Are these three men Rangers’ worst-ever managers?

In my honest opinion, Ally McCoist, Paul Le Guen and Mark Warburton are the three biggest failures that Rangers have ever had in management. If I have missed anyone as inept as those, please correct me.

Ally McCoist failed miserably to take us from the Championship into the SPL because, he signed too many poor players that couldn’t beat average teams – does it sound familiar to Warburton?

He was reputed to earn £860,000 a season by the old board for winning Scottish football’s two lowest divisions – an absolute disgrace! He also took the team to Trump Turnberry on the Friday night on their way to play Stranraer on a Saturday – at what cost to Rangers who were short of money? Idiotic!

He also failed to offer goalkeeper Craig Gordon a deal (signed by Celtic on a free) who was training with Rangers at Murray Park to see if he could get himself playing again at a high level. When Craig
Gordon was asked on STV why he didn’t sign for Rangers, especially as he was training with all the boys, he said, “I wasn’t offered a contract by Ally McCoist” Celtic have just refused a £3m offer from Chelsea for the player – what a howler of a mistake to make as a Rangers manager.

In three years as our manager, his tactics were abysmal and he had us playing dreadful football, for me, he was the worst Rangers manager ever! Will I ever forgive him for being such a complete disaster? No.
He did sign his old pal – the brilliant Kenny Miller – I’ll give him deserved praise for that, and only that.

Paul Le Guen became our 12th manager in June 2006 replacing Alex McLeish, and I have placed him as my second worst Rangers manager ever!

Before arriving he had won three consecutive titles with Lyon and guided them to two Champions League quarter finals in successive years. He felt that Rangers were the right club for him to continue his promising managerial career. And why not? Rangers were a huge club with a vast history, a massive and loyal fan base, and years of success which was apparent with one look in their trophy room.

Despite good undefeated performances in Europe, the domestic situation could not save Le Guen’s job, and he left the club by mutual consent after Rangers had been knocked out of the 2006/07 Scottish League Cup by First Division side St Johnstone and fallen 17 points behind Celtic in the 2006/07 Scottish Premier League.

A public spat with captain Barry Ferguson further isolated Le Guen from the dressing room. Describing the captaincy of Rangers as not being that important caused the fans and the board to lose any patience they may have held towards him – it was over!

After only 7 months and 31 games played, in January 2007, Le Guen left Rangers by mutual consent, which is still our shortest-ever reigning manager.

Some fans believed that Le Guen needed some more time, but everybody admitted he made too many wrong signings to play in the hurly-burly SPL – does it sound familiar to Warburton?

Mark Warburton arrived in June 2015, with high hopes of success after showing good progress with Brentford.

I tried to tell all our readers months ago, that Warburton was another Le Guen. The poll results of my last article regarding the possible improvement of manager Warburton were as follows:

1.    Give Warburton more time to turn it around. 55%
2.    Give him the season and write this one off. 22%
3.    Sack him. 23%

The site poll showed that only 23% agreed with me that he was not the man to take Rangers any further. I was totally convinced that Warburton’s Rangers flattered to deceive and did not have what it takes to earn 3 points at Celtic Park, Pittodrie and Tynecastle. Warburton continued to employ diabolical and naïve attacking tactics resulting with continued losses.

The majority of our readers wanted Mark to change from his 4 3 3 formation and start gaining points to enable the team to be second this season. We have the biggest wage bill after Celtic, so second place should be achievable.

For a fairly small amount of money, we have a substantial squad of free transfer and cheap players who must develop a winning mentality to earn their high wages. Our play is so predictable that opponents know how to negate our system, proving that even having over 65% possession, is not always the ‘Holy Grail’ to winning a match.
  
I wrote months ago: – For goodness sake – wake up – shake up and make up your mind to change from your plan A to plan B with a fluid 4 1 4 1 or 3 5 2 or 4 4 2 formations, or it will cost you your job.

Warburton’s ‘magic hat’ soon turned into a ‘dunce’s cap’, and he didn’t listen to the advice of experts, journalists or even the fans of the club who had the brains to understand where it all went wrong!
Any diehard fan seemed able to offer him a constructive plan B – why could he not see it for himself?

I know MW, DW and FMc, have made changes throughout the club with a new youth set-up and Graeme Murty was brought in as coach for the U20’s side – in fact – everything seemed to be going OK, except the first team results.

I predicted and compared Mark Warburton to Paul Le Guen who never fully understood the mind-set of Rangers. I knew that unbearable media and fan pressure would simmer the moment he lost important results. It panned out and boiled over and Ibrox became a pressure cooker of discontent for Warburton.

He didn’t use his loaf with Brentford, Rangers or the interest shown by Nottingham Forrest, so now he’s toast (see what I did there)?

Here’s hoping the board make the right appointment this time so our Club can finally move on and be what it should be.