The theme of the RST's campaign is significant and one which seems to have gone over the head of most of the media coverage of it. The RST are wise enough to know that ousting David Murray now is simply not an option. Nobody is going to buy him out in the current financial climate, unless some daft Russian or somebody like that comes along out of the blue, if you'll pardon the pun.
But the theme of "we deserve better" campaign is that, while Murray has to remain at the helm for now, he simply has to 'up' his game. The same applies to every single facet of Rangers FC at the moment, and David Edgar was right when he included the fans in that as well last night.
Nobody is saying that we have a divine right to be the best team in the country every season. But when you look back a decade to season 1998-99, when we were winning the league championship under Advocaat at The Piggery for our 10th league title in 11 years (and winning it the following season as well), Rangers were simply streets ahead of Celtic in terms of how the club was run, and also with the players on the park.
Since then, not only have we let Celtic catch us up, but they have moved away from us administratively and financially and are in danger of disappearing over the horizon. Had it not been for the two last-minute league championship wins in 2003 and 2005, Celtic would have been going for another 9-in-a-row this season.
Our chairman needs to do better to encourage financial investment in the club.
Our chief executive needs to do better in terms of defending the club's image against the people whose aim it is to damage our reputation as often as they can.
Our manager needs to do better in terms of the players he brings to the club and his use of them, and also in terms of using the extremely talented young players we have at the club (u-19 league and cup double winners for the last two season, yet we see none of these players in the first team - instead he gives a contract extension to 35-year-old Christian Dailly and then doesn't use him).
Our captain needs to do better in terms of his performances on the pitch and his motivation of the players around him in games against lesser opposition.
Our players need to do better in terms of self-motivation in certain games.
Our fans need to do better in terms of backing the team at home games, as Ibrox is like a library during the average league game against the likes of Falkirk etc.
There are so many other facets of Rangers Football Club where the people concerned need to do better.
Yet the Rangers fans continue to be loyal. When I look back to the film of the games back in the Advocaat era, there were many games where you would see big empty spaces behind the Broomloan Road end goal, even for SPL games and occasionally for European games as well.
You simply don't see that nowadays, despite the team on the pitch being a shadow of the squad we had a decade ago and despite the ticket prices having almost doubled in that time. The fans are still filling Ibrox for every home game and filling the away end throughout the country. I'm not usually one for promoting a boycott, but as long as Ibrox is full every other Saturday then Murray and Bain will continue to think that the product on the pitch is acceptable to their "customers".
It was only when the fans drifted away in the mid 80s that something dramatic was done at Ibrox, and Lawrence Malborough brought in David Holmes who in turn brought in Graeme Souness who in turn brought in David Murray to buy out Malborough. Similarly at Celtic at the end of the Kelly/Whyte dynasty, it took the fans not turning up and Celtic going to the brink of extinction before Fergus McCann came in to turn the ship around.
I agree with TGO, it's going to take dramatic and complete regime change at Ibrox before we start to go in the right direction, but in the current financial crisis that's not going to happen in the next 12 months at least. Until then everybody involved in Rangers FC has to up their game.
The fans continue to back the current regime by paying through the turnstiles and filling the stadium. Ibrox will be full on Saturday again for the visit of Falkirk.
We deserve better.
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