For many players lining up in blue at Hampden yesterday, this was one last chance. One final opportunity to change the narrative by earning a return to Hampden and waving silver to the sky.

Spoiler alert, there was nothing new or exceptional in defeat. For supporters, this was a painfully repetitive experience in a repetitively painful season stacked full of them; more misery at Parkhead, a record-breakingly bad Champions League campaign or two Old Firm cup exits. Ever since the highs of PSV in August, it’s been a slow steady decline to a campaign now over before the May bank holidays.

Any analysis of yesterday here or elsewhere will prove merely an anagram of the words written after a recent 3-2 defeat at Parkhead. Plenty of potential moments, avoidable concessions and a severe lack of protagonists. “It feels like I’m talking on repeat,” Michael Beale conceded on RangersTV.

There was scope for this to be a better day. Rangers’ concession was inexplicable and of their own making whereas just like in the League Cup Final, Fashion Sakala hit the side netting with the goal gaping after a shot had cracked the post. Moments a manager can’t legislate for but bears the brunt of. Have you heard the old line about winning in both boxes? Rangers failed in that regard again.

In a season dominated by disappointment, this was the latest entry and when deciding the legacy of this team, how costly it could prove.

“We’ve switched off, two or three players. They know, they’re in there, they’re kicking themselves. It’s a big moment in their careers, it’s a costly moment for all of us as a football club,” Beale admitted, nodding to the reality that moments are what make you at Rangers.

Because of all the wonderful memories this team have been responsible for, the lows have also been low. Careers at this club hinge on split decisions and despite fine margins, there’s too much evidence to suggest positive change won’t come without major squad alterations and a refreshment that’s been long required.

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That’s not, to this writer, on the manager especially. Yes, the wait for a win in this fixture is a perilous journey, but like the recent league meeting, Beale will review yesterday’s game with as much frustration as any. Without dependency at either end or real scope to shape this squad, criticism of his performance is tricky. The set-up granted his players a platform they could not capitalise from.

“If you defend, against a very good opponent and keep your goalkeeper quite clean in the whole game and defensively or tactically you think you’ve done reasonably well, likewise if you have big moments at the other end someone has got to step forward, be decisive and take them,” he added.

Defeat spells the end of the season and the end of the road for many. 12 was a number cited in yesterday’s press conference as the possible total of players leaving and arriving this summer. Beale’s managed the campaign with his messaging up to this point but yesterday, knowing that now nothing tangibly exists to play for, the scale of the task ahead has been laid out.

“It will be the biggest rebuild the club has seen in a number of years,” he said.

“I’ve got a group of players I need to manage and keep motivated for the games I’ve been here. It’s obvious I’m not going to condemn and send them away, but it’s also obvious as we get to the summer there is going to be some change.

"If you haven’t heard any news about certain players it would be amiss to not keep asking the same questions. If you don’t hear anything then people’s contracts are running out and it probably gives you a good indication that change is in the air.”

Having reiterated earlier this month that the season’s remaining Old Firms were to decide futures, Beale’s latest admission could not have been any more definitive. Change is coming, but problematically in the wider picture, it’s more due to necessity than opportunity. And likely concedes a treble in the process. 

Alfredo Morelos was once the man to carry this side, now games seem to pass him by. Ryan Kent was once the main fixture in this fixture, a statement that feels so very long ago.

Asked if this was their final Hampden outing yesterday, Beale said: “Possibly, yeah”. The reaction is so far from the heights of adulation both have enjoyed at Ibrox.

There are two sides to blame for yesterday’s defeat, the overall squad picture which requires such drastic work in the summer and, perhaps, collective limitations which have been seen many times before.

Let’s address the former first. “I get when you win everything is brilliant, we wouldn’t be having this discussion if we win the game,” Beale added post-match. That’s an interesting remark when attempting to contextualise what exactly has happened since the summer of 2021.

Has victory too often provided a guise at key junctures? It’s fair now to sit back and question the summers of 2021 and 2022 for lacking the progressive playing squad change to punch ahead. Or the disastrous January 2022 window which failed to propel the club towards retaining the title.

The fault for yesterday’s result extends beyond any of the three men to manage Rangers over the past two seasons. The key to the sustained success that was expected in the summer of 2021 is evolution when in control. Moving through the gears when in front. Rather than fixing the roof while the sun is shining Rangers are now forced to build new foundations altogether under pressure. That should not have been the case from the high ground that was held two years ago.

The tumult of the last two years has been punctuated with wonderful moments, most notably a European run still motoring along this time last year. This team’s faults in cup competitions extend way beyond this year, however. For many, this was another “big moment in their careers” they’ve fallen on the wrong side of.

Highs will be remembered in time but yesterday was a damming end for many, without another meaningful fixture to respond. No legacy is so rich as honesty and as this squad blew their last shot at redemption, Beale's task has never looked bigger.