Could you imagine Kenny Miller telling a boss like Walter Smith what to do?
Club legend Stein calls on board to secure a manager capable of earning the respect of old
IN two spells as a Rangers player, Colin Stein steered clear of showing dissent towards managers, either inside the dressing room or out. Willie Waddell wouldn’t have taken it. The reaction of Jock Wallace would have been unprintable.
‘I know in my time at Rangers if there was an argument with Willie Waddell, Davie White or Jock Wallace, I think the gaffer would always win it,’ said Stein yesterday.
‘I think it is the case in every work environment that you have arguments with your boss. But in every environment, the boss always wins.’
Walter Smith could silence dissent with an icy stare. Graeme Souness and Dick Advocaat yielded their authority with a big stick.
‘The boss has to get the respect of the players,’ added Stein with quiet understatement.
All of which leaves interim manager Graeme Murty with a problem.
There were no signs, during a humiliating 4-0 defeat to Celtic, that the players are pulling up trees for the former Scotland defender. No evidence that he has the experience or clout to tame a strong, unruly dressing room.
What we witnessed instead was something approaching contempt.
Right from the start, Murty wore the Emperor’s New Clothes and when he stands before first-team players in a Rangers tracksuit now, he might as well be naked. At Hampden, he was stripped of any lingering vestige of respect.
Andy Halliday and Daniel Candeias threw the toys from the pram when they were substituted.
A suited and booted Wallace demanded an immediate inquest into events at Hampden in the dressing room after the game.
When Murty suggested the postmortem was best left until Monday morning, Miller allegedly entered the fray. The relationship between the men might now be finished but the same can’t necessarily be said of Murty.
If his chances of becoming the next permanent manager look doomed, the signs are he’ll cling to office until the end of the season. A risky strategy, Rangers have five games left to secure second place in the Premiership and, right now, you wouldn’t fancy them to win any of them.
There is even less chance of Miller or Wallace ever playing for the club again.
A repeat offender, Miller has previous for challenging the authority of managers.
Banished from the team by Pedro Caixinha, the 38-year-old has always been ready with an opinion. The problem arises on days like Sunday when they’re not actually asked for.
Suspended pending a disciplinary investigation, Miller is out of contract and won’t don a Rangers shirt again.
Wallace, the club captain whose ire sparked the confrontation with Murty in the first place, has a year left. It might not count for much.
Supporters have already begun taking sides. Yet tribalism and partisan bickering shouldn’t skew attention from the bigger picture.
Rangers are a rudderless football club stumbling from one fiasco to another. From top to bottom, evidence of leadership is sparse.
At board level, there is mistrust and division. Jousting factions who feel chairman Dave King can’t possibly run the club the way it should be run from an office in Johannesburg.
There was an acknowledgement of that in the appointment of major shareholder Douglas Park as deputy chairman last week.
Yet the seeds of Sunday’s shambles were planted months ago.
The disastrous appointment of Caixinha was followed by the protracted, unsuccessful pursuits of Chris Coleman, then Derek McInnes, ending in the desperate hiring of the Under-20s coach as interim manager.
It’s not Murty’s fault he had never managed a team at first-team level, let alone Rangers. He can’t be blamed for his inexperience. It can’t be easy for a decent bloke to find wisdom at the bottom of a poisoned chalice.
Promoting a ‘Legends of Scottish Football’ night with best pal Willie Johnston yesterday, Stein added: ‘Murty is in a funny situation. He is an interim manager and he has got to prove himself. He is in a difficult position. ‘This happened before with Kenny Miller and Pedro Caixinha. I don’t know what kind of guy Kenny Miller is in the dressing room. ‘I don’t know the guy (Murty) personally either, but there is a big difference from being the manager of the Under-20s to a team that is playing for their living every week. It is a big step up.
‘I was a bit of a hothead at times — but I would always take my manager’s word.
‘If you were asked, of course you would speak up. Sometimes, you were upset if you got beat and every game is different.
‘You can fall out with a team-mate or the manager but it is usually resolved in-house.’
It must be years now since anything at all happened privately inside Rangers.
That the suspensions of Miller and Wallace found their way on to the back page of a newspaper before either player had even faced a disciplinary hearing offers further evidence of a dysfunctional football club.
One which now tests the patience and faith of supporters — and former players — who can no longer stomach what they see.
‘They have got to get a manager that can do the job,’ added Stein (below) with a shake of the head. ‘It is as simple as that.
‘One who can tell players this or tell players that. Picking a winning team is what it is all about.
‘It was the passion and attitude on Sunday. I don’t think the supporters deserve that.
‘If you can’t be motivated for a semi-final, or any game against Celtic, then there is something wrong. It comes from both the manager and players — but the manager doesn’t play on the park. That is the players.
A sales pitch to flog season tickets backfired last week when chairman King was accused of throwing Murty under a bus.
Asked if supporters have shown more patience than the board of directors deserve, Stein responded: ‘There are 45,000 fans turning up every game at Ibrox and they have got a great away support as well, so I think that answers your question.
‘I think they will stick by them, as usual. But they have got a lot to be upset about...’