Alex McLeish: â??If a guy comes for my medals heâ??ll get a right-handerâ??

[craig 5,199]

Advocaat may have done something with it as DOF.

 

Would still have been McLeish's signing though, right ? Or does he only get the credit/blame for all the terrible signings and Advocaat gets the credit for the good ones ?

[simplythebest 0]

Would still have been McLeish's signing though, right ? Or does he only get the credit/blame for all the terrible signings and Advocaat gets the credit for the good ones ?

 

Seems that way with Daniel.

 

Don't know why some Rangers fans seem to hate Eck, one of the good guys for me.

[craig 5,199]

Seems that way with Daniel.

 

Don't know why some Rangers fans seem to hate Eck, one of the good guys for me.

 

I dont think we saw how good he could have been. Sure, we saw some pretty poor football but he was being forced to downsize. It is difficult to actually judge appropriately.

 

Did a decent job at Motherwell

Did a decent job at Hibs

Went to Brum and won the Carling Cup (and Arsenal WERE trying to win that, they played pretty much their strongest team) - got relegated last game of season but Brum were unfashionable and would have been expected to go down regardless of manager.

Didnt do too well at Villa although I thought he had some injuries to key players to contend with too.

 

I do, however, know a Villa fan here who was more than happy to see the back of him.

 

It seems Eck is one of those managers who splits the support in their view of him.

 

Me ? I thank him for providing us with 7 trophies, he won more trophies than MoN did whilst up against each other. Sure, there were negative elements too - but I prefer to stick to the positives.

[Daniel Amokachi 0]

Would still have been McLeish's signing though, right ? Or does he only get the credit/blame for all the terrible signings and Advocaat gets the credit for the good ones ?

The player was identified by Advocaat

 

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%5B0%5D+Football%3A+ARTETA'S+A+MIKEL+OF+A+BUY%3B+Murray+praises+Advocaat's...-a084007528

[craig 5,199]

I could probably name a good 25 atrocious signings he made that cost us fortunes to pay off. We made no development as a club during his reign.

 

According to this he made 34 signings, 31 of which were permanent with 3 loanees (though I thought we had signed Jeffers on a permanent deal....) http://www.rangerspedia.org/index.php/Alex_McLeish_Signings

 

Of those at least Andrews, Arteta, Boumsong, Boyd, Buffel, de Boer, Ferguson, Hemdani, Khizanishvili, Kyrgiakos, Novo, Prso, Alex Rae, & Wattereus were far from atrocious. And I dont think (though could be proven wrong) that they cost us any money to pay off.

 

Loanees should cost no money to pay off so including them (minus Jeffers), plus the above, you have 18 of 34 signings that cost nothing to get rid of and that were certainly not atocious.

 

Of the rest Berg, Namouchi, Gavin Rae, Rodriguez, Thompson, and Vignal did OK for us. Certainly not atrocious.

 

That only leaves 13 out of 34 who were the "barrel feeders". Bernard, Bonnissel, Capucho, Djordjic, Fanfan, Fetai, Jeffers, Kalenga, Maniero, Mladenovic (who I thought was actually a decent player but was injured - my memory may be failing me though), N'Guessan, Ostenstad, Vanoli.

 

Of those I do recall us having to pay Mladenovic chunk of change and we probably had to do likewise with Ostenstad and Capucho - but I cant see the majority of the rest of those guys costing us a great deal of money to leave the club.

 

I think big Eck gets short shrift in some quarters, which is fair enough, but I dont think it is a necessarily balanced argument.

 

As for us not developing - some of that is the fans fault too. We have demanded instant success. Managers will rise or fall based on that and based on the fans. There isnt the same time for us to "introduce" youngsters as we get on their backs all too easily should they not perform to the high standards we expect of them !

[Daniel Amokachi 0]

I dont think we saw how good he could have been. Sure, we saw some pretty poor football but he was being forced to downsize. It is difficult to actually judge appropriately.

 

Did a decent job at Motherwell

Did a decent job at Hibs

Went to Brum and won the Carling Cup (and Arsenal WERE trying to win that, they played pretty much their strongest team) - got relegated last game of season but Brum were unfashionable and would have been expected to go down regardless of manager.

Didnt do too well at Villa although I thought he had some injuries to key players to contend with too.

 

I do, however, know a Villa fan here who was more than happy to see the back of him.

 

It seems Eck is one of those managers who splits the support in their view of him.

 

Me ? I thank him for providing us with 7 trophies, he won more trophies than MoN did whilst up against each other. Sure, there were negative elements too - but I prefer to stick to the positives.

He's a dire manager that plays the worst football imaginable and hopefully he's now out the game for good.

 

You're sticking up for a guy so intept that we finished third in the SPL and lost something like 11 games on the trot to Celtic. Absolutely 100% inept.

 

Overall he is seen a a joke in England too. The Carling Cup is irrelevant.

Edited August 7, 2012 by Daniel Amokachi

[Yieldshields loyal 0]

Yes the signings weren't great and some of the football wasn't the best, but I certainly would't bear a grudge with the guy, especially when he's sticking up for us. We fought well in Europe that season and if we had performed how we were capable against Villareal, we would have been in the Champions League quarter final.

Anyone who was at the Inter game as we progressed out of the group will agree for that atmosphere alone.

[Daniel Amokachi 0]

Yes the signings weren't great and some of the football wasn't the best, but I certainly would't bear a grudge with the guy, especially when he's sticking up for us. We fought well in Europe that season and if we had performed how we were capable against Villareal, we would have been in the Champions League quarter final.

Anyone who was at the Inter game as we progressed out of the group will agree for that atmosphere alone.

I see our fluke run that year and I raise you a Viktoria zizkov.

[craig 5,199]

The player was identified by Advocaat

 

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%5B0%5D+Football%3A+ARTETA'S+A+MIKEL+OF+A+BUY%3B+Murray+praises+Advocaat's...-a084007528

 

I may be missing something here but that article doesnt suggest that. At least not to me.

 

One line from the article : "Alex will now continue to identify more players [emphasis added]he wants and Dick can invest his time in helping to bring them on board."

 

It looks to me as if Dick Advocaat was instrumental in bringing him to Rangers due to his standing in the game, not that this was either an Advocaat signing or indeed that Advocaat identified him.

 

That said, we did play PSG in November, 2001 whilst Advocaat was still boss so I am sure he was impressed with Arteta too, but not long after McLeish was the boss and, as the article says, he watched Arteta on half a dozen occacions along with Advocaat - so it is a bit of a stretch to suggest that this was an Advocaat signing - I know that seems counter-intuitive given Advocaat brokered the deal and, but for Advocaat it might not have happened, but that happens in football these days. You use a bigger name to get the players you want.

 

Conclusion ? I think that the Arteta signing was part thanks to Advocaat and also part thanks to Eck. If Eck didnt want him I cant imagine we would have signed him. But who knows given the murky world of "Director of Football" position ?

[craig 5,199]

I see our fluke run that year and I raise you a Viktoria zizkov.

 

That argument could be used on every Rangers manager we have had virtually.