Rangers have crashed out of Europe at the qualifying stage and Derek McInnes' unwanted record in UEFA competition has followed him to Ibrox.
The Light Blues suffered a 4-3 penalty shoot-out defeat to Jablonec on Thursday night after the Czech side levelled the Conference League play-off tie at 1-1 on aggregate with Findlay Curtis and James Penrice missing decisive kicks.
Ryan Naderi's first-leg goal had given Rangers the advantage heading into the return, but Vakhtang Tchanturishvili's second-half equaliser forced extra time before the tie ultimately went to penalties.
As mentioned, Rangers missed twice from the spot and were eliminated from European competition altogether.
It means the club will not play league-phase European football for the first time since the 2017/18 season when Pedro Caixinha’s Gers infamously lost 2-1 on aggregate to Luxembourgian side Progres Niederkorn. The defeat also extends a striking pattern that has followed McInnes throughout his managerial career.
The now-Rangers boss has now gone through eight European qualifying campaigns without once taking a team through to the league/group phase and that record stretches back more than a decade.
McInnes' European record
McInnes' first taste of European qualifying came with Aberdeen in 2014/15.
The Dons successfully negotiated Latvians Daugava and impressively eliminated Dutch side Groningen before eventually being eliminated by Real Sociedad in the third qualifying round 5-2 on aggregate.
A year later, Aberdeen again progressed through the opening rounds, beating Shkendija and Rijeka before losing to Kairat Almaty at the third qualifying-round stage.
The pattern continued in 2016/17 when Aberdeen overcame Fola Esch and Ventspils but were eliminated by Maribor, again in the third qualifying round.
Then came 2017/18, when the Dons beat Siroki Brijeg before losing to Apollon Limassol.
It was the fourth consecutive season in which McInnes had taken Aberdeen to the third qualifying round only to see their European campaign end there. Contemporary analysis highlighted that run as a particularly unwanted European record for the manager.
His final two European campaigns with Aberdeen followed the same broad pattern. In 2018/19, Burnley ended Aberdeen's run in the third qualifying round, winning 4-2 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw at Pittodrie with a famous Lewis Ferguson goal at Turf Moor being the highlight.
In 2019/20, Aberdeen again reached the third qualifying round after defeating RoPS Rovaniemi and Chikhura Sachkhere, only to lose both legs against Rijeka and go out 4-0 on aggregate to the Croatians they had beaten several years prior.
There was therefore no league/group phase appearance during McInnes' long European tenure at Pittodrie.
Kilmarnock offered another opportunity
McInnes' next opportunity came with Kilmarnock in 2024.
The Rugby Park side entered the Europa League qualifying round against Cercle Brugge and were narrowly eliminated 2-1 on aggregate.
That defeat did at least send Killie into the Conference League rather than ending their European adventure.
They subsequently beat Tromso to reach the final qualifying round, a significant achievement for the club, before Danish giants FC Copenhagen ended their run.
The important point, however, was that Kilmarnock still did not reach the league phase and now Rangers have suffered the same fate.
Rangers were supposed to be different
That makes Thursday night's result particularly damaging for McInnes. Rangers are operating at a completely different level of resource and expectation to the Aberdeen and Kilmarnock teams he previously took into Europe and have spent far more than either Jagiellonia or Jablonec this window.
The club's stated ambition is to compete in the Champions League and Europa League, not merely participate in qualifying, and failure to even make UEFA’s third-rated competition is an unmitigated disaster.
"The club's built for Europa League and Champions League and that's the intention, to get there,” he said.
He also admitted Rangers had not been ready to compete at Europa League level following that defeat.
The move into the Conference League play-offs provided a second opportunity to salvage something from the European campaign.
Rangers had the perfect platform, too. A 1-0 victory over Jablonec at Ibrox meant McInnes' side only needed to protect their advantage in the Czech Republic to reach the league phase.
Instead, they were beaten 1-0 on the night and then lost the shoot-out 4-3.
The consequences are significant. Rangers are out of Europe before the league phase for the first time since 2017/18.
Now for McInnes, the sequence that has followed him from Pittodrie to Rugby Park and now Ibrox continues.
Eight European qualifying campaigns. Eight failures to reach the league/group phase.
At Aberdeen, those exits came against clubs such as Real Sociedad, Kairat, Maribor, Apollon, Burnley and Rijeka.
For Kilmarnock, there were defeats to Cercle Brugge and Copenhagen. Now Jagiellonia and Jablonec have been added to the list with Rangers.
There is no suggestion that all those failures can simply be placed at McInnes' door. Several of those Aberdeen sides were punching well above their financial weight, while the Kilmarnock run in 2024 represented one of the club's best European adventures in years.
But the statistic is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, McInnes has consistently been able to get his teams through some European qualifying rounds.
What he has never managed is the final step into the competition proper. At Rangers, that was supposed to change.
Instead, the same old European story has continued, and this time the cost is Rangers' entire continental campaign.
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