EVEN FERGIE COULD NOT RESCUE GERS...
Knox’s damning verdict on Ibrox stars
ARCHIE KNOX last night admitted that not even Sir Alex Ferguson could turn Rangers into a force capable of halting Celtic’s domination of Scottish football.
The former Ibr ox No 2, who was in the dugout with Ferguson during his trophy-laden years at Aberdeen and Manchester United, skewered the current Ibrox side.
And the 70-year-old, who worked under Walter Smith as Rangers equalled Celtic’s ninein-a-row title winning run in the Nineties, admitted that record could be under threat from the Parkhead juggernaut.
Asked if Sir Alex would struggle if he was in charge of Rangers today, Knox said: “He would.
“Unless you have the players and you recruit well or be lucky enough to have good players then you are not going to do it.
“For Rangers to get back to what they once were then they need to have the same level of
player as Celtic. Celtic have better players – it is not rocket science
“There is no magic formula for it – you simply have to have better players who have better attitudes than the rest of the teams and then you have a good chance of winning.
“I don’t see anybody [knocking Celtic off their perch] in the near future.
“There is no question that Celtic can deliver at the moment. There is no question about that.
“The level of player that Brendan Rodgers is bringing, getting the likes of Patrick Roberts back and Kieran Tierney being a phenomenal player, Stuart Armstrong improving all the time and Leigh Griffiths scoring goals as he does, and having six players in the Scotland team, is great for Celtic.”
Knox, despite that gloomy assessment from a Rangers point of view, tried to offer some crumbs of comfort to the Ibrox support by saying that perhaps a side could push Celtic close.
It was quite telling though, that it is another of his former teams that he fancies to provide the greatest challenge for the title this season, and that Rangers could even be out of the reckoning by the time of their first clash with Celtic towards the end of the month.
“You never know,” he said. “I think Aberdeen might run them close this season. I don’t know enough about the players at Rangers. Whether those players can come in and lift Rangers, I am not sure.
“What I will say is they have to win their next two league games before they play Celtic.
“That will always be the case at Rangers. No matter how you are going.”