Successive victories over Aberdeen should have brought some relief for Rangers, as the Ibrox side leapfrogged their rivals into second in the Premiership table thanks to a 3-0 home win and a 2-1 away success.
The Gers may have won two battles, but it seems that Aberdeen have claimed the war, with manager Derek McInnes firmly asserting that his future lies at Pittodrie after six weeks of speculation linking him to the Glasgow giants.
Six points – impressively won, at that – may heal the short-term pain of the 46-year-old’s refusal to move south, particularly if Ross County are overcome at the weekend, thereby allowing Rangers to win three successive league matches for a year, but his rejection of the club is a damning indictment of their current status.
As if to emphasise the point, the Ibrox board promptly poured fuels on the flames with an infantile statement that belittled the man who had turned them down as politely as possible due to “unfinished business” at Pittodrie.
“We endorse that position because moving to a massive club like Rangers is a big step with concomitant risk. We continue to consider candidates but will only appoint someone in whom we have full confidence and who feels he is ready for the job,” the Ibrox side replied.
Rangers may feel they are a “massive” club, but after being dumped out of the Europa League by Progres of Luxembourg and having struggled to finish third in the Premiership last season, a majority of outsiders view the situation different.
#StandFree
McInnes is everything that Rangers should want from a manager: still young, ambitious and formerly one of their own. Presumably, he would have been offered a pay packet well in excess of what he earns at Aberdeen, yet the Ibrox side could not even draw him into negotiations, much less appoint him.
Make no mistake, this was an embarrassing slap in the face of Rangers, but this is a situation – once again – of their own making.
It is now over six weeks since Pedro Caixinha was sacked, five of which were apparently required to study the out-of-work managers who represented options for them. It was a task that should have been taken in days, yet it took them weeks to make the inevitable move for the Aberdeen boss, who was their front runner from the outset.
Having been turned down by McInnes, they have been left with no ‘Plan B’ other than to maintain the status quo, with interim manager Graeme Murty apparently in a state of perpetual limbo.
That Rangers have stumbled cluelessly without a plan for so long sums up where the board and the club is currently. They are fumbling in a hopelessly reactive manner, showing little of the dynamism on or off the field that suggests that they can imminently mount a serious title challenge to Celtic in even the medium term.
And that is wherein the real problems for the club lie. A manager can only work with the tools with which he is provided, and the hierarchy at Ibrox do not appear willing or capable of providing this platform of success. Petty point-scoring statements aimed at the man who turned them down only make them seem more bitter.
McInnes recognised this and has elected to stay put at a club with a more progressive and far clearer vision, though, of course, he had the sense not to publicly say this. He is unlikely to still be around when Aberdeen open their proposed new stadium, which is still some years off, but that offers a focus towards which the whole club is pulling.
Rangers, on the other hand, continue to shamble in the dark as their mismanaged climb back towards prominence continues at a painfully slow rate. The managers may be the fall guys at Ibrox, but the real problems run deeper.
