McINNES THE PERFECT FIT
Call off boss hunt, Gers – it’s blindingly obvious who the new gaffer should be
I DIDN’t hold out much hope for Pedro Caixinha.
When I met the man at Murray Park near the end of last season to be interviewed for a place on his backroom team it’s fair to say we didn’t hit it off.
He simply wasn’t my kind of guy and it’s safe to say the feeling was mutual as I never heard back from him. I had absolutely no problem with that. He had every right to manage the club in his own way and with his own people. He owed me nothing, that’s for sure.
But the truth of the matter is, it became very obvious very quickly that we would not be a good fit for one another.
I just didn’t get him. And he obviously didn’t get me.
I know the language barrier b makes things hard but, b even so, I didn’t like the way wa every second word he said seemed to end in “ology”.
And, An yes, when I walked away from oour meeting I didn’t have much cconfidence that he was the right maman to manage my old club. I must admit, I was worried all these philosophiesp and methodologies methodol were not going to end well.
Do I thinthink we could have worked together? NNo, almost certainly not because I wouldw have found it difficult wawatching from the sidelines as the stanstandards which mean so much to mme were being eroded one by one.
And I don’tdo think he was the type of person whwho wanted to hear anyone’s opinion otother than his own.
But therthere’s something I need to put straight rightrig now because there seems to bbe a school of thought out there that I actually wanted to see him fail for not giving me a job. Well, pardon my Portuguese, but what a lot of bollocks that is.
First and foremost I’m a Rangers fan. I may not have liked the man in charge and I may not have rated him or agreed withw his decisions either but never oonce did I want to see him lose a matmatch.
I didn’t tthink he would succeed at Ibrox but I always hoped against hope he might.
Anyone who knows me understands understan I would never be so petty. All I’I’ve ever wanted since I could first walk and talk is to see Rangers be successful. That was never goinggoin to change just because Caixinha ddidn’t want me in charge of the balls, bibsb and cones at training. Not a chanchance.
I actuallyactuall find the very suggestion deeply insulting.insu I didn’t just want to be wrong abouta Caixinha, I was desperate for him to make my old club betterbetter.
But now that he’s gone and I must admit, for the sake of Rangers, I’m IBROX LEGEND WRITES EXCLUSIVELYFOR YOU glad it’s time to give someone else a shot at the job.
So now the question is where do Rangers go from here? Let’s make no mistake here, the next appointment is absolutely crucial. The board simply cannot afford to get it wrong again because what they are searching for now is the man who is going to stop Celtic winning 10 in a row.
And that’s why I believe the hunt should be called off this morning. The man they need is so blindingly obvious there’s no need for them to keep on looking.
As a player, Derek McInnes was part of the Rangers squad that won nine in a row. As a manager, he is the guy who can end Celtic’s chances of 10.
If I was on that Rangers board I’d drive up to Pittodrie myself this morning and bundle him into the boot of my car. I simply would not take no for an answer.
As far as I’m concerned the decision to appoint Caixinha was a massive gamble. One that backfired just as many of us were worried it would.
But this time it’s all about minimising the risk. And that’s why, whatever way I look at it, I just can’t see past McInnes.
And no, it’s not just because he’s a Rangers man. Do you think I’m that daft? When I said last week I wanted to see someone in charge who knows the club inside out it wasn’t because I believe you need to know the words to “Follow Follow” to be able to manage Rangers. No, what I was trying to explain is there are all sorts of imponderables when it comes to choosing a manager for a club like this one. The likes of David Moyes, Sam Allardyce and Alan Pardew might have great CVs but there’s no way of knowing, until they get across the front door, how they will cope with the demands of being at Rangers. It’s not like any other job or any other club. That’s what I mean when I mention standards. There are standards that have been set at this club which must be strictly adhered to if they are ever going to reclaim their place at the top of the Scottish game. Standards that Caixinha could never understand. Standards that might make the others feel uncomfortable.
But standards that McInnes knows inside out having been part of the most successful Rangers side of all time.
When you’ve played in a team full of Laudrups and Gascoignes then you know what is required inside that dressing room. And, now he’s a manager, McInnes seems to have taken those standards with him to Aberdeen.
The job he has done up there has been absolutely outstanding on a budget which is probably a quarter or maybe even a fifth the size of the Ibrox wage bill.
So what you have here is a guy who knows how to build a team and win football matches but who also connects with the club and understands the unique identity of Rangers and the standards that have always made it so.
That’s how to minimise risk. And for that reason he looks to me like the perfect candidate at the perfect time.
The fact it’s been more than a week now since the last manager moved on suggests Rangers don’t want to be rushed as they need to be certain with this one.
Or it could be they are not comfortable with the compensation figures involved in releasing McInnes from his contract at Aberdeen.
But they should ask themselves another question. If like me they decide McInnes is the obvious choice then can they really afford not to pay the money?
If McInnes can stop Celtic winning 10 in a row then it’ll be the best £800,000 the club has ever spent.
I may not have liked the man or rated him but never did I want him to lose MURTY NO FLIP FLOP