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Barry Ferguson: Title win is great but...


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.....players must prove they belong at Ibrox after dismal display in Cup.

 

BARRY believes Ally McCoist's men are now playing for their futures at Rangers in the wake of the shock draw with Albion Rovers.

 

EMBARRASSING. The word has attached itself to Rangers for one reason or another over the last few days and I must admit I don’t like it one little bit.

 

Like when Ally McCoist said it wasn’t embarrassing to draw at home to Albion Rovers in the Cup, some people had a go at him for it and thought the manager’s reaction was an embarrassment in itself. Not me.

 

Then Ian Black asked the fans, ‘What more do you want?’

 

To tell you the truth, I could see where he was coming from too but there was something about the way he said it that did make you want to cringe.

 

And all this over the space of a few days when the team has just won another title.

 

Maybe people will say it was embarrassing for Rangers to be seen to be celebrating that success too because right now it seems my old club just can’t win, even when they are winning.

 

But you can count me out of that camp right away.

 

Yes, it might only be League One and, I agree, there is a big difference between lifting that championship and beating Celtic to the big one in the top flight. Of course there is. But a title is a title all the same.

 

When Coisty and the players started out this season they had a job to do – to win the league and get the hell out of the division as quickly as possible. Well here they are seven months later, job done. With nearly three months to spare.

 

Yes, I know it hasn’t always been great in terms of the quality of the football that has been played along the way.

 

But that will be forgotten about over time and the record books will show that Rangers chalked up two straight promotions on the journey back up through the divisions.

 

So don’t tell me these guys don’t deserve to celebrate what they’ve done. That’s just mean-spirited and spiteful.

 

But – and yes, there is a but – these players must also realise that some of their displays over the course of the season have left a lot to be desired.

 

And I’m talking here in particular about the performance against Albion at the weekend. Because if any of the boys in the team think that was acceptable then they are at the wrong club.

 

I watched the game and it wasn’t great. Look, there were some mitigating factors. I’ll give them that.

 

For instance, these Albion Rovers kids were having the day of their lives. They went to Ibrox knowing they might never play at a stadium like that again.

 

It was a one off and they gave everything they had for their team and their manager, who went there with a game plan.

 

At times it was five at the back and five across the midfield. But good luck to them. They did what they set out to do.

 

Was it embarrassing for Coisty? Knowing the way he thinks I’m sure that inside he was hurting badly.

 

But he did the right thing by not saying so in public. He was absolutely correct when he said that. Had he done so he would have been showing complete disrespect to his opponents.

 

He certainly doesn’t deserve to be criticised for good manners.

 

I understand Rangers fans expected a lot better. I understand because I am one of them and I did too.

 

But no one will have felt more let down by that performance than the manager.

 

He might not say so outside the dressing room but he knows more than anyone what is required and expected of Rangers.

 

Yes, they should be skelping Albion Rovers by four or five goals. So scraping a 1-1 draw WAS probably embarrassing.

 

But it happened and it’s the manager’s job to deal with it and move on.

 

I have no doubt he’ll have given his players a very different message in the privacy of that dressing room.

 

He’ll have been furious and, from personal experience, I know he won’t have missed his targets behind closed doors.

 

Put it this way, he won’t need a long team talk before the replay. If anyone in that team doesn’t know what is at stake on Monday night then there is something wrong with them.

 

In fact, maybe it’s not just the Albion Rovers boys who might never play at a stadium like Ibrox again because a few of Coisty’s own players will now be playing for their futures.

 

A lot of these guys are on good money and the truth is they have not been giving value back to the club, the manager and the supporters.

 

I am positive Ally will have already made his mind up about some of them.

 

He will know which of them needs to be replaced in the summer.

 

The problem he has right now is that he still doesn’t know if he’ll have enough of a budget to make the changes he’d like to ahead of next season in the Championship.

 

And that uncertainty makes it hard for him to be as honest about these players as he might like to be.

 

You can’t throw a guy under the bus one week then ask him to go out there and play for you again the next.

 

They are all he’s got right now and, at this moment in time, he needs to do whatever he can to bring them with him and get them to up their game.

 

I’m learning myself about how difficult life can be as a manager.

 

Thankfully I won my first game as Blackpool manager on Tuesday but I realise there is a lot of hard work ahead if we are going to turn our own season around.

 

I know how hard I am working on the training field in trying to get my message across and to get the team to play in the manner I want.

 

I changed my game plan completely on Tuesday night and it worked for us but when you send them out across that white line you are a hostage to fortune.

 

You ask players to do a specific job and sometimes it just does not happen.

 

That’s why I have some sympathy for Coisty. We both know the buck always stops with the manager but there comes a time when the players must take their share of responsibility too.

 

When I came back to Rangers after my move to Blackburn I knew there were a lot of fans who didn’t want me back. I knew because they weren’t slow in telling me.

 

So it was down to me to go out there and prove my worth. Every time I pulled on that shirt, I knew my own reputation was going on the line.

 

Maybe it’s about time some of the guys in that dressing room started to see things the same way. If their attitude isn’t right then there is no place for them at Rangers.

 

It’s not too late to save themselves – they could end this season as heroes if they go on to win the Scottish Cup.

 

But to do that they need to give themselves a shake and accept there is more to being a Rangers player than just turning up for training at Murray Park.

 

And I expect to see them prove it emphatically on Monday night.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/barry-ferguson-title-win-great-3240280

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