Rangers star Scott Arfield was as disappointed as anyone to see the Gers crash out of Europe last night, but he’s hoping to use the entire run as a learning experience to push Steven Gerrard’s side to new heights.
If you’d asked any Rangers fan at the start of the season if they’d be content going toe-to-toe with high profile teams from Spain, Russia and Austria during an extended European run they’d have bitten your hand off.
The big takeaway has to be that we’ve taken huge strides in continental action since Gerrard arrived at the club.
Arfield subscribes to that narrative.
Speaking to The Scottish Sun after last night’s match, the Canadian international said:
There has to be a reality check given where we have come from as a team this season. There has to be a realisation of just how much progress we have made. We have made thousands of supporters happy again with this European run.
It’s unfortunate we have just come up short at the very end when we just lacked a bit in the final third. But I feel this could be just the start despite the disappointment of losing tonight.
When we went to Marbella last summer we had seven or so new signings which quickly became 15 new signings, and a new management team. It shows you where we started from and how much progress we have made in a relatively short space of time.
There’s no question that Rangers had the opportunities to secure results that would have seen them qualify for the knockout stages, but it’s now about looking ahead rather than judging our failures too harshly.
December remains a massive month, with four fixtures to come before a huge derby at home to Celtic on the 29th.
We must stay in the hunt at top end of the Scottish Premiership and it all starts this Sunday in a winnable game at home to Hamilton Accies.
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