Rangers 1-3 Ajax: 'Ibrox side look lost at Champions League level'
- Published
'We've not struck gold, we won't spend millions'
Rangers have been battered and bruised by a tortuous Champions League run that leaves them in the record books for all the wrong reasons.
The Ibrox club were seeded fourth in a brutal group and duly finished fourth.
This is the fifth time Rangers have been last in 11 group campaigns, so that's nothing new.
However, there are some unwanted firsts, becoming the only Scottish side to suffer six successive group losses and reaching a goal difference of minus 20, which is the worst the competition has ever witnessed.
There was also a chastening club-record home defeat along the way, with Liverpool banging in seven after Scott Arfield had the temerity to score first.
"They've looked lost at this level," said former Ibrox striker Steven Thompson on BBC Radio Scotland. "There's an embarrassment, almost, for the club to have this European record.
"Despite the financial gulf, Rangers should have been more competitive. To lose all six games in the manner that they did - Rangers have to put this campaign behind them."
'Europe a cruel & unusual punishment'
Europe is supposed to be a reward for the hard work put in during the previous season - but this seems like cruel and unusual punishment for the team that made it all the way to May's Europa League final.
Remember, Rangers were a penalty shoot-out away from pot one status. But the unforgiving nature of the Champions League is evidenced by Group A rivals Liverpool and Napoli coming from pots two and three.
The spending power of those two and Ajax completely dwarves the resources available at Ibrox and it has made for a glaring disparity.
Ajax have felt it, too. This time last year, they were striding into the last 16 on maximum points, now, having lost several key players to richer rivals, they are limping into the Europa League, with two wins over Rangers all they could muster.
Confidence will have been shaken at Ibrox by a series of one-sided defeats and it doesn't look like things are going to get any easier should Rangers make a swift return to Europe's top table.
The club's Champions League form book reads one win in their last 22 group games and a Scottish club is never going to close the gap on the big-spending elite.
"The positive is that we operated on the highest level after 12 years," said manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst. "We need to be better - every time you aren't in the right positions, you will struggle against any team. We have to learn.
"I read many stories we struck gold with so many millions coming in - it's not true. That creates an expectation that we can buy new players, but I don't think the club will spend millions if the money isn't there."
'Performances have lacked in fundamentals'
Before the 3-1 home loss to Ajax, Van Bronckhorst had said "we can compete with them on the day and especially at Ibrox", while in the aftermath he pointed to a solid first half against Liverpool and a good hour or so against Napoli in Glasgow.
However, the harsh truth is that, even taking into account the huge step up in class and a long injury list, displays have been lacking in certain fundamentals.
"The performance was not aggressive enough," lamented Ibrox hero Ally McCoist on BT Sport. "Rangers sat back against a team who were technically better than them. Rangers failed to have a go at them and allowed Ajax to be comfortable."
Ajax found it too easy at times to cut through Rangers
Former full-back Richard Foster went further, telling BBC Radio Scotland: "There's zero positives because I don't see the learning. They're still not tracking runners in behind.
"The team that I watched play in the Europa League final - it's night and day in terms of the intensity, the quality."
Joe Aribo gave Rangers the lead in the Europa League final, while Calvin Bassey was the star turn on the run to Seville. Both were sold in the summer.
With the exception of Antonio Colak, who scored in both legs of the play-off against PSV Eindhoven, new recruits are either injured or don't look up to scratch.
Having said that, not many would have identified Bassey as a £20m player in his first season at Ibrox.
Perhaps the most significant dereliction of duty has been to allow Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos to meander into the last 12 months of their contracts, with both shadows of their former selves.
Morelos, club-record scorer of 27 European goals, somehow contrived to miss an open goal as a second-half substitute, while Kent, such an influential, marauding figure on last season's Europa League nights, was peripheral once again.
Van Bronckhorst must now lift his depleted squad again and hope his side can respond in the kind of fashion that swept Aberdeen away at the weekend.
"Now we have to switch back to the league and try to win the trophies we are still involved in," he said. "Europe for us this season is over." And how...
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