I'm not really a football fan, but I do maintain a marginal if academic interest in the goings on in the leagues both north and south of the border, just in case I need to make conversation. It's also true that I'm not a Rangers fan by any stretch of the imagination. My thinking is that I would much rather there not be a single dominant team in a league, but rather that everyone prospers when two or three teams are in strong contention.
That being the case, I was rather glad to see Paul le Guen leave Rangers yesterday. It was very clear that he wasn't the right man for the job there, and the result of his tenure is that the league was over by October, which is nothing short of scandalous... and defeats any notion of having an interesting league. So, this is a good thing.
However, apparently Walter Smith and Ally McCoist are favourites to become the new management team at Ibrox. This is a really good choice for Rangers if true, and will be massively popular with the fans. All in all, another really good move...
except that they are two-thirds of the current Scotland management team. And Scotland are playing ridiculously well at the moment, defeating teams we have no right to even be compared to (specifically France), and absurdly having what looks like a real chance to qualify from the group of death (we got Italy, France and the Ukraine? How is that fair?). The last thing we should want to see happen is the departure of that management team at this time.
I have a bad feeling about this.
2 comments:
Good post - would it surprise you if I said that many Rangers fans are very unsure about all of this?
Barry Ferguson has become a bit of a hate figure, and fans wish that PLG stayed, if only for the season.
As for Mr Smith & Mr McCoist - history shows that going back to a club for a 2nd stint hardly ever works. I also have a bad feeling about this.
And as noted, this also messes up the Scotland set up.
Do people in these positions get blind sometimes, and not see what everyone else sees?
That does surprise me - I had assumed that this would be welcomed by Rangers fans.
As for Smith, he's probably the person I would have gone for. I don't know if the "second stint" rule applies to managers as it does to players. That said, I have often wondered how much of his previous success was managerial genius, and how much was due to a handful of brilliant players (notable Laudrup, Gazza and Goram).
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