The whole debate about what “level” Rangers are at keeps coming back around, usually with somebody insisting the English Championship is miles above the SPFL. There is a bit of truth in that, but for me it completely misses the real point about where Rangers actually sit in the food chain.

League level vs club level

As a league, you can easily argue the Championship is stronger top to bottom than the SPFL. Bigger budgets across more clubs, bigger squads, more depth. That all makes sense.

But that doesn’t automatically make it a higher level than Rangers or Celtic as clubs. That’s where the discussion usually goes wrong. You can see it in how many Championship players come up here and just never quite hit the standard that’s needed to play for us.

It’s not only about the league they’ve come from. It’s the size of the club they’re walking into. The pressure, the expectation, the demand to win every single week. That’s a different level altogether. You can be a very good Championship player and still not be anywhere near what’s required to handle Rangers.

We’re stuck in a domestic league with no promotion route out of it, but that doesn’t magically define our level. If you parachuted a club like Real Madrid into the SPFL, the league wouldn’t suddenly become “Real Madrid level”. The same logic applies with Rangers and Celtic. The Old Firm sit above the league in terms of standard, which is exactly why the title barely ever leaves Glasgow.

Europe shows where Rangers really sit

If you genuinely want to measure Rangers’ level, you don’t compare us to mid-table in England’s second tier. You look at Europe. That’s where the real picture appears.

Over recent seasons, Rangers have shown they can get to the latter stages of European competition and go toe to toe with clubs who sit just under the elite sides from the top leagues. That doesn’t happen by accident. It takes quality, organisation and a standard far higher than people give the SPFL credit for.

Those European runs are a far better indication of where the club should be aiming than any lazy line about the Championship being better than our league so it must automatically be a step up.

The danger of underestimating our own standard

This is where recruitment has gone wrong at times. There’s been a feeling, not just in the boardroom but among some of the support too, that if a player is shining in the Championship then they’ll stroll it up here. Time and again that’s proved not to be the case.

Rothwell is an obvious recent example people point to when they talk about that kind of thinking. It looked like a signing based on the idea that doing a job down south automatically means you are at Rangers’ level. We’ve seen enough by now to know that’s a dangerous assumption.

It’s not that Championship players can’t make the step. Plenty can, just like some manage the jump to the Premier League. But simply being good in that division, on its own, isn’t enough. You need mentality, consistency and the ability to handle the unique demand to win here. Some lads who struggle with that still go back down south and look perfectly decent again, which tells its own story.

Setting the bar where it belongs

So when we talk about our “level”, it shouldn’t be in terms of seeing ourselves as a Championship side in disguise. The standard Rangers should be looking at is the kind of team that can regularly compete in Europe, get out of groups and have a proper go in the knockouts.

That’s the expectation that fits the size of this club. Not arrogance, just reality for a club that measures itself on trophies and European nights, not on how we’d get on away to some mid-table English side.

Once recruitment, the board and even the support stay locked into that way of thinking, the hit rate on signings will improve. Championship experience might help, but simply being good at that level is never, on its own, enough to make you a Rangers player.

Written by Kaisercaillaud: 14 December 2025

Tags: transfers europe spfl