Does anyone know how we got here? It’s a good job the Scottish Premiership isn’t a TV series or critics would have blasted the current season for being too far-fetched and jumping the shark.
We of course took a lead role in this nonsense from the start with the hiring of a manager who bemoaned his curtains and a propensity to sweat as reasons why he was an unpopular figure at Ibrox. Players were banished, others refused to play, arguments between directors and fans took place in hotels and airports all over Europe before Martin was relieved of his duties under a police escort in Falkirk.
In the midst of this an unlikely contender started to emerge. Tony Bloom’s Hearts started with an impressive eight wins out of their first nine games, including comfortable defeats of each of the Old Firm. The gap between Hearts’ and the two big Glasgow clubs’ 24/25 revenue was proportionally wider than Leicester City’s was to the EPL’s big earners* in football’s ultimate underdog story.
A calamitous night in Brugge, the nadir of Rangers 25/26 season.
Celtic themselves appeared to engage in multiple acts of self-sabotage. Brendan Rodgers, their board and fans locked in a three-way war culminating in the resignation and public burial of their two-time manager.
After an extensive search they hired a man who has lost more opening games than any Old Firm manager ever, has said it doesn’t matter if they win or lose and that he’s well equipped for Scottish football because he nearly joined Carlisle once.
The events of Wednesday night were amusing, the Celtic support clearly not sharing the same ‘Let him cook’ sentiment as Thierry Henry as they voiced their anger following a second half collapse. Nancy took just four games (14 days) to get the ‘Get tae fuck’ treatment that Martin managed to avoid until our trip to Brugge – a whole five games (70 days) longer.
Red crosses and ‘Get tae fuck’ chants becoming the first things to cross the Old Firm divide since Kenny Miller.
There is a real sense that we may have just stumbled our way into an unlikely title fight. A feeling that will be multiplied at Tynecastle where they will know this is their best chance at a title in many of their supporters’ lifetimes.
It is the first Rangers-Hearts ‘six pointer’ of the century. Yes, Hearts fans may rightfully say they beat us in a title fight in 2015, but I have chosen to block out any memories of that era, and we were so far behind we were never actually in a title fight anyway.
Sunday will be a real test of Danny Röhl and a Rangers side that, whisper it, are beginning to show a little more character than previously displayed. This is a welcome sight after a start to the campaign that included deliberate sendings-off, fan ‘shushing’ and defensive calamities.
It’s been a solid start at Ibrox for Danny Röhl, but we’ve been here before.
Collapses after short-lived ‘title challenges’ have become something all too common at Ibrox in recent years. The stat detailing Danny Röhl’s impressive 20/24 possible points since he took charge has done the rounds on Twitter, but fans don’t have to cast their minds too far back to remember previous false dawns. Michael Beale (43/45) and Philippe Clement (28/30) both enjoyed a strong run of results when taking charge mid-season, before ultimately falling short.
With Hearts being the league’s top scorers by a fair margin, we will likely need to reply with a few of our own, something that has eluded our front three so far this season. To date, the £20m trio of Youssef Chermiti, Bojan Miovski and Danilo have scored fewer league goals this season combined than Lawrence Shankland alone. A stat that becomes even more frightening when you consider the Hearts captain was available on a free all summer.
Three clean sheets out of the last four league games gives hope that many of the issues that plagued our start to the campaign have been improved. You would be challenged to find someone overly impressed by Nasser Djiga this season, but his departure to AFCON raises questions, especially if Röhl is to stick to the back three which kept a clean sheet last time out against Hibs.
Dujon Sterling and Emmanuel Fernandez you assume will start, but they could be joined by an out-of-position James Tavernier or Clinton Nsiala, who recently made his way back into the first team after being frozen out by the aforementioned Martin. Tavernier has had a poor run of games of late, but the lack of recent game time for the French youngster makes it a coin flip to see which one would get the nod.
Whatever the result on Sunday, Rangers will look to strengthen in January and Andrew Cavanagh has said already that there is money there to be spent in the upcoming transfer window. We will of course have to spend this money far wiser than Stewart, Thelwell and Martin did in the summer, but now the matchbox has been taken off the chief arsonists, we have more reason to be optimistic.
*2024/25 revenue figures; Hearts (£24.4m, Heartsfc.co.uk), Rangers (£94.1m, Rangers.co.uk), Celtic (£143.6m, celticfc.com)
2014/15 revenue figures: Leicester (£104.4m, lcfc.com) Manchester United (£395.2m, Deloitte Money League)
