FORMER Rangers midfielder Kevin Thomson reckons the current squad should forget about complaining about their summer holidays and focus on trying to put in a better challenge to Celtic next season. Some Ibrox stars were said to be unhappy with manager Pedro Caixinha’s plans to reduce the length of their close season break but Thomson, who played for the Light Blues for three seasons, thinks they should worry less about that and more about their form.

He said: “It gets on my wick when players moan that they don’t get too long on holiday. I’ve been a player myself and loved a nice holiday, going away and getting some air into your legs. But if they come back next May as part of a successful Rangers team that’s closed that gap to Celtic then their summer holiday this year is something that would have been worth sacrificing. The players should embrace that.

“I would give my right arm to be still involved. When you’re retired you can have as much holiday as you want, play as much golf as you want and drink as much wine as you want. But when you’re a Rangers player your holiday should be irrelevant. The Rangers fans deserve better. They are the life and blood of any football club.

“Players come and go, as do managers, but you get remembered at Rangers if you bring success to the club. I was always treated like a king here and that’s the challenge for the players here. If they want to be has-beens, players who are just forgotten about and brushed under the carpet, then they’ll never succeed at a club like this.”

Caixinha is expected to rip up his squad in the summer and bring in new faces and Thomson warned the current crop they will need to show they deserve to hang around next year, including a much-needed improvement from last weekend’s 5-1 Old Firm defeat.

He told the Rangers podcast: “The players’ livelihoods are at stake, their jobs. Pedro will be looking these boys in the eye and he has to make his mind up in the summer about which characters he wants to take forward with him. Sadly as it stands when you watch that team there aren’t too many who will be fighting that cause for him.

“We can only say it so many times but lessons are there to be learned from. I said beforehand that an Old Firm victory can go a long way to getting the fans back on side but it’s going to be a painful last few games now and a painful summer. The players are going to have to fight for the cause and fight for this club to try to get the fans back on side.

“The Celtic defeat should be hurting the players and hurting Pedro and they have to show a reaction. In their performance against Thistle they have to show they are Rangers class and put Partick Thistle in their place.”