I speak to you as a rangers fan, of this i make no secret and i hope
that some of you will harbour a small amount of sympathy for me
considering the past goings on. What we will do though is examine the
supposed rebuilding process McCoist has put our team through, now there
is no doubt about it many a time has he cemented his name as a legend in
rangers history, when he took his place as manager that is a very
different story.
Collectively fans have noticed a consistent lack of experience through
his rebuilding a team of the past. We were banished to the third
division this was presented as an opportunity to revolutionize the way
rangers play football, create an identity and utilize one of the best
facilities in scotland (murray park)
Obviously throughout that short period McCoist had no choice but to use
players that he has available, instead of capitalising on this by using
the youth players that have progressed through the academy he created a
reason to say that his progress was hamstrung as a result of the ban
placed on rangers obtaining players above the age of 18.
The following couple of seasons have been different, the ban expired so
a chance of creating a new team presented itself, so he signed a number
of players cammy bell, jon daly and the likes. Top level players,
clearly dropping a couple of divisions for the money. The freshly
created team collected a few players over the age of 30, McCoist opting
for experience again. These new guys had a lot of expectation placed
upon them, and rightly so Jon Daly for example it was speculated that he
was offered three times the amount Dundee United were willing to offer
to renew his contract, so this level of experience wiping the floor on a
weekly basis was a bare minimum.
This wasnt the case, from paying a visit on a few occasion the team
seemed incoherent, uncertain as to who’s role is what, struggling to
grasp the strategy laid out to them. The boos followed.
A closer look at the more recent events will present us with clearer
evidence, the ramsden cup final McCoist opted for a line up minus the
new kid on the block Calum Gallacher, who following the promotion during
an unbeated season he scored on a number of occasions, and yet this did
not warrant an appearance until the 111th minute and we all know the
score in that game.
The more recent events have proven to be the most infuriating, charlie
telfer moved onto Dundee United, being part of the youth cup winning
side along side Gallacher I can understand the lure of SPFL game time on
the other hand a family member accused rangers of “stingy” terms,
forcing him to move to United.
We sold the captain of the Scotland U-18s team Stuart Urquhart, again
who progressed through the ranks of rangers but considered not good
enough to play for the first team, we let Kane Hemmings go who went on
to achieve “Player of the Year” for cowdenbeath who at the time were a
division above us.
All this evidence suggests that the way this team is being managed lacks
direction and forward thinking, simply using the profile and wage of
rangers to attract the required players to do a job, if a problem occurs
throw more money at it to solve.
I cant help think that this strategy will prove to be self destructive.