Nicolas Raskin was missing again as Rangers closed their season with a 5-2 win over Falkirk, after being left out of the squad for the final Old Firm derby on 10 May and then sitting out the club’s last two matches.
That sequence has kept the midfielder at the centre of discussion at Ibrox, where his absence this month was first noticed when he was omitted for the game against Celtic. Stevie Clifford of Four Lads Had a Dream later reported that Raskin is injured, which explained why he did not feature again as Rangers finished the campaign.
The latest twist came from the Falkirk Stadium on Saturday, where Ronnie Charters said Coll Donaldson told him that Raskin and other unused Rangers substitutes were watching Celtic’s dramatic title-winning victory over Hearts during half-time while Rangers were playing Falkirk. Charters relayed the remark as: “Coll Donaldson was telling us all the Rangers players were watching the Celtic game at Falkirk. The unused subs and all, Nico Raskin and all were watching the game, not watching their own team, at half-time.”
That detail landed because the season had already prompted questions about the mood inside the Rangers dressing room. There had been concern that Raskin had fallen out with Danny Rohl after the midfielder was omitted from the squad to face Celtic on 10 May, but the report that he is injured later undercut that theory. Even so, the talk around the club has not gone away. Rangers have been discussed as having a mentality problem, and the image of players watching Celtic instead of the match in front of them will not calm that debate.
The backdrop is wider than one player. Raskin is in the mix to be the next Rangers captain despite being linked with a move away from the club, while James Tavernier did not start against Hibernian last week and is now ending his 11-year stint at Ibrox. Rohl was also heard demanding “leaders” from Andrew Cavenagh in the Tynecastle tunnel after the defeat to Hearts, a brief exchange that matched the sense that Rangers’ leadership issue is being talked about in public as much as it is in private.
For Raskin, the immediate issue is simpler: he has been unavailable this month, and Rangers have finished the season without him. What comes next is whether that absence is treated as only an injury interruption or as part of a bigger conversation about who sets the standard at Ibrox next season.
