NafisaDerek McInnes has left Rangers supporters fuming after appearing to deliver a brutally honest assessment of his team’s European elimination — only for one particular part of his post-match comments to raise even more questions about the direction of the club.
The Rangers manager was speaking after his side were dumped out of the Europa League by Jagiellonia Bialystok at Ibrox.
It was supposed to be the night Rangers responded.
After losing 2-1 in Poland, McInnes’ team had the advantage of playing the second leg in front of their own supporters, and Lawrence Shankland’s penalty initially gave the home side exactly the platform they needed.
The aggregate score was level.
The crowd had something to believe in.
And Rangers had 45 minutes to finish the job.
Instead, everything fell apart.
Jagiellonia equalised in the second half through Nik Prelec, restoring their aggregate advantage and leaving Rangers chasing the game.
The Polish side held on for a 1-1 draw on the night and a 3-2 aggregate victory, sending Rangers into the Europa Conference League play-off round.
But it was what McInnes said afterwards that really got people talking.
McInnes admits he has to ‘own it’
To his credit, McInnes did not completely attempt to distance himself from the performance.
The Rangers boss admitted that the display was below the required standard and accepted that the team had once again failed to produce a convincing 90-minute performance.
“It wasn’t good enough, I’ve got to own it… once again not a 90 minute performance.”
That sounded like the kind of accountability Rangers supporters wanted to hear.
After all, McInnes had already faced criticism for his tactical decisions during the match, particularly his decision to alter the system at half-time.
Rangers had looked dangerous during the opening period before appearing significantly less effective after the tactical reshuffle.
So when McInnes said he had to “own it”, supporters could reasonably have expected him to explain exactly what went wrong.
Instead, the conversation took an unexpected turn.
Then came the comment that enraged Rangers fans
McInnes was asked about Rangers’ European ambitions and whether the club’s squad is currently ready to compete at that level.
His response was striking.
“The club’s built for Europa League and Champions League… the team isn’t quite ready for it.”
And that is the sentence that has caused the biggest reaction.
There is an obvious distinction between Rangers wanting to compete in the Europa League or Champions League and the current squad being perfectly equipped to do so.
But after being eliminated by Jagiellonia, telling supporters that the team is not quite ready for the Europa League is unlikely to make the situation any easier.
Particularly when Rangers had been expected to win this tie.
Rangers supporters will ask one obvious question
If the club is built for the Europa League but the team isn’t ready for it, then what exactly has been happening during the summer?
Rangers have already undergone a significant rebuild.
McInnes has been backed with numerous new arrivals, with the club spending considerable time and resources attempting to construct a squad capable of competing domestically and in Europe.
The manager himself has repeatedly spoken about the need for quality additions.
Yet Rangers now find themselves out of the Europa League before even reaching the group stage.
That is why the comment is likely to frustrate supporters.
They are not necessarily demanding that Rangers win the Europa League.
They are demanding that the team at least looks capable of competing against opposition they believe Rangers should be beating.
The Jagiellonia defeat makes the comment even harder to swallow
Had Rangers been eliminated by one of Europe’s established heavyweights, McInnes’ argument would perhaps be easier to understand.
But Jagiellonia are not Manchester City, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
Rangers had already been warned about the threat posed by the Polish side after losing the first leg.
They still had the opportunity to turn the tie around at Ibrox.
And they did take the lead.
Yet they failed to capitalise.
That is what makes McInnes’ assessment particularly uncomfortable.
The problem was not simply that Rangers encountered a superior team.
They had a golden opportunity to progress and failed to take it.
McInnes has already identified the problem
The manager’s wider post-match comments suggest he believes the biggest issue is not simply personnel.
He described the sequence leading to Jagiellonia’s goal as “madness” and insisted Rangers’ problem was a lack of intelligence and making the right decisions.
He also admitted that his team lost composure once the visitors equalised.
That creates an interesting contradiction.
McInnes says he has to own the performance, but much of his analysis subsequently focused on the players’ decision-making.
And Rangers supporters are entitled to wonder how much responsibility should fall on the manager when the team visibly changed after his tactical intervention.
Conference League now becomes Rangers’ reality
The Europa League dream is over.
Rangers will instead continue their European campaign in the Conference League play-off round.
That competition may ultimately give McInnes an opportunity to rebuild confidence, but nobody around Ibrox will pretend this is where the club wanted to be.
The immediate priority is now to stop the slide.
Four competitive games have produced no victories, while Rangers have already suffered elimination from one European competition.
The pressure is therefore growing rapidly.
And McInnes’ latest comments will only ensure that the debate continues.
Saying “I’ve got to own it” will earn some credit.
But telling Rangers supporters that the team is not ready for the Europa League immediately after being eliminated by Jagiellonia is the sort of statement that was always going to go viral.
Because for many Rangers fans, the question isn’t whether this team is ready to win a European trophy.
It’s much simpler:
Why wasn’t this team ready to beat Jagiellonia?
Nafisa
