The Rangers Journey: An English journalist's perspective of a Scottish institution

Every supporter will have a different story to tell about their experience over the last nine years.

I covered the first four years on radio and television before moving down south just as the club was about to embark on its first season back in the top flight.

Fast forward to the appointment of Steven Gerrard and I remember covering the story on a radio station in Wigan - this wasn’t just a football story, it was a worldwide news story.

Sky News covered it so extensively that they were asking politicians for their opinion on the appointment.

Having worked in England for the past five years I was keen to find out what my fellow journalists and broadcasters thought of Rangers and Scottish football prior to 2012 and what they’ve made of their remarkable rise back to the top.

Ross Heppenstall is a distinguished sports writer at the likes of The Times and The Telegraph and someone I’ve loved chatting with about Scottish football over the years:

“I’ve said to you before, I buzz off Rangers.

“My earliest memories of Glasgow Rangers are playing teams like Marseille in the Champions League.

“They beat Leeds United with Hateley and McCoist which was an unbelievable strike partnership.

“So I remember watching those European games thinking, ‘F*****g hell! The atmosphere’s great.’ “Then Brian Laudrup came along. An unbelievable player, he’s probably one of the greatest players I’ve seen for Rangers in my lifetime.

“Then Gazza goes up there, tearing it apart, just being an unbelievable character.

“Gazza is loved by all English fans and I think most English supporters have a soft spot for Rangers.

“For years and years it was always neck and neck at the top of the league with Celtic.

“As an Englishman, watching from afar, it’s got to be one of the fiercest rivalries in world football, that’s the way it’s perceived.

“Everyone’s got an interest in it as well, down here.

“Most people have got an allegiance to one or the other to varying degrees.

“I think, sadly, when that rivalry wasn’t there people probably lost interest in the Scottish game as a whole sadly.

“The meltdown was just unbelievable, absolutely staggering.

“We’ve seen it at the likes of Bradford City and Leeds United, some big clubs on my doorstep have suffered but for Rangers, they are an absolute sporting institution.

Steven Gerrard

“I worried for Gerrard when he was appointed because I just thought, ‘I know what they’re like up there.’

“They’re absolute fanatics, I’ve been up there myself, my mum was born in Glasgow, all my mum’s family are Scottish.

“I’ve got relatives who are Rangers and Celtic fans.

“It’s a mad city and there is a buzz about it and the fact you’ve got these two warring factions, your Rangers and Celtic and all the ideologies and everything that goes with it, it’s mental.

“I think what he did last season was underestimated, honestly.

“I don’t think Gerrard has got enough credit for what he did.

“The consistency to not lose a game and they turned up in the Old Firm games, they got the wins that mattered.

“He was clever bringing in Defoe and Kemar Roofe, players he could trust basically.

“I’m biased because I love Gerrard, for me, he’s the greatest player in Liverpool’s history.

“But what he's done at Rangers in his first job in halting Celtic’s dominance, I think it’s unbelievable.

“He’s so impressive as well. I watch him in his press conferences and he talks up Rangers.

“He never plays down his love for Liverpool and he’s said, ‘I would like to manage them one day but I’ve got a job to do here and this is a massive club.’

“I think he’s played it absolutely spot on.”

Ian Doyle is the Chief Liverpool Writer for the Liverpool ECHO: “When they were demoted down the divisions there was obviously a lot of interest in Rangers because they and Celtic are the two biggest clubs in Scotland.

“They’re the ones that everybody knows about so there’s always an interest in how they’re doing.

“For Rangers to have that happen to them, it has been interesting to watch them go up the leagues.

“I can remember Aberdeen winning the Cup Winners Cup and Dundee United getting to the UEFA Cup final, I remember actually watching them win at Barcelona.

“I remember Rangers in the first year of the Champions League and there was the Battle of Britain with Leeds as well.

“When Rangers got to the UEFA Cup final I went to that game so there obviously has always been an interest in Scottish football from my point of view.

“The Old Firm game is the one that most people are interested in, that’s not to say that when Rangers were demoted, that wasn't a big story.

“It wasn’t just a big story across Scotland or England, that was a big story everywhere to have such a massive club that that’s happened to.

“When Gerrard was appointed, it was an interesting one because he had been at Liverpool’s Academy and I know he was enjoying it because I know him reasonably well from when he used to play for Liverpool.

“It was always going to be a tough job wherever he went, it’s a little bit like Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid in a sense that he didn’t really have any managerial experience but Gerrard is someone who knows how to be at a big club.

“He spent almost his entire career at Liverpool and how to deal with that pressure because he was obviously a home grown player at his club, he was in this goldfish bowl of living and playing in Liverpool for 17 years, he’s used to going to places like that so he’ll have known what to expect.

“The spotlight’s on you 24 hours a day 7 days a week, everything that you do is analysed and I think looking at it from that point of view it kind of made sense but in terms of just actual coaching experience it was a massive leap for him and a massive show of faith from Rangers.

“Whenever we do stories on Steven Gerrard, even though he’s not played for Liverpool for six years, he hasn’t been there for more than three but there’s still massive interest in what he does.

“I think, part of the reason is, looking a lot further down the line they want to see how Gerrard is doing in such a big job because they think he could be someone who could ultimately, whether it's to take over from Jurgen Klopp or from someone else later down the line, someone who’s the future manager of Liverpool.

“That’s why this season, every single week you’ve gone, ‘hang on, they’ve not lost again or they’re doing this, that or the other’ so that’s where it’s come from.

“Domestically, it doesn’t matter what league you’re in if you go the entire season without losing a game, they had a ridiculous defensive record.

“The one thing that I found odd is that they’ve actually fallen in the cup competitions and if you were going to think of anything it would be the other way around.

“In terms of Europe, I think that’s the one where people have sat up and taken notice.”

Guy Clarke is the host of the hugely popular Blood Red Podcast: “I know Scottish football isn’t the most well received or liked in England but I actually do quite enjoy watching it, I always have done.

“I’ve been up to Inverness as my granny used to live up near there so we used to go there on summer holidays and actually caught a couple of games against Rangers.

“When you go to Rangers or Celtic and you see those two sides, you just realise actually the institutions that they are.

“I think, naturally, the spectacle dropped when Rangers were relegated but since they came back into the big time all eyeballs are back on them and how long it was going to take them to get back to the levels of Celtic.

“With Gerrard, you get managers who were top class players who coach players beneath them and it's maybe difficult for them to correlate their skill set and familiarise themselves with the level they’re at.

“Regardless of playing talent, I think with Steven Gerrard, he needed to go into an environment which was similar to what he’d been at at Liverpool because he knows all about that goldfish bowl and how much it means to everyone, it’s all encompassing so I think it was the right fit in that respect.

“My big sort of worrying doubt with it at the time I remember all the fans and they were doing the vox pops from the stadium and asking them ‘What’s Steven Gerrard going to bring to Rangers?’ and the sheer sort of steely eyed determination from fans saying, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going to be challenging for the title next season.’

“I thought, well Mark Warburton brought up what looked like a very good Rangers side and they got thumped straight away and put in their place then obviously he’d left and Caixinha came in and it was like, ‘Right, where are Rangers heading?’

“Gerrard’s gone about his managerial and coaching career with that humility he has but at the same time he is head strong - ‘This is our principles and this is the way we’re going to go about doing it.’

“I like the way in which he’s constructed the team, he’s been happy to go and fish around some of the smaller sides in Scotland and he’s also picked up someone like Borna Barisic from Osijek.

“He’s not ashamed to go, ‘Right, that’s a player who looks good, he can do a job for us.’

“You talk about Tavernier with the goals and the assists but also Barisic with the emphasis on the full backs and really stretching the play wide and getting the crosses into the box, it is very much Klopp-like in a way.

“I think that is one of the things that adds to the intrigue from Liverpool supporters towards him is the fact that, even if you don’t watch Rangers games, you read an awful lot down here that this is a side that does try to play frenetic, fast-paced football, really up and at the opposition.

“The way he has gone about building the system and the squad has helped give that pure domination of the Scottish game.

“To go a season unbeaten and give Celtic no chance whatsoever is mightily impressive.”

Joe Rawson is the Sports Editor at Sky News Radio: “I had interest in Celtic and Rangers when they played each other but outside of that, not really, I’ll be honest.

“I always watched the Old Firm because, as a football fan, it’s one of those big games like Real Madrid - Barcelona, the Milan derby, it’s one you have a bit of interest in because it’s a huge game.

“I was more interested in how Rangers did in League Two and League One and working their way back up than the actual Premiership because it was just a one horse race.

“There was a bit of intrigue to see how Rangers would do and how they were going to get back up the pyramid and could they do it straight away.

“It’s absolutely shocking that a club of that size can go to the wall, it would be the equivalent of one of the big six going bust and having to reform.

“How that was allowed to happen with the mismanagement, from an outsider, it’s criminal.

“The Gerrard appointment got a lot of traction.

“It was more reported as being this fantastic opportunity for Gerrard and a good move for him as a first job in management because Scottish football is not that good I would say.

“You’ve got one opponent who you’ve got to try and overcome but apart from that you’re expected to win every game.

Steven Gerrard shows off his title medal

“It certainly increased the interest in Rangers from a southern point of view because Gerrard is one of those people that English people want to hear from no matter what he’s talking about because he’s one of the greatest English players ever.

“When they did win the league it was a big story from where I was working, it was leading the news bulletins.

“It was an amazing achievement really because he’s gone through a season unbeaten, they had a decent run in Europe as well and they ended Celtic’s dominance.

“From my work point of view there wasn’t just demand for audio of Steven Gerrard from radio stations north of the border but there was demand from radio stations all around the UK.

“It increased the profile because there was more interest because the competition was back.

“There was a lot of demand as well for the Celtic situation with it being such a fall away for them, it’s been a debacle with protests and that sort of thing so it’s revived interest in the Scottish game from the people down south.”

Legendary commentator John Helm has covered sports extensively, working at the World Cup and Olympics among numerous other major events: “As a soccer mad schoolboy I was fascinated not just by English football but Scottish football as well," he said.

“I used to collect cigarette cards with cartoon shots of players and readily recall having Willie Thornton, George Young, and Billy Steel in my little hand - God knows how I got them - I certainly wasn't smoking at 10 years old.

“My fascination grew much further when Leeds United were drawn against Rangers in the 1968 European Fairs Cup.

“By then a journalist on the Yorkshire Evening Post I travelled north for my Ibrox debut and vividly recall the smoky atmosphere, the partisan passion of the fans - and taking an eternity to find my car in some remote side street.

“I had the privilege of commentating on Rangers in Munich, Parma and Kaiserslautern as well as a Champions League victory over Alania Vladikavkaz and of hosting Stuart McCall's testimonial between Bradford City and Rangers.

“The 2008 UEFA Cup Final against Zenit St Petersburg is another great memory.

“How strange it was then to suddenly hit upon a 2012-13 fixture list featuring "massive" matches against the likes of Peterhead, East Stirlingshire and Elgin.

“I use the word massive advisedly, because make no mistake for the aforementioned and the rest of Division Three, these were the biggest matches they'd ever staged.

“There was something macabre about the intense interest aroused by Rangers demotion and the circumstances surrounding it but one thing was for certain Rangers would soon be back.

“They are now thanks to the Steven Gerrard bandwagon, but just as Manchester City, Aston Villa, even Manchester United have had to bounce back from adversity, so did Rangers, perhaps coming back all the stronger for the experience.”