Ibrox Noise is more than troubled by the story yesterday aboout Richard Gough defensive coach which we can confirm is true. The Rangers legend Richard Gough was ignored by the board and owners regarding his significant suggestion. For those who may have missed it, Gough got in touch with the owners and offered his services as a defensive coach. He spoke to the press about this and we have further found out that this is absolutely true. He did not get a response from the owners and was completely ignored. This is the mentality unfortunately that we are dealing with.
A Rangers legend ignored
Gough expressed in the press how Rangers need a Rangers man or two throughout the ranks and the staff. We expressed yesterday how the only thing that we have of that nature is Steven Smith, a good Rangers guy, a very knowledgeable coach, but he is only one man. We need more major alpha legends like Gough like Ally McCoist, maybe a Graeme Souness. All these kinds of names bleeding blue blood in the staff guiding this club because, as usual, there is nothing. There is no Rangers blood at this club at all. Not a single thing that really reeks of proper Rangers and that is the owners’ choice it seems. They were approached by Gough and they ignored him.
What does that tell you?
Not only are they ignoring a Rangers legend who knows what he is talking about, but they are also overlooking the need for a defensive coach despite the fact that we abundantly require one. This is not Rangers on any level. Now it is true of course that we have never really had a specific defensive coach. Maybe that is half of the problem over the last decade. Who knows? We certainly had one in the form of Walter Smith because he knew how to defend beyond words. No one since him has. Nevertheless, the suggestion by a legend to offer his own services as a defensive coach, we assume probably for free, would have been a great help to the Djigas, the Souttars, the Corneliuses. All these players at the back who do not quite know how to read the Scottish game.
Röhl’s defence and the wider issue
Danny Röhl may not even have known about the approach. We are not going to criticise him on this, but the fact is that he has prioritised defence about as little as everybody else has. The curious thing though is that, ironically, we have conceded very few goals in the league, so we must at least give him some credit for that, by hook or by crook. But it has been a different story in Europe. We have bled goals under this coach. We do not specifically blame the coach for the defence. He has to work with what he has here.
And while we have already (unfairly?) removed him from any credit in some senses regarding good results recently, there is no question that good coaching and good players are required at the back. Walter was of course an exception, a good one. He could get a defence out of Kirk Broadfoot for goodness’ sake. But at the end of the day, we do not have Walter Smith anymore, sadly. We have to make do with what we have.
The club’s failure to learn
Richard Gough is about as close to Walter Smith as it gets defence-wise. He was an absolute stalwart of the 9IAR era. And if Richard Gough defensive coach is an option, then we can safely say the club really should have taken them. But no, we will just continue stumbling on in the dark.