Nicholl’s parting warning shot to under-achievers
JIMMY NICHOLL concedes his coaching time with Rangers will be up by next Sunday night.
But while he may have no part in a new set-up, he has urged the Ibrox players to seize their opportunity to win a future by impressing Steven Gerrard this week.
Trips to Aberdeen and Hibernian are the next two trials for the new manager to assess. Helping Nicholl to steer the club to the Ladbrokes Premiership runners-up berth can only help in pleading their case.
After yesterday’s 1-0 win over Kilmarnock, Nicholl explained: ‘I told them me and Jonatan (Johansson) have got three games, and after Hibs next Monday I’ll be away probably. I don’t know.
‘As interim manager, sometimes you have four or five games and think you might get a wee chance. But that’s not the case. There’s been a new manager appointed. Brilliant.
‘I’m standing there as a supporter now. I’m not standing there as a man of any authority. So sort it out. Give yourselves a chance to have the manager looking at you and talking about you — and looking forward to working with you.
‘If you do that, you’re capable of winning these games. It’s entirely up to yourselves.
‘I want to leave him a legacy of European football at least — and by doing that, that means they’ve performed and he’s happy with what he’s seen. And then he’ll do a bit of weeding — get the weeds sorted out from the flowers.’
Nicholl knows Gerrard will be expected to rattle Celtic right from his first campaign as a manager.
‘You expect things are going to be on the up and up,’ he said. ‘They have got to. They have got to start winning games, they have got to start achieving things.
‘And “getting” what it takes to win a game of football. We have got to stop Celtic winning the league, we know that.
‘How long that is going to take the new manager to get that turned around, we don’t know. We will just wait and see.
‘It’s a massive appointment. The first thing you have to do is forget about the inexperience. They said that about Graeme Souness when he came as well. You have to grow into the job.
‘There are loads of wee things you can get. With his football knowledge, from all the people he’s worked with, he’ll bring it all to this club with his ideas and put them into effect with a certain quality of player.
‘That’s what he’ll have to sort out now — who he’s got that’s good enough to meet the demands and match the standards he wants from them.’
James Tavernier, meanwhile, was clear on what Gerrard will bring to the table at Ibrox.
‘I think he will bring standards,’ said the right-back, who skippered Rangers yesterday. ‘He has been a captain and played at the highest level at club and international level and he knows what the highest standards are. He will be putting them to the boys.
‘He will have his own methods and how he wants to play football and I am looking forward to it.
‘Hearing we have got Gerrard as the new gaffer is obviously a step forward for the club for next season and I think it is going to be exciting times ahead for us.
‘There has to be respect when any manager comes in and there will be that when Gerrard comes in. I think the boys will respect him straight away, though, because of his career.
‘It is obviously exciting. His career speaks volumes and it will be good to see what he brings to the table and great for the club.
‘His playing career sticks out — particularly that Champions League final — and the character he has got along with what he has done for Liverpool as a captain.
‘I can’t wait to see what his tactics and mindset are and what he wants to bring to the boys.’