FORMER Rangers striker Kris Boyd has insisted that fans of the Govan club "deserve more" than the current coverage they're getting - adding that legendary ex-manager Walter Smith would not have accepted the Premiership winners' current awkward relationship with the media.
The Glasgow giants are asking for five-figure sums in exchange for access to Steven Gerrard and his players this season, meaning only 'official media partners' of the club are allowed to ask questions at press conferences.
Boyd feels that with Gerrard and his squad facing less scrutiny due to fielding fewer questions than in previous campaigns, supporters are being short-changed as they're "only getting told what the club wants them to hear".
Writing in his column in the Scottish Sun, Boyd reasoned: "With the way things are going, surely none of those supporters think that’s a good thing.
"I know I have questions I want asked of Steven Gerrard after that defeat to Malmo the other night. Questions no ‘media partner’ is going to dare pipe up with.
"But here’s the thing supporters need to open their eyes to, something they need to understand about the football press. Top managers USE the papers as much as the papers use them."
The former Ibrox centre-forward - who made over 150 appearances for the team as a player in two separate spells in Glasgow's south side - insisted that the likes of Smith would have perfectly understood the "benefits of having a strong relationship with football writers in this country", adding "that's what the best bosses in the game realise".
Boyd then claimed there is a generation of Rangers supporters who are being left behind by the club's media policy.
"[Rangers] are no longer satisfied with your ordinary punter buying his or her season ticket every year," he wrote. "Rangers want subscriptions bought and paid for.
"Are you a loyal 50-something Gers fan who has supported the club all their life, and buys a paper every day to read about your team? The club isn’t interested in you.
"They are too busy playing up to the younger generation who are on Twitter and watch YouTube.
"That’s their target audience now and that’s what everything is geared towards."
He continued: "These blanket restrictions help no-one. Rangers and Gerrard included. And the fans have to open their eyes to it.
"They need to wonder why they’re being kept in the dark and why the club only want them to hear about certain things.
"They might get away with that mentality when everything in the garden is rosy. But lose a Champions League qualifier to a team like Malmo and it doesn’t wash.
"You’d like to think the Rangers board and everyone involved in this could get round the table and sort things out. It’s still not too late."
Boyd concluded: "It’s impossible to get to the heart of any issue with the way the club is doing things, especially when it is all conducted at arm’s length on Zoom.
"Rangers fans must see this isn’t right. This can’t be the content they’re happy with.
"They deserve more right now. Both on the park and off it, Rangers need to be better."
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