Exclusive:Concerned ex-Rangers captain stages intervention despite radio silence as Raskin moment sits uneasily

He was always taught that having played for the club and knowing the strength of character required to be a success, you don’t criticise when others fall short at Ibrox.

But the current decline is in danger of becoming endemic. He likens it to when a concerned family member feels it is necessary to stage an intervention to aid a flailing loved one. “We were always taught you never criticise Rangers Football Club if you have played for them,” he says. “You don’t criticise the club you played for, that was a thing. But it’s come to the point where I am thinking, ‘they need a shot across the bows!’ What do you call it when someone is struggling or should be in rehab? They need an... intervention. It’s just not getting any better. I feel sorry for the manager at the moment.”

The Ibrox club’s season has been an endurance test for supporters and new manager Danny Rohl’s reign is still awaiting lift-off.

A run of four successive if not always convincing wins in the league came to a halt with Sunday’s desperately poor goalless home draw against Falkirk. Last week’s draw against Braga, which saw the Portuguese side equalise despite being down to ten men, left Rangers with just a single point from five Europa League matches and requiring a miracle to reach the knockout stage. This really is the bleak midwinter in Govan.

It requires dedication to go to games on a cold afternoon in late November, no question. Over 50,000 did so against Falkirk – 0r so the official attendance figure claimed. Large areas of empty seats told its own story, particularly by the end. “The atmosphere was flat,” Gough says. “Even on TV you could tell. There were a lot of empty seats. Don’t take our fans for granted. If they start voting with their feet….”

It also takes commitment to get out of bed at 5.30am to watch on television if circumstances dictate it’s not possible to attend the game in person. Three shots on target were Gough’s measly reward for such an early rise in California, where he is based, to watch on Rangers TV. Rarely has the strong Swedish coffee he drinks been more essential at the start of the day. He rarely misses a game, much to wife Lindsay’s chagrin.

On a weekend when he watched two of his former clubs in England lose at home, with Tottenham falling to Fulham and Everton losing heavily at home to Newcastle, it’s Rangers who occupied his thoughts. It’s they who are worrying him most.

Rangers teammates are on the phone

He is sent the same screenshots all Rangers fans are circulating amongst themselves at present. One in particular stopped him in his tracks: three Rangers team groups for meetings against Braga since 2020. The first cost £12 million, the second, from 2022, the year Rangers reached the Europa League final, cost £14m and the most recent, from last week and including the likes of £9m signing Youssef Chermiti, cost an eye-watering £31m.

Old teammates phone up their old skipper to express dismay, as if expecting him to do what he used to do and inspire from the front. He does still occupy a position of responsibility. As a club ambassador, there’s every reason to imagine he would be in regular contact with the hierarchy at Ibrox.

That hasn’t been the case. Not that he hasn’t tried. He has offered his assistance but has yet to hear back. He offered to come over to work with defenders in the days after Russell Martin was sacked. Perhaps more realistically given few managers would want a presence such as Gough potentially overshadowing them on the training pitch, he is happy to advise on more general matters at the club. After all, he knows a thing or two about successful teams – and leadership.

“They should be going around people like (Ally) McCoist and gaining as much advice as they can, put it all together from guys who have been successful at the club,” he says.

Gough is sitting in southern California ready and willing to play a part in the owners’ attempt to revive the club after such a disastrous false start. Perhaps the current regime has concluded that someone who led Rangers to nine successive titles cannot contribute much of relevance given the current plight. Two dropped points at home against Falkirk kept the Ibrox side in fourth place, seven points behind Celtic and nine behind leaders Hearts. They are likely also-rans.

Rangers now face a tough trip to face Dundee United, Gough’s other former club in Scotland, on Wednesday. Four of their next five games are away from home, a run including a Europa League trip to face Hungarian side Ferencvaros. They are currently 33 out of 36 teams in the Europa League standings.

Gough believes Nico Raskin’s playacting against Braga last Thursday night is symptomatic of falling standards at Rangers. The Belgian midfielder fell dramatically after being brushed by Rodrigo Zalazar's head.

“Walter Smith used to say to me, ‘Richard, if you feel the energy of the crowd going down, put in a good tackle… Fans sometimes prefer a good tackle to a player dribbling past three players’,” says Gough. “That’s always been the case with our supporters. They like to see aggression on the field. They can’t accept players going down on the field, unless they have broken their leg or something.

“For me, as an ex-captain, the other night summed up a lot of what’s not right. I would have grabbed him by the jersey and pulled him up off the ground. And said to him, ‘Don’t ever do that again, trying to get someone sent off'. That is not right. That has never been right. It wasn't even a headbutt. You would hate for someone to do that to you.’”

Gough, now 63, reckons Smith and Graeme Souness, his managers at Ibrox, would have immediately substituted Raskin. “I know the game has changed, but I firmly believe they would have done so,” he says.

It isn’t only Raskin, whose conduct, Gough says, is “only part of the issue” and is probably a product of his own frustration given he is being expected to carry the side aged 24.

Rangers’ recruitment issue

Gough has met US-based chairman Andrew Cavenagh once. “I introduced myself,” he says. This was in the summer, when things, if not completely rosy, were not as bad as they would quickly become. The football had yet to start, for one thing.

Gough took it upon himself to visit the training ground. It felt significant that, with Rangers still to kick a competitive ball, he was photographed with Russell Martin. The new manager, even then, was needing to win friends and influence people. Gough was happy to endorse him.

He wrote in his Instagram page that he hoped Martin “gets the support he needs to get us back where we belong”. A net spend of £20 million, as confirmed by now ex sporting director Kevin Thelwell, suggested he had. It's not certain they were players he wanted. Just a few short weeks ago Thelwell tried to argue the new recruits had improved the group “across all parts of the team”. By contrast, fans rate it the worst transfer window in the club’s history. It is undoubtedly the worst value for money-wise.

Recruitment is key at a club like Rangers. The recent track record alarms Gough. He believes the poor standard of player brought in has failed Martin and is preventing Rohl making any great strides in the job so far.

Lack of goals is an obvious problem but the middle of defence, Gough’s area of expertise, is a serious concern, particularly given injuries to Derek Cornelius and John Souttar.

“The two boys (Emmanuel) Fernandez and (Nasser) Djiga have been thrown in there,” he says. “I would imagine Cornelius and Souttar are the first choice, unless he (Rohl) wants to play a three. The two boys look big, strong, athletic. But they are not good enough, not yet at least. They might become good enough. Someone was saying to me Fernandez ‘might grow into it’. But you don’t get time to grow into it at Rangers – or Celtic. You have to hit the ground running. I look at the Rangers team now, all the players that we have signed….(Djeidi) Gassama is maybe OK.”

Gough, who won 61 Scotland caps, bemoans the lack of Scottish talent at the club. There is little evidence of much coming through either. Findlay Curtis is one who briefly lifted spirits at the start of the season. The 19-year-old has since dropped off the radar somewhat. He was introduced only for the last 15 minutes against Falkirk. “He looked as good as anyone, if not better,” says Gough.

The former Ibrox skipper sat beside Sir Alex Ferguson, his old Scotland manager, at the first game of the season against Panathinaikos, which Curtis started. “Sir Alex turned to me and said: ‘He is a good player, Goughie…I like the way he seems to glide across the turf’….minutes later he scored!” he recalls. It was the opening goal in a 2-0 Champions League qualifying win that might stand as the high point of the season to date.