I know Barry Ferguson has had a pretty guff season. I know that every Rangers fan I have spoken to in the last few days had very little to say about the little nyaff that was good. But who the heck is Walter Smith going to replace him with?
In hindsight, Kevin Thomson's season-ending knee injury saved Smith a massive decision - there just isn't space in the same team for Thomson, Ferguson and Pedro Mendes. And on form, the erstwhile skipper was very much the odd man out.
The last month or so, though, had probably seen his best efforts of the season, though Mendes looks nowhere near as comfortable without Thomson mopping up after him. But who replaces him? Let's face it, the remaining midfielders on the books at Ibrox are not quite up to scratch with the Advocaat days, where trying to fit Van Bronckhorst, McCann, Kanchelskis, Reyna, Albertz and Ferguson into the team was a real struggle. Instead, Wattie will have looked at his options today and discovered that they are Maurice Edu (who has so far proven to be America's answer to Bob Malcolm), Lee McCulloch (a wide midfielder or forward who in previous goes this season has shown as much resemblance to a defensive midfielder or centre back as I have shown to Russell Crowe) and Brahim Hemdani (who has not kicked a ball in anger all season despite being generally excellent last year whenever he got a shout - does he have leprosy?).
Alternatively, he could shift Steven Davis infield, but that leaves Rangers without a ball winning midfielder. I suspect Smith will go for McCulloch. But a midfield line against Falkirk of, say Davis, McCulloch and Mendes, looks pretty darn unimpressive. And surely one of them will miss a game or two at one point because of injury. I bet Bazza still sees a few minutes playing time before the summer.
Look at it this way - Barry Robson and Shaun Maloney have barely played since Xmas, Nakamura had his injury troubles and McGeady got banned by Strachan for a bit. Yet Celtic can still call on Brown, Crosas, Hartley, Mizuno, Flood and Donati (all right, scraping the barrel a bit, but you know what I mean). Frankly, even Massimo Donati would improve that Rangers midfield just now. Well, maybe.
I'm going to put my Narey's Toepoker neck on the line here; Celtic will win the SPL. Rangers simply do not have the depth, and they do not have the flair or quality. I will quite happily perform some sort of forfeit if I get this wrong - any suggestions?
Oh, and by the way, I note nobody seems to feel it particularly weakens the team to have Alexander in goal instead of McGregor. Not that I'm disagreeing...
L.
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