It ain’t broke yet it still needs fixing.
How else do you sum up a season that saw Rangers climb to a final points tally they’d only previously scaled past on a handful of occasions and yet still come up short? Michael Beale doesn’t entirely buy the narrative that this is an Ibrox squad not fit for purpose. But the Gers gaffer accepts big changes are required, nonetheless, if his side are to go to the next level and replace Ange Postecoglou’s relentless Celtic winning machine at the summit of Scottish football.
And he’s right on both fronts. The 92 points Gers collected this term would have been more than enough to crown them champions in all but the most exceptional of campaigns. In fact, it’s a figure they’ve only bettered four times since our game moved into the three-points-for-a-win era in 1994. On each occasion, it was good enough to win the league. It would also have been good enough to beat nine of Celtic’s 17 title-winning sides over the same period. But the reality is that against an outstanding Parkhead team, it’s still very much second best.
They’ve finished seven points adrift and even then, the Hoops’ have allowed their margin of victory to be shaved back having downed tools since they secured the championship.
Until that point, they’d shown a level of consistency only surpassed by the Invincible squads put together by Brendan Rodgers and Steven Gerrard and Rangers must expect more of the same next year.
That’s why Beale has come to the unavoidable conclusion that while the group he inherited when he returned to Glasgow last November might not be totally clapped out, it isn’t working anywhere near as smoothly as Postecoglou’s outfit.
"Everything is broken at Rangers so I’m looking forward to mending it,” he said moments after Saturday’s comfortable 3-0 win over St Mirren.
"That’s the perception, I’m not sure if that’s true but our record was a strong one and we’ll be adding to a very good team. I’m glad the end of the season is here. We’ve got over 90 points which we haven’t done too often in the last 15 or 20 years.
“But when you come second it’s last in Glasgow. We need to have a look at ourselves, set standards, have a good pre-season then see where it goes, one game at a time. Of late our form has been very good. Since November, if I’m right, we’ve only dropped eight points. We’ve made mistakes where we’ve had chances to change the outcome of games so we have to seize the moment and have no regrets.”
The margin for error when the action resumes in August is bound to be closer than Celtic’s end-of-year margin of victory. Given the ever-widening gap between the Old Firm and the rest, Rangers can’t expect favours from elsewhere next year and the points spilled away to Hibs, St Johnstone, St Mirren and Aberdeen cannot be repeated if they’re to put up a proper title tilt.
And neither can they continue missing chances at the rate they’ve wasted them this year. The number-crunching hipsters will tell you that Rangers outperformed their xG - the fancy formula used to assess the quality of chances created - in season 2022-23.
According to the equations, Gers should have scored 87 goals but actually bagged 93. But figures don’t show you everything and Beale himself has bemoaned Gers’ failure to be more ruthless in front of goal. How different a season it may have been had Rangers taken crucial chances in their season-defining clashes against Celtic.
Think back to Janury in Beale’s first derby as boss and the chances Malik Tillman and Fashion Sakala had to secure a win that would have moved the Light Blues back to within six points of their rivals before Kyogo was able to equalise late on.
Playing catch up from the start, this was as close as Beale ever got to the champions. Or how about the two identical Hampden sitters Sakala passed up as Gers saw both domestic cups slip from their grasp? For Beale, though, it’s about what’s next and finding a frontline capable to converting when the stakes are highest has been made priority No.1
Kieran Dowell has been signed and if the former Norwich playmaker can settle in as swiftly as his former Canaries colleague Todd Cantwell, Rangers will be doing well. But doing well doesn’t really cut it against a Celtic team whose base level is usually too hot for most teams in Scotland to handle.
Postecoglou will looking to strengthen further this summer and given the Australian’s success rate in the market Rangers have to expect their opponents’ levels will rise again next season. It’s up to Beale to meet those standards - or face another season that ends with dreams broken beyond repair.
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