After squandering the feelgood factor that came with their takeover of Rangers with the disastrous appointment of Russell Martin, the new Ibrox regime have to show they 'get' the demands of the club - and fast- with their next appointment, says Graeme McGarry.
There is nothing that gives away an out-of-towner more in Glasgow’s curious little football bubble as when they ask for time to implement a plan. The mere mention of the need for patience immediately brings to mind the rhetorical question – you’re not from around here, are you?
Such was the case when Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh and vice-chairman Paraag Marathe put their name to an open letter earlier this week that was in part a plea for forgiveness over the Russell Martin debacle, and also a revealing insight into the mindset of two men who seem to have – initially, at least - wholly misjudged their new audience and completely misunderstood the culture of their new club.
Of course, from the outside looking in, the notion that it will take time to arrest the decline of Rangers as a competitive, trophy-winning force makes a great deal of sense. That’s fine, in theory. The reality is that as much as the hapless Martin made it look an even harder task than it actually is, there is no grace period afforded to a Rangers manager. There is a case for arguing, in fact, that the Ibrox job is currently one of the toughest gigs in world football.
You have a fervent, frustrated support who are conditioned to expect success. That believe they are the best and biggest club in the country, and that they deserve the silverware that goes along with it. Except, of course, the level of expectation has been out of kilter with the reality of their situation for quite some time.
Whatever their own faults, and they are many, Celtic’s financial advantage has long been a clear one, and it has allowed them to win 13 of the last 14 league titles. What Rangers need – nay, demand – is a manager who can hit the ground running and get instant results. That can strike when Celtic are weak, and have themselves taken their eye off the ball.
Easier said than recruited, admittedly, but what their fans will absolutely not accept is another project manager who is bigger on aesthetics than he is on outcomes.
Read more:
- Gerrard on 'unfinished business' and Rangers 'perfect fit'
- Early frontrunner ruled out of Rangers manager search
- Chermiti backed as Rangers transfer leads to international recall
You can argue until the cows come home about whether or not that is a reasonable position for the Rangers support to take, but it is a pointless debate. Rightly or wrongly, it is what it is, and it was ever thus.
The Ibrox fanbase may not be entirely unique in prioritising wins at any cost over the manner by which they are achieved, but substance is a quality prized in Govan far above style. And those in charge of the club must surely now understand this.
The takeover of Rangers in the summer offered promise that the financial gap could at last be closed with Celtic, and assurances that their city rivals would be overthrown.
But so far, an increase in spend has been married to calamitous football decisions that have now brought the judgment of sporting director Kevin Thelwell and CEO Patrick Stewart into sharp focus, as well as the judgment of Cavenagh and Marathe in placing such faith in these men in the first place.
Whoever they now collectively select to succeed Martin may be able to buy himself a little more time than his predecessor by sending out a team that looks as though they have even the vaguest idea of what it is they have been asked to do, and he may buy himself some goodwill by simply wearing a shirt and tie in the dugout. But if they can’t claw back the gap to Celtic and even Hearts, and overthrow them by hook or by crook, then they will likely be hounded out of the door too.
The new club ownership seems to have been blissfully unaware of this fact when conducting seven interviews and landing on the abysmally misplaced Martin, who couldn’t have looked in the wrong movie at Ibrox any more had he reported for duty with green and white hoops on.
It was hard not to feel for Martin in the end on a human level after the abuse he was subjected to and the treatment he received on Sunday in Falkirk in particular, but even he must have known, as the dogs in the street did, that he was never going to succeed at Ibrox.
That the Rangers hierarchy were oblivious to that is alarming. In this one appointment, they squandered the feelgood factor that had followed in the wake of their arrival and exhausted any small benefit of the doubt that would have been extended their way.
It is obvious to say that their next managerial appointment is a crucial one, but it is critical not only to the team’s chances of success, but to their own credibility. It is a damning indictment on the way they went about the process of identifying Martin that they will not only have to learn from their missteps in the way they landed on his name last time around, but almost do the exact opposite.
Instead of a long, drawn-out affair, this has to be quick. The international break affords a two-week window to identify and appoint their man. He surely has to be in place by the time they face Dundee United at Ibrox next Saturday.
Whoever that may be, and that debate rages on, the weighting of the decision has to be more towards a manager who can get a tune out of this squad quickly, rather than one who needs time to implement a philosophy, a la Martin.
That doesn’t necessarily have to be someone who themselves knows the club or Scottish football. No one knows that landscape better than Barry Ferguson, after all, and even though his reign wasn’t the unmitigated bin fire that Martin’s was, he hardly set the heather alight either.
What the board have to show though is that they do now understand the remit, and the unique environment – for better or worse – that is Ibrox. Their appointment has to reflect that, with a manager put in place who will quickly start repairing the damage wrought by Martin’s short and disastrous reign.
If they make another misstep, the ire of the fans will surely work its way up the chain through Thelwell, Stewart, and eventually to their doorstep, even if it is 3500 miles away.
Welcome to Glasgow, gents.
