even the signings being made on it.
But still we should have been more than strong enough to take care of a side from Luxembourg. It never crossed my mind for a single second that we might slip up against them. However, once again we failed to do the business – and paid a heavy price.
I remember standing on the pitch as Progres slammed home their two goals thinking: “This cannot be happening!” It was a disastrous result at a period when the club was desperate for all the added income it could get its hands on.
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A miserable night was capped off by the sight of Pedro Caixinha standing in a bush trying to make excuses in front of the furious fans. That image alone highlighted to me everything that was wrong with Rangers at that time.
Anyone who knew the club realised that was not the time to reason with fans who had travelled all the way there to see their team humiliated.
Thankfully, today’s team will be spared the same level of peril with group-stage action nailed down, regardless of what happens next month. The club will be desperate to join Celtic in the Champions League but I’m not buying the claims from those who say it’s a financial imperative that Rangers qualify.
Look at the two sides right now and if you go through the squads man for man, there’s not that much between the teams. Yes Celtic won the Treble last season but it was decided by fine margins and with the improvements Beale is making this summer I expect it to be another tight race. And so what if Celtic were to bank a Champions League bonanza while Rangers are left to pick up the Europa League crumbs?
They’re still not going to go out and spend £15million or £20m on a player. And even if they did, what does that get you? When I was starting out, those sums would secure a world-class talent head and shoulders above anyone playing in Scotland.
These days you’d be doing well to pick up a second-string Premier League full-back for that kind of cash, so Rangers need not worry about what lies ahead in the early stages of next season. Beale has already got most of his transfer work done with seven new recruits in the door and can spend the next few weeks making sure the players are ready to go. There’s no need to flap.
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