There has been a lot said about Nico Raskin in the last week or so, naturally carrying out his first press conference since the summer transfer window. The Belgian international had an awful lot to say about Rangers and about Europe. Naturally, we have questioned the amount that the Rangers media team allowed the journalists to ask, but that’s for another day. We’ve already covered that here.

Nevertheless, Raskin did make a few admissions, and they were very big. There were three massively key takeaways from this press conference that Ibrox Noise has not yet explored. Over the course of today, we are going to look at all three of them and the importance of what the former Standard Liège man said.

Raskin Gutted by Rangers’ European Exit

The first big one that we’re going to look at in this entry is how absolutely gutted Nico Raskin was that Rangers went out of Europe. That is huge.

Raskin was quite adamant and quite abrupt about his rage that his team is not in Europe. It’s the first time, of course, since Raskin joined Rangers that he doesn’t have midweek European football to look forward to. This has been an absolutely huge one.

He said:

“Massive. I think it’s terrible to be sitting at home on a Thursday watching the television. Everyone wants to be playing on a Tuesday or Wednesday, but even being at home on a Thursday is terrible. It is what it is now, so we just need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

If a side comes in during January for Raskin’s signature, who happen to be in Europe, there is a much higher chance that Raskin will accept the transfer and make the move, as long as, of course, the offer is to Rangers’ liking.

Raskin explained that this was gutting, that losing out in Europe and not getting into any form of European football this season was an absolute catastrophe for Rangers.

Domestic Focus Is No Substitute for Europe

He was also questioned on the notion that not having Europe might actually help domestically, and he did agree that it could enhance the side’s focus on domestic affairs.

But the reality is every player wants European football. They want to test themselves in glamorous locations, foreign locations and have lesser known teams arriving at Ibrox in continental competition.

Raskin and the rest of the team do not have that this season, and he was at pains to point out how bad a dropping of the ball this was.

January Transfer Implications

As we said before, every Rangers player wants Europe, including Nico Raskin and the possibility that he could move to a team that has Europe in January has, by this admission, hugely increased.

If an offer comes in during January from any team in the Europa League or the Champions League, there’s a very strong possibility that, if it’s a good offer from a decent team in a decent league, Raskin will make that move.

He has not been under any illusions about how important Europe actually was to him. It really was a stinger to go out of Europe, to say the least, and Raskin has been very explicit about that.