Rangers can’t afford another gamble after Pedro
RDerek McInnes may not be the most ambitious appointment for the Ibrox board, but the ex-Blues midfielder is a safe pair of hands who could improve fortunes HERE is no such thing as a sure thing. Rangers have to play the percentage game now, though.
It is not nailed-on that Derek McInnes will be the next manager at Ibrox and nobody can say for sure that the former Light Blues midfielder is the right man for the job.
The case for him and the reasoning behind the faith in him makes sense, although doubts have been raised amongst some supporters about his suitability for the position.
Neither McInnes, nor any candidate, can guarantee Rangers success but after years of ups and downs they need to get back on the straight and narrow.
If the price that Aberdeen name for their boss is acceptable to the Gers board, then McInnes will be one step closer to climbing the Marble Staircase.
Timing your move in the game is crucial and McInnes will surely know that if he knocks back the chance to succeed Pedro Caixinha then
Tthe opportunity may never come around again. It is not often you get asked twice at a club like Rangers. The 46-year-old is seen as the natural replacement for Caixinha. He knows Rangers, understands the Scottish game, is shrewd in the transfer market and has taken a Dons squad t hat were i n t he doldrums to a cup win and second place in the top flight.
Rangers have gone down varying routes with their last two managers and both have ended up at dead ends. While no move is ever risk-free, the Ibrox board need to lessen the uncertainty as much as possible third time around.
Mark Warburton was the up-and-coming English option, while Caixinha was the Portuguese with a philosophy. They were very different men that offered different perspectives, but they both left Rangers in the same mess at the end of their respective tenures.
Whoever is next through the door at Ibrox has to pick up the pieces and attempt to shape them into something that resembles a credible force in Scottish football once again.
The last five years have offered Rangers at least three chances – firstly under Ally McCoist, then Warburton and most recently Caixinha - to regroup and rebuild.
With the right personnel and with the right investment in the right places, the club could have been transformed from top to bottom.
Progress has been made in some areas but overall, for a variety of reasons at each stage, opportunities have been wasted and now the Gers are left staring at another overhaul under another new manager.
The next man at the helm will believe that he can be the one that can topple Celtic in the Premiership, that can bring silverware back to Ibrox and lead the Light Blues into the European arena.
All of those ambitions are the correct ones and they are goals that must be set and achieved as quickly as possible.
But the first objective has to be to steady the ship, to do the basics and ensure that most of the headlines around Rangers focus on what is happening on the park for the right reasons.
Leave the big picture stuff to Mark Allen, the Director of Football, and the Academy system to Craig Mulholland and his team. Let the board get on with running Rangers as a business. angers need a period of stability in the dugout and a run of results on the pitch, one that lasts significantly longer than the sequence of three-in-a-row that Caixinha repeatedly failed to achieve.
It is McInnes that is seen as the safe pair of hands at present. He would quickly make Rangers simply second best, but could he make them better than all the rest?
Some fans would like to see a bigger name, while others have questioned McInnes’ record against Celtic. He may not be the perfect pick, but in truth that candidate probably isn’t out there right now for Rangers.
Whether it is McInnes or not, the requirements are basic right now for Rangers. They need a good man manager, someone with an eye for a player and a boss that avoids the kind of slip-ups against lesser teams that ultimately did for both Warburton and Caixinha.
Rangers have to always strive for top spot, to aim to be victorious in every game that they play and win every competition that they enter.
But before those dreams can become a reality, the foundations must be put in place to give Rangers a platform upon which to build.
There is no quick fix. To be the best, first they must be the best that they can be.
Neither McInnes, nor any candidate, can guarantee Rangers success but after years of ups and downs the Light Blues need to get back on the straight and narrow.