Glasgow Times

TALKING RANGERS

- By GRAEME McGARRY

AS A Rangers player, Jimmy Nicholl worked under the iron fist regimes of Jock Wallace and Graeme Souness, so it would be fair to say that he knows a thing or two about discipline.

That’s why he is delighted to see that present-day Rangers boss Pedro Caixinha is taking a hard line when it comes to dealing with poor applicatio­n from members of his squad.

Harry Forrester is the latest player to be brought to task for his attitude, with the midfielder reportedly being sent away from the training ground for two weeks and being told he can find himself a new club.

Nicholl reckons that standards have been slipping at Ibrox over the last few years, and he is glad that they seem to at last be rising again under the Portuguese gaffer.

He is dismayed though that such action is having to be taken against a player who has come from Doncaster Rovers, and seems to have blown his chance at the big-time with Rangers.

“It’s good to see Pedro doing what he is doing,” Nicholl told TimesSport.

“I know the difference between discipline and non-discipline, and if you don’t have it then it just gets out of hand.

“Even if it’s only one or two players, if you don’t discipline them then you lose the respect of the honest pros who might think that action should be getting taken.

“All of a sudden, it snowballs, and players start to think that there’s no point in them having any standards because the manager doesn’t. You’ve got to do the right thing.

“If the player hasn’t been applying himself in training properly, even if his future isn’t at Rangers, then that’s not acceptable.

“I can’t understand young footballer­s these days who don’t enjoy training and don’t enjoy playing g football.

“Harry has as been in and out of the team eam and has had injuries, s, but if he hasn’t been en playing games for Rangers angers because of his attitude and applicatio­n, ation, then that’s t’s horrific.

“It shouldd be a lesson to any young lad. If you get an opportunit­yy to go to a club like e Rangers, be on decent nt money and play in front of 50,000 every other week, then tak take it. “Take time o out of your life and dedicate yourself to football, because y you’re a long tim time not playing. “It r really annoy annoys me when I see young people with an attitu tude problem. Players will find their level, but if you’ve got ability and you don’t maximize it because of your attitude and applicatio­n, then I’m sorry, but you don’t want those sorts of people about the place.”

EVEN if Forrester has been told that he has no future at Ibrox, Nicholl believes that he may be doing his chances of a move to another club harm if he is refusing to give 100 per cent in training.

“The player has got to watch,” he said. “What if other managers phone Pedro about him? What is he supposed to say? That he has a player who is lazy, overweight and unfit with terrible applicatio­n, and who is a cancer around the place? Does he want him to tell them that?”

Working as he did with such hard task-masters in his time at Rangers, Nicholl is all too aware of how high standards off the field can seep their way onto the field, and positively influence a team’s form.

And he hopes that Caixinha will continue to take a hard line with his players, so that everyone at the club knows what is expected of them.

“One of the first things Jock Wallace said to me was that I was the luckiest man in the world,” said Nicholl.

“He said: ‘When you signed for Rangers under John Greig, you walked into training on the Friday morning with an opennecked shirt on and a jumper.’

“I only signed on the Thursday night, then had my breakfast at the Swallow Hotel on Bellahoust­on Road before training. As I was walking over,

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