Gers have gone from champs to chumps

At least fans remain defiant to the end

RANGERS' legion of fans backed their side to a man on Saturday.

From first to last, they roared themselves hoarse and played their part in creating a tremendous big-match atmosphere.

However, their songs and chants were surely just one last show of defiance rather than a gesture of appreciation for the men on the park or the fare they provided.

Anyone who supports the Light Blues has every reason to be livid with the way a season that promised so much has ended in abject failure.

Last summer, the Ibrox outfit started assembling a side we were led to believe would finally compete on even terms with the big boys in the rarified atmosphere of the Champions League.

Disrepair

Ten months on, Rangers' reputation has been put through the shredder again.

Never mind early exits in both the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, the Glasgow giants haven't even been able to win a domestic trophy.

Perhaps that is a fair reflection on what must be the least effective Rangers team in a decade.

Given the vast amount of money that has been poured into the playing side of things at the former champions over the past few years, their current state of disrepair is embarrassing.

Walter Smith must take a hefty chunk of the blame and is man enough to stand up and admit to some of his failings.

Whether many of his over paid and over-rated 'stars' are willing to do the same is open to question.

Again on Saturday, the Rangers first team trooped out of Parkhead, ignoring requests for interviews and refusing to stand up and speak about what went wrong.

Proof that some of them are just as adept at hiding off the park as they are on it.

It was left, as usual, to old warhorses Richard Gough and Ally McCoist to join Smith in being the public face of Rangers.

Sergio Porrini and Co were already on the team bus, looking forward to their summer holidays.

Do not take these merely as the rantings of a snubbed journalist.

Gough, I am told, was involved in a row with one of the Ibrox coaching staff on the day of their pre-match open day over the attitude of some of his team-mates.

Basically, the point he made was that it is always the same players who end up having to speak publicly on behalf of the club.

Others obviously feel they are far too important to deal with the trivial matter of publicising Rangers.

Yet, if they feel actions speak louder than words, they have a strange way of showing it.

Of course, Rangers fans will reflect on the cup final, believing a slightly more accurate piece of refereeing would have given their side the chance to save their skins.

Willie Young probably should have given a penalty when David Weir brought down McCoist five minutes from time.

Had he awarded the spot-kick, Rangers might well have gone on to lift the trophy.

But that cannot be allowed to deflect from what was, at times, a truly dreadful Rangers performance.

Before McCoist scored 10 minutes from time, Rangers had got themselves into a rut and lacked the guile to find an escape route.

Struggled

The midfield, in particular, was anonymous for large spells.

Stuart McCall, Rino Gattuso and Ian Ferguson all struggled to get a foothold in the match - but it is hard to understand why all three were playing together anyway.

They are cut from the same cloth.

They are workers, harriers, midfield dynamos.

McCall, Gattuso and Ferguson are not creative, inventive players and Rangers desperately lacked a Paul Gascoigne-type figure to spark something from the middle of the park.

Watching Brian Laudrup single-handedly try to produce a little piece of magic, while appearing to be on a different wavelength to so many of his team-mates, was so reminiscent of last season.

The Rangers support, commendably sporting in defeat, gave their departing stars a tremendous send-off after the full-time whistle.

Doctor Dick Advocaat will perform some vital close-season surgery on this sick and ailing side and it cannot come too soon.

But didn't David Murray tell us last year he didn't want Rangers getting back into the situation where they would have to try and bleed six or seven new players into the side at the start of a new campaign?

Fortunes were spent last summer to build the foundations of a New Rangers.

Staale Stensaas has, so far, been an expensive liability and performed poorly in the cup final.

Error

Porrini has not shown enough to justify his hefty price tag while Lorenzo Amoruso, who looks good at times, was guilty of the error that allowed Stephane Adam to score Hearts' second goal.

Former Fiorentina defender Amoruso, who will benefit from a bout of close-season training, is probably the only player from last year's arrivals that is guaranteed a future under new boss Advocaat.

Marco Negri, Tony Vidmar, Stensaas, Porrini and even Gattuso could well find themselves joining Laudrup, Alex Cleland, Andy Goram, Gough, McCoist, McCall, Ian Durrant and Ferguson on the way out of Ibrox.

Hardly continuity, is it?

McCoist claimed afterwards that the Rangers' players were all big boys who could take it on the chin.

That remains to be seen.

He also admitted that the club have taken a few steps back in recent times.

Now, that is something which no-one can disagree with.

Certainly, things now look a little easier for Advocaat.

After all, they can't get a great deal worse.