FRESH from Rangers’ latest training session, Joe Aribo has detailed the hard work he and his teammates have been putting in over the last fortnight to be ready for the new season.
Aribo and his teammates were put through their places at Liverpool’s new AXA Training Centre ahead of the game against Tranmere Rovers, their second pre-season friendly.
Though Rangers slipped to a narrow defeat to Tranmere Rovers after a first-half rocket from Kieron Morris proved enough for the League Two outfit to beat Gerrard’s Premiership champions at Prenton Park, Aribo remarked on just how much work he and his fellow Light Blues players have been doing.
Speaking to RangersTV, he said: “One thing I can say is it has been tough! It has been nice to come back and see the boys first of all, but the training has been really intense and the staffs have pushed us hard so it has been tough.”
Taste of winning
Like all of his fellow teammates, there is a deep desire to build on the highs of last season, and he continued: “During the summer, we had a lot of time to think about it, enjoy it and it is now onto the new season and we want to do what we did last season again – continue winning and be successful.
“Once you get that taste of winning, you want to win again and win even more – you never want to lose, and that is just going to drive us even more to push and be the best we can be all season long.”
Of the Tranmere test, he added: “It was a good test for us and we need to take every game as it comes. We have got to push and get our minutes in to find our fitness.
“We need to take our bodies to a level that we haven’t been at since the end of last season, so it will be a good test for us.”
Champions of Scotland
Aribo recalled the delightful moments when he helped the team win vital matches and scoring important goals, like when he got on the scoresheet against Dundee United.
The match played at Ibrox ended 4-1 in favour of the host team.
The midfielder netted a superb second-half strike to help Gerrard’s side to another three points in the Scottish Premiership.
Gers were 2-0 up at the break thanks to Ianis Hagi and Ryan Kent goals, before Aribo and Alfredo Morelos increased the advantage in the second-half.
Aribo said: “The boys are buzzing, we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game.
“We had to start fast and give all we could in the game to get a foothold and just keep going throughout the whole 90 minutes.”
Aribo admitted he had been practicing his shooting technique and was thrilled to see his effort hit the back of the net.
Aribo further attributed his impressive run to the support he has been enjoying from the tutelage of teammate Steven Davis.
“Davis is a top role model for me and many other players of the team. We all look up to him. I take hints from him on how to better my game. I hope to continue to improve on my personal game.”
Davis made his 300th appearance for Rangers against Motherwell, and it comes as no surprise to Aribo that he is continuing to reach such milestones.
He said: “When you see everything he does in and around the building, when we are in recovery and you see him in the gym – he is a wonderful pro.
“You can see why he is doing all of that and why he has played 300 games. He is a model pro and a role model to me.
“When you play a game you want to come off with assists and goals and I feel like I need to improve that bit of my game and I just want to analyse and see where I can improve.”
With winter weather affecting pitches around Scotland, Aribo says there will be no excuses as Rangers prepare to face Ross County at Ibrox tomorrow.
He continued: “I think for me personally, I can’t really use the excuse of a pitch because I have played on much worse where I’ve come from.
“It is an easy excuse to blame the pitch, obviously sometimes the ball might bobble and what not but for me it’s not a good excuse.
“We just want to take every game as it comes. We don’t want to look at going on long runs because we know that every single match day we have to get the three points and put in a good performance as a team.”
Inspiration
Looking back on the journey to becoming a mainstay of Gerrard’s Scottish title-winning side and Nigeria’s key man in midfield, Aribo’s story has inspired scores of youngsters hoping to make their way in the game.
Aribo is a proof that the academy route is not the only one into football and proof that if you believe you can achieve, no matter how unlikely it can at times seem.
The midfielder has 17 goals in 88 games since arriving at Ibrox from Charlton in June 2019
Londoner Aribo was approaching his teens and part of Fulham’s Kicks community project when he first dreamed of becoming a professional.
‘Seeing Fulham, the team, first-hand, going to the training ground, was just amazing,’ Aribo said, reminiscing. ‘It was like “yeah, this is where I want to be playing.” Being close to it, seeing it but not really being in it, you want it more.
‘I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to get to a level where I can say I’m a professional footballer.’
Though it was not until Aribo was 19 that he joined his first professional club, Charlton, and 20 that he made his senior debut.
And there were many points before that when Aribo feared such milestone moments would never be reached.
Nowadays, though, he is rubbing shoulders with players he watched growing up like teammate Jermain Defoe, receiving priceless guidance from ‘father figure’ Gerrard and his No.2 Gary McAllister among others, and has helped Rangers end their long title wait and Celtic’s dominance of Scotland’s top division.
‘I honestly thank God,’ a grateful Aribo said. ‘Without God I don’t know where I would be. Sometimes I just literally think “wow, look at how far you’ve come” and there are still places you are going to go. This isn’t the end of it.’
Aribo has adapted impressively to every step up he has had to make, both for club and country.
Better suited to playing higher up than in non-league, where the ball can spend more time in the air than central midfield, other adjustments were required from Aribo when joining Charlton.
‘I remember my first pre-season I was coming home from training and sleeping straight away,’ he smiled. ‘I couldn’t handle it at the start.
‘I wasn’t good with timekeeping either and used to get in trouble with Jason Euell for that and I had to learn quick, the hard way, and improve my time keeping.’
At Rangers he has found greater demands from the fans but increased adulation too.
Aribo revealed that he couldn’t hear himself think during his first taste of the Old Firm derby
‘I would say probably the day I signed [was when he realised just how big Rangers are],’ Aribo said.
‘It was like a whole different ball game. I was staying in a hotel initially and went into town quickly just to get a few bits and people are asking me for pictures, stopping me and I’m thinking “wow this is my first day, I’ve just signed.” That was overwhelming.
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