A Rangers Love Affair With Ian Black

Once hated by the Rangers support for his hard tackling and no-nonsense approach to midfield enforcement when facing the Ibrox side, Black has now become the darling of the Rangers support since signing for them.

Once hated by the Rangers support for his hard tackling and no-nonsense approach to midfield enforcement when facing the Ibrox side, Black has now become the darling of the Rangers support since signing for them.

It is an all too predictable scenario for one of Scottish football's so-called hard men.

In his first five games for Third Division Rangers, Black has already picked up three bookings. While his 38 appearances for Hearts last term, Black was booked 13 times and sent off twice.

Up until his move to Ibrox, Black was hated by the Rangers support for an injury he inflicted on former Rangers star striker Nikica Jelavic. A tackle that saw Jelavic ruled out for the rest of 2010 and only returned to the side on January 18th 2011 as a second half substitute for Vladimir Weiss in the 1-0 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

While Black stated via the official Hearts website at the time, that there was no malice or intent on his part to injure Jelavic, the Rangers support and Jelavic likewise thought differently.

The Croatian striker said at the time: "I'm mad at him, of course I am angry. It was an obvious intent to hit me - he had no chance of getting the ball.

"He could have tried to stop me by pulling my shirt, but he was going to stop me any way he could. It should have been a red card. Can you imagine? A yellow card for a tackle that costs me three months? But I won't take revenge when we next play - that's not what I am like."

After that Black was public enemy number two [enemy number one being Celtic's Neil Lennon] and every time he donned the maroon jersey for Hearts against Rangers he was booed and abused by the support than now cheer his name and his approach to midfield enforcement.

What a difference a summer makes though, as Black went from being more hated than Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi to lauded as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Of course there were those who hated the thought of him in a Rangers top, to a certain extent like those elements who hated the thought of Maurice Johnston in a Rangers top - for different reasons though.

But in his first game for Rangers against Brechin City in the league cup, the booing and the abuse stopped. For the Rangers fans look upon Black as one of their own now and that liason will see all past sins forgiven.

As for Black he is now plying his trade in the Scottish Third Division, on SPL wages. If he wanted an easy payday and an easy ride in the fourth tier of Scottish football, he will know by now that is not the case and that every game that Rangers play will be a hard slog - especially away from home as who made the trips to Peterhead and Berwick can testify too.

There may be many fans across the country that would call Black a mercenary, for going down to the Third Division rather than make the move to England or even stay in the Scottish Premier League. But according to Black it is the draw of the fans that helped him make the decision to make the drop.

He said: "People might ask why I came to play in the SFL. But I'd say to them, 'Would you play for Rangers in front of 40,000 fans every second week'? Our fans are up there with the best in the world and this club is one of the biggest in the world."

Whether that is true or not, Black has already turned the majority of Rangers supporters around in his favour, time will tell if he becomes lauded as much as another midfield enforcer is, Lee McCulloch.

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