Hutton, not Mutton

Rangers’ fans were spoiled at the beginning of 9IAR with the acquisition of one of England’s greatest-ever right-backs in the shape of the outstanding Gary Stevens. Indeed, one of the biggest complaints among supporters and a long-running sore point is that no successor has come close to adequately filling the void the Englishman’s departure left. That covers well over a decade of football, and pretenders have come and gone, notably the controversial Fernando Ricksen, but no suitable replacement was ever secured.

The fact that the best full-back the club has boasted since Stevens’ was the Dutchman Arthur Numan whose reign not only occurred around 8 years later, but whose position was on the opposite side of the defence gives some indication of the difficulty in replacing Stevens.

It goes without saying no one has come close to replacing Stevens. However, during Alex McLeish’s time in the Rangers’ hot-seat a youngster by the name of Allan Hutton made a subtle breakthrough from the youth sides to the first team.

No one was going overboard about his abilities, but it did seem like there was potential within him to finally provide a solution to the long-standing right-back problem. Perhaps he was not going to emulate the sheer quality of Stevens, but nevertheless the progress he was making was indicative of a player who had the right stuff to make that position his own for a substantial period of time. Of course he had to shift the Dutchman Ricksen who had been signed for many millions by McLeish’s predecessor Dick Advocaat and was undeniably first choice although not strictly highly rated. There was definitely an opening there should any competitor to Ricksen look capable of playing first team football regularly over the Dutchman.

Until, that is, a fateful afternoon at Ibrox when the hosts entertained Kilmarnock and a poorly executed tackle from Hutton left the youngster with a broken leg.

Out for the season if not longer, Hutton saw all his dreams evaporate before him as he had to bestride the long and lonely road to recovery as Ricksen enjoyed a solid run in that position without a threat.

When he finally returned to action, he appeared to have lost a lot of the potential he previously boasted. Gone was the sharp, fluid Hutton, and he had been replaced by a sluggish, naïve, mediocre and criminally indecisive right-back. When on the ball, his distribution was chronic, and his control was average at best. This was never shown more distinctly than the Villarreal away leg where he had nothing short of a nightmare; ‘out of his depth’ did not begin to sum it up.

He remained in the side however, such was the poverty of competition for that berth, with only Alan Lowing as competition, but being so young at 17 he was not a serious possibility yet.

In July 2006 new manager Paul Le Guen made a number of signings in the transfer market, and one of them was the introduction of Manchester United’s young right-back Phil Bardsley. The local lad found himself swapping the Red Devils for the Bears on a six-month loan, with option to extend.

And he did not take long to look the part. The Englishman had solid positional sense, good distribution, composure on the ball and was not afraid to tackle. Indeed, he very much appeared to be a solution. However, one fateful match at Easter Road when he got himself needlessly sent off for refusal to move at the referee’s behest saw the end of his career at Ibrox, for it was followed by the now-infamous ‘training ground incident’. Bardsley allegedly tackled Thomas Buffel heavily, which upset the manager Le Guen as he had introduced a policy of no-tackles in training.

This opened the door for Hutton to take his place back, but there appeared to be no improvement from the Scot, who was now in that berth by default, as Le Guen had made it pretty clear Bardsley was out of the picture. Indeed, he was shipped backed to Manchester the following Christmas, leaving only Lowing again as competition for Hutton.

However, after the astonishing events of January which led to Le Guen’s departure and Walter Smith’s return to the Marble Staircase, Hutton almost became a new player overnight in the eyes of many supporters.

Somehow, he appeared quicker, sharper, far more willing to work hard, and now ran the flanks like a man possessed. His decision making had vastly improved, and he now boasted superb control on the ball, making some impressive runs in advanced positions. His own sense of awareness had also improved significantly, knowing when to retreat back and when to bomb the opposition defences.

Many fans argue that he showed these improvements under Le Guen, but perhaps that does not matter – the fact that he had improved regardless of whose tenure it was under is surely the most important statistic.

It is incredibly premature to even mention him in the same breath as Stevens; he has a lot of work to be even half as good as that eminent professional. But it is clear to many that Hutton is a new player regardless of when the improvement occurred; fit, hungry, and much more intelligent with his game, Hutton is developing beautifully.

He does, however, have a significant downside to his mentality, and that is his occasional reckless red mist, similar to his predecessor Ricksen. He seems to want to let his occasional frustrations out via an elbow etc, and this is simply not good enough and he must cut it from his repertoire. In Saturday’s ICT encounter, there was another incident where he clearly lashed his right elbow out, or back. Now, he did not strike his opponent, and one must hope he realised what he was doing and stopped himself, as it was not a full-blooded attempt, and that he is learning to control his urges.

This is Hutton’s only blot though, and he is otherwise developing as a fine right-back who so many supporters had given up on completely as simply not good enough for the jersey.

May his progress continue.

Prso to Leave, Rangers Drop Points

Due to the international break of the past week or so, there has been very little happening down Ibrox way of note. Indeed, the Scotland fixtures, while always big games and highly anticipated, do rather interfere with club football, so it was with a sense of major relief to get the SPL resuming on Saturday.

However, prior to the ICT game at Ibrox was a sad piece of news emerging. It has been officially confirmed that Dado Prso will leave Govan at the end of the season. This is a really disappointing state of affairs, although inevitable. The predictability of his days being numbered does not outweigh the despondency at losing such a talismanic figure.

Signed in summer 2004, Prso arrived alongside the Frenchman Jean-Alain Boumsong, and both of these signings were heralded as two of the greatest Bosman signings that summer, and certainly two of the best in Rangers’ history.

Prso in particular was a signing which just about beggared belief – this was a Croat superstar, currently plying his trade in the rich climes of Monte Carlo for a Monaco side who made it to the previous season’s Champions League final. He had featured in that that summer’s European Championships and had scored a wonderful goal against the mighty French.

When news had filtered through a few months before this that Rangers were interested in signing this highly-regarded international who had scored 4 goals in a single game during the Champions League match against Spanish giants Deportivo la Coruna, it is safe to say the majority of the fans were excited.

Prso himself had been quoted as saying his favourite ground in Europe was Ibrox after his Monaco side had visited the ground on CL business. The home fans singing Simply the Best had stood the hairs on the back of his neck up, and he was thoroughly taken by the occasion. So when, a year or so later, at the end of his contract with Monaco, Rangers became publicly interested in securing his signature, he did not have too many doubts about joining up.

However, his start in Glasgow was slow – indeed, for the first few months all the hope and hype seemed to be doused as he struggled to impose himself. Then, slowly but surely, he began to click, and the fans began to see the true quality they knew he had. Over the next few years he produced plenty of stellar performances, including several goals against Celtic, and in the CL – not least that wonderful goal against Famagusta in the qualifiers.

Unfortunately, Prso was beset by injury problems – Rangers signed him at the age of 28 and throughout his career he had suffered knee problems. Regrettably they got worse, and by the time he was 30, he was regularly having to take time out to recover.

It is a crying shame that, as Ally McCoist said, Rangers did not sign the player a few years earlier – we got a lot of change from the capture, but not as much as we could have.

In saying all of the above, one thing that cannot be forgotten whenever discussing Prso is besides his raw ability, his sheer love for the club was incredible. The fans adored him, regularly singing his name, and he is one of the foreign imports embraced truly as a Ranger and who genuinely seemed to understand what it was to be one of us.

It is therefore with so much heartache that it was mutually decided it would be best if he moves on at the end of the season. His body cannot take the rigours of the SPL any more, and while there was discussion of him becoming a coach at Ibrox, he clearly feels his playing days are not completely through. He will depart to a lesser club and a lesser league which is less demanding on his tired body so he can still play.

And no Rangers fan will begrudge him that, and will universally wish him well and good luck with his post-Rangers career.

Getting back to immediate matters, however, and there was the small issue of a home match against ICT to contend with. With Celtic having slipped up in Dundee and dropping yet more points, the onus was on Smith’s side to exploit it and regain some more of that lost ground.

And after 15 minutes, it looked to be going according to plan. ICT defender Dods crudely dumped Boyd to the ground when he was clean through, earning himself a red card and conceding a free kick – Adam duly dispatched it powerfully into the net, and it seemed that down to 10 men and one goal shipped would lead to a capitulation. It did not.

ICT put 9 men behind the ball, Rangers struggled to play fluidly, and criminally, created very few good chances. And even more chronically, the few decent ones which came the way of predator Boyd did not find themselves nestling in the back of the net.

It was then with horrible predictability that one good ICT attack would lead to the equaliser, with help from some poor defending twixt a mix up between Papac and Murray, followed by McGregor failing to stop an average shot.

1-1 it finished, to a chorus of derisory boos from a half-empty Ibrox stadium, where thousands of fans had already abandoned their seats in droves throughout the second half.

A thoroughly missed opportunity, Rangers’ worst performance since Smith took over in the SPL, and a disgruntled support.

Not a good day at the office at all.

If only we had 11 Prsos.