Glad to see the back of the Three Stooges

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Glad to see the back of the Three Stooges
Article by: Richard Fillingham
 
Last Friday, Rangers announced the accepted resignations of Warburton, Weir and McParland and it made me very happy. I was convinced that they had a wonderful opportunity to do great things at Ibrox, but ended up making a complete pig’s ear of the job.

Rangers tried to go in a different direction with Warburton and co, to see if it could work, and his job was to come in and try to restructure the club from the youth level right up to the first team. He insisted on playing an attacking style throughout the system and in his first year in the Championship it was hard to criticise him, apart from the Scottish Cup Final defeat against Hibernian and also in the away losses to both Falkirk and Hibernian.

The step up to the Scottish Premiership was always going to be difficult in the first season, especially with Rangers not having a big budget to spend, but when you sign too many average players and poor defenders, you are literally asking for trouble.

No wonder Brendan Rodgers has expressed his sadness at the departure of Mark Warburton from Rangers, just like I was devastated when Ronny Delia was found out by the Celtic board. Why? Because Ronny did a terrible job for the East End team, reminiscent of what Mark did for us.

We are now in an historic 27 points trail behind the Premiership leaders and 3 points behind second placed Aberdeen in our first season back in the SPL. Another worry is a revitalised Hearts playing well since signing so many good players during the winter transfer period and are presently only 6 points behind us in the race for third place. They could easily catch Rangers if we fail to improve on our recent bad run of results.

I shudder to think what will happen to the Rangers revival if we are knocked out of the first three places and out of Europe for next season. It will cause the present board yet more financial repercussions.

In my opinion the board are taking a colossal gamble by risking the future of Rangers by giving the too inexperienced under-20s manager Murty the chance to make more mistakes than Warburton and co. If we lose to Dundee and against bottom-of-the-league Inverness, then we are probably doomed, and so would Murty be.

I thought Graeme looked like a fish out of water during the cup win over Morton and he gave me the impression he was not confident enough to be thrown into this unusual position that seemed to be forced upon him. The decision truly appals me as it can only be based on money; it is a move that costs us nothing to use his services. Are you kidding? It could cost us millions in season tickets and no Europe, if he makes a mess of it all. I remember Ian Durrant being put in the same position at Ibrox and he lost the match and looked totally forlorn.

How would you feel about Alex McLeish and Billy Davies working together to sort Rangers out as an interim management team until the end of the season?  Some of our supporters seem to have some questions marks about them, but I think that together it could work out very well.

If Murty feels his loyalty is with Warburton, and going by his recent comments in the press they probably are, and eventually wants to leave our U20’s set up, why not bring in Barry Ferguson to do the job instead? I think he would be a great addition to Rangers in the long-term. If not with the younger players, make him our assistant manager with an experienced manager like Frank De Boer, as he will do the job much better than Weir, who was a complete failure and so disappointing along with Warburton.

I never forget Ferguson’s loyalty to Rangers when playing when he was only 80% fit and taking painkillers so that he could get through certain matches.

He is presently learning the ropes of management at Clyde and there is very little he doesn’t know about the game and how players think. It is only a matter of time before he is back at Ibrox in some capacity, and he fully deserves to be for his many years as captain and top service. He is also a genuine true blue Rangers man.

But for now we have to hope the board gets it right, and soon. Big decision and a hard one, and the longer Murty remains in charge, the more we stagnate.

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22 COMMENTS

  1. I want an experienced manager like McLeish to take over who knows what is required in this league to steer us into Europe.As far as De Boer is concerned I would not be interested as he would only be passing through.We should get away from the idea that Ferguson should be given a role as we have seen over recent times jobs for the boys is not the answer.

  2. Agree with the thrust of your article, seems you're looking at Baz through rose tinted lenses though. Loyalty ? Didn't he choose to leave us whilst captain (no greater honour or responsibility than that) to join the mighty Blackburn ? No point holding grudges, we all make mistakes, but let's not get carried away

  3. No doubt we need a proper manager in till end of season as you said they're playing with fire if they don't but I don't think we need both a DOF and a manager till end of season 1 will do unless they keep Alex in the DOF position full time but a Jst don't think he wud b suited to that kind of role imo.

  4. The only issue I could see with McLeish and Davies working together is that both would want to be the alpha male.

  5. What comments of Murty's have lead you to think that he is more committed to the now gone MW than Rangers? I for one was pleased that he came out and said we need to improve. MW would have been full of praise for getting back to win the game on Sunday, not taking note that at times we struggled and just got over the line. Also he has said he will do it his way, meaning different from MW. Murty has been put in this position and it's clear he is looking to make the best of it, he was not a fish out of water, so give him the chance, it's short term and where would we be if he declined the opportunity? It's a chance to increase his own stock and good luck to him.

    • Yes Craig, give the guy a chance. If he tightens the defence and stands by his statement about using our front four with more aggression he might just do a great job for us. Four or five goals against Dundee and us having a real go for the first time in 18 months would revitalise us on and off the park. Good luck to him, I'd like to see him do it.

  6. I agree with some of your comments. Your really can't compare Ronny Dialup with Warbs tenure as Ronny had millions more to spend. Warbs was very naive in defence and up front, and goodness knows what Frank McPartland did. Garner 1.8 million?thats money we will never see again.

    I totally agree with you on Hearts. They have signed internationalists who seemed to have gelled quite quickly after a stuttering start. They look impressive and if we keep dropping points, then 4th place is very much looming over us.

    I agree Murty is definitely out of his depth. He was like a lost school boy in the dug out against Morton. I do feel sorry for him, but the quicker we replace him the better. I'm concerned about the Dundee game.

    As per previous comments I made. I would take both Alex and Davies together for the interim period, but not long term. Long term, both are dated and have no status or clout in the modern game which is required when trying to attract good players to Ibrox. Do you think they would have a team that will be strong, fit, skilful, can pass a ball and most importantly structure a team to play the fast moving, pass and move game? They are just not that intelligent football wise, nice guys, but no.
    As for Barry Ferguson who I feel was over rated in a blue jersey and disgraced himself with his immature antics against Paul Le Guen and the Scotland squad. Hardly an ambassador of maturity, let alone our club. John Greig also put in many years of top service and is a genuine true blue man who I dearly love and respect. However, he is the best example of great Rangers players, do not make great Rangers managers. We really need to get away from the jobs for the boys mentality.

    We need a management team that can provide a modern footballing strategy from the kids to the first team which will win us titles and challenge in europe. Ex Rangers players will not give such success, including Frank (mercenary) De Boer!

    We need a top class manager to challenge Brendan Rodgers and a Scout that can bring in the likes of Dembele. Realistically, thats what we need to do to challege Shellic in the long term. Can ex Rangers players achieve this?, no they can't!

  7. There are so many names being flung about (Kevin Muscat!!!), I have no clue who I prefer. I just want to see someone playing players in their right position, giving the youth a chance and at least showing we have fight and passion.
    We're not going to catch them, so some sort of shoring up and digging in is in order. Aberdeen hitting seven besides Hearts renewed vigour means we need to shape up quick and I agree that Murty looked out of place Sunday. Mind you, he had only had 36 hours' notice! Hopefully his team selection will look a bit refreshed this Sunday.

  8. It is inevitable that we will read of so many 'stalking horses' being mooted for the vacant managers post. The question really is will this Board have the courage to make an appointment that is not one to please the feeding frenzy? Having tried once before to appoint a manager with 'vision' ie Warburton, his mess has stung them hard and they must be wondering who is 'safe' yet comes with the kudos for the expectations of everyone who supports our club.
    Without financial clout, few top managers would want this 'poisoned chalice' of a club. Celtic were lucky with Rodgers after the disasterous Deila. Can we hope for the same?
    I'm worried they go with an easy option and appoint a McLeish-McCall-Davies lookalike and cross their fingers we get over the European line at the end of the season.

    • I agree, it is a media frenzy and mischief throwing all different names in the pot. They do this so if they do get one of the names right, they will come out with a front page exclusive saying "as reported by us", even though they gave a thousand suggestions. I also hope the board doesn't panic and get dragged into the media, and indeed the fans feeding frenzy and make the right decisions for our club.
      Saying that, I believe Fabio Capello and Guus Hiddink (who was linked before with ourselves) are without clubs at the moment. Both have the pedigree and clout to turn things round. Yes, we will have to pay for them, but you would get a return as they have a world wide network of contacts for players that wont cost the earth. Just a suggestion.

  9. Doesn't really matter who comes in till end of the Season, he will still be stuck with the duds MW and DW brought in…. I would go for FRESH Blue BLOOD and give Billy Davies the nod. McLeish has been given his chance in the past and has FAILED miserably at many clubs. I still strongly believe we will finish SECOND now that the players realize their FREE RIDE is over…. C'Mon Ra'Gers…

  10. There is one absolute certainty, and that is that Murty is not the answer, even for the very shortest term. If nothing serious is done to install an interim manager of some quality within the week, then we should all start worrying – the board included.

  11. My worry with having a director of football is that only an inexperienced rookie will be prepared to work under him. I think we are going to end up with someone like Barry Ferguson as manager, because decent manager's won't want the job. I hope I'm wrong, but I fear the worst.

    The board need to stop dithering and make a permanent appointment asap. They have known for month's that Warburton is a dud and needed to be replaced. Why have they not got a replacement lined up? They should bring Tommy Wright in immediately so that we don't fail to qualify for the Europa league. Give the new manager a chance to assess the squad, so that he knows who the dead wood is. That way he'll know who to get rid of and what positions he needs to strengthen. The dithering could lead to another disastrous season next season, if we're not careful!

  12. Any truth in rumours that Warburtons daughter made money out of the garner transfer?

    My highly reliable sources have told me that Warburton ensured she was involved in the deal and that she personally made a five figure sum for acting as and adviser.

    My sources claim this is one of factors that caused friction between him and the board.

    As always this could simply be a rumour, however it is very believable.

  13. All the names in this column getting mentioned for managers job Jst won't do for me ,a couple that are mentioned I recon wud easily b in the £80k -£100k a week bracket so not a chance, but at the same time has to b someone that'll catch the imagination get everyone going,xcited to go to ibrox every other week,excited to see the team on tele get a feel gd factor back,trust and consistency bck. So I wud like to see them aim as high as they pos can but obviously within our means. Keep reiterating on here there 2 guys that wud do it for me ones all ready said if GERS come for you you go cos they're one of the biggest clubs in world football n that's harry redknapp n the other I believe is fond of GERS n has played at the very highest level was a world class player played under the best n most experienced managers in world n is a very decent guy Frank lampard. I believe as a in experienced coach he wudnt cost that much n coach under the guidance of his uncle harry in a DOF role wud b a dream team in my opinion if frank is as good a coach as he was a player always gave his all ,put his body on the line n a good talker of the game can only see this as being a really gd thing n I recon wud get every one absolutely buzzing. What use think?

  14. Hi fellow Rangers People Agree 100 % we need an experienced man to see out the season , be it McLeish or Davies and we need it now too many 'banana skin' fixtures till the spilt . Please act quickly … Aberdeen I think are decent but on the day we are fitter and better WATP

  15. glad to see the back off w and w . i would try macleish or butcher until the end of season that means we will have two bites at the cherry if there not up to it.

  16. Genrally agree with your article, however two points continue to baffle me, why is European football at the entry point we would go in, at the standard we are playing so vital financially, to begin to compete at this level we need investment, secondly assuming Mr King remains our so called saviour, does he have the money, if thanswer, as appears obvious this year in particular, is no then why do we need him. J

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