Tam McManus reckons Rangers must go for someone who knows the Scottish game if Philippe Clement is axed – and Derek McInnes is the ‘obvious’ choice.
The Record Sport columnist believes Celtic – now 11 points ahead after the weekend win over Hearts combined with the Light Blues’ home draw with Dundee United – are so far ahead in terms of finances, budget, strength, depth and recruitment meaning the job at Ibrox is massive and the focus must be on being ‘best of the rest’ again and develop from there as he reckons they will get nowhere near Brendan Rodgers’ side any time soon.
Pressure has ramped up on the Belgian from the fanbase once again after dropped points at home. But the Ibrox hierarchy are sticking by the boss at this moment in time with preparations on Nice in the Europa League with a Premier Sports Cup Final against Celtic at Hampden also just a matter of weeks away.
McManus told PLZ Soccer: “It’s a massive job. It really is. Especially when you look at where Celtic are at the minute.
“I know a lot of Rangers supporters have kind of written the season off and think ‘we are miles behind Celtic we aren’t going to catch them anyway’ but Celtic and Rangers are always going to compare each other to the other team and if a Rangers manager comes in and looks at how far Celtic are ahead in terms of finances, budget, strength and depth of squad, everything, recruitment. It’s a real big job for a Rangers manager.
“I think they need to get someone in who knows Scottish football. Derek McInnes is the obvious one for me.
“I know he has knocked it back before but I don’t think he would knock it back again if they came back in for him. But somebody of that ilk is what Rangers are needing. They need to start being best of the rest again and take it from there because they are not going to get anywhere near Celtic any time soon to be honest.”
Meanwhile, Rangers legendary skipper Barry Ferguson admits he feels like he is constantly repeating himself week by week after another poor outcome in Govan. The former midfielder labelled the share of the points with Jim Goodwin’s men as ‘bang average’ and says the current form is well off the standards expected.
Speaking on Go Radio, he said: “It just wasn’t good enough to get the three points. Again, Rangers have fallen further behind Celtic at 11 points. With Aberdeen losing you are expecting to gain something on them and they didn’t do it so they are still eight points behind Aberdeen.
“Overall, a bang average day and really average performance. I feel like I am repeating myself every single week, it has to get better. It needs to get better. At this moment in time it is way off the standards expected. The fans come in their numbers and pay a lot of money to watch them and are not enjoying what they are seeing at this moment in time. “