Rangers midfielder Mohamed Diomande admits he feels full of regret as another dismal season nears its conclusion.
As they prepare to host Celtic at Ibrox this afternoon, Rangers are already guaranteed to finish the campaign without a trophy.
Rangers reached the Europa League quarter-finals before losing to Athletic Bilbao, but have endured another season of failure on the domestic front.
Treble-chasing Celtic have already wrapped up the league title for the fourth successive season and for the 13th time in the past 14 years.
Rangers have beaten their bitter rivals in each of the past two league meetings, with Diomande scoring in the 3-2 win at Celtic Park back in March.
But the Ibrox midfielder admits that isn’t enough to ease the pain of such a wretched campaign which saw Philippe Clement sacked as manager and replaced by Barry Ferguson.
Mohamed Diomande admits Rangers’ season has fallen well short of the required standard
Diomande is urged on by interim boss Barry Ferguson in the 3-2 victory at Parkhead
The Ivorian on the ball in the defeat to Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League quarter-final
Rangers go into the match 17 points behind Celtic and, with the US takeover edging closer, Diomande believes victory would help build belief for next season.
‘I think it would help with belief for next season,’ said the 23-year-old Ivorian. ‘We’ve won two games against them. It’s in the other games that we have struggled.
‘I don’t see any problem for Sunday, I know we are going to be ready for this game. I know that’s something that happens every time we play against Celtic.
‘I don’t want to look back at the season already with four games still to go, but looking back I know there’s going to be a lot of regret from a lot of us.
‘We thought we could push in the other games. We know we’ll be ready for this game. Our fans want us to beat them and we’ll be trying to do that.
‘Speaking for myself personally, I know I’m going to be hard on myself. And I’ve been hard on myself a lot of times. That’s what I feel. I don’t know what other players are feeling.’
On his goal against Celtic back in March, Diomande continued: ‘It’s always nice to score against your direct rivals and I was happy to score against them. The win was important.
‘We always want to beat them. We know the rivalry is from a long time ago.
‘We know what it means to the fans who come to support us. For a long time they couldn’t come to support us at Parkhead. It was good to get that win for them.
‘It’s going to mean something to our fans. I know they have already won the league. But we still want to win our games and we want to win at Ibrox again.’
Asked why Rangers have struggled against the smaller clubs this season, Diomande added: ‘I think when we play other teams, they are more defensive-minded.
‘I think we’ve struggled to create a lot of chances. That’s been the biggest problem and the biggest challenge for us.
‘I really hope we can find a way to break teams down. We’ve got four games left and I’m already looking forward to next season and to be ready for every team we are going to face.’
