Barry Ferguson has delivered a staunch rallying call to distressed Daily Record readers.
After a year of happy and glorious hype reality visited Ibrox on Tuesday night as 10 man Malmo dumped Steven Gerrard’s side out of the Champions League. A fortnight ago the same group of players had beaten Real Madrid.
Picking up £40m for taking part in the Champions League group stage was absolutely vital to the club, while some like Ferguson concentrate on the football issues the club has less than three weeks to shift bang average players for top dollar.
On the surface Gerrard has to lift a group of players not used to playing in front of baying supporters, sometimes from the opposition as well, but as ever Ferguson prefers to delve into the past for inspiration.
Every Ibrox set-back can be solved by a look into the past, the days when Fergie shared a dressing room full of players sitting on massive Employee Benefit Trusts to top up their token wages.
A few sweary words at each other, maybe some dressing room fisticuffs and kicking out at objects in the dressing room, supermarket or at home would sort things out as the true Rainjurz men emerged from adversity to go onto future glory.
Expecting those old ways to work wonders with the new club, Fergie told the Daily Record:
I’m sure Steven Gerrard has heard it all before and it wouldn’t surprise me if the manager decides to close the door behind him for an hour or so and let these players sort things out with a good chinwag. If it all gets a bit louder than usual then good.
Sometimes it’s healthy to get things off your chest. The players can’t let the manager be the only one left carrying the can. So get together and get everything out there in the open
That’s the sort of full and frank discussions that I’ve been involved in down the years because, at Rangers, you can’t just accept allowing levels to drop. You have to find a way of turning it around.
And that’s what I expect will be going on in there just now with leaders like Steve Davis, Allan McGregor, James Tavernier and Connor Goldson standing up to be counted and asking some tough questions of themselves and team-mates. The kind of questions that sometimes have to be asked and that can’t be shirked.
Listen, and I may be accused of wearing blue tinted specs here, but this is not a moment for all-out panic. This is just a very bad start to the season. Nothing more, nothing less.
Tav, Greegsy and Goldy had the chance to lead by example on Tuesday, tonight they’ll find out if their next UEFA jaunt is to Armenia or Kazakhstan. Last year captain Tav went public with his fears over living upto expectations.
