Rangers need leadership on and off the park
One result doesn’t change anything for Rangers.
As good as they were against Aberdeen last Wednesday, it should not be forgotten how bad they were against Hamilton Accies and Dundee in their previous two matches.
That game at Dens Park a week past Friday was the first time I’d seen Rangers in the flesh this season.
Their performance left me in a state of total shock. I could not believe how bad they’d become.
I first saw a Light Blues team almost 61 years ago, also at Dens Park. Over the years, I’ve seen some very good Rangers teams, and some not so good.
But, based on my most-recent experience, never one as bad as this.
For a club renowned for producing outstanding captains throughout its history, this present outfit totally lacks leadership.
George Young skippered that first Rangers team I saw back in January, 1957. “Big Corky” was followed by men who were natural leaders.
Bobby Shearer – appropriately known as “Captain Cutlass” – Eric Caldow, John Greig, Sandy Jardine, Terry Butcher, Richard Gough, Barry Ferguson.
All lifted trophies for the club, but also dragged their team-mates through the difficult times that every team has when its form dips.
Now, if that display against Dundee is anything to go by, it appears no one in the current Rangers team wants to accept that responsibility.
In the absence of injured club captain, Lee Wallace, Kenny Miller has been wearing the armband.
It’s no disrespect to him to say that very few strikers have ever made a good captain.
They’re not in the hub of the action most of the time, like defenders and midfielders, who get a better picture of what’s going on in front of and around them. It’s obviously no better off the park, either. Since Walter Smith retired in 2011, Rangers have had three permanent managers and three caretakers.
Kenny McDowall really didn’t want to hold the reins after Ally McCoist was put on gardening leave in 2014.
Stuart McCall was always on a hiding to nothing when given two months to prove he was a long-term solution.
Mark Warburton offered early promise before being shown to be out of his depth in the Premiership. And Pedro Caixinha was a disaster. Either side of the Portuguese’s chaotic reign, Graeme Murty has been tasked with steadying the ship.
No one on the Ibrox payroll could have done a better job with the group of players Caixinha left behind.
I got to know Murty a little when he was earning his four Scotland caps between 2004-2007. What you see is what you get – honest, hardworking and with no little ability.
However, the role of being permanent Rangers manager has come too soon for him.
But whoever the new man is, he should make keeping Murty involved around the first team a priority.