The Negative Impact of our supporters .

[Dr. Strangelove]

You don't win titles by being ahead for a short spell. Celtic were ahead of us and the same people resigned to it being done now, were resigned to it being done then. They then thought we'd won it when we clawed it back and took the lead, saw Celtic do the same thing we did in clawing it back and now use that as a stick to beat the team with. In short they are reactionary in both pessimism and optimism and should be largely ignored but it looks like our players are starting to be influenced by it.

 

[Brian_Fantana]

These players are specialists at sucking the life out of the support.

How many poor first halves have we seen from this lot? It’s so demoralising when all the support are looking for is for the team to fly out the blocks and get in about the opposition.

Look at the biggest Old firm game in years, they stunned the crowd into silence after 30 seconds. Then Ross County & Dundee, when we need a reaction with the title on the line, where they give the opposition absolute stick-on chances within the first 5min.

The players bring it on themselves.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

We have a spectacularly miserable element in our support, whether it’s subway loyal, singing tired old pointless ditties about the Pope or the Troubles, or shouting abuse at the highest volume possible.

We have a magnificent element too. But this thread is about the miserable brigade.

12 years of the club giving them something to actually be miserable about hasn't helped.

 

[Pioneer]

It’s very simple. That lot are very close to equalling our haul of honours and like it or not it’s at the back of a lot of people’s minds. To throw it away again after being in such a good position is sickening.

 

[bluetonic]

The supporters tanked our season at Ross County and Dundee?

Dullest take on here, blaming the fans for the teams failings. Seems to be a narrative some folk just want to cling on to for some reason.

Bang on , the team are chasing a treble and putting in end of season nothing to play for performances but its the fans fault

 

[KarlSvenson]

I don’t think there are many fans (myself included) who would want to see the majority of this squad next season even if we somehow won the treble. For me that sums it up.


We are negative as this squad have constantly found a way to lose. After Seville we should have gutted the squad completely. After a moment like that you have to get rid.

 

[Blueranger45]

I don't mind it honestly, it shows that the fans are annoyed being 2nd to them and won't take it any more

the players are to blame for their dismal performances, especially the Ross County game. None of that is on the fans at all. Borna in particular is a player who has been checked out for about 2 years and is still getting paid good amounts of money for it

 

[SilvaBear]

I would exempt the traveling support from criticism, their support always appears to be constant and for 90 minutes.

Ibrox could be a helluva lot better, lots of perma raging entitled fans looking to vent their life's frustrations on the team, like a few on here. It's just constant negativity, helps no one.

My biggest criticism is on the thousands that leave early with 10+ minutes to go.

Clement specifically asked the fans to stay and support the team, do their bit.
These fans have ignored his request, streaming out of the ground on Sunday when a couple more goals would have increased our slim chances of winning this title. And how many missed Souttar's 4th, 10 to 20 thousand I reckon? It's pathetic if you don't have a good reason to leave.

 

[RWL12]

We should be fine at Parkhead at the weekend then! Here we go!

Based on the theory that the fans are to blame, you are correct.

We will win 10 nil.

 

[Mexi]

I would exempt the traveling support from criticism, their support always appears to be constant and for 90 minutes.

Ibrox could be a helluva lot better, lots of perma raging entitled fans looking to vent their life's frustrations on the team, like a few on here. It's just constant negativity, helps no one.

My biggest criticism is on the thousands that leave early with 10+ minutes to go.

Clement specifically asked the fans to stay and support the team, do their bit.
These fans have ignored his request, streaming out of the ground on Sunday when a couple more goals would have increased our slim chances of winning this title. And how many missed Souttar's 4th, 10 to 20 thousand I reckon? It's pathetic if you don't have a good reason to leave.

A lot of fans travel miles to get to Ibrox

 

[wee bud's pit boots]

Yeah, you're not wrong, but that doesn't make the toxic atmosphere at Ibrox NOT a problem. Points dropped at Ibrox against Motherwell would have the same impact on our league chances as those dropped in recent away games.

Both shit form and supporter negativity are problems that are hurting us.

You could have added in year upon year of failure to the mix.

However, having fought back to have the title in our grasp, to then fritter it away, with the extra monies, next season's automatic CL entry will bring adds an extra dimension to the disillusionment.

The fans are not the main problem. That squad of serial losers are.

No doubt someone will pipe up with, ah but we've won the LC.

 

[Kentbear]

Our medicals should involve checking bollocks, you need balls of steel to be a Ranger.

 

[Grumpy Old Git]

The supporters tanked our season at Ross County and Dundee?

Dullest take on here, blaming the fans for the teams failings. Seems to be a narrative some folk just want to cling on to for some reason.

You miss the point completely.
It’s not about the blame game and recriminations.
It’s about realising that negative actions by supporters and putting players on edge when we have a chance of a treble is self defeating.

Don’t you understand that:

 

[southfork loyal]

Absolute nonsense. Big bad fans is the cause of the snow flakes in the team capitulating to Motherwell, Ross County and Dundee.
They need to man up if that is the case.
Didn’t do a certain Ally McCoist any harm when the stadium was belting out Ally Ally GTF.
We won’t have any excuse now not putting on a performance this Saturday as we won’t have any fans there to upset the poor wee cherubs!!

 

[The Businessman]

For me it's also the way that everything thats been going on recently has been amplified with the complete shiteshow of a start to the season.

We went from being absolutely nowhere and really toiling to string anything together at all, to somehow having it back in our own hands, to then disgracefully throwing it away again.

Everyone is beyond pissed off at the moment.

It's a sore one to take.

 

[Grumpy Old Git]

This season the negative feeling has been as bad as I can remember.



We are in a great position where if we win 4 games can win a treble.



Problem is 2 of them games are against celtic and we can't seem to beat them when it matters.


My feelings is that cos we can't beat them the fans have lost belief and turned on a lot of the players.

But simultaneously expect the players to have belief but don’t have it themselves.
Self defeating then.

Ffs is it not easier to behave like a loyal supporter and support the team and try and turn a negative into a positive.

 

[SilvaBear]

A lot of fans travel miles to get to Ibrox

Yep, I used to myself before I headed to the States. Never left early when the team needed our support, or with the result still in doubt.

Clement has asked them to stay as leaving early affects the team and atmosphere, what % of the thousands that continue to leave early have a legitimate reason?
I'll bet it's very small. Here's a suggestion, if you cannot be bothered, we have a season ticket waitlist, give your ticket to someone who can.

 

[ICA_86]

The negative impact of the same old failures in our squad are definitely more of an issue.

 

[IrvineLoyal]

But simultaneously expect the players to have belief but don’t have it themselves.
Self defeating then.

Ffs is it not easier to behave like a loyal supporter and support the team and try and turn a negative into a positive.

I fear the reaction on sat if we take another hammering won't be pretty.

 

[si72]

Back to the fault of the support is the default now.The support have backed the team to the hilt with zero return since February.

 

[wee bud's pit boots]

You miss the point completely.
It’s not about the blame game and recriminations.
It’s about realising that negative actions by supporters and putting players on edge when we have a chance of a treble is self defeating.

Don’t you understand that:

There is absolutely no chance this sorry squad is delivering a treble.

It appears you don't understand that.

 

[Sgt Steve McGarrett]

12 years of the club giving them something to actually be miserable about hasn't helped.

Very true. Missed opportunity after missed opportunity, bottle crashing after bottle crashing. I’d say I was fed up with it but that moment passed some time ago. That said, still doesn’t excuse some behaviours.

 

[Johnny Yen]

Yeah, you're not wrong, but that doesn't make the toxic atmosphere at Ibrox NOT a problem. Points dropped at Ibrox against Motherwell would have the same impact on our league chances as those dropped in recent away games.

Both shit form and supporter negativity are problems that are hurting us.

The atmosphere against Motherwell wasn't toxic though, things were going great up until that point.

The support are absolutely not the problem and it's a ridiculous argument.

 

[King Albertz]

The supporters tanked our season at Ross County and Dundee?

Dullest take on here, blaming the fans for the teams failings. Seems to be a narrative some folk just want to cling on to for some reason.

Silva can give it all he wants, he couldn't perform against two absolute Diddy teams

The borna incident was one fan

 

[Hurricane Run]

I was wondering when this particular comfort blanket would return. Its the fans fault. Not the players who took 1 point out of 9 against Motherwell, Ross County and Dundee and who havent managed a win against our only title rivals this season.

Throwing in a shocker of an incident which has been condemned by every fan I know on here or otherwise, doesnt validate your point like you think it does.

 

[King Albertz]

The atmosphere against Motherwell wasn't toxic though, things were going great up until that point.

The support are absolutely not the problem and it's a ridiculous argument.

Agree, most fans were ok with motherwell game being a bad day at the office

Ross county/Dundee.. they were unacceptable performances

 

[the architect]

I've said it for a while, Ibrox can be a horrible place if we aren't a goal up after 20 minutes.

The sooner we can get a bigger singing section the better, as at least that will drown out the nervousness and criticism (being polite here) that is very obvious coming from the stands.

I always rubbished it but this year it became pretty clear (to me anyway) that not having the fans in the stadium during 55 helped us massively.

 

[JD1872]

There is no excuse for fans that abuse the players such as the Barisic incident. I just think the support are absolutely drained of all confidence in the team which comes from years and years of the players letting us down when it really matters.

We are 3 points behind in the league in a season where we have won a cup, got to another final and done well in Europe while needing to get rid of an underperforming manager. Looking at it logically we have actually recovered very well and had a better season than most expected but there is an unescapable feeling that the players will let us down again and go down without even a decent fight on Saturday

Until the players prove otherwise that is going to be the default feeling across the fan base because that is what all the evidence suggests.

 

[wee bud's pit boots]

Fans aren’t to blame for the core of this team being constant failures. What I will say is the brain dead imbeciles giving players abuse while signing jerseys don’t help either and we could without their ilk at Ibrox. Sometimes you’re embarrassed to be associated with certain people who call themselves Rangers fans and this is one of those times.

Whatever happened on Sunday with the players signing jerseys etc was a one off, albeit a disgusting one off, but it is a red herring in the grand scheme of things.

What happened on Sunday, and as I've said elsewhere, if identified the morons should have their STs binned, has no bearing on how this squad has crumbled over the last six weeks.

 

[Grumpy Old Git]

The fans have shown 5/6 years of patience with some of them, no surprise at some point fans are going to expect the worse from them, which they produced at Ross County , Dundee and Motherwell at home when they had a title in hand.

You can't expect positivity when players continually let the fans down.

At times we are actually the opposite of what the OP says, we bump up players and are too positive on them only to be let down when the going gets tough.

I’m sorry I do expect the fans to support the team unconditionally irrespective of continually letting the supporters down!
It’s part of being a supporter not an entitled cretin.

I come from an era when they won their EC and first NIAR and went to every game home and away during that period and had plenty disappointments.
I didn’t like it but accepted it.

Support is unconditional but this seems to even be even regarded on here by some as a weakness and you’re labelled a loser with a losers mentality like the players.
Some people need to grow up:

 

[Blueranger45]

The negative impact of the same old failures in our squad are definitely more of an issue.

if this was a one off, I'd say it's wrong of the fans but we've seen this film for the last 5 years now other than the 55 season

 

[Wordy_Rappinghood]

You could have added in year upon year of failure to the mix.

However, having fought back to have the title in our grasp, to then fritter it away, with the extra monies, next season's automatic CL entry will bring adds an extra dimension to the disillusionment.

The fans are not the main problem. That squad of serial losers are.

No doubt someone will pipe up with, ah but we've won the LC.

Lose the next two OF games and Celtic equal our trophy record (which many don't seem to care about) and get free CL money again. This will have been an utter nightmare of a season if that happens.

The last OF game was the key to stopping those eventualities and we absolutely blew it yet some fans were wallowing in a "we won the second half" mindset.

Losing isn't an option and it can't happen.
If it does then it's infamy for some of the players.

Winning would be redemption for some and the start of something special for others.

We shall see.

 

[The Jeanie]

If they’re not mentally strong enough to take criticism when they are underperforming, they shouldn’t be at Rangers.

Are we supposed to cheer on adult millionaire men, at elite level sport during abject failure like some sort of nursery school sports day? where “everyone is a winner just for taking part”?

 

[interbear]

I understand the argument that fans travel for hours/miles and spend a high proportion of their income following Rangers, so are entitled, to a degree, to be able to vent their opinion. It’s a matter of where is the line drawn.

For me it’s simple. If the team underperform badly on the pitch, by all means let them know it. For example, I don’t think I’ve ever reacted as negatively to any performance as I did at Beale’s last Old Firm at Ibrox. It was an embarrassing capitulation and the players deserved to be told. By the fans, in the stadium. However, I certainly draw the line at some of the abuse on these videos with Butland and Borna. Butland, without whom we’d be miles behind, and Borna who has been a very decent player for us over the years, do not deserve that at all. The social media abuse is also regularly unacceptable.

Fans have a right to express their opinion at a match, but turning that into personal abuse of players outside the stadium or online is well out of order. Passion is one thing. But that’s overstepping the mark.

 

[GR3RFC]

But simultaneously expect the players to have belief but don’t have it themselves.
Self defeating then.

Ffs is it not easier to behave like a loyal supporter and support the team and try and turn a negative into a positive.

I’ve never bought this “well you can’t expect the players to believe if you don’t” thing to be honest.

Professional athletes need to and typically do have a different mindset to your average supporter, which is why they are at the top end of their chosen profession and are very well paid for that. I’m just a bloke who pays to watch his team week in week out while living my life with the various stresses everyone has to deal with.

Everyone being in sync helps sure but a sizeable majority of it needs to come from within the players themselves, and our players have shown time after time that they don’t deliver when the pressure is on so it isn’t surprising there are trust issues there, ultimately only the players can change that.

 

[Big D]

Basically IMO our supporters are having a negative impact on our team performance going into a crucial stage of the season.
We have Barisic and Butland involved in verbals with supporters when they were doing supporters a favour by signing stuff.
Add in Silva giving some back after scoring a goal presumably to criticism from some supporters.
The thread is not designed to engage in the reasons behind the criticism the players are receiving.

However it is for people to consider the negative impact that criticism is having on our players with 4 games to go which could possibly end up in winning a treble.
It may be unlikely but still possible:
You would want our players to be in a positive frame of mind but undoubtedly our players are on edge even our player of the year Butland.

In summary we should be collectively behind the players be loyal and be a positive force to try and bring success.
It would be naive to believe the players are not aware of what is happening on Social media and I have to say some of the comments on here about players are toxic and cogently negatively impacting the squad IMO.
I’m sure many on here will say they need to man up and it’s part of being a Ranger and while there is some truth in that players are human and surely we should be behind the team especially when going for the treble:

I remember the Ally Ally GTF days but this essentially was when the team were languishing in mediocrity and not as we are now chasing success.
A grip on reality and positive support from now to the end of the season would be nice.
Consider the harm you are doing to the club you profess to love and support.

You'll always get the 'I've paid my money and I'll boo / shout abuse if I want' brigade. They are of course correct and if it makes them feel better, fair enough. But it is only that. To make them feel better. Let's not pretend it's in any way helpful to the team. I had some clown sitting about 3 rows behind me on Sunday and even at 3-1 up, the players were c*nts, sh*tebags, w@nkers etc. It was non-stop and I'm guessing plenty others had similar within earshot throughout the stadium. When the players need to try and block out the negativity, rather than embrace positivity from the support, that's not great. And before the, 'here we go, it's the fans fault' brigade start, that's not what I'm saying. I was always taught it was down to the manager to manage, the coaches to coach, the players to play and the supporters to support. You can point to deficiencies on the park and in the dugout, but some of our supporters just aren't very good at supporting either.

 

[Grumpy Old Git]

Whatever happened on Sunday with the players signing jerseys etc was a one off, albeit a disgusting one off, but it is a red herring in the grand scheme of things.

What happened on Sunday, and as I've said elsewhere, if identified the morons should have their STs binned, has no bearing on how this squad has crumbled over the last six weeks.

You think being continuously criticised is helpful.
I would suggest the reactions of Silva Borna and our player of the year is indicative of players on edge and is a negative.

Football is not played in straight lines and there are dips in form generally.
When Clement came in we were 7 or 8 points behind them.
We are now 3 points behind them so there is an argument for saying we have improved in closing that gap.
But some people are only concerned with a 6 week window.
We can’t shape the past but maybe we can contribute positively to the future.

 

[Anoldranger]

The atmosphere inside Ibrox during the first 45 minutes on Sunday was toxic and this helps no one! I attended my first Rangers game in 1959 and sad to say this is one of the poorest sides I’ve sign but hurling abuse at players especially outside the stadium is not on. We have a large section of morons in our midst who call themselves “supporters “ do us a favour stay away!

 

[SilvaBear]

There is absolutely no chance this sorry squad is delivering a treble.

It appears you don't understand that.

It's this kind of constant misery and negativity that helps no one, and makes FF unbearable these days.

We've won titles from worse positions, we have another cup final to look forward to.

I assume you'll be giving up any tickets you have for the remainder of the season, considering you think there's no point in the team showing up, and you've given up.

 

[Godrup99]

This season the negative feeling has been as bad as I can remember.



We are in a great position where if we win 4 games can win a treble.



Problem is 2 of them games are against celtic and we can't seem to beat them when it matters.


My feelings is that cos we can't beat them the fans have lost belief and turned on a lot of the players.

The lack of belief and turning is not because they we're unlucky,it's because they were weak and lazy, that's why they now have a serious problem in winning this league and a serious problem with us fed up of the same terrible effort levels when the going gets tough.

 

[Grumpy Old Git]

First off, the morons on Sunday having a go at Butland and Barisic, if identified, should have their STs taken away from them. Absolutely in total agreement with you regards their despicable behaviour.

As for the notion this squad of serial losers are winning a treble? There is faith, there is blind faith and there is self delusion.

This lot have shot their bolt and if by some chance we do pull it off on Saturday, it will still not be enough unless the main striker can score more and the midfield finally start contributing aplenty as well.

I admire your optimism, but having faith in these players? I'll give it a miss.

PS, I hope to be on here later on Saturday eating all the humble pie you want to throw in my face.

The main point is stop the toxicity now while we hold a chance however slim we believe of winning the treble as it’s transcends onto the players.
It’s not about faith.
It’s about being a proper supporter.

 

[Awaydays]

I think the difference is that we used to have winners on the park, which gave us that slight hope.

We were able to go to the piggery and get a win, even when we’d been written off. The problem now is, the players don’t have the belief they can go win this game.

It goes hand in hand, the support see the player don’t have what it takes to get the job done as it’s been proven for over 5 years now.

That's because we simply had better players back then. I'm sure when we went to parkhead and won 2-1 with souness it was the first win at Parkhead in 9 years, in fact I'm sure we went 9 years without a win at Pittodrie.

We have to accept, we can't buy our way out of trouble this time. Even back in them days, we were the most powerful club in Scotland, that is now no longer the case. The players we brought in were class and we won't see it again. We need a whole new strategy at Ibrox, because players today that are in the 4 or 5 million bracket, wouldn't even have got on the bench in those times.

 

[juan guy]

Problem is the fans have watched these players freeze at the vital moment too many times now.

To have fought all the way back to the top in February, with all the momentum behind us and a full scale timplosion unfolding across the city, only to sh!t the bed against Motherwell, Ross County and Dundee, is a complete sickener.

Yes it's still possible we can win the treble but it was obvious on Saturday the belief is completely gone, and that is on the players.

Can't expect the fans to have belief when the players themselves clearly don't.

 

[wee bud's pit boots]

Lose the next two OF games and Celtic equal our trophy record (which many don't seem to care about) and get free CL money again. This will have been an utter nightmare of a season if that happens.

The last OF game was the key to stopping those eventualities and we absolutely blew it yet some fans were wallowing in a "we won the second half" mindset.

Losing isn't an option and it can't happen.
If it does then it's infamy for some of the players.

Winning would be redemption for some and the start of something special for others.

We shall see.

What most concerned me was the manager with his moraly victory or victory for morale crap. As we witnessed at Dingwall and Dundee the morale didn't last that long.

I'm not too impressed either with retorting to Rodgers wee barbs. It's a bit like Beale responding to Suttons baiting.

I fear there will be no redemption. Not for any of them.

Of course I'm desperate to have my words rammed firmly down my thrapple.

 

[Wordy_Rappinghood]

What most concerned me was the manager with his moraly victory or victory for morale crap. As we witnessed at Dingwall and Dundee the morale didn't last that long.

I'm not too impressed either with retorting to Rodgers wee barbs. It's a bit like Beale responding to Suttons baiting.

I fear there will be no redemption. Not for any of them.

Of course I'm desperate to have my words rammed firmly down my thrapple.

Agree with all of that - especially the last part!

 

[stein and johnston]

Unfortunately these same people will verbally abuse people in shops, restaurants or whatever..
They feel they are entitled to say anything they want and think it’s okay.
So again unfortunately they’ll do the same to football players.

 

[jamcl_jamcl]

You could have added in year upon year of failure to the mix.

However, having fought back to have the title in our grasp, to then fritter it away, with the extra monies, next season's automatic CL entry will bring adds an extra dimension to the disillusionment.

The fans are not the main problem. That squad of serial losers are.

No doubt someone will pipe up with, ah but we've won the LC.

I didn't say it was the main problem, I said it was a problem.

We can aim for improvements in more than one area.

 

[Mr. T.]

The supporters tanked our season at Ross County and Dundee?

Dullest take on here, blaming the fans for the teams failings. Seems to be a narrative some folk just want to cling on to for some reason.

It’s a narrative that has some merit. The OP is not saying that the players are blameless, he’s trying to explain that the outrageous negativity coming from a section of our support will not help the situation.
If you believe that abusing someone to the extent that’I’ve seen our players being abused this season will have motivating effect on them, then you must have an extremely odd notion of how the human psyche works.
Criticise by all means, but the level of venom I have seen directed towards our players at dome matches this season (e.g. at Kilmarnock in August and Dundee recently) goes far beyond anything any person should have to endure for losing a football match.
The viciousness coming from some of the contorted faces at these matches made me ashamed to be part of the human race, far less being a Rangers supporter.

 

[jamcl_jamcl]

The atmosphere against Motherwell wasn't toxic though, things were going great up until that point.

The support are absolutely not the problem and it's a ridiculous argument.

The manager thinks that the support are a problem (not the problem). He's highlighted it previously, that the team could do with more backing.

 

[PolmontLoyal1872]

We’re all fed up seeing the same story play out every season