BigDak

So you think showing folk around Ibrox and telling them the history of the club automatically turns them into battle hardened winners who can deal with the expectations and burden of playing for the club? It's that easy? You're a fucking idiot.

Agreed 👍🏻

So you think losing all but Lee McCulloch and Lee Wallace from the first team squad and replacing it with the likes of Emilson Cribari and Kevin Kyle, playing against the dross of Scottish football for 4 years and winning nothing took nothing away from the heart of what it means to be a successful, combatant, confident Rangers team with a back bone? You serious? The poster above actually makes my point completely. We've won the league, Scottish Cup and the League Cup once each since we came back up in 2016. How the fuck does that makes us winners? You don't build a winning mentality without winning things. We went on an amazing run to the EL final and still that team didn't believe in itself enough to beat the scum in the league that season. We put a great showing in the SC semi that season but again there was an underdog tone to that game. There was no expectation to win. I think this team does have heart but it's the heart of an underdog/chaser who can fight to get to the front of the pack then doesn't know what to do once it gets there. That's been lost.

What, expectation that they'll beat the Euro teams? Or expectation that they'll get beat off the scum? Or both?

I totally agree. I've no idea how this team doesn't believe in themselves but it doesn't seem like they do. I've no idea how they can convincingly beat really good teams in Europe then go and get beat off the scum. But they do.

How doesn't it? Are you trying to claim we're anywhere near the team we were before we went down? And I'm not talking about personnel. I'm talking about belief.

The way this team is makes me think of that scene in From Dusk Til Dawn where Harvey Keitel asked George Clooney: "Are you that much of a loser you don't know when you've won?". Or like a dog when it catches a rabbit and you can see it thinking "right I've caught it, what do I do now?". That's what the team is like when it gets to the top. They are so used to being underdogs and "also rans" that they don't know what it means to absorb the pressure of expectation and use it to push on to win. This has always been my concern, that what happened in 2012 was more than just having to work back up the leagues. It destroyed a team that was built 140(ish) years worth of success being handed down. We lost our first team, a team that was continuing on the same track as all that previous success and although the team was always changing the baton had been handed on from team to team over all those years with an expectation to win and be the best. When we had to down to the bottom the expectation was just go get back up to top as quickly as possible and even winning the leagues on the way wasn't really considered winning and we've never recovered.

Isn't Yilmaz injured? If not, why hasn't he been in the team? If he is, why are people putting him in their team?

Aye, I mean I appreciate the honest words but if he's trying to be defiant or give us confidence that they'll turn it around then he's failed miserably. I wish they'd all nut up. The power to turn this around lies with them. They need to get the bit between their collective teeth and fight. But from Sterling's speech they're just sitting there waiting on fate to decide for them and whether they win or lose is on someone else.

Aye, I'm the same. I didn't want to see Borna back in the team but it really isn't working with Sterling at left back. He was really bad for "doing a Borna" last night and turning back the way coz he wasn't confident crossing with his left - which is understandable. I'd even put Yfleko in there just to get some balance.

I'm clearly missing something but I don't get what people are raving about. The words he says, when written down, read well but listening to him say them he sounds absolutely void of confidence and drive. Although maybe that's just his personality and beneath that he's raging. He's got me worried if that's an indication of the general atmosphere around the team.

Exactly. It gives something to work on for next year. Especially if it's a close run last five games. I'm still hoping against hope that we're able to pick ourselves up for this run in and go out with a fight.

Guys, there's a lot of energy getting spent fighting over a moot point. As the numerous examples posed so far have shown, we can't possibly separate winning cups vs winning the league. They are both important and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts on this. Would anyone accept winning both cups each season for the next ten years and never winning the league? No. Would we accept winning the league every year for the next ten years but never winning any cups? Yeah, probably. Does that mean the cups are shite? No. They're still an important indicator of success and a great occasion.

I wasn't being sarcastic, I was agreeing with you 🤣 FS! We've been far too reliant on Tav for far too long. The team shouldn't be relying on a 32 year old right back pulling them out the hole all the time.

That's definitely a big part of the problem.