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Rangers Fan View: End of season review - thank goodness that's over
Thank goodness that’s over. All of the talk this season was about Rangers going for 55. Instead, we got a season of poor performances, poor results and had three different managers.
It was a season that I was full of hope and expectation; after that first game against Hamilton, which ended in a terrible 1-1 draw, the warning signs were there for all to see.
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Our apparent pre-season was a complete joke. The jolly to Charleston wasn’t sufficient enough. We played basically what was a team of college kids and then we had that waste of time League Cup group stage. What’s that old saying? ‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.’ That would sum up the season to a tee. A better pre-season may not have helped us achieve our objectives but it certainly would have helped with the fitness of the squad as a whole.
We started the Hamilton games trying to get players like Barton and Kranjcar game time. That’s just poor preparation.
There were three main contributing factors to our poor season, in my opinion:
Poor recruitment
The signings over the summer, in hindsight, appeared to be positive. Joey Barton, Niko Kranjcar, Josh Windass etc. – a mix of experience and youth. As it panned out, it was a disastrous window for Warburton, McParland and more importantly our team. Unfortunately, Barton left under a cloud, Kranjcar and Rossiter spent large spells on the sidelines and the rest were not up to the job bar Clint Hill.
Embarrassingly, the panic buy of Philippe Senderos summed up our full window. It seemed like McParland and Warburton got the scattergun out and pointed it at everyone to see which one they could get to stick and ultimately it cost the club a good chunk of wages.
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Poor results
Of course, the two 5-1 defeats to Celtic were the toughest of results to take, but it was the nonsense results that meant we finished way behind Celtic, and nine points behind Aberdeen such as the 4-1 loss at Tynecastle, losing at Dundee and Inverness, drawing at home to Ross County, Motherwell and Hamilton. Quite frankly, the season was a complete disaster from day one.
Mark Warburton
Ultimately, Warburton’s “Plan B is to do Plan A better” quote came back to bite him on the backside. And along with his inability to beat any half-decent side away home, the writing was on the wall for him. It culminated in him engineering a move to Nottingham Forest and leaving Rangers with a squad of thin-skinned, squad players. Looking back, I think the job was far too big for him and he simply couldn’t handle the daily pressures of being at a club that demands to win every single match.
The only positives from our season were:
Getting back into Europe
Despite the poor season league-wise, It is good that the club is competing in the Europa League next season. It breaks up the monotony of the run-of-the-mill league matches. Hopefully, we can get through a few rounds in the qualifying stages. Pedro recently said the group stages should be the team’s aim, but I think if we reach the play-off round we will have done pretty well. I am looking forward to seeing how we cope back in the European arena.
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The emergence of the young players under Caixinha
Pedro Caixinha’s willingness to play the young players from the academy in the final few matches gave the fans something interesting watch. Myles Beerman, David Bates, Jamie Barjonas and Aidan Wilson all played under the new manager at certain points and each one of them had games where they played very well in. I would hope that Caixinha continues down this route in the future and continues to play academy players if he feels they merit some game time.
The form of Kenny Miller, Clint Hill and Wes Foderingham
Frankly, they are only three senior players who emerge with any kind of credit from this season. Miller was excellent all season, playing wide, in midfield, off the front and as a nine at points. He showed he has lots left in the tank; without his 14 goals, god knows where we would have ended up.
Clint Hill had an iffy start to his Rangers career. However, he certainly grew into it. He was, without doubt, our best defender all season and gave us one of the few highlights with him scoring in the dying minutes at Parkhead. I wish him all the best wherever he ends up.
Wes Foderingham continues to improve. He is turning into a really, really good goalkeeper; at times in the past season, he has saved our bacon with many top-class saves. I hope he kicks on next season and can produce similar performance levels.
Ultimately, the overall feeling on this season has to be one of embarrassment, disappointment. For a season that promised so much, it ended up being a long, hard slog and I am glad it’s over.
