IF we go by Dave King’s logic then Real Madrid did not win the European Cup three times in the last four seasons because Rangers weren’t in the Champions League.
The Rangers chairman knows a joke and how to tell it. You need to give him that. Let’s be honest, his comments might have been strange, yeah, let’s go with strange, but nobody died and Scottish football needs to lighten up now and then.
However, after some weekend mirth things are about to get deadly serious as this evening King’s club begin their season for real when Progres Niederkorn from the football hotbed that is Luxembourg arrive at Ibrox.
Read more: Barrie McKay fails to meet Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha’s high standards
And what a thankless game this is for manager Pedro Caixinha in that if something disastrous happens – which surely won’t – he will be (not literally) crucified and even a convincing win would be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders, as that is what is supposed to happen.
And in many ways this true. Any Scottish team should be beating a club from Luxembourg - just like Aberdeen did a year ago when they went to the tiny country in Central Europe to face some part-time mob called Fola Esch.
Except that’s not what happened. Aberdeen lost the second leg 1-0 and while they got through on aggregate, Fola Esch hit the post late on. Aberdeen were also seriously fortunate to win at Pittodrie.
It was around about this time when Hearts were knocked out of the Europa League by the mighty Birkirara from Malta. Oh, and do you remember how Celtic got on in Gibraltar?
It is not being disrespectful to Caixinha and his new team to suggest that this tie might not be a cake walk.
Rangers under the Portuguese may become a good side but he’s had only a few weeks with them, even less time with some, and so it’s asking a hell of a lot for everything to click right away.
Let’s put it this way. Is the team right now better than Aberdeen from 12 months ago? Probably not. Progres Niederkorn will fancy themselves if they can stay in the tie after Thursday.
Read more: Barrie McKay fails to meet Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha’s high standards
This is not to say that Rangers can’t get out of the blocks quickly, score a few goals and all-but finish the job in Glasgow. But this is no gimme. Indeed, since 2012 there have been very few matches this football club have been able to approach just knowing they were going to win.
Caixinha comes across as a thoroughly decent man and it’s hard not to wish him well. However, with so much happening in such a short space of time, an already difficult task has become even more of a test.
The Rangers manager said: “We have to come through eight matches, four qualifying ties! It’s really a challenge. We know it is difficult. We tried to make a small study from the last five seasons and at least one club, some seasons two clubs, went from the first qualifiers to the group stage.
“Monaco with the Portuguese coach Leonardo Jardim: from the second qualifying round of the Champions League he arrived in the semi-finals. That’s an achievement. But our focus is tie by tie, qualifier by qualifier, and the target is to get to the group stage and after that we see what happens.
“If we think that this massive club needs to be there we are trying to do everything to put things on the normal track. But also we are not only defending Rangers, we are defending Rangers and Scotland.
“If you see for example the poor coefficient that Scotland has right now, and knowing that you only get 0.25 points for getting through the first qualifier and 0.50 for getting through the second qualifier and after that you get 1.0 and 1.5 points you need to add a lot of qualifiers, you need to win a lot of matches, to raise the level of the company.
Read more: Barrie McKay fails to meet Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha’s high standards
So we are defending Rangers in the first place and doing that the best possible way we also help the country.” That is all very well but Rangers have not help themselves first.
The odds are stacked against them reaching the group. This is the last time Rangers will be seeded – even if they get through and beat AEL Limassol in the next round – so to overcome all those hurdles with a settled team would be difficult enough.
The Rangers fans, all 50,000 of them, will get a chance to see most of the new signings this evening.
“All of the guys that are on the list are able to play,” confirmed Caixina who will be without Bruno Alves who is on international duty and Daniel Candeias who could not be registered in time.
“We have new players for the game and maybe four of them will be starting, with two or three more on the bench. But it’ll have to be at different moments.
“At the moment, we don’t have normal team regarding to the rhythms that they have on the training pitch or the minutes that they have received in the preparation matches. Not everyone is at the same level at the moment, but that’s what we are trying to do in our organisation and our plan.”
As so it begins again.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel