YOU could have pulled a team together from a couple of decent Junior sides to win promotion from the bottom two divisions of Scottish football.

Had Rangers not won those leagues at a canter, the players released by the club in the summer would have been out the door a whole lot earlier.

Ian Black, of course, has now gone on record as stating that he should have been thanked for his efforts in securing two league titles at Ibrox before leaving at the end of his contract.

But the simple fact is that he just didn’t do it for the club.

Kris Boyd believes one or two people, such as himself and Lee McCulloch, have been used as scapegoats. That is not the case at all.

Richard Foster insists the chairman Dave King had no reason to pass comment on his footballing ability, but King’s opinion is now the one that really does matter at Ibrox, and some of the horrendous results of last season told him changes had to be made.

Stop moaning about everyone else. You weren’t good enough for Rangers. It is quite straightforward.

When you look at the wage bill and the players Rangers had last season, they should have won promotion from the SPFL Championship.

Before Stuart McCall came in as manager, it looked as though Falkirk and Queen of the South might overtake them and prevent them from getting into the play-offs at all.

You really were starting to wonder whether the catastrophic slump in results could be turned round.

Of the 11 players who left, do you think any of them expected to get a new contract?

Absolutely not, so what is all this guff about not getting a thank you or a telephone call all about. None of them deserved a new deal.

Yes, you probably should get some kind of correspondence informing you that your services are not going to be required going forward, but I think the majority of them knew they wouldn’t be getting kept on anyway.

It was a chapter in their lives that just didn’t work out, so they have to go on and do something else.

Foster has landed a contract at a Premiership team in Ross County, while Boyd and Stevie Smith have signed for Kilmarnock in a higher league.

They will probably do well and I would certainly expect Boyd to start scoring goals again, but playing for Rangers is a different kettle of fish.

Everyone knew of Boyd’s record when he returned to the club for a second spell and I don’t think many people argued about his signing.

He was expected to form a partnership with Kenny Miller that would deliver 40 goals or more, but it didn’t happen.

He admits, himself, he was a massive failure. The chances he was missing when he did play were unbelievable, so unlike him, and that is all he should be concerned about.

Black had run a Scottish Cup final in a Hearts jersey before joining Rangers, but it was just too much for him. The jersey is just too heavy for some people. I wish all the players who have left the club well, but the truth is these guys couldn’t hack it.

They couldn’t hack the pressure and the stick that comes from being a footballer inside the Old Firm.

They have gone there and taken the money, thinking everything will work out no problem. It didn’t. Frankly, these guys weren’t prepared to put in the work and deal with the glare of the spotlight.

If you can’t accept you have to handle and adapt to that at Rangers, you shouldn’t be anywhere near the place.

If supporters can see that their players are giving 100 per cent every week, they will back them. If not, they will tell them all about it.

Foster had one or two run-ins with fans and has made his view clear that King was wrong to criticise the players who left under freedom of contract.

Since becoming heavily involved, he has watched games closely and could see there was something far wrong.

Results told him that the squad was not good enough.

It was interesting to see the Kilmarnock manager, Gary Locke, say that his talks with McCulloch over becoming his assistant manager were being held up as the ex-Rangers captain waited to see whether he had a future at Ibrox.

Perhaps there is something on the coaching side for him, but it cannot be as a player.

He has had his time in the team at Rangers and, at the age of 37, may feel it is time to focus on a behind-the-scenes role.

Whatever the reality, Boyd’s assertion that he was used as a scapegoat along with McCulloch is wrong. A full of team of players were happily escorted towards the exit door – and there is a good reason for that.

I like cut of Jordan gib ...now grab the chance

JORDAN GIBSON left a club in Bromsgrove to sign his first professional contract with Rangers aged 17 earlier this week and made it clear that he plans to be in the first team by Christmas.

I have never heard of the lad and I have never seen him play, but I like the cut of his jib straight away.

He is looking at Rangers as a club in the second tier of Scottish football and has the belief that he can play there.

He is a striker with a bit of pace and, as we discovered with a number of players near the end of last season, good performances in the Under-20s will earn you the chance of a starting jersey.

I like a player with a bit of swagger without being too cocky. I have to say, mind you, that I never really had that attitude as a kid.

When I joined Rangers straight from school at the age of 16, a number of people told me I would be there for five or six years to even get noticed and get close to being talked about as a first-team player.

As it was, it took me five months. It will always depend, at the end of the day, on what you are doing in training and in reserve games because the management team are keeping an eye on everyone.

Mark Warburton has a track record in bringing in youth players so this is an excellent time for young, ambitious footballers to be at Rangers.

Gibson signed his deal at the same time as Tom Lang, a Scotland youth internationalist who had been on the books of Birmingham City.

It is good to see the academy being bolstered by new talent. Rangers are not going to be in a position to pay £2million for a player in the foreseeable future, so cultivating your own talent is going to be hugely important.

New faces will be a big deal for fans but 30,000 is realistic ticket target

NOW that the public sale of season tickets for Rangers is about to begin, I have to say that I think they will be doing well to have shifted 30,000 in time for the new season.

It was announced earlier this week that 21,500 fans have renewed their books from last term and it is difficult to gauge whether that represents a good uptake or not.

But I am sure many supporters are waiting to see which new faces will arrive in the wake of Danny Wilson and Rob Kiernan.

I believe most are happy with the things the new manager, Mark Warburton, is saying and the philosophy he appears to be putting in place for the club.

Dave King, the chairman, has also issued rallying calls and pleaded for everyone to move in the same direction.

His previous target of 45,000 season tickets to raise £13million, however, looks ambitious. I guess he must realise that now.

I think he was just hoping he could tug at the heartstrings of the fans that have been staying away and we will see how successful he was over the course of the coming weeks.

The final number for the big kick-off will, in my opinion, be closer to 30,000 than 40,000.

Of course, you never quite know how much the fans will buy into the new regime when they see the team playing.

Special season ticket deals remain available during the course of the campaign these days and I am sure others will get involved should Rangers play the kind of positive, attacking football that Warburton has promised.

Your question for Big Derek

ANDY BROWN, from Clydebank, asks: “What was your favourite pre-season trip with Rangers?”

Derek says: “Under Jock Wallace, we went to a special camp in Sweden to train and play against a number of local teams.

“The hotel facilities were magnificent. It was in the middle of nowhere and we could do those long-

distance runs that Jock loved out in the countryside rather up and down the terracing at Ibrox.

“On one or two nights, a bus would take us down to the nearest town for a few beers. There was no chance of us getting carried away, though – It was about £500 a pint in Sweden at that time.”