‘A lot of regret’ for Mohamed Diomande after Rangers’ poor season

Mohamed Diomande will look back with regret when Rangers’ wretched domestic campaign ends trophyless.

The Light Blues reached the Europa League quarter-finals before exiting to Athletic Bilbao but on the home front it is Old Firm rivals Celtic who continue to dominate with the Hoops, crowned William Hill Premiership champions for the 13th time in 14 seasons last week, bidding for the treble.

Rangers have beaten Celtic in their last two league games but are 17 points behind going into the final derby of the season at Ibrox on Sunday.

And while Diomande believes a win would help belief for next term, where Rangers will likely be under the new ownership of a US-based consortium who visited the stadium this week, he accepts this season will still sit uneasily with him.

The 23-year-old Ivory Coast midfielder said: “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.”

Diomande scored in the 3-2 victory at Parkhead in March and is looking to help the Light Blues register three league wins over Celtic in the same season for the first time since 2020/21.

He said: “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 said: “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.”