McCulloch typifies everything wrong with Rangers

I vividly remember the first football poster I had on my bedroom wall as a child.  It was the squad picture for Rangers ahead of the 1990/91 season.  Featuring prominently were the goalkeeper Chris Woods, and the captain Terry Butcher.  Both were members of the England national team at the World Cup the previous summer, so it was pretty much the equivalent of having Joe Hart and John Terry at the peak of their careers.

As I grew up, it got even better; I had the almost literally unmitigated pleasure of watching Mark Hateley, Brian Laudrup, Paul Gascoigne et al win at their leisure, certainly in Scotland if not always abroad.

If I had only know what was to become of my beloved Bears I would have savoured every moment I looked at that poster.

Of course, Rangers’ most fundamental problems these days are off the pitch, and having to choose between Mike Ashley, Dave King, and Lalit Modi is the definition of being stuck between a rock, a hard place, and another thing.

But one specific incident on the field yesterday typified the club's current situation.  Now, Butcher, Richard Gough, and Barry Ferguson were all players that any fan would love to have as their captain. The former two were commanding, hard-as-nails centre backs, and the latter was a quality, homegrown midfielder.

Unfortunately, Rangers have wasted the last three years building a side in the image of their current skipper.  To be fair, Lee McCulloch was been a pretty decent player in his younger days and was a good signing for Rangers when Walter Smith brought him to the club.  But now he’s miles past his best, to the point that he is out of his depth in a lower division.  Sadly, more often than not he now resorts to violence, presumably either out of frustration or because that is all he actually has left to contribute to a game.


His stamp on Raith Rovers' Dale Carrick yesterday was inexcusable.  It was not shocking, though. Something has to be surprising before it is shocking.  This was typical of him.  After all, McCulloch was behaving in the same petulant way against Celtic last week, and has done this so often in the last two and a half years that one loses count.

And if only he was the only player I could say that about.

Of course I really want to see Rangers back in the Premiership, because like any fan I want my team to win every game and I want them to do as well as they can.  The negative aspects of The Old Firm are well enough documented, but what football fan doesn’t want to see their team compete with their biggest rivals on a regular basis?  No doubt Neil Doncaster is stealing a living and deserves all the criticism he gets for not finding a sponsor for Scotland’s top league, but his job is undoubtedly more difficult without Rangers being in the top flight.  The league is exciting this year and on the face of it a good product, but from a commercial point of view Rangers and Celtic are the only names that will make a meaningful impact outside of Scottish football fans.  That's a sad state of affairs, but it is true.

I don’t however have any great appetite for promotion this season, no matter how unlikely it is starting to look. This Rangers team is, to put it mildly, not nice to watch, and would not do well in the Premiership.  I would rather stay in the Championship and build a young, hungry, well coached team, that even if it can’t stop Celtic’s 10-in-a-row bid (I’m pretty sure it won’t) will be worth watching and provide a reason to watch games without embarrassment.  Heck, they might even be a team to be proud of.  But that might be too much to ask.


Iain Meredith (IM) is technically a Rangers fan, but these days he tends to support them ironically.  He only agreed to help with this blog because now he can tell his wife that he's "only watching the game to help a friend out".