Abject despair for Barry Ferguson as his title winning rallying call crashes and burns
On Thursday, his heart pounded with pride as he saw his club finally beat Celtic in a significant match after a long time. By Sunday afternoon, a 3-3 tie at Hibs rendered the Glasgow Derby victory almost worthless.
Ferguson is a die-hard fan of his club, spending a lot of time thinking about how to beat Celtic, who have won 20 of the last 25 domestic trophies.
After a miserable season, Thursday afternoon brought a ray of hope in the form of an unexpected 3-0 result for Celtic, who suffered their first domestic setback since March. Fergie had a niggling question during the celebrations as to why Clement’s team could smash Celtic after getting one point from six against St Mirren and Motherwell.
Against Hibs, they reverted to the tactics that resulted in those points dropped on the road.
In Saturday’s Record, Fergie hoped to turn around the SPFL title battle. Tonight on Go Radio, reality is likely to be back on the menu.
The dispute over sports science has centered on whether Philippe Clement was overly focused on statistics and analytics. If I were him at Easter Road on Sunday, I’d turn around to the same XI that started on Thursday and urge them to get back out there and play again, regardless of what the laptops say.
Wrap them in cotton wool, give them a warm down and a massage, then roll them out against Hibernians and demand the same thing. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not against sports science. Far from it. The advancement of sports science allowed me to extend my professional football career.
If I had the opportunity to talk with that set of players, my message would be clear: ‘You must demonstrate the same amount of enthusiasm, passion, devotion, and determination each time you put on that shirt. Nothing less will ever be tolerated at this club.
I’m not talking about how they moved the ball and cut through Celtic with their passing ability. You can’t expect to be on top of your game every time you step out onto the pitch. Football does not function that way.
However, you can insist that everyone on that team be willing to put in the work. If they work as hard against every other team as they did against Celtic, they’ll win many more games than they’ll lose from now until the end of the season.
Does this give them a chance to win the title? I am not sure. The truth is that Celtic will have to hit a brick wall between now and May before that becomes a realistic prospect, but it is up to these Rangers players to push them as far as they can.
It is their job to never give up. Yes, it is a long shot, but if the Rangers maintain the mindset they demonstrated on Thursday, who knows? It may not be a lost cause just yet.
Trailing Celtic by 13 points after 20 matches means that Ferguson’s dream may now be a lost cause, if Celtic win Dundee United on Wednesday night. Clement’s club will kick off away at Dundee on Thursday, trailing the champions by 16 points.
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