10 IAR failure - was it any one thing?

Earl of Leven

Earl of Leven

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Laudrup injured
Smith announcing he was leaving
Older squad

We never got going any time we edged in front we f***ed up. Can anyone with a better memory (so anyone :)) help me piece it together? One thing I do remember was losing late goals and lots of grumbles about fitness, drinking culture and 'bad habits'...
 
If Negri hadnt lost form
If Amoruso had been fit for the full season

Loads of reasons why they stole it on the last day.
 
He never freshend the squad up with young players.. goram was basically gubbed (knees) gough was never the same player.. gazza was finished.. negri took the cream puff laudrup as soon as it came out he wanted to go wasnt intrested.. WALTER SNITH FOR ME MAKE THE BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER N IT TOOK ME YEARS TO FORGIVE HIM FOR CONING OUT AT XMAS N SAYING HE WAS OFF .....saying that we beat the poets to go infront them basically bottled it v aberdeen away n killie at Ibrox
 
Think everything just caught with us

Yes there times where you could this went for us or against as you say we never looked to get going in the later part

We started well in the League 1st League defeat wasn't until end of October at the same time Smith announced he was leaving

Around February time over a 6 week period we won only 1 League game

Losing to Kilmarnock in the 2nd last game killed it off completely it was in our hands at that stage
 
If Negri doesn't down tools;
If Amoruso doesn't get crocked straight off the bat;
If Niemi doesn't break his finger;
If Goram and the rest of the old guard weren't fat messes;
If Smith played Ferguson more at centre mid;
If McCoist plays more than Durie;
If Gazza hadn't become a complete boozebag by this point;
If Laudrup had turned up even half the player we saw previously;
If we didn't lose a last minute goal at the swap and draw 1-1;
If we could just have scraped a win at home to Killie....

If any of the above happens we probably win it. But all of the above happened. And we were shite as well as that. A title that we seemed intent not to win.

So to answer, no it wasn't any one thing. But the margin was so tight that even any of thing changing could have done the trick. Imo.
 
Crouchy said:
The first time in my life I hadn’t seen Rangers win a title.

I was upset but also utterly bemused.

I was too young to really remember the whole stories. You hear that Laudrup struggled, but even a half fit God would have been immense.
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Same for me mate. Being born in 87 the first 9 years of my life were only knowing us as Champions. I was confused when we didn't win 10, I didn't understand what us not being Champions actually meant!
 
Laudrup checked out. Maybe if I looked back at the games I might change my opinion but that was my view at the time.

I don't buy into the Walter leaving made players ease up. Surely it is more of an incentive to win it for him
 
rangeral said:
Think everything just caught with us

Yes there times where you could this went for us or against as you say we never looked to get going in the later part

We started well in the League 1st League defeat wasn't until end of October at the same time Smith announced he was leaving

Around February time over a 6 week period we won only 1 League game

Losing to Kilmarnock in the 2nd last game killed it off completely it was in our hands at that stage
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Remember that Kilmarnock game, first time I'd seen grown men crying publicly. Think if truth be told we just came to the end of a great time, it happens .
 
ElBarrileteCosmico said:
If Negri doesn't down tools;
If Amoruso doesn't get crocked straight off the bat;
If Niemi doesn't break his finger;
If Goram and the rest of the old guard weren't fat messes;
If Smith played Ferguson more at centre mid;
If McCoist plays more than Durie;
If Gazza hadn't become a complete boozebag by this point;
If Laudrup had turned up even half the player we saw previously;
If we didn't lose a last minute goal at the swap and draw 1-1;
If we could just have scraped a win at home to Killie....

If any of the above happens we probably win it. But all of the above happened. And we were shite as well as that. A title that we seemed intent not to win.

So to answer, no it wasn't any one thing. But the margin was so tight that even any of thing changing could have done the trick. Imo.
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Amoruso was injured when we signed him.

That's how hubristic it had gotten. £4m on a guy we KNEW was injured.
 
Smith announcing he was leaving was a terrible call and seemed to set the tone.

There was a general air all season of an era running to a conclusion rather than building towards a future.
 
Too many changes to a winning formula maybe. A bucketload of signings many which didn’t work out, a lot of injuries, chopping and changing, experimental formations, shaky defences, and we lost that edge and winning mentality that saw us over the line time and again.
 
mark hateley said:
Negri was a huge issue.his goals would have seen us over the line.

Smith announcing he was going would have made any team down tools.
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We knew Smith was leaving second time around too, yet the players busted a gut to ensure he went out on a high.

Had Negri not downed tools; had Laudrup stayed fit; had Amoruso not gotten injured; had Ferguson and Gattuso been given more of a chance; etc, etc, etc, mibbes aye, mibbes naw - but ultimately, if we’d just beaten Kilmarnock in the penultimate game, we would have won it.

I still contend that we lost it rather than Celtic won it.

They played as well as they possibly could; we didn’t.
 
Any one thing = David Murray perhaps.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-rangers-reveal-european-plans-1263921.html

"I do believe the parochial element of 'nine-in-a-row' has held us back over the past couple of seasons. 'Ten-in-a-row' will take care of itself. We'll either win it or we won't but dramatic change has to come."

Such a flippant attitude towards doing 10 ^^ He was right about the need for dramatic change, perhaps it should have happened a year earlier instead of allowing sentiment & loyalty to Walter to cloud his judgement.

Easy for me to say as I bought into it as well & thought we were more than capable of doing 10 & a run in Europe.
 
WalterSmith72 said:
Bear too young to remember the killie game everyone mentions here, what was the story behind it ?
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Was last home game of season and had we won it it meant the title was still achievable

As it turned out we lost 1-0 late goal IRC and meant they could win the title at Dunfermline the next day they drew 1-1 meant it went to last game of the season we had to better their result against St Johnstone

Both won the their game them 2-0 and us 2-1 at Dundee United
 
Smith playing Durie as his striker.

He scored in two league games all season.

McCoist replaced Durie after he was concussed at Rugby park, proceeded to score 4 goals in 5 games.

Durie got back in once he recovered and never scored a single goal.

I’ve never forgiven Smith. As much as he’s done for this club he blew it by sticking by Durie.
 
GeeGee said:
Smith announcing he was leaving was a terrible call and seemed to set the tone.

There was a general air all season of an era running to a conclusion rather than building towards a future.
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He didn’t have any real choice. Following failure in Europe, ENIC/Daniel Levy put pressure on Mureay to replace him. Walter did an interview with Alan Green a couple of years later where he said leaving Rangers when he did was not his choice.
 
the 6th minute injury time goal we lost at the piggery laudo, negri, gazza a few reasons.
 
Smith announced he was leaving on the eve of the board meeting I think it was because we were getting slated regarding Europe and it took a bit of pressure off of Murray


Princess Diana‘s death didn’t help as that meant the old firm game was switched

Guy I work with at the time told me before we got 9iar that the officials would allow us get 9ia there was no we we were getting 10. Said a referee was in the same lodge as him Lol
 
MunroLoyal said:
He never freshend the squad up with young players.. goram was basically gubbed (knees) gough was never the same player.. gazza was finished.. negri took the cream puff laudrup as soon as it came out he wanted to go wasnt intrested.. WALTER SNITH FOR ME MAKE THE BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER N IT TOOK ME YEARS TO FORGIVE HIM FOR CONING OUT AT XMAS N SAYING HE WAS OFF .....saying that we beat the poets to go infront them basically bottled it v aberdeen away n killie at Ibrox
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His leaving announcement was at end of October
 
Porto Loyal said:
He didn’t have any real choice. Following failure in Europe, ENIC/Daniel Levy put pressure on Mureay to replace him. Walter did an interview with Alan Green a couple of years later where he said leaving Rangers when he did was not his choice.
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Levy appeared on Scotsport the weekend after Strasbourg to say ENIC had not invested £40m to watch us get knocked out of Europe twice inside 4 weeks.

Within 3 weeks Smith announced he was going. It was not a coincidence. There is no way Murray would've sacked him on his tod.
 
SDF said:
Our professionalism was a disgrace.

Manager, chairman and squad all let the fans down. Smith didn't want to be there, Murray went to war with the support and half the squad were pissed as farts throughout the season
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This is my recollection to some of our problems as well. We had nothing left and the lack of professionalism was one of those things.
 
Goram's professionalism was very poor.

Missing training and not sticking to rehab schedules.
 
The whole 9/10 in a row nonsense was used to mask dreadful European results. We'll never get a better chance to make a big impact in Europe than we did in the 1990's. Instead, we allowed ourselves to focus on triumphing over Scottish mediocrity and matching something the Yahoos did, as if anyone cared.

It was daft then and it's even dafter now that people regret it, for the wrong reasons.
 
SDF said:
Levy appeared on Scotsport the weekend after Strasbourg to say ENIC had not invested £40m to watch us get knocked out of Europe twice inside 4 weeks.

Within 3 weeks Smith announced he was going. It was not a coincidence. There is no way Murray would've sacked him on his tod.
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However Murray had the last laugh when he burned through their cash and gave them f*** all seats on board.

(We had the last cry of course, a few years later....)
 
Persisting with Gazza (done) and Laudrup (going to Chelsea and protecting his legs) had a lot to do with it. Easy in hindsight but true.
We played the bheasts twice and won after Gazza left.
 
This was the first time in my life that Rangers hadn't won the league. Can remember being in tears that day - was only 8.

I'm not sure I buy that Smith announcing he was leaving was a big factor. He did the same 2nd time and the players gave everything to ensure he got a good send off.

In hindsight we should have brought Advocaat in and let him overhaul the squad a season earlier. We would have ended up with 11 or 12 in a row if that was the case.
 
Lost the league to a team that didn't win back to back league games from Feb to end of the season

In our own hands

Postponed game due to Diana dying cist us too

No one reason

Painful thread to relive
 
Hes a fantastic football manager, he is Mr Rangers imo, but his tactics were way too negative that season, i think its the main reason we didnt win 10. Our squad was much much stronger than the tims theres no doubt we should have won it.
 
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