Rangers Woes 25/26

A few weeks ago I mused about how long it would be before I wrote this post. After their match on the first weekend of the season, I very nearly published a post with this title, though at that time it would have been as a joke - although failing to win that match was hugely symbolic, in the grand scheme it probably doesn't matter all that much.

But they've followed that up with a sequence of fairly bad results, with only one actually good one in the interim. And then last night they were hammered 3-1. In truth, the result is probably not all that surprising (as in fairness the Europa League is probably Rangers level, while the Champions League is beyond them), the fact that they collapsed so completely so quickly was rather more of a problem - when the local commentators are describing the showing as "embarrassing", there's a problem.

The upshot of that is that the manager is already under massive pressure - he was never really the fans' first choice, his style has utterly failed to have the expected impact, and now everything has just turned. The mood on Twitter was nothing short of poisonous last night.

So now they have about two weeks, and three matches, to turn all this around. On Sunday they face St Mirren, a tricky away tie that is now a must-win. Then on the 31st of August they face Celtic at Ibrox, and again that's a must-win. In between, there's the return tie against Club Brugge in Champions League qualifying. That's the one that it's probably okay to lose - provided they put on a massive performance and just get pipped. But another humiliation.

But on the evidence thus far, there's no real reason to think any of those matches will pan out that way. St Mirren are a tough team to beat at the best of times, and Rangers are both weak at the back and misfiring up front. Celtic are miles ahead. And Club Brugge have already done the hard work in the tie, and so the return may turn into a exercise in them deciding how much to hurt Rangers.

And yet, if things don't go Rangers' way, there's no obvious way forward. This season was supposed to be the start of a new era, and it's on the cusp of disaster. Do they replace the manager yet again? And if so, who could they get who would both be better and also willing to come to the club in that state?

To be honest, at this point it's hard to see how they could have had a worse start to things.