‘Director of football role is absolute nonsense’
Rangers are wasting their time and focus should be on investment, says McCoist
ALLY McCOIST believes only significant investment will solve the many problems facing Rangers regardless of who the club appoint as manager and director of football.
In his most open interview since leaving Ibrox two years ago, the former manager and all-time top goalscorer of what he still describes as his club, made it clear chairman Dave King and his board must find more money from or forget about closing the gap to Celtic.
McCoist also passionately defended himself when asked about not voting in a vital agm for the current board as they attempted to rid the club of the influence of Mike Ashley and the Easdale brothers.
Rangers remained adamant last night that the non-arrival of Ross Wilson, who had been targeted to fill the director of football role at Ibrox, will not distract them from bringing Pedro Caixinha to the club as manager. Wilson’s decision to stick with Southampton, is not seen within Rangers circles as a catastrophe but more a long-term project, while all energies are being directed towards recruiting Caixinha soon.
However, when McCoist was asked his opinion on Caixinha, it was obvious what he felt was the most important issue.
“Anyone as manager is a risk at the moment,” he said. “I actually don’t think the manager is the biggest thing needing sorted out. It goes a lot deeper than that.
“The club needs investment. I don’t think it’s rocket science. I know a lot of people talk about directors of football and all that. I just think that is absolute nonsense. It has nothing to do with directors of football. It’s about players on the park and the club needs investment to get that.
“In 2007, Walter [Smith] went
back to Rangers after Paul Le Guen. He spent around £2m on Carlos Cuellar, the same on Steven Naismith, Steven Whittaker and Kevin Thomson. Davie Weir we got for free. Daniel Cousin came in. Steven Davis arrived initially on loan and then we spent £2m to sign him.
“Within a year the club was in a UEFA Cup final. Celtic thoroughly deserved their title but, with the greatest of respect, that run probably cost us the title.
“Until there is investment, I think we will be having this conversation next year and the year after”
The problem is King’s reluctance to spend more than he pledged and no rich outside investors appear to be on the horizon.
However, McCoist said: “It’s just a fact the club needs financial investment. In my last year before it was announced I was leaving, I think we had 25 games. We won 19 of them. We beat three Premiership teams and never lost a goal.
“Have we moved on? Were we good enough then to challenge Celtic? No chance, absolutely no chance. I don’t think the goalposts have moved that much. Until there is serious investment I think it will be the same.”
It was put to McCoist that Rangers would be, to put it mildly, unwise were they to return to the bad old days of spending massive sums on transfers and wages.
He said: “You can do that within your means. Of course I don’t want to put the club in any jeopardy. I think there were special circumstances for the club going into administration and liquidation.
“There was the crash. I know for a fact the debt at Rangers Football Club at that particular time was 100-per-cent manageable. There were alternate motives or reasons for the club going into administration and liquidation. As you know the vast majority of clubs run at a debt. Rangers’ was manageable then.”
And to the accusation McCoist did not do his duty by Rangers when he didn’t vote for King to win 75 per cent of shareholder approval, known as Resolution 11, he said: “The criticism was completely unjustified and unfair. The fact of the matter is 25 per cent of the shareholders didn’t vote, of which I was one. “And of the 75 per cent who voted a total of 26 per cent voted against Resolution 11. Not only did I not vote against them, I was one of the 25 per cent who didn’t vote because I was away doing Champions League work.
“I turned up initially to vote for the board and oust the previous board strongly against my lawyer’s advice.” Meanwhile, Lee Wallace insisted there was no “turmoil” at Ibrox despite further delays in recruiting a new management team as he hailed “outstanding” caretaker manager Graeme Murty.
Murty could be set to take charge of the Old Firm derby against Celtic on Sunday after leading Rangers to their biggest win of the season, a 6-0 victory over Hamilton on Saturday, and Wallace feels the Under-20s boss has kept things steady following the departure of Warburton.
“For how difficult the circumstances have been, he has come in and been outstanding,” the left-back told Rangers TV. “Another thing that is levelled at the players is that we are unsettled and there can be unrest and turmoil.
“I am fully aware there is no turmoil in here – we are professionals and we get on with our job.”