IT WAS a goal that has the potential to change everything... and it was not scored in Kaunas's Dariaus Ir Gireno Stadium on Tuesday night, but at Celtic Park on the evening of April 16. When Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink stooped to head in a 93rd minute winner against Rangers, he set in motion a chain of events that could be felt for years to come.
The strike breathed the fire into Celtic's championship challenge that eventually turned Rangers' title hopes to ashes. It forced Walter Smith's men into last week's Champions League qualifier in Lithuania that now has all the makings of a funeral p
yre for their prospects of wresting the Scottish Premier League from their bitter rivals this season. Without overstating the case, Vennegoor of Hesselink's derby winner four months ago could be recalled in future as the £25m goal; the moment that paved the way for Celtic to monopolise the championship for a period akin to that which Rangers enjoyed in the 1990s.
This season is the last in which the SPL runners-up are afforded a relatively "easy" route to the Champions League group stage. As of next year, while lower ranked nations play off among themselves for group places, Scotland's second team will have to negotiate two qualifying rounds against sides from the 12 top associations. As a result, the runners-up from the SPL will only be able to face the fourth placed teams from such as England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany or the third-placed teams from Holland, Portugal or Turkey. Twice.
Right now, no one would give tuppence for Rangers either being able to overhaul Celtic or such opposition inside the next 12 months. A year down the line then, there is every possibility Celtic will be on course to bank a second successive Champions League windfall denied to their ancient adversaries. Such financial disparity decides league championships, and sustains winning and losing cycles.
"The biggest thing for me is not the personal level of criticism, it is just the fact that in these two games we have undone a lot of the things we worked so hard for last season," said Smith on Friday as he picked through the charred embers of the 2-1 defeat in Kaunas. "But the players have shown us they can play and can play at Rangers. We have to make sure the effects of being knocked out are not destroying something we have worked so hard to build."
Despite spending £19m on players since his return to the club in January 2007, the Rangers manager faces a monumental task to avoid the impression taking root that the club are backsliding to the level they were when he took over. The Ibrox side were disrobed by their Kaunas calamity; left in the altogether by the loss. And though they are better than they showed on Tuesday night, the fate that befell them is a truer reflection of their abilities than the remarkable feat of reaching the UEFA Cup final only three months ago.
Rangers carried huge dollops of luck to make it to Manchester and, not unreasonably, it caused Smith to prove reluctant to change a 4-5-1 system that had been brutally effective. It was inevitable, then, that his refusal to run with a central strike pairing would be cited as the reason for the club's most ignominious European exit.
"Probably one of the most surprising things for me was the criticism we took for playing one striker," he said. "We did it in the European games but we didn't do it at home for 90% of the games. The tactic was employed and was shown to be successful and yet people criticise it. If you are going to get criticised, I would prefer it was for something relevant."
It is relevant to criticise Smith for being unable to summon a performance from his team, even without Barry Ferguson and Carlos Cuellar, that was good enough to take care of Kaunas. He is willing and must accept responsibility for the biggest single stain on his managerial record. Yet, maybe it is naive or soft to have expected that he might just have been afforded a germ of goodwill for his achievements across the marathon season just passed.
Smith requires reinforcements, and double quick, if he is to build on what he achieved domestically – and he did achieve with the first title challenge to Celtic in three years and a cup double that brought the Ibrox club their first silverware in that time. He maintains his purchasing power will not have been immediately weakened by the loss in Lithuania of £10m of Champions League lolly. He did not, however, rule out the possibility that Cuellar could be levered from the club with a bid in the region of those evaporated earnings.
"We already have got money there now to improve our squad," Smith said. "Although it is obviously a blow to lose out on the Champions League money. But it is a bigger blow pride-wise. After the efforts of last season, to get knocked out so early is a bigger blow to your pride than your pocket. The movement of players (out] will just be natural movement; it is not going to be forced in any way, and will be regardless of the result the other night."
Those Rangers players who did not feature in Kaunas, by default, will find their reputations enhanced among a frothing Ibrox support. The preponderance of ordinary players in the club's ranks, and the crushing lack of invention and guile to be found in a misshapen, makeshift midfield in Kaunas, was much of Smith's own making. Sympathy, though, can be extended to him for the lack of natural width. Injuries denied the Rangers manager DaMarcus Beasley, Chris Burke and, long-term casualty Steven Naismith. Beasley himself, who expects to feature next week following a hamstring injury, believes he could have made a difference.
"Everyone does," he said. "When you are a player sitting on the sidelines you always think what you could do to help the team, to get a goal or whatever it takes. My game is running at defenders, trying to make things happen and make it easier for the guys in the middle by looking to provide them with service and goalscoring opportunities. I like being in wide positions and me and Burkey are the same type of player.
"The manager can only use who he has available and right now he doesn't really have wingers, except Nacho (Novo], and he's not really a winger. Myself and Burkey are more true wingers who go at people. There isn't too much after that."
Rangers will need more than a couple of wingers to be left with a prayer this season.
The full article contains 1144 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
