From the Indodrill to Istanbul. In football management terms, that’s some leap.
And when Barry Ferguson was put in interim charge of Rangers last week, you could hear the cackling from the other side of Glasgow. Jose Mourinho v Ned Lasso. Everyone’s seen all the online quips. When their team is 16 points clear in the title race and odds-on for a Treble, Celtic fans are entitled to have a chuckle at their rivals’ expense. And yesterday’s 2-1 Ibrox loss won’t stop the laughter from Parkhead punters.
But as Ferguson prepares for a clash with the Special One on Thursday night, don’t think for a minute there will be any sort of inferiority complex. He’s just not built that way. It’s not in his make up to be overawed by anyone. In fact, if Mourinho thinks he’s got confidence and arrogance, he ain’t met Barry yet. And maybe right now – after the departure of Philippe Clement – that’s exactly what this group of Rangers players need.
A gaffer with a bit of swagger. When Ferguson walks out in front of 50,000 Turkish fanatics at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium and heads for the away dugout, do you think he’ll be fazed by it? When Mourinho, boasting his 20 major honours as a manager, goes to shake his hand, do you think the Rangers boss won’t look him in the eye? Of course he will. Because he’s gallus. Whether you like it or not, Ferguson believes he can hold his own in any company.
And no matter how this temporary stint at Ibrox goes, you can’t help but admire that. Mourinho certainly will. Rangers fans must hope his players do too, in order for him to get a tune out of them. Yesterday’s miserable 2-1 loss to Motherwell in Barry’s Ibrox dugout debut wasn’t ideal preparation for Thursday night but in his maiden victory at Rugby Park in midweek, a few things were noticeable.
When Cyriel Dessers scored the second goal to make it 2-2, several of them immediately turned and made celebratory gestures towards their stand-in boss. And at the end, as Ferguson stepped forward to salute an away support showing their adulation for a former hero, you could see a few looking and thinking: “They love this guy, maybe he’s got something.”
In this city, Clement certainly didn’t have that kind of aura. What Ferguson has, irrespective of his inexperience on the touchline, is an insatiable desire, hunger and will to win. What he’s also got is unwavering belief in his own ability. He had it in abundance as a player so, you have to assume, he’ll be the same as a gaffer.
The pigeon chest is puffed out again. His head is always up, just as it was on the pitch when he used to scan his midfield looking to spray a pass. The thing about Ferguson the player was that he didn’t care who he was up against. That was one of the reasons Dick Advocaat didn’t just make him a mainstay of the Rangers team – he also made him captain. In a squad awash with expensive talent like Arthur Numan, Lorenzo Amoruso and Gio van Bronckhorst, it was a young Ferguson who was given the armband.
In his first season under the Dutchman, Rangers knocked Bayer Leverkusen out of the UEFA Cup with their Scottish playmaker bossing the first leg in Germany. The audacious swivel that took out four German players before van Bronckhorst scored was the moment he announced himself on the European stage. It set up a clash with Parma. Dino Baggio and Juan Sebastian Veron were in their engine room.
Again, Ferguson didn’t look out of place in that elite company. The following year, Rangers knocked them out of the Champions League, with the skipper barely giving Baggio a kick of the ball. There were more examples as the years went on in Europe.
Against Bayern Munich, it was Lothar Matthaus and Stefan Effenberg. Mark van Bommel and Ruud van Nistelrooy at PSV, Andy Moller and Lars Ricken for Borussia Dortmund.
They were all in the SAME season. Oh, and he also went to Wembley and ran the show against England in that Euro 2000 play-off 1-0 win when they had Paul Ince, David Beckham and Paul Scholes in the middle of the park.
The point is, Ferguson wasn’t flustered by ANY opponent. Because he believed that, on his day, he could live with them. And whether he becomes a good Rangers gaffer or not – if he can instil some of that in his players, it will do them no harm given the trauma they’ve suffered already domestically this season.
Ironically, it feels like the Fenerbahce last-16 Europa League tie will be the LEAST important for Ferguson in terms of him potentially having a role at Ibrox beyond the summer. The two legs in Istanbul and Glasgow are the only games that have tangible meaning when it comes to competition.
But it will be the two remaining Old Firm derbies against Celtic where Ferguson – and his coaching team – are truly judged. Even with the title gone and Brendan Rodgers’ men cruising to four-in-a-row, the Rangers boss will desperately want to make a mark in that fixture, as he so often did as a player.
If he does, who knows where he might be in June? Either way, what an opportunity for him. From being gaffer at Alloa Athletic to going head-to-head with Rodgers and Mourinho.
For some, it would be too daunting a prospect. But for Ferguson, with the head up and chest out? He’ll probably relish it.