The continuing cycle of days turning to night and back washes away most discontent in the end but 72 hours on from Rangers' defeat to Celtic at Parkhead a bitter taste still lingers.

The club return to the Champions League proper for the first time in 12 years but there remains a sense that recriminations are yet to be fully set aside, such was the scale and impact of the 4-0 thrashing from their only true rivals.

It's truly sad that such an important step is not being celebrated but it speaks to the winners' culture firmly embedded at the heart of Rangers.

Champions League? It's all well and good but the battle with Celtic will always be where the real juice is.

While it's early in the season and every trophy remains on the table, underlying data is already showing worrying domestic trends. Aberdeen on Sunday therefore may well be the most important Scottish Premiership match of Giovanni van Bronckhorst's career.

In Europe, the picture is much rosier and the manager can take solace in an environment where he's excelled.

Team selection will be interesting, but make no mistake, these players owe their manager and the supporters a shift.

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The lazy passivity that coursed through the team on Saturday was the most infuriating aspect of a performance few saw coming. Defeat is one thing, but to lose without laying a glove and failing to do even the rudimentary elements of defending is what remains so galling in retrospect.

But it's important to remember that one game does not no-hopers make.

Rangers have already beaten a PSV team that battered five goals past Ajax earlier this season and van Bronckhorst's side have the quality to leave a mark. To pull off an unlikely result they will need courage, quality and the kind of mental alacrity that so obviously eluded them at the weekend.

Points of any kind in Amsterdam would be a financial boost with €930k available for a draw and €2.8m for a win but it would also act as a downpayment on the debt they owe fans for that miserable East End collapse.

Defeat, especially a crushing one would pile pressure on the manager ahead of what will already be a powder keg on Saturday in Aberdeen.

While it remains regrettable that Rangers' entry back to European football's elite isn't arriving to more fanfare, but there's only one way to change that.

The late, great Walter Smith summed it up best. When asked for advice on managing Rangers by Alex McLeish, he replied dryly: “Just win!" It really is that simple.

This piece is an extract from today’s Rangers Insider newsletter, which is emailed out at 5pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Rangers Review team.

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