Hugh Keevins: Rangers manager Ally McCoist...

[ian1964 10,372]

.......can only trade on his past glories as a player for so long.

 

HUGH believes the Ibrox manager misjudged the mood after the draw with Albion Rovers and has only increased the pressure on himself from the supporters.

 

IT would take James Ward, at his current rate of pay with Albion Rovers, 100 years to earn what Ally McCoist gets in 12 months at Ibrox.

 

That’s not a flight of fantasy plucked out of the air for dramatic effect in the aftermath of Sunday’s 1-1 Scottish Cup draw between the clubs at Ibrox.

 

It’s a cold fact underlining what two opposite worlds look like when their differences are written down in black and white.

 

Football is indivisible from money, and that holds true with a vengeance at hard-up Rangers, where they’re borrowing money to look after their borrowings.

 

What Albion Rovers did at Ibrox was to come within 13 minutes of eliminating the home team from a competition which would be worth £1million to Rangers if they won it.

 

That’s also how close Ally came to losing his job as manager for non-commercial reasons.

 

Defeat from Rovers would have been the most humiliating result in Rangers’ history and formed employment law’s grounds for constructive dismissal.

 

It didn’t happen in the end, and slipping the noose is perfectly allowable in football.

 

Sir Alex Ferguson, the greatest manager of them all, did it when he went through the barren years in his start at Old Trafford.

 

Neil Lennon was forgiven a 2-0 defeat from Ross County in a Scottish Cup semi-final and promoted from interim to permanent manager at Celtic Park in spite of that embarrassment.

 

But there are those who believe Rangers’ off-field problems have disguised McCoist’s shortcomings on the managerial front.

 

Not any longer.

 

The manager’s declaration that a replay against Albion Rovers did not represent any kind of embarrassment has resonated badly with the Rangers fans.

 

It has focused their attention on matters on the field while they wait for the next battle in the civil war for power at Ibrox to commence.

 

Ally said he was withdrawing from the front line on that issue to get on with being the manager. And he was quite right to do so.

 

McCoist has compromised his better judgment and given public support to individuals he might otherwise have left well alone over the past couple of years.

 

But his desire to see Rangers emerge from the morass created by administration, liquidation and manipulation by people who used the club for their own ends got the better of him.

 

Now he’d be better advised to focus on himself because too many Rangers fans are questioning his judgment as a manager.

 

Ally might genuinely have been trying to be respectful to Ward, his counterpart, and all associated with Rovers when he said there was no embarrassment attached to being taken to a replay by them.

 

That’s not how the Rangers fans saw it, and they’re the barometer of public opinion the Ibrox boss has to be aware of at times like these.

 

The season started with a League Cup defeat suffered in extra time against the part-time professionals of Forfar Athletic.

 

Not much changes, it appears.

 

Ninety-five minutes against a League Two collection of gas fitters and office workers wasn’t enough time for Rangers to remove Albion Rovers from the Scottish Cup.

 

There comes a time when past history as a player becomes an irrelevance.

 

The greatest of them all on both sides of Glasgow’s great divide – John Greig, Jock Wallace, Billy McNeill, Tommy Burns and Davie Hay – were dispensed with when considered to be unfit for purpose.

 

Reputation saves no one if your face no longer fits.

 

It’s astonishing to think Ally will, in all probability, win a second, straight league title tomorrow night when Rangers host Airdrie while bedlam breaks loose all around him.

 

But he’s lived in that frenzied environment since he signed for Rangers from Sunderland just over 30 years ago.

 

Ally’s in the dock, and his list of “previous” where domestic and European failures are concerned has been brought up to be used in evidence against him.

 

Uncertainty is in the air at Ibrox as Dave King prepares to fly into Glasgow tomorrow and challenge the club’s idea of proper governance at boardroom level.

 

The manager will sit that one out as he prepares for the replay with Albion Rovers on Monday night at Hamilton’s New Douglas Park.

 

Defeat is unthinkable.

 

If you want to be judged purely on what you do as a manager then you must expect a jury to be formed for that purpose.

 

And there are more than cinema’s Twelve Angry Men waiting to pass sentence on Ally unless he can offer a more convincing case for the defence than was evident at the weekend.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hugh-keevins-rangers-manager-ally-3228364

[andy steel 0]

Thank Goodness Hugh came along to point all this out. I had no idea!

 

Just because most posters don't feel the need to fill every thread with posts about how badly Ally is doing doesn't mean they don't know it. And for many, many fans, sticking the knife in is unthinkable - it's a step too near to disloyalty, despite the argument that the man is not more important than the club. But they are well aware that the knife hovereth, nonetheless. As, I'm sure, is Ally.

[SteveC 150]

"Defeat from Rovers would have been the most humiliating result in Rangers’ history"

 

Not even close. I'm 55 and the team that lost at Berwick is probably the best one I've seen in all my days. We feared no-one in Europe, eliminated Dortmund the holders, would have won the cup were the final in a neutral country and/or Berwick not happened. Would have won the league too if Berwick had not happened. We were probably in the top ten Euro teams at the time - certainly pushing for it - just because we were second best in Scotland that tends to be forgotten.

 

That day was a seismic shock of a defeat, mind-scarringly unexpected.

[bluebear54 0]

Given the subject matter that Keevins consistently covers, he obviously trawls the forums to find his latest brainstorm and wisdom.

He would be far better plagiarisng one of the better posts on the forums than writing this weak minded effort.

[chilledbear 16]

I'm not sure I would have been that surprised if we had been defeated on Sunday.

 

Sick to the stomach yes, but that surprised, not really.

[26th of foot 5,825]

After an hour of Sunday's game, I accepted we would not equalise and expected Rovers to notch a second. This mindset had me speculating on Ally's fate. He is not young, past fifty and there would be a ton of offers from various broadcast and print media sources. I concluded that he would NOT be offered another management position in football.

 

The truly surprising thing was my fellow Bears' reactions, there was no simmering ferment. Conditioned acceptance was the state of play.

[Calgacus 8]

After an hour of Sunday's game, I accepted we would not equalise and expected Rovers to notch a second. This mindset had me speculating on Ally's fate. He is not young, past fifty and there would be a ton of offers from various broadcast and print media sources. I concluded that he would NOT be offered another management position in football.

 

The truly surprising thing was my fellow Bears' reactions, there was no simmering ferment. Conditioned acceptance was the state of play.

 

We've had thee years to get used to it!

[Hildy 0]

After an hour of Sunday's game, I accepted we would not equalise and expected Rovers to notch a second. This mindset had me speculating on Ally's fate. He is not young, past fifty and there would be a ton of offers from various broadcast and print media sources. I concluded that he would NOT be offered another management position in football.

 

The truly surprising thing was my fellow Bears' reactions, there was no simmering ferment. Conditioned acceptance was the state of play.

 

I'm not sure there would be as many media offers as might be imagined, although he'd probably secure a gig without too much difficulty.

 

I agree that he would be unlikely to find another job as a football manager.