TALKING RANGERS
ALEX McLEISH admits the timing wasn’t right for him to make a return to Rangers after holding talks with the Ibrox board.
The former Light Blues boss was one of the names considered by Gers chiefs as they searched for Mark Warburton’s replacement earlier this year.
McLeish lifted seven major honours during his time in the dugout, including a domestic clean sweep in 2003 as Rangers clinched a dramatic Treble.
Portuguese coach Pedro Caixinha won the race to become the club’s 16th manager and will lead his side out against Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final on Sunday.
And McLeish insists he didn’t have a big call to make about whether to step back into the Ibrox hot-seat this term.
He said: “I didn’t say I was definitely going to take the job if I was offered it. It was more just to get a general feeling about how things were going.
“It was a decision I didn’t need to make anyway because they had clearly targeted Pedro. So it wasn’t there for me to accept or decline.
“Working at Rangers and knowing the ins and outs and understanding the pressure of having to win every single game…I’ve had all that before.
“I’ve done that and had some really great times as well as one or two when it didn’t go the way I wanted.
“A lot of that can be down to recruitment and trying to get the right players at the right time.
“This talk at the moment of a Sporting Director — he’s going to need to have loads of contacts and access to just about everybody in the world within Rangers’ financial means.”
The appointment of Caixinha caught many Gers fans by surprise as the 46-year-old moved from Al-Gharafa to step into the Ibrox rebuilding job.
The Portuguese has arrived with no previous experience of working in Scotland and will continue to assess his squad in the coming weeks ahead of the new campaign.
Caixinha will be given a chance to impress by the Light Blue legions and McLeish has no fears even though he is untried and untested in our game. He said: “Maybe it’s better for a young, enthusiastic guy to come in and change it without knowing about all the things that go with being the manager of Rangers.
“Pedro’s come in a little bit blind in that respect, although he’s been saying all the right things that the fans want to hear, like getting Simply The Best on the tannoy, so he’s clearly done his homework. But it wasn’t the same [this time]. I spoke to Walter Smith and he said: ‘They say never go back but, when I did [in 2007] I demanded that David Murray gave me money.
HE ADDED: “Walter ended up building a team that won three championships and reached the Uefa Cup final, with signings like Steve Davis, Steven Naismith and Nikica Jelavic.
“It was a great piece of team building by him but it will take time to catch up with Celtic now and I just felt, in my heart, that it wasn’t for me just now.
“I still get texts and e-mails from my pals — Rangers fans — urging me to read this blog or that one and I thought: ‘Do I really need that at this stage of my life?’ The political aspect.” same now. Believe in yourself and in how good you can be.
“We are obviously concerned. We need to recognise where we are.
“If we play like we did against Cardiff, if we deliver that level of performance in the next three games, we’ll be okay. Performances are a consequence of the hard work you put in every day on the training ground.
“They are all huge games at this point. But we have to focus on ourselves. The effort, desire and commitment was there for all to see.
“The supporters were magnificent and they will have seen the desire and the pride in the shirt. I hope they appreciate that.
“But we need to see more of that. We have to dig deep now.
“We should have picked up points against Wolves, Blackburn and Cardiff and haven’t.
“But if the players play like that; if they show that kind of quality and commitment, I think we will be okay.”
Maybe it’s better for an enthusiastic, young guy to come in and change it at Ibrox