Michael Stewart offers Rangers verdict as supporters cannot accept ‘Celtic are a bigger club’
Michael Stewart has offered his verdict on the current situation at Rangers, suggesting that supporters of the Ibrox side are unable to accept that Celtic “are a bigger club”.
The Light Blues are currently looking for another new manager after sacking Micheal Beale after 10 months in charge following their dreadful start to the season, with the final straw being the Gers’ 3-1 defeat to Aberdeen at Ibrox.
Since then Rangers were beaten by Aris Limassol in the Europa League, with much of the criticism being directed at the new players on the blue side of Glasgow and former Scotland midfielder Stewart believes the Ibrox fanbase needs to realise they are behind the Hoops in all aspects currently.
Speaking on BBC Sportscene, as quoted by Football Scotland (7 October) he said: “Ultimately, so many of the Rangers supporters, whether they would admit it or not, they use Celtic as a barometer in Scottish football. And the thing that is very difficult for them to accept is that Celtic are a bigger club than them at the moment
“They have a bigger turnover, they’ve got more money in the bank, it means that they can go and waste some money to be perfectly honest. They don’t need every signing to hit the mark.
“For Rangers to go and compete, they need all their signings and they need the structure of the club to be in place and on point. And, unfortunately for Rangers, it’s not at the moment. The point I’m trying to make is it’s very difficult for Rangers to go and compete with a Celtic who are as strong as they are.”
Bigger than the manager
Stewart is the latest in a long line of pundits to suggest that there are greater issues currently at Ibrox than who is in charge of the side when they take to the field on matchday, with the Light Blues being beaten in all aspects of running a football club by their Old Firm rivals.
Despite this summer representing Michael Beale’s big squad overhaul, Rangers spent less money on transfers than Celtic and have seemingly wasted a lot of that money as the likes of Sam Lammers and Cyriel Dessers struggle to make an impact in Glasgow.
The painful thing for Rangers supporters at the moment is the fact that the barometer they use to measure success, in this case the Hoops’ position, could not be further ahead of them if they tried. Currently, Steven Davis’ side aren’t even being spoken about in the race for the title.
A new manager may be appointed and get a tune out of the players between now and the end of the season, but what is Rangers’ plan after that? They cannot afford to go and spend millions again in the summer and they’ve shown that their recruitment isn’t strong enough to spend those sorts of transfer fees.
There needs to be a change from the top down at Ibrox for the gap between the Old Firm clubs to shrink any time soon.
In other Rangers news, Kris Boyd has called for Rangers to make their next appointment by the start of the international break