There was a time not that long ago when Rangers enjoyed Old Firm games as their rivals do now.

Steven Gerrard’s record read eight wins, one draw and four losses in 15 matches during a spell that spanned roughly three years. During the season Gerrard won the league, his side came out on top in five of six meetings. Gerrard’s last win in the fixture, sealed by the head of Fil Helander while the manager watched on at home with Covid-19, is also Rangers’ most recent Old Firm win of significance in the league.

Yes, they defeated Ange Postecoglou’s side in extra time later that season on the way to lifting the Scottish Cup, and triumphed under Michael Beale’s management when the title had already been decided last year, but three years and 13 other intervening league meetings have ended without a win since. The club's record reads two wins, three draws and 11 losses since that Helander header. You cannot analyse the micro of yesterday's 3-0 loss without the macro of how Rangers got here. This owes to a pattern rather than an isolated problem. 

The first win Gerrard managed over Celtic in December 2018 was a big one. So many humblings and humiliations had been handed out in two seasons prior with Mark Warburton, Pedro Caxiniha and Graeme Murty taking charge. Rangers fans had to wait two-and-a-half years for that win against Celtic which Ryan Jack earned after returning to the top flight in the summer of 2016. Somehow the current wait is longer. It’s now over three years since Rangers' last big Old Firm win in the league, which came on the 29th of August 2021. Defeat in the Old Firm hasn’t just become familiar for Rangers, it’s become the expectation.

Is the job that Philippe Clement faces now at Ibrox really that different from Gerrard’s? With a rival far ahead, a squad that required/still requires rebuilding, Brendan Rodgers in the opposite dugout and a gap to bridge. The respective spending and respective selling by either club over the course of this summer transfer window is descriptive of a gap. Losing the pole position achieved in the title race last season and the associated riches of the Champions League has never appeared more damaging.

Daizen Maeda celebrates his opener (Image: PA)

The difference? Two years before Gerrard arrived in Govan the club were travelling to play Alloa and Dumbarton. Two years before this summer they were playing in a European final.

That's why the anger and, let's be honest, apathy appears so strongly just now. Can you really criticise fans who've sat through those 16 Old Firm games post-Gerrard for switching off at the talk of how Rangers will get out of this mire, and simply expecting to see the plan in action? 

To go on the type of journey Gerrard was afforded you need collective buy-in and patience - and let’s be honest it was hardly smooth last time around. There also needs to be a clear vision that the journey will be worth it. Clement did superbly well to turn fortunes last season and it shouldn’t be forgotten that external crisis has rarely been far away in his tenure. Whether it be multiple exits across leadership positions, playing home games at Hampden or a summer window that was somewhat hamstrung by an inability to totally clear the decks. As the Rangers Review wrote after a Champions League exit years of sub-par decision-making above the manager's office have caught up this summer. And yet in Glasgow, circumstances can only protect you so long if Old Firm defeats continue.

“We will see in January,” Clement said post-match when asked if he’d acknowledge a gap between the two teams.

“Of course, Celtic are a team with this team that started playing already more than one year, some guys are playing two, three years together, so many times together. We are just at the start with a new squad, a new team," Clement reasoned after the final whistle.

Asked later in his press conference at Parkhead if patience from the fans was a necessity Clement replied, “There is no other choice”. His diagnosis is right. Short-term thinking doesn’t solve a long-term problem and variations of this game have played out under both of Clement’s immediate predecessors. Here, his team started aggressively and were calm on the ball while creating the best two opening chances. Their profligacy in this fixture is not new, but did Celtic ever seem put off their stride for more than 10 minutes? 

Read more:

Why Rangers can't only blame a red card for their Champions League exit

The vicious Old Firm cycle that's trapped Rangers for 3 seasons - and how to escape

The smartest decision that Celtic have made in contrast to their rivals over recent years is this: doing the same thing.

A novel concept not, but recruiting for a similar style and seeking continuity in the dugout to extend it beyond managers catalyses the consistency that players need to grow and thrive. Rodgers’ side recruited terribly last summer and were vulnerable this time last year but left Ibrox with a 1-0 victory and mistakes unpunished. Yes, they required Rangers slipping up having surrendered control of the title race themselves but clicked into gear around the spring just as their rivals stalled. Compare and contrast their familiar line-up in this fixture over different seasons, much like Gerrard’s team achieved, to the multiple combinations attempted by various Rangers managers in the same breath, chopping and changing between formations and visions.

As written previously, "Lessons [had not] been learned in the Old Firm because who has been there to apply lessons between managerial change?" While yesterday wasn't as familiar as last season from a player point of view, the legacy of football decisions over the past four seasons have set the scene for no player-trading and a far shyer budget than Celtic.

Whether Rangers have done good work in the summer window will take time to properly assess. 16 players have left, a lot of whom contributed far under their wage, and the money paid out on contracts has come down significantly. The job Clement inherited is not a normal one as various comments in the past number of months have reiterated. The club are trying to rectify past errors by shopping in new markets and dialling back on the premium deals Champions League football catalysed. What is clear from here is that Clement and his team have to convince supporters that going on the journey and buying into the vision can make days like yesterday a thing of the past. Because right now, these days Gerrard's era appeared to end are closer than ever before.