Why Rangers Why?

2 ramblings about Rangers football club.

 

Rangers Rambling 1:

Rangers have a choice this January transfer window. Bigger than selling Hutton, bigger than selling Cuellar and bigger than buying Velicka. (Edit that last one, i’ve spent longer deliberating over which biscuit to have than Smith did in buying Velicka)

 

Rangers have to raise funds, the question is, how they should raise those funds? It is generally accepted that Rangers have to let go of their army of fringe players. But it is now becoming clear that they may have to also let go of a couple of “stars”. The “stars” generally accepted to be potentially available to raise some Alan Hutton style cash are Mendes, Bougherra, Ferguson and Boyd. Each of these would bring in over 3 million pounds, a significant amount for modern day Rangers. But which ones should they sell?

I believe it should be a choice between Mendes and Bougherra or Ferguson and Boyd. Either Rangers can continue staying in this holding pattern of moderate SPL success or we can look to the future and think of a team that wants to make a stab at Europe. If, hypothetically, the interest in these players is legitimate, then it will be interesting which direction Smith goes in.

Edu and Lafferty were bought for a fee, which was reportedly over 5 million between them. What were they bought for if Rangers are not prepared to sell Ferguson and Boyd now? If Edu came in and played like Ferguson plays (refusing to pass the ball forward, unfit, unable to complete a pass) he would be labeled a massive waste of money and a donkey. If Kris Boyd were played on the wing , despite not being a winger, he would be labeled a complete ineffective waste of space. So why are we persisting with Barry Ferguson instead of giving Edu a run out? We still have Hemdani there to share the role until he’s ready. And why is Kyle Lafferty, who was bought as a striker, playing on the wing?

Rangers could cope with having only 9 players that ran about. Maybe Boyd didn’t run but Miller did (which makes the sum of their parts, one competent footballer) and Rangers could cope with that. But once Ferguson came back the midfield, which was already suffering from the lack of Kevin Thomson, had a passenger as well. We can’t afford two passengers; especially because when Broadfoot or Miller drives they routinely crash the car.

Allegedly, Rangers are able to get Lovenkrands for free at cut-price wages. This is a chance for Rangers to right one of their many wrongs. Lovenkrands was always played on the wing just like Lafferty is now, despite neither being a winger. Let’s see how they do when they are both given an extended stay through the middle. Lovenkrands playing off the last defender with Mendes chipping balls through for him, or Lafferty holding the ball up is a more attractive prospect than Boyd spending big matches in an offside position or Miller running about like a child with ADD doing a bleep test.

Rangers have an army of players who have not been given a fair crack of the whip as well as a youth system, which has barely had even a moderate success story. This is a time to let go of the two players who have had too much of a chance, and hand the reigns to some players who might change things a little.

The Le Guen project failed, as he wanted a year to rebuild, Rangers are crying out for a year of rebuilding, rather than a year of papering over cracks.  Rangers must let go of the two players who will not take them to the next level. Maybe Rangers will miss Boyd’s goals, maybe they’ll miss Barry Ferguson trying to pass backwards, getting his pass intercepted, looking dejected , then breaking his hip. But with great sacrifice, comes great rewards.

 

Rangers Rambling 2:

“I’m Barry Ferguson. I’m Mr. Rangers. I’m a hero for the club I grew up supporting. I have more of a legacy than my brother who I grew up idolising. No player quite defines a club quite like I define Rangers. Players have come and gone, you can stick you’re Giovanni Van Bronckhurst and your Mikel Arteta. They are flash in the pans, not like me. I’m even bigger than any manager Rangers will ever have. Not many people can say that. I’m Mr. Rangers.”

Or does he think….

“I’m Barry Ferguson, I used to be a dynamic footballer. I could have been great, I could have been more than just a nagging injury to an average Rangers team. I could have been a game changer, a force in Europe, if not at Rangers then somewhere else. I should have gone to Blackburn and made a difference. Playing against better players than me should have raised my game to another level. I took the easy option in going back to Rangers and i’ll always regret going back, the lack of impact I had at Blackburn and the lack of impact I’ve had since I came back. I could have been so much more. “

The perfect analogy for what Barry Ferguson is to Rangers is evident in last season’s UEFA Cup run. Rangers struggle to make an impact for most of the game and at the point of no return, they break the glass and push Barry Ferguson up to support the lone striker. He fails to make an impact and is constantly outshone by players who should be no more than a journey man at best (Mr. Novo I presume). The belief is there that Rangers can rely on Barry Ferguson, but they rarely can.

There is a confusion as to what Barry Ferguson is. The last ten minutes of games Rangers are losing leads one to think that the belief is that Barry Ferguson is Steven Gerrard-someone who, when times are tough, grabs the game by the scruff of the neck and carries his team to victory. Barry Ferguson has not done that since his original Rangers spell.

Or is he Gerrard’s team mate, Mascherano. He sits in a position akin to Mascherano but he lacks the bite and aggression.

His nearest comparison is probably Alonso. Ferguson’s role is primarily that of a passer who calms the game down. But unlike Alonso, Ferguson lack’s the ability to make that cutting pass. Where Alonso might make a 40 yard pass, Barry Ferguson would pivot and pass backwards to Kirk Broadfoot, galloping up the right wing like an escaped mental patient.

The comparison breaks down because it would be difficult to find a comparison at a top Premiership club like Liverpool as to be a footballer at that level you have to be multi-faceted. Ferguson is far too limited. His nearest comparison can be found closer to home. His nearest comparison is Brahim Hemdani.

Like Ferguson, Hemdani lacks pace. But he is a safe pair of hands. He might take the ball himself and run through a team but he will calm the game down. He won’t lose Rangers the ball and he will distribute to the more dynamic players.

But when Hemdani plays, he is not viewed as one of those dynamic players-Ferguson is. The problem is in perception and that’s why Ferguson is counter-productive to Rangers when he plays.

The perception of Ferguson is ruined by his aura. His brother was a talented Rangers player, he was the young boy wonder, he had suitors in England and he supported Rangers all his life. Tugay didn’t have that, Claudio Reyna didn’t have that, Brahim Hemdani doesn’t have that, Kevin Thomson doesn’t have that. If they did, would they be held up with the same esteem as Barry Ferguson?

It’s almost beneficial that Kevin Thomson got injured prior to the return of the captain. Thomson was turning into a fantastic player for Rangers and Ferguson’s return would have seen him shoehorned back into the team and would have upset the balance that Thomson, Davis and Mendes had created. Ferguson was shoehorned into the team, but at least it wasn’t at the expense of Thomson.

Barry Ferguson plays European style slow calm football in the SPL.  If he is everything he is cracked up to be, at the very least in the SPL he should be running riot and changing games.

In European Football he plays SPL style games. He tries to run riot and change games but he ultimately fails.

When he won the power struggle over the game it was a win for Barry Ferguson in the short term. He got his way and he proved how important he was to Rangers. But in the long term it raised to many questions of whether he is actually that important to Rangers and whether his status represents his impact.

He is a shell of his former self and that’s not his fault. But his role in the team and his pay need to change and if he is really Mr. Rangers, he should think himself lucky to still be at Rangers and should scale back for the good of the team. A captain should lead, he should never hold the team’s evolution back.