Was it better without Smith?

[Jon 0]

Graeme Sounness springs to mind. There isn't a bigger club than us.

 

Dalgliesh was pretty successful.

 

Hughes has done well.

 

There must be a few dutch ones isn't there Pere, Gullit, Riikard?

 

Did Mourinho only go to Porto with assistant experience.

 

PLG (watever we think of him) did he not go straight to Lyon and you cant argue his success there.

 

John Hughes, albeit a lot smaller has come in and done well with Falkirk.

[Norris Cole 0]

Graeme Sounness springs to mind. There isn't a bigger club than us.

 

Dalgliesh was pretty successful.

 

Hughes has done well.

 

There must be a few dutch ones isn't there Pere, Gullit, Riikard?

 

Did Mourinho only go to Porto with assistant experience.

 

PLG (watever we think of him) did he not go straight to Lyon and you cant argue his success there.

 

John Hughes, albeit a lot smaller has come in and done well with Falkirk.

 

What they all have in common (except I suppose Hughes as it's only Falkirk) though is they were pretty risky appointments given their lack of experience. That said, we're arguably in such a state that we won't have much choice when the time comes.

 

What I will say about McCoist is, behind the cheeky chappie public persona there is a footballing brain he is very rarely given credit for. He was the same as a player - as an all-round footballer Boyd isn't fit to lace McCoist's boots. That's not a dig against Boyd BTW.

[pete 2,499]

Graeme Sounness springs to mind. There isn't a bigger club than us.

 

Dalgliesh was pretty successful.

 

Hughes has done well.

 

There must be a few dutch ones isn't there Pere, Gullit, Riikard?

 

Did Mourinho only go to Porto with assistant experience.

 

PLG (watever we think of him) did he not go straight to Lyon and you cant argue his success there.

 

John Hughes, albeit a lot smaller has come in and done well with Falkirk.

 

Gullit was never succesful at Chelsea, Newcastle or Feynoord and is a laughing stock in Holland at managerial level.

 

Rijkaard failed at Sparta as a young manager. Failed to take the Dutch team to any great heights. Did he really do that well at Barcelona?

 

Marco van Basten. Jumped straight into the national team without any experience and failed. Is struggling to make anything at Ajax and is only living on his name asplayer to be honest.

 

Ronald Koeman. Only lasted a few months at valencia before being shown the door. He did win the league with PSV but that was more AZ throwing it away other than PSV winning it.

 

As i say i would prefer he proved himself at a lower club first. Being a good player is no guarantee he will be a good manager.

[Jon 0]

Forget the end but what about Hodel as Chelsea manager, not sure if he was the first, but he certainly changed that teams fortunes IMO.

 

Thanks for correcting me on the Dutch Pete, I couldnt remember exactly who they first went with

 

All I would say regarding McCoist is if he is REALLY in sole charge of the cupgames, then he has shown an astute knowledge most will ignore because of his persona. Everything comes down to experience but why? Souness ddint and look what he did....

[maineflyer 0]

Not many first time managers do good at a big club.

 

Are you including Walter Smith in that?

[maineflyer 0]

I think it's inevitable that McCoist will be announced as the new manager from the end of the season if we win the Scottish Cup. Possibly even if we don't.

 

Smith looks and sounds more jaded with every passing game, just like he did this time last season. Every dog has his day, Walter had his more than ten years ago.

[Frankie 8,150]

I didn't see much difference in the selection or the way we played...

 

We were always going to be slightly more attacking than usual given the home match, given it was a cup game, given Hamilton had injury problems (even before the match) and given we had lost during the week.

 

In addition, the team lost motivation in the usual way after half-time so I'm certainly no less wary of McCoist as team manager than I was before.

[calscot 0]

Le Guen had a couple of years with Rennes before Lyon.

[calscot 0]

I can't see that the team selection was much different from normal. Most of it picked itself with a few changes that didn't exactly raise much of an eyebrow.

 

Boyd was dropped for Lafferty and after the stick he got for the ICT game it's not surprising.

 

Broadfoot dropped for Whittaker and while I don't know why, it's a like for like and Walter does seem to want to keep the right back involved and a cup game at home to Hamilton seems a good time to give him a run out while giving Broadfoot a rest.

 

With the left mid being a problem position, Fleck having faded and Aaron looking promising as a sub, the latter was due a start and again a home cup tie seems a good time to give him one.

 

Mendes back in the team when fit at the expense of Edu is an obvious one too.

 

The rest was business as usual.

 

The way we played was a lot better and I think some of that was down to the return of Mendes and the fact that Fergie has improved and they seem to be starting to gel somewhat.

 

I thought Davis had a pretty good game after having a recent slump in form and Whittaker really went out to show he wasn't finished as a Rangers player. If only he could do it all the time.

 

Aaron was ok but definitely needs time, he was hustled off the ball a bit too easily and his passes could have been tighter. He also needs to track back and help the defence more. He's promising and does show a lot of attacking intent.

 

I thought Lafferty had a good game too, which showed he may have potential after all.

 

Bougherra was class again despite the odd aberration and Weir was solid.

 

Papac even came up to support the attack on occasion too.

 

However, the opposition allowed all this to happen and were hampered by four injuries to first team picks and had to play the last half hour with ten men.

 

Hamilton were not bad for the first half hour and were very keen to attack, which resulted in their equaliser. However, that gung ho tactic was part of their undoing - as their players streamed forward they left themselves very open at the back which Rangers were able to exploit, albeit not always giving the ultimate punishment.

[pete 2,499]

I think it's inevitable that McCoist will be announced as the new manager from the end of the season if we win the Scottish Cup. Possibly even if we don't.

 

Smith looks and sounds more jaded with every passing game, just like he did this time last season. Every dog has his day, Walter had his more than ten years ago.

 

Oh yes i remember, he did have one day.