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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Robbie Hanratty

Scotland hero outlines where Rangers are going wrong as they discuss 'empty seats'

Scotland hero John McGinn is well aware that Rangers fans are becoming increasingly disheartened, as he frequently notices the many empty seats at Ibrox during their games.

In their recent Scottish Premiership match against Dundee United, a significant number of seats were left vacant.

While the poor weather, which delayed the kick-off by nearly an hour, certainly contributed to this, McGinn feels that the underlying issues go beyond just the impact of Storm Bert.

Many supporters chose to stay indoors or watch the game from a nearby pub instead of attending the game live, with Rangers failing to overcome their Tayside opponents.

During a segment on Premier Sports' Scottish Football Social Club, McGinn was asked whether he was surprised by Rangers' struggles this season under manager Philippe Clement, especially with the team already trailing Celtic by 11 points.

His comments highlight the growing concern among fans regarding the team's performance and the obstacles they need to overcome over the coming week's if Clement is going to hold onto his job.

Rangers have an important away trip where they face OGC Nice in the Europa League on Thursday before traveling to St Johnstone on league duty a few days later. 

“No, I'm not after watching some of the games they've played in," the Aston Villa captain confessed. "There's been games I have watched that I never thought they could break a team down.


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"There's been a couple of games in Europe, especially Olympiacos, where you think 'they've cracked it here, they've got something’. And then it just seems to go back to normal at the weekend.

“I haven’t seen a lot of the games, but what I could see is all the empty seats. The fans at Rangers are loyal, it doesn’t matter what division they were in, they were always there. So I think they've had enough and are looking for a spark or something different.”

Former Rangers full-back Alan Hutton chimed in to provide an explanation for the poor attendances. 

"They're voting with their feet," he stated. "They are trying to get their point across that they're not happy with the situation. We know they're trying to make changes at board level, there's no real stability.

"Ultimately you pay money to go and be entertained and that's not what they're getting. There's spells within games where they look OK, but outwith that, it's a difficult watch.

"John rightly said there's hardly any fans there. I know the weather was poor, but that's them showing that they're not happy with the situation."

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