You don’t need to spend a fortune to lift the title
Smith’s happily retired Smith points to his second spell in charge of Gers to show they can win on a tight budget
WALTER SMITH has no regrets about rejecting talks aimed at becoming new Scotland boss.
The Rangers hero admits he’s done with management, although he’ll step into the dugout this weekend for a legends match at Ibrox.
Smith was approached about succeeding Gordon Strachan last month after Michael O’Neill knocked back the job – a move exclusively revealed by the Daily Record.
He mulled over the prospect of meeting the SFA before deciding he’s happy with life as it is before Hampden bosses turned to Alex McLeish.
Smith said: “I’d like to clarify I wasn’t asked to take the job. I was asked if I’d come out of retirement and in the end decided not to bother.
“That meant Alex got the job and he maybe should have had it in the WALTER SMITH led Rangers to the highest times with a number of players he plucked from some of senior football’s lowest levels.
There’s inspiration for the Ibrox club in Smith’s experience of crafting a trophy-winning team on a shoestring after a period in which they struggled to lace Celtic’s boots.
First, however, the former Light Blues manager has urged the current board not to botch their next managerial appointment as spectacularly as they did with Pedro Caixinha.
The currency of goodwill among Rangers fans, like the hard-earned rand of chairman Dave King and pound sterling of Douglas Park, is not limitless.
Smith held court at Ibrox yesterday ahead of a legends game this weekend and even a glimpse at the list of former Rangers favourites taking part offered legitimacy to his opinion that big-buck transfer fees don’t necessarily translate into title successes.
Writing cheques to secure the services of players such as Craig Moore, Marvin Andrews, Alex Rae, Peter Lovenkrands, Jonatan Johansson and Nacho Novo never caused Sir David Murray wrist sprain but they all played their part in delivering major honours.
Smith’s second spell in charge over four years from 2007 yielded three league championships, two Scottish Cups, three League Cup successes and a march to the Final of the UEFA Cup at a time when cost cutting really began to bite.
As they slowly claw their way back from the financial abyss Smith is adamant better times still lie ahead – but only if they secure a manager who can build a foundation and a framework within his squad to challenge Celtic’s unrivalled position at the top of the Scottish game.
He said: “In my first period at Rangers, Graeme Souness and I looked at proven international players such as Terry Butcher, Brian Laudrup, Gary Stevens and Richard Gough and the club might not get back to that calibre again.
“In my second spell we weren’t operating at that level but we were still able to get guys such as Carlos Cuellar who cost us a couple of million from Osasuna.
“After we transferred him to Aston Villa, Paul Sturrock told me about a boy playing at Southend called Madjid Bougherra.
“He said he was a good lad but could be an awkward one to manage. However, he did really well for us.
“We were looking at a slightly lower level than previously but it didn’t stop us from finding a way of putting them all together. You also need a little bit of luck too, of course.
“A lot of times we might not have been the prettiest team in the world to watch but still found a way to win.
“If you offer those circumstances then a manager can look and say, ‘Okay, I’ve got a basic level of investment and I can go on and find a way to win’.
“The next couple of months will be one of the most important periods in the club’s recent history.
“Graeme Murty has been put in an awkward position. A couple of weeks ago everybody was saying he was doing well but after a couple of losses everybody turns the opposite way.
“If you ask how has he coped with the circumstances I’d say overall he has handled them well. But it’s not my place to say if he’ll be considered Rangers manager for the long term.
“I would not have liked to have been a caretaker for this length of time but Rangers are still in between everything at the present moment and that’s one of the reasons there has been a fair bit of inconsistency in performances.”
Rangers came close a fortnight ago to inflicting their first league defeat on Celtic since their financial collapse in 2012 but could not overcome 10 men at Ibrox.
They followed it up last weekend with another defeat at home, this time to Kilmarnock, and it left observers wondering how psychologically scarred the squad have been left by their failure to see off the champions when the game was there for the taking.
Smith remains a regular in the directors’ box at Ibrox and admits they don’t have the quality to see them through when standards slip but still insists there were positives in their display against the reigning champions.
He said: “The home games always bring a problem. It’s easier to set your team up to defend when you’re away from home and sit back a little bit.
“Trying to achieve the balance to go and win a championship is not easy and that has been Rangers’ problem at Ibrox.
“They’re not scoring or creating enough. When they have pushed forward they have looked vulnerable at the back and