Our younger generation of supporters.

We are born into this. My boy came home from the hospital in a rangers hat. The early eighties were not great times for us but we made it through. Sone people are forgetting we were in league 2 not that long ago
 
Stefan Klos said:
I assume the fair weather fans, irrespective of their generation, have already been weeded out.
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I agree that the glory-hunters and fair-weather punters have walked away (pardon the pun) since 2012. I know a few and they won't be missed. They didn't even try to latch back on for Seville (thankfully).
 
Jardine72 said:
Again, older supporters simply not reading the room and thinking they know better.

You can’t extrapolate your situation back then from when you were in your 20s to the current generation.

In the supposed barren spell of the 80s in which we still won several honours, we were up against Celtic teams with top players, an Aberdeen team who won several domestic honours and a European trophy no less, and a Dundee Utd team who competed domestically and got to a European final.

Our current young team are growing up witnessing us getting whipped by a Mhank team almost year in year out, who haven’t won a knockout tie in Europe for 20 years.

The situations are incomparable.
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Scottish football was far more respectable and competitive then. Now you have only two teams that can ever win the league, the rest are so far behind they are treated with contempt the entire season which is not healthy at all.

Two teams that can win it yet only one usually does (across 13 seasons). That's why the support are sick of it and sick of these players.

Dundee United and Aberdeen can barely qualify for the qualifiers now never mind reach a final or progress in Europe.

It's a hugely different environment and scene from the 1980s.
 
Feel for the younger fans.

My nephew has been going with me for 15yrs. He is now 25 and has yet to witness us winning the title in the flesh, as his early days was Ibrox and Hampden games only.

By his age, I had witnessed us winning 10 titles in the flesh including our 9iar.

He loves it though, and has just moved into the new singing section. Really hope we get one soon for him and the others of his generation.
 
muttley said:
Our younger fans saw us reach a European Final not so long ago.
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This wouldve gave many the bug.Its a good job weve done so well in Europe in recent years for that reason keeping many intrested in the club,as apart from that the young havent seen much to celebrate or get excited about on a consistant level.
 
PT98 said:
It's all they know.

I'd argue its worse for anyone in their 30s and above. We've all seen the successful times and know how good it feels compared to this
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I was spoiled. First Rangers game in 1993 as a 7 year old. So many heroes in that era of the 90s. I genuinely didn’t know what defeat was until we lost the 10 in a row and as a young kid it felt like the end of the world, but we bounced back with advocaat and became relatively successful under him until their Martin o’Neill era

The second spell from Walter smith was also a favourite time of mine.

It’s been hard going since 2012 being a Rangers fan, with the exception of the 55 season where we werent even allowed to celebrate properly.

It’s nearly impossible to remember what domination feels like
 
148bear said:
This wouldve gave many the bug.Its a good job weve done so well in Europe in recent years for that reason keeping many intrested in the club,as apart from that the young havent seen much to celebrate or get excited about on a consistant level.
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Winning things shouldn't give people the bug to support a football team.
We win a lot more trophies and games on a weekly basis than many, many football teams.
Sounds like glory hunting to me, supporting a team because they win more games than not and trophies.
 
hands_across_the_sea said:
I was spoiled. First Rangers game in 1993 as a 7 year old. So many heroes in that era of the 90s. I genuinely didn’t know what defeat was until we lost the 10 in a row and as a young kid it felt like the end of the world, but we bounced back with advocaat and became relatively successful under him until their Martin o’Neill era

The second spell from Walter smith was also a favourite time of mine.

It’s been hard going since 2012 being a Rangers fan, with the exception of the 55 season where we were even allowed to celebrate properly.

It’s nearly impossible to remember what domination feels like
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it's not been hard going, it's been part and parcel of being a normal football supporter. And I grew up the same era as yourself. You take the good with the shite and be thankful theres more good than shite on a yearly basis in comparisons to hundreds of other football clubs.
 
I wouldn’t worry, despite everything there has never been greater demand to attend Rangers matches than there is now. The kids are alright
 
One of the stewards in Geneva was on at me about the ’demographic’ going forward. Unfortunately the conversation got interrupted, and I never got to find out what exactly he meant by the ‘demographic’. I guess he was alluding to the fact that kids growing up now will be drawn to ‘successful’ teams around the world and will slowly turn their backs on domestic football. Obviously there is also the anti-Rangers messaging right, left and centre, but that was also around 50 years ago.

Anyone any thoughts on this?
 
paphosranger said:
it's not been hard going, it's been part and parcel of being a normal football supporter. And I grew up the same era as yourself. You take the good with the shite and be thankful theres more good than shite on a yearly basis in comparisons to hundreds of other football clubs.
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We will agree to disagree. After being used to what Rangers were it’s hard being second place to those bastards across the city for long.
 
Blueper said:
I wouldn’t worry, despite everything there has never been greater demand to attend Rangers matches than there is now. The kids are alright
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When Gerrard came along I know of guys who turned their back on us in the lower leagues who then jumped back on the band wagon again and are now the greatest supporters that ever graced Ibrox.

I know for a fact a good few of these “supporters” will start fading away again if we don’t have any major success soon. In my opinion we are better off without support like that
 
the_baron said:
If younger supporters bail out on following Rangers considering they've watched us lift a trophy already this season then they were never going to be a proper supporter anyway.

My missus nephew is 8 and absolutely Dundee United mad (I know) - him and my brother in law have went to every game home and away for years.

Winning the Championship this season will probably be about the only trophy he ever gets to see his team lift but his enthusiasm for supporting them has never waned even when he was a mascot the day their players flung the game 9-0 to Celtic to get Jack Ross sacked.

If he can somehow get excited about watching Tony Watt waddling around up front then I don't have any concerns that we will lose a generation of supporters any time soon.
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My nephew follows week in week out now and was 7 the last time we won the league not including gerrards season. So mate thats a bad take on it. So they see 1 league 1 scottish cup and 1 league cup in the time hes followed us. Came from the 3rd division.

The young lads on our bus who range from 16-22ish i have a massive respect for. They travel as much as they can get access to tickets and i give them mine if they dont have tickets so there enthusiasm doesnt fade. Im stuffed lol
 
A Magician Named Gob said:
Same thing happened to those born in the late 50s/early 60s and then they had a second fun spell in the 80s. If you can't support us when we aren't very good, then you were never a real supporter.

Celtic fans in the 90s/2000s would've taken as much stick as them now.
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Pretty much was going to post this -Rangers won 3 titles in 20 years when I was a boy any my teenage years was blighted by the early 80’s even after Stein
 
I think mindset is completely different when you're young.
I loved going to the football in the early 80s when we were finishing 4th in the league and 18000 at Ibrox was decent.
Having said that poor as we were, we had some very good opposition and we certainly weren't routinely humped by the filth.
 
Its a mentality shift

I grew up on 9 in a row. I only seen Rangers win. They will always be in our shadow.

But for a kid of 12 thats seen 1 title in their lifetime its difficult to have that superiority mindset when youve only known us being shit
 
SIRBLUE said:
I think mindset is completely different when you're young.
I loved going to the football in the early 80s when we were finishing 4th in the league and 18000 at Ibrox was decent.
Having said that poor as we were, we had some very good opposition and we certainly weren't routinely humped by the filth.
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It was pretty dire though and we should have had the financial base to be competing much better than we were.

At this moment in time we have a disadvantage that is challenging to overcome as we’ve seen we re-entered the top flight
 
Karky Madoolla said:
Aye fair enough but you know what I’m grasping at. Don’t want it to be like it was for me early 80’s with a cup win every now and again. Especially with the money the young ones are forking out to follow everywhere.
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Disparate times but at least we came out of it with Souness and the glory years.

And, there was some competition in the league. We are currently watching a pishy rattlers team with a manager they hate stroll their way to another title, more cash & embarrassment in Europe.

A shite state of affairs. It like being locked in purgatory supporting Rangers right now.

My sons are 20 & 17 and in our best recent season they watched us win the league in the house.
 
OlegKuznetsov said:
Its a mentality shift

I grew up on 9 in a row. I only seen Rangers win. They will always be in our shadow.

But for a kid of 12 thats seen 1 title in their lifetime its difficult to have that superiority mindset when youve only known us being shit
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And expectations become a lot lower which in return means acceptance level is higher

I worry that a generation of fans now almost accept what is being served up season after season right now
 
The younger generation have seen the title won , the Scottish cup won, the league cup won and our club in a European final. It’s enough of a carrot to keep going forward. I know my son has no intention other to support Rangers fully.
 
DylanGer said:
It was pretty dire though and we should have had the financial base to be competing much better than we were.

At this moment in time we have a disadvantage that is challenging to overcome as we’ve seen we re-entered the top flight
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Agree, although I think it's the mismanagement of our transfer budget rather than the lack of one that's been the problem.
 
SIRBLUE said:
Agree, although I think it's the mismanagement of our transfer budget rather than the lack of one that's been the problem.
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Quite clearly we bought poorly this season and we have had issues-as they have had as well.

However the financial gap between us and them is still there-that’s not to say it’s everything but it is a big problem
 
Jardine72 said:
Again, older supporters simply not reading the room and thinking they know better.

You can’t extrapolate your situation back then from when you were in your 20s to the current generation.

In the supposed barren spell of the 80s in which we still won several honours, we were up against Celtic teams with top players, an Aberdeen team who won several domestic honours and a European trophy no less, and a Dundee Utd team who competed domestically and got to a European final.

Our current young team are growing up witnessing us getting whipped by a Mhank team almost year in year out, who haven’t won a knockout tie in Europe for 20 years.

The situations are incomparable.
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Nail on head,

As someone who recently turned 30, my final school years were absolutely miserable, imagine every single supporter calling you a cheat for supporting a club, our administration made it open season among all other supporters to hurl vile abuse at you all for the "crime" of being a Rangers fan and not only that but it brought out the most bitter tims from the woodwork.

Even to this day some football fans refuse to listen to my opinion because i'm a "hun" and i can't have a non biased "opinion", some even roll their eyes when i tell them i'm a bear.

couple that with the club being run by spivs for years afterwards and running us into the ground effectively leaving any chance of improvement next to nil and leaving us as a punchline for all other fans of the other clubs.

At least in the 60's we were competitive and you could argue we shot ourselves in the foot after Berwick, and while people are quick to mention our "low" attendances of the 80's, it was still higher than all the other clubs, once the stadium was paid for it was only a matter of time before we became top dogs again regardless of Souness coming in.

Right now it feels difficult, financially we are behind, I don't have much trust in our scouting system, 3 summers in a row we have thrown millions down the drain for basically 0 improvement, I just hope Bennett feels how we the fans feel because the club needs an entire culture shift, not just for this season and next but for the next decade.
 
Don’t know if it’s been posted but the biggest threat to the younger generation is our stadium capacity. I have a season ticket and struggle to get one seat for my son for games against the sheep and beasts never mind two together.

They lose interest by not being able to attend in my opinion as opposed to not winning absolutely everything. Didn’t raise my son to be a glory hunter.
 
paphosranger said:
it's not been hard going, it's been part and parcel of being a normal football supporter. And I grew up the same era as yourself. You take the good with the shite and be thankful theres more good than shite on a yearly basis in comparisons to hundreds of other football clubs.
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.Not many kids i knew supported other teams bar us and them, all we done is play football.Times have changed since the 70,s80,s.Theres much more for kids to get into and do if they get fed up with a football team( ie us).Also theres the EPL teams which lots of kids in Scotland these days follow.Kids are more fickle these days with more options,if were winning stuff theyl gravitate to our club its just modern life.
 
We had a lot of blows in who came in with 55/Seville who will/are disappearing like off snow off a dyke.

Now if only we didn't make a series of decisions that pushed away the loyal core support. Decisions like a membership *cough*scam*cough* scheme.
 
GSRFC said:
My sons 13 he's had a season ticket since he was 3.

Of course he's seen some shite but he was also in that stadium 2 years ago in Seville watching his team in a European final.

When I was his age I could never have imagined doing that.
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We still have relatively young Bears who saw us in two European Finals, in 2008 and 2022. They are very fortunate, tbh.
 
148bear said:
.Not many kids i knew supported other teams bar us and them, all we done is play football.Times have changed since the 70,s80,s.Theres much more for kids to get into and do if they get fed up with a football team( ie us).Also theres the EPL teams which lots of kids in Scotland these days follow.Kids are more fickle these days with more options,if were winning stuff theyl gravitate to our club its just modern life.
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Maybe some more self awareness then when calling other clubs supporters supporters of diddy clubs when they get low supports when they win absolutely sod all ever yet still go and watch their teams.?
 
At nearly 50 I have seen both sides of the coin and if I am honest OP this entitlement is nonsense. We have no given right to trophies because we go every week. Did you see the amount of Villa fans at Arsenal? By your reckoning they should have chucked it years ago.
 
I started going in 1969. I've seen celtic win 9 in a row twice (almost). I've seen us ending up 4th in the league. I've seen us in the lowest leagues losing to Stirling Albion, Annan and Alloa. But I've also seen us win a Euro trophy and reach 2 other finals. Win 9 in a row. Go undefeated in the Champions League's inaugural season. I've seen some wonderful players and some donkeys. I firmly believe we are heading to more good times whatever happens this season. Talk of them dominating for years if they get CL money is nonsense because its so difficult to attract top talent to Scotland, especially when teams can pay £35m for the likes of Silva.
 
Karky Madoolla said:
I know the league isn’t done yet but if it is then this continued lack of success could seriously affect our younger generation.

It must be torture for the youngsters who follow us, especially the one’s that follow every week and abroad, my son included. They absolutely adore the Rangers but I feel so sorry for them for the lack of titles we’ve won compared to the filth. It must be difficult at their football clubs, gyms, schools etc getting pelters off the scum fans.

It’s hard for me to accept even though I’ve witnessed the good and bad times throughout the years. I know it comes in cycles but we must get stronger and give the younger, and older generation something to celebrate and be proud of.
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It’s part and parcel of supporting a football team. Celebrate successes & support during failures.

If you’re only in it for the good times, go “support” someone like Man City.
 
There are a few who I considered to be Rangers fans allowed their kids to dyke jump but we’ve got the traditions and history to keep or even increase our support.
 
Jardine72 said:
Again, older supporters simply not reading the room and thinking they know better.

You can’t extrapolate your situation back then from when you were in your 20s to the current generation.

In the supposed barren spell of the 80s in which we still won several honours, we were up against Celtic teams with top players, an Aberdeen team who won several domestic honours and a European trophy no less, and a Dundee Utd team who competed domestically and got to a European final.

Our current young team are growing up witnessing us getting whipped by a Mhank team almost year in year out, who haven’t won a knockout tie in Europe for 20 years.

The situations are incomparable.
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There's no god given right to success.
 
Karky Madoolla said:
I know the league isn’t done yet but if it is then this continued lack of success could seriously affect our younger generation.

It must be torture for the youngsters who follow us, especially the one’s that follow every week and abroad, my son included. They absolutely adore the Rangers but I feel so sorry for them for the lack of titles we’ve won compared to the filth. It must be difficult at their football clubs, gyms, schools etc getting pelters off the scum fans.

It’s hard for me to accept even though I’ve witnessed the good and bad times throughout the years. I know it comes in cycles but we must get stronger and give the younger, and older generation something to celebrate and be proud of.
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Any younger ones I know probably accept it better than What the older bears do , maybe there used to being let down which is a shame they deserve better .
 
A1bertz said:
Glory hunting is not something you can label any of our young fans with. Trust me...they ain't following us for the glory. They are following us as it's a path as parents we teach our kids to walk.
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For a team that don't win many things, we have a great support
 
A Magician Named Gob said:
Same thing happened to those born in the late 50s/early 60s and then they had a second fun spell in the 80s. If you can't support us when we aren't very good, then you were never a real supporter.

Celtic fans in the 90s/2000s would've taken as much stick as them now.
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Exactly we have so many hunk supporters,they criticise the players for not having guts or heart ,when they have neither.

Sad state of affairs
 
speaking as a younger fan who can barely remember the 2000’s, it could be a lot worse. We’ve had a lot of capitulations since Gerrards time (where we could actually compete for the league again) but we’re still really lucky to follow rangers rather than a motherwell or Kilmarnock etc. it’s been incredible watching our comeback with a lot of special moments and I’m sure every younger fan wants to see us regain our position as the dominant force in Scottish football which many have never known us to be
 
Karky Madoolla said:
I know the league isn’t done yet but if it is then this continued lack of success could seriously affect our younger generation.

It must be torture for the youngsters who follow us, especially the one’s that follow every week and abroad, my son included. They absolutely adore the Rangers but I feel so sorry for them for the lack of titles we’ve won compared to the filth. It must be difficult at their football clubs, gyms, schools etc getting pelters off the scum fans.

It’s hard for me to accept even though I’ve witnessed the good and bad times throughout the years. I know it comes in cycles but we must get stronger and give the younger, and older generation something to celebrate and be proud of.
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Think about the smelly bunch in the 90's. Part and partial of football mate
 
paphosranger said:
Maybe some more self awareness then when calling other clubs supporters supporters of diddy clubs when they get low supports when they win absolutely sod all ever yet still go and watch their teams.?
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I agree. Same with constantly referring to every other team in Scotland as dross. It adds to the seethe in here - can't lose to that lot, as it's that lot, but also can't ever drop points to the rest because we've spent forever pointing out how they're all dross and shite, so we've just been beaten by shite. Also feeds the mindset because there's no achievements when we win - we've beaten shite, or beaten them and that's expected.

Got mates who support lower division clubs who are in their 40s like me and have never seen their team win a trophy or reach a final.

(Saying that, PSV were also deemed "shite" on here after beating us and "wouldn't pick up a single point in the champions league - currently out in front by 9 points in the eredivisie and reached the last 16 of the CL).
 
I don’t think it’ll effect the younger generation of fans, following Rangers will always be a rollercoaster of emotions, it’s just something that we have to deal with….

We’ve always been the best supported team in the country, that’s why everyone hates us lol..
 
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