A lot has been said over the last few years about Ally McCoist the manager. The following is quite a long read, but hopefully you'll find it interesting.
I'm not going to go into all of the ins and outs of his tenure at Rangers during the last few years, but it occurred to me that the whole problem with McCoist arose from something which, on the face of it, probably seemed the right thing to do.
When you think back to the times when Liverpool were in their prime, their policy was always to bring the managers through from within the club. They would understand the philosophy of the club, they would know the players, they would provide continuity that should ensure a smooth transition between managers.
It proved to be successful for them, and many teams have tried to operate in a similar way, with varying degrees of success.
Walter Smith was a legend for Rangers as a manager, and when he returned in the post-Le Guen era to turn things around I think there was a desire within the Rangers board, etc to try to replicate what Walter Smith had done with the next manager. The logical person to take over would be his Assistant Manager, Ally McCoist.
It was all done in a very measured way, and McCoist was allowed to take charge of the team in cup competitions to give him real experience of managing the team. It's hard to argue with the theory, and the way they approached it, but when it came to the crunch, it just didn't work out.
To me, aside from the fact that McCoist just does not seem to have the right skill set to be a football manager, the other main flaw in the process was that they were trying to replicate something which could not be replicated.
Walter Smith as a manager was a bit of an enigma. His teams, particularly in the second spell were often very difficult to watch. The football could be quite turgid. They seemed to start games very conservatively, trying not to give too much away, and then would become more expansive in the second half onwards as required to try to get the result they needed. And it worked an awful lot more often than it didn't. They got results when it counted. They won trophies. They reached a UEFA cup final against all of the odds.
I can only hypothesise about what happened in training, etc, but my feeling is that the strength of the team was not in working drills, nor in maximising fitness levels, nor in focusing highly on ball skills. It seemed to me that the strength of the team came in their togetherness and strength of belief.
The thing that seemed to pull them through, apart from this 'team spirit' was that elusive ability Smith had to get the job done. It may have been great tactical nous, or gut instinct, or good luck, or even a combination of all of these things and more.
Whatever it was, one thing was sure; it was not something which could be taught. It was something that was very unique and individual to Walter Smith. It was an innate quality.
I was thinking of an analogy, and the best I could come up with was if you tried to get Jim Furyk to teach you how to swing your golf club. His swing is so unique and unorthodox, and yet it works, and works very well. But to try to teach someone else to swing that way would be extremely difficult and, even then, it would be difficult to replicate Furyk's success with it. Chances are, under stress and in difficult situations, it would not work. Replace Furyk's swing with Smith's management skills and you'll see what I mean.
So, in summary; McCoist - a great footballer but with the wrong skill set to be a football manager, and trying to learn his trade from the wrong person.
Ally McCoist - the Manager
posted on 3/7/15
I think you will find telfer is average with ego
A guy not good enough to start for the u 20s
Who I have watched numerous times
But everyone who has never seen him say he is great so what do I know
posted on 3/7/15
comment by AesopPorter (U14259)
posted 6 minutes ago
comment by The Duke (U10059)
posted 44 seconds ago
If ally brought in a crapness player he had to stick with him or play a kid who was worse
If Walter BOUGHT a crapish player he simply went and BOUGHT someone better
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Fair point, Duke, although Smith would still have done better with the same players than McCoist.
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But that's only a guess as Walter would have the resource to replace
posted on 3/7/15
I've never really watched him much to be honest. But He gets a lot of hype and my criticism of McCoist would be that when the league was won with games to spare he could have let a few others step into the team to see if any could contribute. The unbeaten record wasn't really worth pursuing in my opinion.
But beyond that I thought in general younger players found a way into the team in larger numbers than Rangers had done in my time.
posted on 3/7/15
Absolutely they did
But beyond McLeod and to an extent aird they were not as good as the crap ayers we had who couldn't adapt
So what do you do
Fekd if o know but the experts on here say play the crapish kids
posted on 3/7/15
I would agree that most of them simply weren't good enough. McCabe did ok before bailing, Perry and Little got chances even in the Premier and Little did a job in 3rd division.
But Hegarty, Naismith, Barrie Mackay, Crawford and even Aird were generally a bit below average.
He definitely played younger guys and quite a lot made debuts under him. But it's just my personal disappointment that he didn't field a few more once the third tier was won. I think a bigger achievement would've been to find a youngster worthy of the first team than going unbeaten in League One
posted on 3/7/15
I have to disagree with regard to younger players. He did not bring them through as he should have. Guys like Gallacher came in, did well and then were pushed back out when the 'senior pros' came back in. He was far too cautious in many ways and his inability to bring through youth exemplified that. If, as you suggest Duke, they weren't good enough (which I don't necessarily believe), he should have been looking to bring in better younger, hungry players.
posted on 3/7/15
Where do these better younger players come from though
You do t get a more hungry to do well player than Robbie Crawford
The guy is a stand out pro who puts the rest to shame
Problem though is he ain't very good and it pains me to say that
posted on 3/7/15
Very good article in my view. Ok maybe have been countless articles in past with same topic of discussion but AesopPorter has made some fine observations and i have shared the same view for years.
I really was excited about MCCOIST being manager. I thought with smith out the road here's a chance for change.
But a game with a Dutch side comes to mind and this team was there for the taking. We played cautious and with Greg Wylde on the left with pace to burn you could see his utter frustration at the lack of attacking intent.
I will however always jump to the defence of ally in believing that when we were in the third div, he had to assemble a squad from scratch. What happened to rangers left everybody in shock and I completely understand the notion that we had to climb up quickly as possible for the sake of pride, history, footballing reputation and so on. What i do believe is that ally should have gone then with his experience of rangers not in question but his managerial experience wasn't the kind required given the circumstances at the time but he carried on and was allowed to carry on.
People say he blew winning the premier league but there is so much more to that guys.
On conclusion ally is from the school of walter smith and disappointingly wasn't the attack minded manager we thought he was.
I think ally like many others fall victim to the many trends in the managerial game one of which is to hire ex staff or players which can either work for you or be catastrophic. Just ask Strachan when he went to Middlebrough and signed half the celtic team then got the boot.
Ally tried and failed with guys he knew and had success with while being assistant to smith.
Warburton looks to be continuing that trend and tbh I'm worried these guys really don't realise the task in hand here and the magnitude of the size of rangers and the demands which to be met.
Lastly, Rangers need to do more to increase brand awareness it's simply not enough to have pisssss ups in North America every year and down under. We even wasted money on a fechking racing car why???? Where is that now??? Scrappy???
We need a model in the mould of Ajax, porto and barca
posted on 4/7/15
I have to say that I have no concerns about the new management team. Buying what you know is not bad in itself, it's what you then do with it. McCoist did not have the wherewithal to improve the players, or even sustain their levels of performance. Warburton I believe has the coaching and man management skills to do just that.
posted on 4/7/15
Warburton is really only signing what he knows because of the lack of scouting network. In that sense he's taking a similar approach. But unlike McCoist he seems to be going more for the younger guys with potential to improve rather than players who are what they are.