ALLEN DEPARTURE NO BIG DEAL

WHEN Rangers announced Mark Allen’s departure on Friday night, there was a line in the club statement which really jumped out at me. It was a quote from Allen himself, saying: ‘Bringing Steven Gerrard to the club will always be a special point in my career.’ It sounds very much like he’s trying to take all the credit for the club appointing such a marquee name as manager. It was as though he snapped his fingers and got Gerrard to up sticks and move north from what was a cushy number at the Liverpool academy. But, from people I’ve spoken to in the game, that was most definitely not the case. There was also an interview on radio recently when Allen (below) was blowing his own trumpet about Rangers finally signing Ryan Kent. I’m not saying he didn’t have some kind of input in these decisions. And nor would I dispute that he does leave the club in a better place than when he arrived a couple of years ago. But these things are all relative. In terms of the rebuild, he was effectively tasked with renovating a bomb site. As long as he didn’t walk in and set fire to the place, he was always going to be viewed as having done a half-decent job. But ask yourself this. How many of his signings actually present genuine sell-on value in the current Rangers squad? Alfredo Morelos and James Tavernier don’t count, given they were both signed prior to his arrival. The wage bill is sky high and the squad is woefully imbalanced. They are effectively stockpiling wingers and central midfielders, yet only have two proper strikers. Then there’s the money squandered on the likes of Borna Barisic and Eros Grezda. Not so quick to take the credit for deadwood like that, is he? All in all, I don’t think Rangers fans will be losing sleep over Allen’s departure. A man who’s not half as clever as he seems to think he is.