Alan Hutton believes Rangers will have an eye on winning the Europa Conference League if they can get past Jablonec into the league phase.
Rangers' European Ambitions
Derek McInnes' men must first successfully negotiate a playoff clash with Jablonec of the Czech Republic to confirm their place in the league phase. The Light Blues fell at the first attempt in the Europa League, being dumped out of the third qualifying round 3-2 on aggregate by Polish outfit Jagiellonia Bialystok.
McInnes picked up his first win of the season at the weekend as Gers thumped St Mirren 5-1 at Ibrox to set up a blockbuster Premier Sports Cup quarter-final clash at home to Celtic. But now attention turns to Jablonec and Hutton, who departed just a few months before Rangers reached the Europa League Final in 2008, believes the Ibrox club should have designs on going all the way if they make it through.
Hutton's Verdict
"With everything that happened against Jagiellonia Białystok, they’ll drop down now to the Europa Conference League, and surely they can make it into that competition, and they’ll have an eye on winning that," Hutton told Boyle Sports. "It’s a competition with a lot of unknowns and a lot of teams that people won’t have heard too much about but Rangers have gone far in European competitions before."
"Not too long ago they made it to the final of the Europa League so they’ll be looking to do well in the Europa Conference League but it’s a devastating blow they’ve not been able to make through into the Europa League."
Klopp Comparison Adds Pressure
That first weekend win lifted some of the pressure on McInnes after a poor league start at the Jagiellonia disaster. But Hutton doesn't think Gers CEO Jim Gillespie helped his manager by mentioning him in the same breath as Jurgen Klopp.
Gillespie explained the appointment of McInnes by telling shareholders that there are Klopp-type managers and Pep Guardiola-type managers, with McInnes falling into the former category. Hutton insists it's the last thing the under-fire boss needed at this stage of the season.
He said: "I was thinking at the time, he just doesn’t need to say it. Derek McInnes is a Jurgen Klopp style manager? You just don’t need to put any more pressure on him. The job’s big enough as it is."
"To compare him to one of the best managers who’ve worked in the game, it’s just not ideal. I understand what he was trying to do. He was trying to back his manager. He’s trying to make it clear to everyone that he believes Derek McInnes is a top level manager and he wants the fans to understand he knows what it’s all about, he’s going to be here for a number of years, and they must trust the process."
