When Rangers fans woke up on Monday morning, the inquest into a 2-1 defeat to Hibs at Ibrox the previous day was still very much in full swing.
Despite all of the pre-season optimism of a fresh start under Derek McInnes, a belief that things would be different under a new manager, it felt like Groundhog Day.
Three games under the new manager, three games without a win. Tactics and team selection being questioned, recruitment being lambasted, a squad desperately short on quality.
Two league games played, already five points behind Celtic. New season, same old story.
When Rangers chief executive Jim Gillespie then spoke at a meeting with shareholders on Monday morning and likened McInnes to Jurgen Klopp, supporters probably spat out their corn flakes.
There has been precious little evidence of heavy metal football thus far. Instead, only a team who continue to hit bum notes at every turn.
Derek McInnes is welcomed to Rangers by chief executive Jim Gillespie earlier this summer
McInnes was hired on the basis that he would bring a backbone to Rangers. He would give the team structure and purpose, make them more difficult to play against.
There has been none of that so far. Rangers have been weak in defence and devoid of creativity at the top end of the pitch.
The news that Youssef Chermiti is now set for an extended period on the sidelines after suffering an ACL injury against Hibs only adds to the problems.
Listen, no one doubts that Gillespie’s words were well-intentioned. He was trying to defend the appointment of McInnes and offer fans some level of reassurance.
But it felt clumsy and naïve. It was an unforced error, one which tightens the screws on a manager still searching for his first win – and still seeking to convince some fans he’s the right man for the job.
Make no mistake, McInnes is already under the cosh. Failure to win any of their three opening matches represents a poor start to the season for any Rangers manager.
The fact he looks the part in a club suit and brown brogues – and the fact he ‘gets it’ – does not spare him from that level of scrutiny.
Rangers’ 2-1 defeat to Jagiellonia Bialystok has put their Europa League hopes in jeopardy
The 2-1 defeat to Jagiellonia Bialystok in a Europa League qualifier in Poland last week leaves Rangers with it all to do in tomorrow night’s second leg in Glasgow.
If they were to be knocked out and fall down into the Europa Conference League, the noise around McInnes would only intensify. The Klopp comparisons would only look all the more ridiculous.
Football managers do not benefit from inflated historical comparisons when results are conspicuous by their absence.
The gap between empty rhetoric and the current product being served up to supporters is already wide enough. Widening it further serves little purpose.
McInnes is a vastly experienced manager. He knows the club and he knows the landscape. He will be under no illusions about what is required.
Quite frankly, he doesn’t need – or probably want – to be packaged and sold as the Scottish Jurgen Klopp.
He did not ask to be lumbered with this comparison, but it is one which will now inevitably colour the early part of his Rangers tenure.
This is classic Rangers territory. The club has a long history of talking itself into corners.
McInnes has endured three winless games to start his reign and he needs to turn it around fast
Ambition is fine. Expectation is inevitable at Ibrox. But there is a difference between setting high standards and creating impossible early benchmarks with one of the greatest managers of the modern era.
The timing only serves to compound Gillespie’s error of judgment. Even this early in the McInnes era, the second leg against the Poles feels huge. It’s must-win.
A section of the crowd are already growing restless. In their three matches so far this term, Rangers have been wholly unconvincing.
To blame that purely on a flawed recruitment strategy over previous years is an argument born of convenience.
In this respect, McInnes has not helped himself. Some of his team selections, and his deployment of players in certain positions, have been puzzling.
His claim that the performance against Hibs on Sunday wasn’t all that bad didn’t really wash either. Rangers were, by and large, dreadful.
The crowd will be demanding tomorrow night. The players will know the stakes. Progress in Europe can shape the narrative for a season ahead.
McInnes will be judged on whether his side can show the necessary quality and aggression that were missing in Poland last week.
A strong performance and progression would buy him breathing space. Anything less, after the Klopp talk, will make the criticism sharper and the questions louder.
McInnes tries to encourage his side during a hydration break in the first leg defeat in Poland
In the end, this episode says more about the club’s presentational instincts than about McInnes’s methods.
Football managers live and die by results. They do not need their employers raising the bar with unnecessary historical name-dropping when the team is still finding its feet.
Gillespie’s intervention was well-intentioned in the narrow sense of defending the appointment and seeking to reassure fans.
In the broader sense it was foolish. It adds heat and scrutiny where cool heads are required.
In the fullness of time, it could be a millstone around the neck of McInnes. It also leaves the manager carrying a comparison he never asked for at a moment when he can least afford the extra weight.
Results will decide whether McInnes is the right man. The Klopp line only makes the early weeks harder than they needed to be.
Gillespie’s words have only invited greater scrutiny, and, in some corners, even mockery.
At Rangers, that is a familiar and entirely avoidable story.
Why self-serving McKinlay won’t be missed at Tynecastle
Given the way their team had been pummelled from pillar to post in Europe, it had been a painful start to the new season for Hearts supporters.
With new manager Wouter Vrancken struggling to make much of an impact, fans were starting to question whether Jamestown Analytics had made a boo-boo with the appointment of the Belgian.
A 4-0 win over Dundee United on Sunday finally got things up and running and served as a much-needed boost to morale at Tynecastle.
Andrew McKinlay’s departure from Hearts has gone well with Tynecastle supporters
Barely 24 hours later, fans were given further cause for celebration when it was announced that Andrew McKinlay is to leave his position as the club’s chief executive.
Make no mistake, McKinlay won’t be missed. The overwhelming feeling among supporters is that he never truly had the club’s best interests at heart. An empty jersey.
Especially over these last few months, McKinlay’s reluctance to challenge the SFA and take them on given what happened at the end of last season showed weakness.
The conflict of interest he had with the governing body, given that he was appointed SFA vice-president earlier this year, looked all the more awkward.
There was always the feeling that McKinlay fancied himself for a top job within the SFA, a feeling that he was merely feathering his own nest elsewhere away from Tynecastle.
With Mike Mulraney in with the bricks at FIFA and clearly eyeing a move away from Hampden, don’t be surprised if McKinlay moves up to become president fairly soon.
The fact that Hearts fans were cheering from the rafters on Monday when McKinlay’s exit was announced speaks volumes about the regard in which he is held.
As far as they are concerned, it’s a case of good riddance.
