Kris Boyd delighted that Rangers Champions League campaign is over
Kris Boyd has admitted that he’s “had enough” of Rangers in the Champions League after their “disaster” of a campaign ended pointless following defeat to Ajax.
The Gers ended the group stage as the worst team in the history of the competition with six defeats from six games, scoring just twice and conceding 22 times after a 3-1 defeat at Ibrox.
And while appearing on Sky Sports as a pundit to watch over the game (1 November), Boyd admitted that the team simply isn’t good enough to compete at this level and he’s happy to see the back of the competition for this year.
“I know that, you don’t need to be telling me this. I’ve had enough of it,” he said.
“I’m going to have to listen to it for a long time. Rangers fans will just be delighted this campaign is over, it’s been a disaster from the start when you go back to the Johan Cruyff Arena and it’s just got worse from there.
“Rangers built a lot of confidence on the back of the Europa League run last year, their confidence has been dented this year and rightly so but you’ve got to use it as a learning curve and bounce back and be part of the Champions League year in, year out.
“I’ve said it before, I don’t think Rangers can go and get through to the last 16 but there’s no need to say they can’t go in and fight for that Europa League spot.
“This year, they’ve come up against Liverpool and Napoli. I don’t think Ajax are magnificent but they’ve shown they’re way better than Rangers are.
“Rangers have been punished for poor, poor defending throughout this competition and it’s been a disappointing campaign. They’ve got three massive league games before the World Cup they’re going to have to get nine points from.”
Done
This has been the most embarrassing period of a season that we can remember at Rangers, because the team has been utterly humiliated every time they’ve gone on the pitch.
There have been moments of positivity during the campaign, notably the first half of games against Napoli and Liverpool but ultimately the end results were the same.
The team wasn’t improved upon after last year’s run in the Europa League, and poor form of key players matched up with injuries, the manager lacking belief and better opposition just taking it’s toll.
But this club will stick together and push forward, and with three games to go between now and the World Cup break, Rangers must ensure they win them all and keep in touching distance of Celtic in the SPFL title race.
If not, it’s going to be a very long break for Giovanni van Bronckhorst and the fans with very little to look forward to for the rest of the long season.
In other Rangers news, Boyd named four Rangers men in his SPFL team of the week