Ally McCoist wasn’t wrong about Rangers and Steven Gerrard, the ex-Rangers legend speaking about whether or not the Liverpool icon would be welcomed back to Rangers in the event of Philippe Clement and the Ibrox giants parting company.
McCoist was answering Jeff Stelling on whether Rangers’ ex-manager would be embraced by the club and fans if he returned, and the 9IAR striker was emphatic:
“He would be welcomed back. He won the title in his time at Rangers and he would be welcomed back. But I have to tell you Jeff the problems at Rangers go far greater than the manager at this moment in time and a lot deeper. I think they need to get things sorted at the top level before anything else. It works its way down if things aren’t right at the top. No full-time chairman, director of football or chief executive. There is none of that happening at this moment in time and that has to happen. I don’t care what anyone says, it must have an effect on the pitch if things are not good off it. So in answer your question, would he be welcomed back? I think he would, yeah. But he clearly has his work cut out over there [Saudi] at this moment in time.”
No, he’s not wrong. A recent Ibrox Noise poll might have had Kevin Muscat as fans’ new favourite pick, but that will change with the weather because supporters are extremely fickle and change their minds at the drop of a hat.
A pro-Clement majority of 76% crashed to 10% overnight after the Aberdeen loss, so let’s not act like supporters as a collective have any hint of consistency with opinion.
But Gerrard is popular, and a lot more so than Clement these days, but McCoist is absolutely right about the club.
The problems do go deeper than the manager, with a lack of Sporting Director, Chairman and CEO still very much headline news, which is massively beyond ‘embarrassing’ territory now.
Ibrox Noise has, however, argued that one man, the right man in the managerial hotseat can make all the difference, certainly in the short term, with many precedents of this happening.
Clement is not the right man, but hangs onto his job by way of Rangers not being able to afford to sack him. And he won’t resign.
Ally’s not wrong – we do need to fix what’s above Clement, but even a shambolic board and corporate structure doesn’t make Clement reject Sterling, select Dessers, or refuse to change a non-working system.
You can forget all those excuses if the manager is just plain bad at his job. And Clement is.