Rangers 'humiliation' only made worse by what UEFA put in place

Rangers are finally bouncing back from what was a terrible start to the season at Ibrox.

Consecutive Old Firm victories before the extended international break has seen the blue half of Glasgow on a real high.

Despite that, there is still a feeling that it's only papered over earlier cracks.

Derek McInnes couldn't have hoped for a worse start, failing to win in his first two Scottish Premiership games.

Despite that, Rangers have battled back with six consecutive wins to only sit two points behind Celtic.

But, the elephant in the room remains not qualifying for Europe.

Do UEFA proposals make Rangers failure even worse?

There's no hiding from the fact that not even having UEFA Conference League football is a disgrace for Rangers.

Andrew Cavenagh and the 49ers haven't panicked after, keeping McInnes, who needs to keep repaying them domestically now.

But after defeats to Poland's Jagiellonia and Czechia's Jablonec, there are simply zero excuses for that failure.

Luke Edwards of the Telegraph has linked those troubles to the struggles of Scottish football over recent years.

He believes that UEFA's efforts to make European football three-tiered only exposes a larger "humiliation" for Rangers and Scotland to not qualify.

When you look at the success of clubs like Bodø/Glimt in Norway in comparison, it simply isn't good enough.

Where did it all go wrong?

Given how Rangers are absolutely flying right now, it's hard to even fathom how bad the start of the season was.

Of course, it always takes time for new signings to bed and after hitting double figures for new arrivals again, they simply weren't ready for Europe.

That is still a small excuse, but they'd all admit it.

McInnes hadn't found his best system either, and has somewhat stumbled onto it after serious injuries to Lawrence Shankland and Youssef Chermiti.

Now, it's hard to imagine Ryan Naderi and Kevin Kelsy not starting together, they've been that good upfront.

With the defence settled, as James Penrice and Olwethu Makhanya dominate, the spine is perfect.

While no Europe is simply embarrassing for Rangers, they now have no excuse but to bring home all domestic silverware available to them.

Starting with the Premier Sports Cup, the Scottish Premiership has to be the main goal for McInnes and Co after.