JOHN McGARRY: Rangers’ toiling to reach the Champions League has scarcely been worth it

After clawing their way back up the divisions and winning the Premiership title last year, a return to the Champions League was always regarded as the final stretch of Rangers’ journey.

If a reappearance on this stage for the first time since 2010 was seen as necessary in order to bookend the chaotic years which followed insolvency, then this experience has proven to be far more traumatic than cathartic.

Never has the old wisdom about being careful what you wish for felt more apt as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side have slid from one disaster to the next. Never has the Europa League felt so appealing.

Rangers players applauded a very empty-looking Ibrox at full-time – ending a disastrous eight weeks in the Champions League

Whether this level of football has simply moved on since the Ibrox men were last involved or they’ve simply failed to show their true selves, it’s been hugely chastening. Ajax put the tin lid on it all on Tuesday night. 

Pitched in with Napoli, Liverpool and the Dutch, surely only the most wide-eyed optimist in the Copland Road end envisaged Van Bronckhorst’s men making the last 16.

Bluntly, given the disparity in resources, parachuting into the Europa would have been a laudable achievement. Even missing out on that while straining every sinew would have been forgivable.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst watched on as his side officially became the worst to grace the competition

What we’ve seen from virtually the first moment in Amsterdam eight weeks ago, however, has been a long way short of acceptable.

That four-goal rout at the hands of Ajax set the tone for a thoroughly miserable campaign that continued up until the final whistle sounded in game six.

Sure, they were in the game until Napoli scored in Glasgow. They also succeeded in keeping the score down at Anfield and in Naples.

But that seven-goal hammering by Liverpool at Ibrox, featuring six second half goals, became emblematic of a truly feeble effort over the piece.

As tough as this task always was, no one can say they anticipated the failure to be quite so pronounced.

In May, Rangers were a penalty kick away from winning the Europa League against Eintracht Frankfurt. They’d beaten good sides like Braga and Red Star Belgrade to get there, Champions League class sides in the cases of Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig.

Van Bronckhorst has come in for major criticism as a result of the poor European campaign

So when Union Saint-Gilloise and PSV Eindhoven were dispatched in the qualifiers, players and supporters were entitled to believe they could make an appreciable impact.

Heading into Tuesday’s finale desperately trying to avoid the ignominy of being the competition’s worst ever side was not the kind of impression anyone had in mind.

Whatever criticisms can justifiably be level at the Rangers manager, he’s not had his selection troubles to seek of late.

With no fewer than 10 players missing last night, he filled his bench with Robbie Fraser and Connor Allan, both without a single first-team appearance between them, and Adam Devine, a seasoned veteran by comparison with three.

It was only back in May that Rangers came within a whisker of winning the Europa League having knocked out Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig

It felt like a Champions League game in name only. There was smoke inside the arena as these famous clubs entered the field yet not quite the thunderous noise you’d associate with these nights.

You could understand it. The home support had seen their favourites ship 19 goals in five games up until this point. And within four minutes it was 20.

Not for the first time, fingers were pointed at skipper James Tavernier for a lack of vigilance on the back foot.

Ajax’s passing and movement was impressive but the way they cut through the home side was alarming. Mohammed Kudus put the ball on a plate for Steven Berghuis to cutely finish.

A late James Tavernier penalty did little to quell the feeling of disappointment inside Ibrox

The failure of Rangers to turn promising spells of possession into meaningful chances has been a recurring theme of the campaign. There was no let up here.

Passes were either overhit or undercooked. Runs were laboured and unimaginative. There was just no spark. Ajax, in contrast, were inventive and energised.

Time seemed to stand still as Kudus weighed up his options in the box after another seamless sequence of passes carved the home defence open again. He nonchalantly picked his spot beyond Allan McGregor.

Liverpool’s 7-1 win over Rangers last month was the nadir of a Champions League campaign that was not short of low moments

Kudus was inches away from grabbing his second after McGregor had fielded Steven Bergwijn’s strike. It was two-nil going on pretty much anything at the break.

The second half saw phones regularly checked for news of the progress of Barcelona away to Viktoria Plzen. Not so much a crumb of comfort being sought as a trace.

It made a strange kind of game of it; There were groans when word of a goal for the Czechs filtered through. A ripple of optimism when there was news of one for the Catalans or when VAR ruled Kudus had strayed offside before netting.

Despite Van Bronckhorst making multiple substitutions in the hope his side could salvage the most unlikely face-saving point, it was largely just more of the same.

Fashion Sakala rued a missed chance as Rangers ended the group with a -20 goal difference

Steven Berghuis scored the visitors’ opener in Glasgow as Ajax ran out 3-1 winners at Rangers

Rangers boss Van Bronckhorst and Ajax counterpart Alfred Schreuder at full time

Scott Arfield, the only man to have scored across the six games, was only denied another by the keeper’s fingertips but by then the stands were fast emptying.

Those who departed early did miss a remarkable closing period. Alfredo Morelos contrived to miss an open goal before Tavernier halved the arrears with a penalty.

Within two minutes, though, Francisco Conceicao ran onto Dusan Tadic’s cross to re-establish the two-goal margin and ensure Rangers take the one title they did not want.

As those fans made their way home in cars and buses, the only possible consolation was that this most tortuous episode is finally over. And not a minute too soon.