Rangers fans are rightly disappointed to have seen their hopes of a first league and cup double ended by St Johnstone last night in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup – but going the remainder of the season unbeaten and achieving only the fourth ‘invincible’ campaign in the history of the Scottish top-flight should be viewed as a bigger achievement for the Light Blues anyway.
Some will no doubt view this with suspicion and chalk it up as a Rangers fan simply trying to move the goalposts after last night’s defeat but, as Twitter and YouTube will attest, this isn’t a newly-held opinion.
Obviously, every Rangers fan want to see the Gers end the season with as much silverware as possible but going into the 2020/21 campaign, the one thing any Gers fan wanted was the title.
Steven Gerrard and his players delivered that in record-breaking fashion, blitzing teams early in the campaign and being crowned champions at the earliest point in the season for over a century.
There was a fantastic European campaign that saw the Gers reach the last 16 in the Europa League and go some way to restoring their reputation on the continent.
But the domestic cups have again slipped from the Gers’ grasp and Gerrard has now failed to get beyond the Scottish Cup quarter-finals in three attempts – only faring slightly better in the League Cup.
While there is plenty of reason to be disappointed with Rangers’ performances in the cups, if they can get through the final three games without losing it will be an accomplishment that will be remembered for a long, long time to come.
Seeing Gerrard and his squad posing for next season’s team photo in front of three trophies would have been brilliant – although had Rangers lined up with a certain one of the three missing next season, the campaign would have been written off as a failure.
Fans will point to the glittering trophy room at Ibrox as proof positive that the Gers are a club built on winning trophies and delivering success but going a full league season unbeaten would be up there with some of the Gers’ best domestic success in any given season.
The fact it is something that has only been done three times in the history of the Scottish top flight shows just how hard it is for clubs to go an entire season without tasting league defeat at least once.
With two of those three successes coming at a time when the league season only lasted for 18 games, Celtic’s success in doing so over the 38 games of the 2016/17 does deserve some (begrudging) credit.
Since Rangers last lifted the Scottish Cup in 2009, Inverness CT, Dundee United and St. Johnstone are some of the sides to have won the trophy with little tangible benefit beyond an updated passport for the players.
Ask Arsenal fans to name you some of their great teams, and most will immediately name their own ‘Invincibles’ from 2003/04 rather than the one that sealed a league and cup double six years earlier.
There wasn’t even a final for Gunners fans to enjoy as Arsene Wenger’s side wend unbeaten for the entire league season, losing out in both domestic cups in the semi-finals and being eliminated from the Champions League a round earlier.
Rangers can still carve themselves out that little piece of history and, while it won’t come with photos of Steven Gerrard and his players dancing around an empty Hampden with a trophy, it will see the Light Blues set a benchmark none of the great Gers teams of the past could reach.
Bill Struth’s various title-winning sides couldn’t do it.
The Barca Bears couldn’t do it.
Jock Wallace’s treble winners couldn’t muster enough battle fever to do it.
The Nine In A Row icons of Gascoigne, Laudrup and McCoist couldn’t do it.
Dick Advocaat’s international superstars couldn’t even do it.
But Steven Gerrard’s side can do it.
Three games are what stand between Rangers and a achieving something that is done by so few teams anywhere.
Yes, losing the Scottish and League Cups was disappointing but if Rangers can avoid losing their next three games, Steven Gerrard’s team will have achieved something that will be spoken about long after any Scottish Cup success blended into the memories of the previous cup triumphs over the years.
In other news, Boyhood Rangers fan Zander Clark joked he was ‘devasted’ after shock Cup triumph
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