Nicholl advises new Rangers boss to ignore criticism –

RANGERS: Nicholl tells Liverpool great ‘it’s all about making difficult decisions’

If the last man to manage Rangers could pass on one piece of advice for Steven Gerrard it would be to avoid tuning his car radio to medium wave.

Jimmy Nicholl only spent five months on the coaching staff at Ibrox but he became attuned to the huge scrutiny those at Rangers are subjected to, particularly when he took interim charge for the final three games of the season.

The 61-year-old former Raith Rovers and Cowdenbeath boss had been Graeme Murty’s assistant and saw first hand the pressure an inexperienced boss can be put under with the Gers.

Nicholl is not staying on now Gerrard has come in but can still offer an important perspective of the post, and management in general, to the former Liverpool captain.

“You’re going to get a lot more criticism than you are the clubs I was working at previously,” Northern Ireland assistant Nicholl said. “I knew that; it was just the sheer intensity.

“Years ago I was manager and I had a club car. It didn’t have medium wave in it. I was getting slaughtered on the radio but I never heard it. It was a wee lesson to me.

“Because I never heard it, I was going into work no different. I told this to Graeme. Maybe you can’t do it, maybe you’ve got to be tuned into what the media say, what the supporters say, it’s up to you. We’re all different.

“If Rangers won, I was happy. If I read the papers, listened to the radio or looked at social media, it was not going to make me any happier.

“If we got beat, I was a wee bit down. If I read the papers, listened to the radio, I’m going to be worse. So why would you want to make yourself feel worse than what you already are?

“You’re the one that has to get the thing going. The manager has to pick the players up. It’s a different responsibility as manager.”

Whether or not Gerrard will be successful will likely hinge on the recruitment the club makes in the coming transfer windows.

Nicholl admits acquiring a player that has talent alone is not enough at Rangers given the level of expectation the fans have.

“It’s great being cheered by 50,000 people but if things go badly, can you handle being booed by 50,000?” Nicholl added.

Former Liverpool captain Gerrard is taking on his first senior managerial position at Rangers and fans will be demanding they bridge the gap to double treble winners Celtic, which was 12 points last season.

Nicholl does not believe the Liverpudlian’s inexperience is a disadvantage as long as he is willing to make bold decisions.

“It’s a massive responsibility being a manager of a big club,” Nicholl said.

“Even now with the Rangers-celtic thing, because of Celtic and the way they are, all of a sudden that’s all they say : ‘You better make sure they don’t do 10 (titles) in a row’. First of all they’ve got to get close to them.

“People say, ‘How can you do that, he’s inexperienced?’ I don’t go along with that.

“I was a player-manager at Raith Rovers at 33, I had players older than me in my team. I made mistakes.

“That was in 1990. Nearly 30 years later I’ll make the same mistakes.

“It doesn’t matter whether I’m experienced or inexperienced, it’s about making decisions.

“If you’re the manager of Glasgow Rangers it’s about making hard decisions.”

Picture: SNS Group. Steven Gerrard has been warned that being manager of Rangers will bring both criticism and ‘sheer intensity’.

Jimmy Nicholl, above, was in charge of Rangers for the final three games of the season after the departure of Graeme Murty.