Don't read too much into Rangers' friendly results - David Edgar

Yes, it’s the annual summer slog as players returning after their summer holidays – or whatever approximation they can secure in this pandemic age we’re hopefully leaving behind soon – and knuckle down for the hard work of pre-season.

Gone are the days of treks up Gullane Sands, but even so, players will uniformly describe it as the least enjoyable part of their job. Modern coaching has adopted sports science to a degree that requires NASA instruments to measure, but rare is the coach who still doesn’t take a sneaky malevolent joy in ‘running the bollocks off them’ for a week or two.

For fans starved of meaningful action from their sides – the Euros are all well and good but they’re not Rangers, are they? – the first taste of the new season comes with the announcement of friendlies.

Generally big clubs will build up: a diddy team or two to begin with, moving up to more difficult tests and then perhaps the more glamourous friendlies at the end when a clutch of star names three weeks behind us in their preparations will turn up for a match. Twas ever thus.

That isn’t to say these matches are of no importance. For those secure in their position in the esteem of manager and supporters, then sure, they can act purely as tune-up exercises. Get the legs going, blow the cobwebs off, get the touch back and move towards the real stuff.

But for those on the fringes of the first-team, the guys who’ve spent more time watching than playing, they are huge opportunities – possibly final, huge opportunities.

Rangers began the 21/22 pre-season with a match at Firhill, playing a completely different outfield side in each half as we beat a spirited Partick Thistle 1-0 with a late Cedric Itten goal.

A match in Tranmere against the English League Two side brought a rather dull 1-0 defeat, with Rangers missing more shots than a vegan hunter. Neither of these matches were, in all honesty, thrillers. But they were highly unlikely to be.

You can hear more from David on the Heart and Hand podcast

Summers now more than ever are transient affairs. This year, the transfer market has been extremely slow to start up. Given that it tends to be a top-down enterprise, until the pieces start moving at the very top then it doesn’t really filter through the game as a whole. Some players don’t know if they’ll finish the pre-season where they began it, some players haven’t returned from the Euros. It’s still very much an uncomplete process.

I don’t recall friendlies being pored over so much in previous eras. Many were behind closed doors, or undertaken on tours (obviously not possible this year unless you lose your senses and, say, bugger off to Dubai during a worldwide health crisis). They were met with a shrug, with fans looking ahead to what matters. But in the days of club TV, 24 hour sports coverage and yes, podcasts – physician heal thyself, I know – it’s probably unrealistic to think this isn’t the new reality.

So, what of Rangers pre-season so far? Well, it’s tough to make judgements but that won’t stop us. Several players for whom the jury is out – Middleton, Jones, Edmundson etc – haven’t really done much to shift viewpoints.

Rangers fans can be notoriously difficult to move once they’ve decided on a player’s worth. For guys getting 45 minutes in an unfamiliar starting 11 when the game is at best 70% tempo of a proper fixture, it must be incredibly difficult to show qualities hitherto unappreciated. Equally though, you have to widdle with the water pistol you’re given. If these are to be the only opportunities to impress, they simply have to be grabbed.

Rangers will move onwards and upwards through the gears, familiar faces (Alfie, Glen) will return and new players will join. For those already heading towards the exit door, the chance to salvage a career at Ibrox is already hurtling past at top speed.

It’s a very hard situation to be in, but then again it’s a situation replicated at just about every major club playing the game. Football is an unsentimental business and it never, ever stops moving. Those left behind will look for new clubs and will find their time at Ibrox relegated to the ‘hey, remember him?’ chats whenever they pop up in the news.

As for us fans? We’ll take the friendlies to satisfy our cravings but if you want a picture of the madness of Scottish Football, most people I know are looking forward more to Livingston than Real Madrid. And we wouldn’t have it any other way!

You can hear more from David on the Heart and Hand podcast. Subscribe here for as little as £1.50 a month or listen free to the flagship shows on all good podcast platforms.