As Celtic celebrate a 12th Scottish Premiership title in 13 seasons, jubilant scenes have been met with apathy by Rangers fans.
Rangers, once the indisputable domestic kings of global football, had boasted a seemingly unassailable lead over their Old Firm rivals.
Following title number 54, Celtic are one behind Rangers’ world record holding 55 domestic crowns and to make things worse, are closing in on the club’s world record 118-strong trophy haul (117).
Al-Ahly might claim to be the globe’s most decorated side but when you see some of the trophies they include in the count, there’s really no competition at all.
In fact, much of the kickback regarding Rangers’ claims comes from salty Celtic fans or Celtic-leaning journalists unwilling to admit to the startling success of their rivals.
But it means depending on how the next 12 months go, or even 10 days, Rangers could be about to relinquish the trademark line which gave a fractured support an identity through the darkest of times.
How exactly did it come to this for the World’s Most Successful Club?
Rangers blow golden Premiership chance
Rangers have had their chances to halt Celtic, even this season.
Resurgent under Philippe Clement, the Ibrox side might even have been heading into this weekend’s final Scottish Premiership game as favourites to lift the title.
Well, had it not been for the club’s heavily criticised stars collapsing in a run of one win in five Premiership matches at a crucial juncture of the season.
Rangers may blame injuries, they can even blame dodgy Dundee’s Dens Park pitch.
But in reality if you cannot beat Motherwell, Ross County and the Dee at crunch time of the season, you don’t deserve to be champions.
Similarly, if you can’t beat your fiercest rivals in front of 50k of your own fans not once, but twice, then you can’t claim to be hard done by.
Celtic, in the end, are worthy winners once again and as proven by this shaky Rangers side’s inability to beat them, through gritted teeth they are due congratulations.
But one title is an inevitably in the world of Glasgow’s duopoly, the dominance of Celtic in recent seasons points to a systemic failure at every level of the Ibrox club.
There were calamities aplenty as we built back up from the lower tiers, the surrender of our grip on Scotland’s domestic game undoubtedly tracing itself back to the shadowy events of 2012.
But how can this still be the crutch with which we limp to the finish line of every season in 2024?
Nine years of Ibrox misjudgements
Ally McCoist’s insistence on Scottish football’s boring old guard cost him a dream job, albeit against the backdrop of boardroom warfare, Mike Ashley and a fanbase stunned into disbelief.
But since those with their Rangers hats on have secured control of the club in 2015, there have been some monumental errors of judgement which haven’t so much handicapped us but rather tied concrete blocks around our legs and tossed us into the Clyde.
From Mark Warburton’s English lower league warriors – granted the ex-Brentford boss’ appointment was a crucial one in our recovery – to the millions wasted on Portuguese snake oil salesman Pedro Caixinha, our return to the Scottish Premiership has been fraught with disaster.
Steven Gerrard – who took four years to win a title at Rangers but who really led the rebuilding of a club and fanbase in tatters – was then massively disrespected in the face of 55.
Whilst the club’s shareholders have invested huge amounts of money to rebuild Rangers, a failure to capitalise on that league victory and the blatant underestimating of Celtic has set us back years.
Hopefully not decades.
We were so close to bridging that gap between ourselves and our Old Firm rivals, but didn’t spend a penny in transfer fees as they heavily backed Ange Postecoglou to five trophies in two seasons.
No wonder Gerrard jumped ship.
The Scouser is not without his own shortcomings however, Gerrard’s insistence on holding on to Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent delaying the player trading model which has only ever existed at Rangers in theory.
The impact remains to this day; Philippe Clement has gone on to take fire at Ross Wilson’s delusional ‘player contract model’ only this week.
We then never backed Giovanni van Bronckhorst in the transfer window, the Dutchman performing the miracle of Seville in 2022 and qualifying for the Champions League only to be given Rabbi Matondo, Tom Lawrence, and Ben Davies.
Expensive crocks who are aren’t as available today, as they were then.
But let’s not rewrite history either – Gio blew the title and but for that run to the Europa League Final, might’ve been out on his bahookey well before November.
Rangers then bankrolled Michael Beale, whose investment of £21m in the summer looks increasingly ill-judged after the rookie manager failed to halt Celtic romping to a fifth domestic treble in seven seasons.
As for this campaign, well, let’s just say we all saw it coming at Rugby Park.
Clement must break Old Firm dominance
Now, what’s left of Rangers’ shrinking domestic hope, rests at the feet of new manager Philippe Clement.
That the Ibrox support are so apathetic points to a feeling of hopelessness which even the Belgian has struggled to dispel in recent press conferences.
Clement been humming and hawing about months and years to implement the changes that Rangers need to futureproof the club.
That’s all well and good, and maybe even rational, but rationality has no place in the midst of the battle for Old Firm legacy.
We’re sure we don’t need to remind Philippe Clement that these are months and years he does not have if he is to retain his job as Rangers manager.
In three games against Celtic, so far the Belgian has found victory impossible. This has to change at Hampden next Sunday or he’s starting next season 10 yards behind.
But more importantly, these are months and years Rangers do not have if we are to retain our status as the Most Successful Club in Football.
For Rangers fans who’ve been to hell and back supporting an institution that is much more than a club to them, it’s an unthinkable reality which is now on our doorstep.
