We have certainly not lacked for Rangers content of late. Ibrox Noise was offline in recent times to give ourselves a little breather, but boy has there been stuff going on down Govan way. The big breaking stories this July 1st morning are that Allan McGregor returns to Ibrox as goalkeeping coach and Dan Neil joins in midfield. We are both thrilled and curious about this development. We will get to the Neil story separately but it’s been a blockbuster morning for Rangers for sure.
Bringing Rangers back to Rangers
Ibrox Noise was all in favour of bringing Rangers back to Rangers. We were all in favour of adding much more Rangers minded people to our club, bringing back the soul of what has been lost in recent years. McGregor very much fills that. McGregor is truly one of us and is arguably among our top 3 goalkeepers of all time. He certainly knows what it takes to win titles at Ibrox. He is as crème de la crème as it gets as far as blue blood goes.
There is, however, a bit of a catch. You knew there would be a but, didn’t you? That is that McGregor never wanted to be a coach. He was pretty clear about that a couple of years ago. This is why we were initially surprised that he even joined Barry Ferguson’s interim team. McGregor was very clear in interviews and in the press that not only did he never want to be a coach in the game, but he did not think he would be very good at it anyway. He was not sure what he actually wanted to do after retiring.
A change of heart
It is, of course, entirely possible that McGregor has quite simply changed his mind. His return as Barry Ferguson’s interim coach may have been an indicator of that. It also may have been something that gave him a taste for the job. Evidently, Derek McInnes and he have spoken, and he has abundantly changed his mind to become Rangers goalkeeping coach.
This is a good move. We are happy to see this because Ivor Pandur does not have the first clue about Rangers. We do not really know Pandur. He is Rangers’ new goalkeeper now. He comes from Hull City of the Championship and, under Danny Rohl, we would very much have classed him as EFL slop. We are not going to veer away from that and be complete hypocrites, but we will say that we are glad Allan McGregor is coaching him.
The right mentor
This is a new guy at the club. Pandur has not goalkept for Croatia yet. He does not have a cap for his country, even although he is at the World Cup. He comes from England’s second tier. We cannot say that the signing thrills us and blows us away, even although naturally the hype machine has gone mental over him. However, we are happy that McGregor will be the man behind him.
If the boy has the ability, McGregor will be able to coach him about Rangers and what it takes to win at this club. There could not be too many better than McGregor to be the main man behind Pandur. That is a good thing to have at the club.
Welcome back
McGregor himself, well, we think it is a good move. We are happy to see more blue blood coming back to the club after so much was lost. We will quite happily say on this blockbuster morning for Rangers, welcome back Allan McGregor. Hopefully he really, really does want to do this and thrives in the job.