Rangers Need Perspective on McInnes

Rangers supporters are being urged to take a step back and judge the bigger picture, with results improving despite an evolving squad and imperfect performances.

Reading a lot of the social media comments over the last few weeks, I think we need to take a step back as a support and have a look at ourselves.

I genuinely think one of the bigger underlying problems Glasgow Rangers have as a club is us, the fanbase, and our entitlement. That's the best word I can think to describe it, whether you agree or not.

We've seen it with players repeatedly, particularly our own youth players. Now we're seeing it with managers as well, regardless of context. And it's a dangerous doom loop to get into, in my opinion.

The cycle around managers and players

Derek McInnes has taken a lot of heat again over the last few weeks, returning after similar sentiment at the start of the season. Two draws and a number of wins where we haven't played brilliantly, and suddenly there are calls for his head again.

Yesterday we won a semi-final and people still found something to complain about with the football, the team selection and the subs.

A lot of this feels like the usual pattern I mentioned above. Plenty of fans never fancied him when he was appointed, made that clear vocally and formed a view early. They then wait for every chance to push that view regardless of the bigger picture. It's an entitled trait.

No manager is going to get everything right, and McInnes has made plenty of mistakes. This isn't me saying he's infallible. But the wider context here needs to be remembered.

Context matters while the squad beds in

He's had to blend an almost entirely new team, lost key players and experience to long-term injury, and is working with a number of young players who are still learning the game. Winning while you're building is hard anywhere. Harder still at our club.

Even Steven Gerrard, our most recent league winner, took time to get it right. Remember, his first season wasn't as productive as this, results-wise, at this time in the season.

Rangers history shows results can come first

Before that, Walter Smith in his second spell won a title and dragged a team of far lesser quality to a European final by being organised and hard to beat, and by winning games and picking up points when not playing particularly well. The football wasn't always pretty, but he understood that at Rangers the result is what matters and he, our greatest manager in history, delivered results.

If he was manager with the support we have now, we'd have people calling for his head. Davie Weir would have been a stupid signing. Charlie Adam, Chris Burke, Kirk Broadfoot, Steven Whittaker, Kevin Thompson, Sasa Papac, Kris Boyd, Greegsy, Edu etc. all would have been chased for "not being good enough for Rangers" because they were young and not perfect every game.

Where Rangers are right now

Right now we're in the first cup final of the season. We're within touching distance in the league in November for the first time in a long while. We're picking up results even when we don't play particularly well, which is usually a decent sign.

Players are improving mostly. Some not, sure, but it's never going to be them all at once. And we've beaten Celtic home and away in meaningful games at this stage of the season for the first time since Gerrard's title-winning year. The last time before that we had such a run at this stage including home and away wins against them was the 90s. Yes, under Walter. That's how far back you have to look.

Given where we were and what he's had to work with, the record is better than most managers we've had in recent years. The money spent is high, sure, but so is the number of new players brought in for it. Especially if you include those signed in January who are still "new players" for all intents and purposes.

Fans complain when we're not winning. They complain when the football isn't good enough. And now they're complaining when we are winning and talking about binning a manager because a few games have been drawn, the performances haven't been brilliant and mostly because they never rated him anyway.

We can't win them all, and no one gets a free pass, but we could do with a bit more perspective. The manager is doing a good job on results while the squad is still coming together.

Of the two teams in Glasgow we're the only one still in contention for a treble, whether we win it or not. We've gone to a ground midweek where the home team haven't lost in 18 months and had won their last 15, a ground we lost at twice last season, and picked up a last-minute point having not played well.

We're the only team to have played all of the current top six in the league away from home in the opening rounds and we're in a cup final to boot.

As a support we might want to have a look at ourselves and some of the rhetoric that comes from us towards the manager and the players. It's not easy on the eye at times, and it's far from perfect, but it's more effective than we've been results-wise at this stage of a season than most.

Perspective is important.

Written by gdog55 November 1 2026 15:17:24