Straight-shooting Ally McCoist has branded Rangers “weak” and the type of team rival players dream to play against in the wake of Philippe Clement’s axing.
The Ibrox icon has long championed the club he loves but the club’s record goalscorer didn’t miss as he put the boot into Rangers after the Belgian paid with his job following an abysmal campaign. And McCoist let decision makers at Ibrox have it as he hopes a new era under the San Francisco 49ers offers a genuine fresh start. Rangers’ focus now is a Europa League last 16 clash with Fenerbahce with Barry Ferguson in line to take the reins on a caretaker basis.
McCoist sees a team way behind Celtic and one who must fix problems on the park and off it if they are truly to challenge Brendan Rodgers’ trophy machine. Speaking to talkSPORT: “Miles behind them (Celtic). It is a good job if you get backed, the recruitment has been shocking, it really has. You look across the city. The one thing you have to do as a Rangers manager, you have got to beat Celtic, if you are a Celtic manager, you have got to beat Rangers. It’s relatively simple, to be a success, you have got to beat the other team.
“Rangers, sadly, even including the very comfortable 3-0 win against Celtic a few weeks back, are a good way behind Celtic on and off the pitch. I know Celtic got beat at the weekend. They put in a good performance in Munich and deserved to go to extra time. The gulf between the two clubs, at this moment in time, is massive. So anyone going in there is going to have to take the whole place by the scruff of the neck and give it a right good shake.
“They are going to have to get backed by new owners, who financially back the new coach. The money which has been spent, you could name individuals, Cortes, people like that, it’s millions of pounds, millions of pounds, have been effectively thrown away. I know the lad got injured. The players coming in have not been of a good enough standard.
“What the fans are finding it difficult to accept, and I am with them 100 per cent, is a lack of fight and lack of desire. The Rangers football team on the pitch is weak and I wouldn’t mind playing against it, to be quite honest, it’s a team you would love to play against because there is a weakness about it on the pitch and, sadly, off the pitch at this time as well.”
McCoist is in no mood to mitigate Clement, however, he reckons the blame should be passed around. And, for the first time ever, he has aired his view Rangers would have won the league last season if they signed Lawrence Shankland in January 2024.
He added: “Yes, but he is also carrying the can for his own failings. You take that job, you can complain about recruitment, you can complain about the next thing, you will get the sack, the players won’t get the sack and that is what has happened. Of course, he has to shoulder responsibility. I don’t think it is all down to him, by any stretch of the imagination.
“I actually think if they had gone last year and got Lawrence Shankland (last January), I think they might have won the league, I genuinely do. If they had gone and given Hearts whatever they wanted, Shankland might have scored the goals which won Rangers the league. It wasn’t to be, Celtic deservedly came back and won the league. The decline in the club, on and off the pitch, since they won the league and were beaten in the Europa League Final, it hurts to see.”
And McCoist, looking beyond the interim appointment, weighed up a host of candidates who could be in the running this summer. He said: “Dear me that is a question, that is a question. The obvious people you would think about. Steven Gerrard would come into the equation obviously because of his success. It won’t happen now but I would have taken a gamble on Frank Lampard before he went to Coventry. I don’t see that happening.
“Kevin Muscat has done well. I think I am right in saying he has won three leagues in three different countries. Could be another option.
“Derek McInnes would come into the equation. He is a fine manager at Kilmarnock, knows the league, players and club. There are one or two options. But I don’t think there are any glaringly obvious candidates right now either.”