Noneedtobequick now time is vital to BY DEREK JOHNSTONE
THE Rangers board have been in a no-win situation since Mark Warburton departed three weeks ago. If they had rushed out and brought in a replacement early on, chances are they wouldn’t have made the right choice.
But the longer the club have gone without a permanent manager the more the fans have demanded: ‘Why haven’t we got somebody else in?’.
But if they had brought somebody in quickly, in whatever capacity, the week after Warburton left or even the week after that they risked getting it wrong.
I know for a fact that Rangers have interviewed four or five people for both the director of football’s role and the manager’s position.
However, it isn’t a matter of just speaking to the individual. They had to speak to the clubs each of them have been involved with in the past to determine what they are like and what they will bring to Rangers.
That is what due diligence is all about. It takes time. They have to find out if he can cope with the situation which he is coming into.
Can he handle having to win every game and every competition, domestically at least, that they enter?
If results don’t go the way he wants he will be under real pressure. Will he be deal with that? He will be coming to a twoclub city and will be under huge scrutiny. Can he accept that?
Rangers have had to find out what kind of character the manager has. But most of all they have to ascertain if they can coach. Because there won’t be an awful lot of money there for him to spend.
Aberdeen are a god team and are sitting in second position in the Ladbrokes Premiership table just now. But Derek McInnes hasn’t had a great deal of cash to spend on his squad.
Rangers need a manager who can do the same thing and they are hard to find. The supporters have got to be patient and accept the directors are taking their time so they can get exactly the right men in to these positions.
Having said that, getting a new manager in now is imperative. He needs to be involved for the last two months of the season to find out which players he wants to keep and which players he wants to let go ahead of next season.
IWhen the players had to be brought down a peg or two after their poor first half performance against Dundee at Dens Park he did that.
He has shown he is passionate about doing well. Much was made of his headstand against Dundee and many people poked fun at him.
But that just showed that he cares. I wish a few of the players shared his enthusiasm.
He has been thrust into a very difficult situation and could have said: “But I’m just the under-20 coach!” But instead he said: “No, I’ll take it on.” The experience will do him the world of good.
It looks to me that he is getting the respect of the players. They are working their socks off. I would imagine that Clint Hill and Kenny Miller, the two old stagers, will have something to do with it as well. They will have been rallying the troops.
It is their futures they are fighting for. If the new manager comes in and doesn’t like them then they will be out of the door. If they still want to be there then they will have to keep doing what they did in the 3-2 win over St Johnstone on Wednesday evening.
A lot of fans have been unhappy with the fight they have