Was Ally McCoist right all along?

8
Was Ally McCoist right all along?


As you’ll have seen from our earlier entry, we’re having a little look at history today, and having already examined the failed promotion attempt from 2015, now we’re looking at the biggest fallacy of the entire Journey: ‘the youth ship sailed’.

Many blame Ally McCoist for wasting a chance to ‘rebuild Rangers’ by calling on the youth reserves, and we admit that back in 2012/2013 we too were critical of the fact he signed ageing mercenaries like Kevin Kyle and Ian Black rather than letting our Auchenhowie youth have a go.

But there’s a huge caveat – they just weren’t good enough.

Was it that Ally was right all along, and that he didn’t trust the youth to deliver, plus acknowledging the weight of the Rangers shirt was too heavy for them?

After all, Barrie McKay and Lewis Macleod did break through and were huge successes, so it’s not like McCoist ignored the academy.

But the litmus test for the quality of the youth back then is the careers the class of 2012/2014 had after Rangers. And frankly none of them do.

Only McKay and Macleod had something resembling one, and the rest all sank without trace.

Guys like McAusland, Aird, Gallagher, Gasparotto, Murdoch, Cole, Perry, Crawford, Hutton, Hemmings etc all pretty much had nothing careers after Rangers, and if they failed to excel at modest teams like the League Ones and Twos they mostly ended up at, can we imagine how painfully these kids would have sunk at Ibrox.

Ally McCoist made a judgement call in 2012. He looked at what was available at Auchenhowie and realised it wasn’t good enough and it wouldn’t be able to handle the shirt either.

We saw how awful some of these guys were, Cole and Perry were agony – but as fans we elevated them to ‘Rangers class’ because we wanted them to be that good.

But the truth is the quality wasn’t there, and history has borne McCoist out as correct.

The harsh reality is that ship didn’t sail – the ship wasn’t there in the first place.

No posts to display

8 COMMENTS

  1. I dont think fans would have given them the time to get into a Rangers roll. we were looking to stroll the leagues and get back to where we deserved so giving the kids a chance, I dont think many punters would have been happy with loss after loss. McCoist was right.

    • Spot on m8. Ally done his best in a bloody terrible situation. Always will be a Rangers legend .WATP

  2. If our own kids weren't good enough ,we still didn't need to throw 6k and 4k a week at Ian Blacks and Kevin Kyle's Players from league above like Gretna did eg QoS Derek Lyle would have been adequate at a fraction of cost .Ally wasted a few million during this period and had a tidy wedge as a wage also.Bloody shocking

    • 10000000% mate. He gave big contracts out to justify him himself having one. My opinion. Terrible manager.

  3. Been a bluenose my whole life and mcCoist was one of my hero's,but now I cannot look or listen to him, he never was and never will be a manager and he walked off with a big payday,buying all that trash when we were down set us back 3 or 4 years,just cast your minds back to when Walter let him do the Scottish cup games he was hopeless,just one of many great players that have flopped at managerial level.

  4. I`ve said all along that he did give the youth he had a chance and they just weren`t good enough .Even at the time only really Crawford , Aird, McKay and McLeod looked good enough and only the last two have done anything since .Guys like Fleck , Ness and McCabe would have been players to build a team round but they left and again only Fleck has done anything since .There was a transfer ban due to get imposed so McCoist made some panic signings and wasted cash but after the ban was lifted the standard he bought was appalling .It embarrasses me, even now ,that guys like Black , Kyle , Sandaza and Mohsni can call themselves ex Rangers players . McCoist managed the initial mess well and held us together but after that his judgement was deeply flawed.

  5. If there is one man who truly understands the weight of a Rangers shirt, then it's Ally McCoist! He may not have been a great manager, but history does show that he made the right call with the youth players at his disposal.
    We should also remember that there is no Rangers manager in the history of this great club, who has ever had to deal with the kind of circumstances that McCoist faced. During the darkest hours it was Ally who held the club together, and whilst I am doubtful if McCoist could ever have become a good manager, he stood by Rangers when he could have easily have returned to working in media and enjoyed a much easier life.

Comments are closed.