Who Is In The Frame To Manage/Coach Rangers FC?

[ian1964 10,457]

King stresses he is in no rush to appoint a new Rangers boss

 

DAVE KING today stressed Rangers won't be rushed into appointing a new manager - despite seeing the Ibrox club suffer another setback in their bid to win promotion.

 

 

 

King, who took control at his boyhood heroes at an EGM on Friday, was at Central Park on Saturday to watch the SPFL Championship match with Cowdenbeath.

 

Kenny McDowall's side slumped to their second consecutive draw in the second tier game against Jimmy Nicholl's part-timers in Fife.

 

The Light Blues are now three points behind second-placed Hibs, who have played two games more than them, in the Championship table.

 

And their hopes of finishing in the runners-up spot and clinching a place in the Premiership via the play-offs are in serious jeopardy.

 

Many Light Blues fans would like to see a new manager brought in quickly - to give their chances of going up to the top flight this season a boost.

 

Billy Davies and Stuart McCall, who are currently out of work, are the strong favourites with bookmakers to replace caretaker McDowall, who has resigned and is working his notice, as boss.

 

And Mark Warburton and former captain Davie Weir, who will part company with English Championship club Brentford in the summer, have also been linked with a move to Rangers.

 

However, King has stated the new regime at Ibrox are planning long term - and will take their time to identify the right managerial candidate.

 

He said: "We don't want to be moving up from this league unprepared.

 

"It is really important that we start the building process now and we start building a team that will compete in advance of getting into the Premiership.

 

"We spent some time with Kenny McDowall on Friday at Murray Park. But really it was just a 15-minute cup of tea at the end of a long day.

 

"Kenny is committed to doing that (staying on as manager for the rest of the season ) and it would be my expectation that that would probably be the case.

 

"But it is a decision that will have to be looked at over the next little period. We will have to check how he feels about that.

 

"There can't be a rush because this rebuilding programme has to be very carefully thought out and we have to get the right people in. We can't be too slack in doing it. But we mustn't rush into it either."

 

King is expecting a sell-out crowd at Ibrox for the Championship game against Queen of the South tomorrow night as Rangers fans get behind the new regime.

 

And the South Africa-based businessman is optimistic that supporters getting behind the team will increase their chances of returning to the top flight.

 

He said: "It (winning promotion) is not important this season. It is too far down the season for it to be something that we can influence.

 

"But I am kind of hoping that with the energy being released by the fans, the team will start to feed off that as well - particularly when we get to Ibrox tomorrow night.

 

" I heard this morning at Ibrox that there are queues of people buying season tickets towards the end of the season. That is phenomenal.

 

"They are even paying for games in January and February that they can't watch. That just shows you the attitude and the atmosphere and the energy that there is among the fans.

 

"I would be very, very surprised if, based on the reaction that I have experienced even just walking down the street, if the stadium isn't full."

 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/rangers/king-stresses-he-is-in-no-rush-to-appoint-a-new-rangers-boss-199584n.120149449

[der Berliner 3,290]

Yep, with all the debate running away with itself, we should remind ourselves that today is essentially the first day at the office. The war off the field is essentially won, what comes next is a repairing the damage. That will not happen over night, and may not happen anytime soon (i.e. till summer) either. At this moment in time, we can just hope that a full Ibrox gets the best out of the players and confidence in their own ability returns. Let's support the club first and foremost.

[ian1964 10,457]

Keith Jackson: Bringing back Walter Smith as Rangers manager could be the answer to Dave King's prayers

 

KEITH says that new Ibrox chief has a big decision to make and that bringing back the Rangers legend could prove to be a masterstroke.

 

AS honeymoons go, an hour and a half on a Saturday afternoon in Cowdenbeath is hardly one to remember.

 

But for Dave King, Paul Murray and John Gilligan, this was a day they must never allow themselves to forget. Having fought so hard and for so long to win control of Rangers, now they have seen for themselves the state of their prize.

 

Everywhere they have looked over the weekend they have discovered evidence of a club at rock bottom on every level. They should bookmark it all as a reminder of why they had to get involved in the first place.

 

They have inherited a stadium in dreadful disrepair and a 
workforce which was kicked so savagely that it now sits 
whimpering in a corner.

 

There was a moment of powerful poignancy, in fact, when the office staff rose to its feet to applaud the new regime as King, Murray and Gilligan met with Derek Llambias and Barry Leach inside Ibrox ahead of Friday’s egm. They were welcomed over the threshold like liberators as Llambias and Leach were being vanquished.

 

But it was not until they arrived at a stock car track in Fife, some 24 hours later, that King and his men were given a full view of the scale of the task.

 

And already they have a huge decision to make.

 

Rangers are not yet out of the running for promotion but they will be – and soon – unless Kenny McDowall is put out of his misery as caretaker manager.

 

Ally McCoist’s right-hand man has no wish to remain in this position and to make him suffer any longer could be considered an act of cruelty.

 

After eight years of service, the humane thing would be to allow this man to exit with whatever dignity he has left because McDowall has been thoroughly broken down by his own circumstances.

 

He is smart enough to know a rot has set in inside his dressing room but, equally, he has no idea how to fix it. To be frank, his heart is simply not in it.

 

Since he was shoehorned into McCoist’s hotseat he was won just three games out of nine and Saturday’s soulless display was one painful humiliation too many. McDowall can’t possibly say so but inside he is begging to be removed from this firing line and relieved of the responsibility of overseeing a group of players in whom he can have no trust.

 

They ought to be utterly ashamed of themselves. They really should be mortified by the poverty of their efforts. But there is a sense this squad is made up of men who care only about where their next contract is coming from and given 12 of them will soon be free agents the temptation is to say, even then, they’ll still be overpriced. They have rendered themselves just about unemployable.

 

No wonder that McDowall looks so haunted. Like them, he has the air of a man who has given up.

 

The question is, what on earth do King, Murray, Gilligan and Douglas Park do about it?

 

Yesterday the new board will have been discussing exactly this but they find themselves in a desperately difficult position.

 

What they want is to appoint Mr Right. And yet what they need is Mr Right Now.

 

On Friday, King made a great deal of the fact that only 13 men have been appointed Rangers manager. Both he and interim chairman Murray have committed themselves to returning the club to its former standards so neither can afford to be so reckless as to make a snap decision over No.14.

 

Their aim is to be absolutely meticulous. To take all the time required to identify a manager who is not only able to secure promotion but who is capable of building an entire club from the bottom up, in much the way 
Sir Alex Ferguson did at Manchester United in the 1980s.

 

It is their wish to hand this man a blank canvas. Which is why this is a decision they cannot afford to rush. And yet neither can they stall for a moment longer if they hope to be in the top flight next season.

 

It would seem grossly unfair to expect them to have unearthed the long-term 
solution before they have had time to unpack the cardboard boxes in their new office. But if good reason and sound rationale was what they expected then they’ve picked the wrong gig.

 

They have to come up with something and they have to do it yesterday which is why all options will now come under consideration – including some stop-gap measures.

 

For example, they already have a manager who is being paid around £800k a year to prune his petunias. They could demand that he returns to Murray Park but, really, would McCoist’s second coming make a blind bit of difference?

 

Rangers were already trailing hopelessly in this Championship race long before the manager was getting all green fingered so there is no reason to believe he could turn it around at this late stage.

 

No, if McCoist really does wish to assist the new regime then the best thing he can do would be to cancel his own contract with immediate effect and save them a small fortune. That thought must surely have occurred to McCoist who showed his support for the new board by turning up in person to the shareholders vote.

 

So if it’s neither McCoist nor McDowall then who? Well, what about the man who brought them both to the club? What about Walter Smith? At the age of 67 – and having insisted he will never again be lured into a role at Ibrox – Smith would most 
probably be reluctant to be dragged back into the dugout.

 

But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be persuaded, especially if McCoist and McDowall were to give him their blessing.

 

Smith, of course, will have looked at these players on many occasions and wondered to himself if any manager might be able to make a team out of them.

 

He may even suspect that winning promotion might be so close to impossible that no boss in his right mind would take this one on.

 

But even so, in this particular instance, Smith’s heart would be likely to prevail over his head. If asked the question, he might be unable to say no.

 

There are other alternatives, such as Billy Davies, Stuart McCall, Terry Butcher and Steven Pressley – all of whom have previous Ibrox connections – and German Felix Magath, having recently involved himself in the Rangers circus, may be lobbying for a position within the regime.

 

While it is possible that at least one of these men might be willing to see out the season some of them might feel cheapened at being considered on such a short-term basis. King and his men also have to be mindful not to demean the 
manager’s job by hawking it around on a three-month contract.

 

These are crucial, weighty issues for a regime in its infancy and 
an early tester for King and Murray. It wasn’t much of a honeymoon but then they wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/opinion/sport/keith-jackson-bringing-back-walter-5296513

[andy steel 0]

Good to know that Kenny McDowall wants out asap, that should be easy to arrange. Good to hear that McCoist is on board with the resigning and freeing up the money idea. I can't exactly say I'd be overjoyed at Walt3r, but I wouldn't be distraught either. It might be a pragmatic way out of a very, very knotty problem.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

Walter would get us up.

[rbr 1,247]

Captain Nemo couldnt get us up and I still believe another year in the championship would be the best thing all round , give a new manager and team a year to bed in , wont be popular but we need to stop looking short term

[Darthter 542]

Walter would get us up.

 

too much of a backward step imho.....

 

The Board need to be looking ahead, and not getting hung up on past "glory".

The likes of McCall & Butcher, have been average managers over their career and only really being considered because of their Rangers connection/history. We need someone with a fresh vision for how the team is going to move forward, both on a playing front & on an infrastructure front.

 

If due care & attention is not given to appointing the new manager, it may not help the long term progression & improvement of the club. We need to take a wee step back & look at the bigger picture. Getting promotion is ideally what everyone want, but I can see that leading to rash appointments & inflated spending - not things we want to be doing. Proper foundations MUST be put in place before anything else, along with a clear plan/vision of how the board want/expect the team to perform - you then recruit in accordance with that plan.

[colinstein 294]

yes they could take enough time to put foundations in place but we need a short term fix as well. The problem would be finding someone who would take on a short term contract for a couple of months. I thought only Ally would be available but if Walter's on the scene he would be a good shout to see out the season.

[Darthter 542]

yes they could take enough time to put foundations in place but we need a short term fix as well. The problem would be finding someone who would take on a short term contract for a couple of months. I thought only Ally would be available but if Walter's on the scene he would be a good shout to see out the season.

 

We have 12 games left of the season, how quickly would you expect a new manager to start getting results??? What happens if the results don't come immediately - sack the manager & try again??? Rushing to install a new manager (even for the short term), is just starting to paper over the cracks again. As it stands, we have a "manager", who with the players available should be able to make the play-offs.

 

Over recent years, there have been too many "shortcuts" & quick fixes. Now is the time to really start a fresh & that means not rushing into anything.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

Walter would get us up.

With no money to spend I wouldn't be so sure of that.