When We Got Demoted To The Fourth Tier, How Long Until

[ritchieshearercaldow 22,158]

We were kicked out, repeat kicked out of the SPL, we had to apply to become an SFL member under new ownership, so no demotion.

On topic, we should have walked it, biggest club in the country we should have walked it, with a decent manager and management we would have

[Mr RFC 696]

One of the biggest clubs in British football, Glasgow Rangers, has been demoted to Scotland's lowest league division.

The 30 clubs of the Scottish Football League voted 25-5 in favour of entering the Ibrox side into the Third Division.

The 30 SFL teams were voting on whether Charles Green's newco Rangers should enter the league and which division they should be placed in.

ITV News' Scotland Correspondent Debi Edward reports:

The Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football Association were hopeful Rangers would be parachuted into the First Division, with SFA chief executive Stewart Regan claiming that putting the Ibrox club into the Third Division would bring financial catastrophe and a "slow, lingering death" of the game.

[kanjo 26,329]

Christmas 2013 was the start of it and, the Ramsdens final and Ally's sing-song after it had be questioning our ability to go forward. I must admit I thought Boyd, Miller and Zaliukas would have been enough for us to go up and probably should have been but for the fact we didn't have someone coaching them.

[nemisis 358]

Being demoted to the lowest league as reigning Champions was impossible.

The authorities "crooked as they are" had to follow John Reids template to the letter.

Full details won't come to light until Plod finish up.

But we were NEVER demoted

What he said.

[strikemaster 21]

Never ever thought it would be easy....we had lost nearly an entire first team of professionals, and had to cobble together at short notice a brand new team, who then had to get used to each other.

The loss of experience, plus International players meant we were on course to have the worst grade of team in our history, which proved to be correct.

The fact that most of us wanted Ally to blend in youth players, and regrow the squad from the roots up was a pointless fantasy.

Last season was one of the worst in our history, the first time we had ever failed to be promoted.

Ally was in charge, he gets 100% of the blame.

loss of experience! 2nd highest budget (by a mile) in the entire country, with six senior internationalists in what was just about junior level football, against players rushing home from a days work to play against us for travelling expenses! there are NO excuses, just a bad bad manager (not a bad person) who by circumstances and fate was able to draw his(and still does) £16,000. a week. who's inflated ego prevented him from realising his shortcomings as a manager, resulting in the club losing desperate financial funds which almost tipped us into the abyss. yet there were some saying he should have been given more time! I know he wasn't alone to blame, all his pals in the media were afraid to criticise him, even saying he was doing a good job! one (DJ) described it as magnifificent!!!. thank god it is a bad memory now and now look forward to a new dawn, what a difference a couple of weeks makes.

[Ibroxholm 2,280]

After a troublesome start to the 2012-13 season, I thought things started to show promise towards the end of 2012 after a reasonably good Nov/Dec. McLeod, McKay, Crawford, Aird, etc were starting to show up in the team and we appeared to be getting a reasonably blend of experience and youth. Remember really looking forward to going to see QP game at Hampden in Xmas 2012 although it ended up a pretty poor performance and game. Since then it's all been downhill IMO, gradually at first, culminating in our free fall last season.

[B1872 20,759]

Best thing to say to the taigs when the start this pish is just tell the truth about the cover up at the Saviledome!

[G.E.C. 18,800]

I was worried after watching us against Forfar in January.

Serious concerns came during the pre season in America. Watching us getting pumped by a semi pro college team was a new low for me.

[G.E.C. 18,800]

Christmas 2013 was the start of it and, the Ramsdens final and Ally's sing-song after it had be questioning our ability to go forward. I must admit I thought Boyd, Miller and Zaliukas would have been enough for us to go up and probably should have been but for the fact we didn't have someone coaching them.

I never expected Boyd and Miller to deliver at all considering the fact that were so one dimensional and provided little to nothing service.

I don't think even Messi and Ronaldo would have scored 20 goals between them if we magically had them on loan for that season.

[there'sonlyoneamoruso 1,724]

I was worried after watching us against Forfar in January.

Serious concerns came during the pre season in America. Watching us getting pumped by a semi pro college team was a new low for me.

Sportfreunde Lotte set the alarm bells ringing for me. McCoist covered himself in failure from day one.

[Captain Hilts 12,819]

when Brechin equalized in the first game

Albion Rovers at home in the cup, and the duds post match interview, was when I knew he had to go

[ThatNightInFlorence 696]

The big moment I realised how bad a position we were in was when we lost to Raith Rovers in the Ramsdens cup final. I knew we would always see defeats and dropped points here and there but the fact that Ally couldn't manage a team and motivate them for a cup final was shocking. Raith Rovers weren't even particularly good that day.

[weeto 112]

I honestly couldn't see Rangers having the patience to wait out the entire cycle of promotions, especially as it will now take an extra season.

I was also wondering if the financial status of the Premiership was going to force them into a rethink. Last season they went without Rangers, Hearts and Hibs, this season the Premiership still doesn't have Rangers or Hibs. They need the biggest clubs and I'd like to see a rethink of the whole structure.

I thought the lower league nonsense might have ended after a year, two at most.

Fiorentina had similar problems and got a double promotion in their first year for 'sporting merit'. When we blitzed League One, we deserved to go to the top flight. We weren't ready financailly at that point though and we were far worse last season that we were then.

With the money the club has lost, it would have made sense to have bought the licence of one of the smallest Premiership teams and pushed our way back in. I wanted to do that from day one as we shouldn't be playing against lower league sides. I'm pretty sure if we'd swallowed up a smaller side, we would have been able to play in Europe too, as it could have been legally a merger rather than the new corporate structure being the entire club. This kind of thing has been done before abroad where a large club has fell on hard times and bought the licence of a club two or three divisions above and wiped them away, regaining their higher status as a result.

As far as when I realised the wheels were falling off the wagon, I guess it was about five weeks into last season, when we were starting to fall away from Hearts. I had ideas about us continuing the unbeaten run for a lengthy period, maybe the entire season again and waltzing into the Premiership, winning the Challenge Cup and the Scottish Cup and probably the League Cup too. I thought Hearts and Hibs had nothing before the season started to be honest. After five or six weeks, it became obvious our older players legs were going and the morale at the club was waaay done because of the meddling that was going on.

[Blackandra 732]

I honestly thought we'd walk it. Then I remembered we had ally as manager....

[Christchurch Rangers 1,229]

You thought we aint going to skate this, not very long into the Brechin game that thought had crossed my mind, and we pretty much just muddled through to where we are now.

I am getting a good feeling about the men in charge now though.

Right from the get go in division three it was obvious to me it was going to be a bit of a hard slog to get back to the top. The players were rank, the tactics were awful and even though we were winning games in division three etc it was often a very scrappy affair with the final result flattering Rangers.

For me the real tragedy is that it was evident from the start that there were a number of major problems with the team and management yet it took years for anything slightly courageous to be done about it. Why did it take so long to confront the harsh realities of what was happening on the pitch at Rangers.

To me these years represent a wasted opportunity to re-invigorate the club from top to bottom.

too much hubris getting in the way and clouding the reality of the situation.

[Thewhitesettler 2,711]

The game away to Berwick, the one where there was controversy over songs sung by the support, that was live on BTSport, because they had a very good shout for a penalty turned down, and, near the full time whistle, they had a perfectly good goal disallowed for no obvious reason. I remember thinking at the time, that this was going to be one, long, arduous road, back to the top.

[rfc_watp 1,503]

Very first league game tbh when Peterhead were winning 2-1,

Needed a scrappy andy little 90th minute equaliser to save our blushes.

[B1872 20,759]

it only really hit me after the Motherwell game at Ibrox that we weren't going to go up. The three months between December 2014 - February 2015 are the most depressed I've ever been following Rangers.

[cushynumber 25,178]

I thought we would breeze the first 2 and we did. I thought we would struggle in the Championship when we got promoted to it as teams like hearts and Hibs were markedly better than what was there already. There was nothing I had seen in mccoist squad or his signing policy leading up to the championship that led me to believe we were going to skate it. By November it was obvious the playoffs were beckoning. Its still amazes me it took so long for Mccoist to be moved aside when it was staring us in the face by end of october 2014 that he had already failed.

[Falcoholic 1,348]

Bit off topic but relevant to the demoted part. I was arguing with a bitter taig at the weekend and he was giving it if we aren't a new club then why were we demoted. Fenian bastards man just can't let it go!

How could a "new" club be demoted?

Demoted from what? Those fuckers are demented.

I thought we would skoosh our way back to the top. How wrong was I? The best thing about being in the lower leagues was the tremendous away days but it soon became apparent that we were going to struggle as time went on. I'm surprised that no one on the then Rangers Board could see it. maybe they did and they just didn't GAF.

[The Godfather 71,978]

The fact Ally made a rip roaring cunt of Walters champions was the warning shot. Getting put out of Europe twice by piss poor teams was proof enough but then he made a cunt of the league and cups too.

He didn't have the authority or the ability to lead a group of professional top level footballers to win against part time sides and show the gap there actually was between us.

I never actually thought we'd fail to go up each year, it was after the first game to Hearts that realisation hit me...McCoist is going to cost us big time here.

The rest is history.

[Tumshie 205]

Might sound daft but I thought the writing was on the wall when in League One, and the league was won by about October, McCoist insisted on playing the same over-paid duds every week rather than giving some youngsters the chance in the team.

He kept on going on about going undefeated for the entire season which not one fan I knew was even remotely interested in. Even when we continued to scrape through week after week the team picked itself despite the shite football.

I said to my dad then that I thought we would win the Championship but only by one or two points. I knew it wasn't going to be easy but in saying that I didn't think it would be quite the disaster that it was.

[cushynumber 25,178]

Might sound daft but I thought the writing was on the wall when in League One, and the league was won by about October, McCoist insisted on playing the same over-paid duds every week rather than giving some youngsters the chance in the team.

He kept on going on about going undefeated for the entire season which not one fan I knew was even remotely interested in. Even when we continued to scrape through week after week the team picked itself despite the shite football.

I said to my dad then that I thought we would win the Championship but only by one or two points. I knew it wasn't going to be easy but in saying that I didn't think it would be quite the disaster that it was.

there was a few though not many. Its embarrassing looking back on it how short term, naive and self promoting that was from Mccoist.

[BigAmo'sThighs 848]

Might sound daft but I thought the writing was on the wall when in League One, and the league was won by about October, McCoist insisted on playing the same over-paid duds every week rather than giving some youngsters the chance in the team.

He kept on going on about going undefeated for the entire season which not one fan I knew was even remotely interested in. Even when we continued to scrape through week after week the team picked itself despite the shite football.

I said to my dad then that I thought we would win the Championship but only by one or two points. I knew it wasn't going to be easy but in saying that I didn't think it would be quite the disaster that it was.

I was in the same boat, the wost one was the last day of the season I think, and he brings on Cribari with Gasparatto sitting there

Unbelievable how he was here for so long and is still taking a wage

[Tumshie 205]

there was a few though not many. Its embarrassing looking back on it how short term, naive and self promoting that was from Mccoist.

I suppose there is always a few that can't see the big picture but the way he kept going on about you would think it was up there with winning trebles and getting to European finals. He was absolutely deluded and it was the first time, in my opinion, the vast majority of the support could see it.