‘Give them a chance’ – Paraag Marathe urges Rangers fans to support new players
Paraag Marathe has pleaded with Rangers fans to give new recruits “a chance”.
New boss Derek McInnes has signed nine new players with the promise of more to come but the 2-1 William Hill Premiership defeat by Hibernian at Ibrox on Sunday meant no wins in his first three games, and trailing Celtic and St Mirren by five points.
To add to the frustrations of the support who are already questioning some of the recruitment and have watched the Light Blues win one title in the last 15, striker Youssef Chermiti – subject to a failed bid by Galatasaray for a reported club record fee of £22million – was taken away on a stretcher in the first half after suffering an impact injury.
Speaking at a Rangers shareholder meeting in Glasgow, advisor and former Gers vice-chairman Marathe responded to suggestions that the jersey often appears to be too heavy for some new players.
He said: “Let me just give one example, let’s just go back in time, nine months, 10 months ago, and talk about Youssef Chermiti (who had signed from Everton for a reported £8million fee).
“Think about the weight that he carried with him, the burden he carried, how much we saw (about) how much we paid for him, whose fault was it, and could he play in the Premiership, and look at how his first few games started out, he was wearing that and it was heavy.
“But internally, we all put our arms around him, we supported him and let him know that we knew we made the right decision in him.
“Look at how the second half of the season turned out for him. Now we’re in a position where we are saying, how much value potentially is there in him?
“So we need to do more of that and honestly, let me just turn this to you all as well, we need your support. You need to support these players as well.
“They need to believe that you believe in them, because it’s a lot easier to crumble if they don’t believe that you believe in them. Give them a chance.
“We are early in the season, give these boys a chance and show them that you support them.
“And if they fail, they’ll fail and we’ll be here a year from now very frustrated, but please give them a chance.”