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Rangers Fan View: We need a proper manager in the summer
The debate should be over. This experiment should now be reaching a conclusion in the eyes of the Rangers powerbrokers. It’s as clear as day that we need a proper manager in the summer to move the club away from this never-ending circle of mediocrity.
Unfortunately, this is the second appointment the board have got wrong since we have been back in the top flight. It’s not knee-jerk from me in my opinion neither. I have been consistent in my view that Graeme Murty should not be Rangers manager. Mark Allen now must be allowed to go and get his own man in the summer.
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Murty is a good youth coach. He has done well in bringing through some players who are in the first team squad. Now it’s time to stop pretending he is going to morph into this good football manager when the evidence is there to suggest the polar opposite.
His league record this season since taking over from Caixinha in October is: Played 15; won nine; drawn one; lost five. On the face of it, you look at that record and say: “He’s won more than he’s lost.” which is accurate. However, when he came in, we were six points off the top spot and six behind Aberdeen. As it stands, we are 14 points off the top – with a game in hand – and are six behind Aberdeen, again.
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Any notion that Murty has made us better is an absolute nonsense. We are simply no further forward with him in charge than we were under the last manager. In fact, we are worse off points-wise.
Let’s face it, Caixinha wasn’t a good manager either, but the stats are showing we are worse off with Murty, and that tells you everything you need to know.
It’s not only the stats that suggest he should not be the manager beyond the summer, it’s the inability to motivate the players to go out and play against the lesser sides. Frankly, I find it scandalous that he has lost games to Hamilton, Dundee, and St Johnstone in the same season and still holds the position.
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He is tactically found wanting a lot of the time. For some reason, he thought playing a 4-2-3-1 against a diamond vs Hibs would work. This was after watching McInnes fail at the same thing against his team, and like McInnes, he did nothing to change it. The lateness of his substitutes and failing to read the game and adapting to how it is developing do not help his cause. It isn’t only the Hibs match he’s been guilty of this; we can add Kilmarnock away, Dundee away, Hamilton at Ibrox and Ross County last week to that list. It’s glaring. If I can see this, other managers will pick up on it.
The board has backed him in this window and we are now closer to fourth place than second. Finishing in second place should not be regarded as a victory. It should be the bare minimum. He’s making an absolute pig’s ear of it. He’s way out of his depth. Jimmy Nicholl was brought in to help, but unfortunately, Jimmy isn’t a magician. He cannot turn a poor manager into Walter Smith version two.
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The fans and the people at the club always bang on about the club being ‘massive’, which it is. It’s now time to start acting like it. We have sorted the scouting system out and we have a director of football in place. He should be allowed to pick his manager in the summer because we are going nowhere fast under Murty. As I’m concerned if he’s in charge beyond the summer, it will be another season written off.
Of course, Murty’s defenders will say he managed two draws against Celtic. However, this isn’t a Barcelona-Espanyol type scenario. This attitude kind didn’t make the club so successful in the past so making excuses for failure should not be an option – it’s more counterproductive than anything else. It doesn’t matter to me how nice a person someone is. If he’s not got the ability to do the job he is paid to do, then he should be moved on. It’s that simple. The time for sentiment should be over. I want a winning team, not a club that is so used to failure that the fans and players are happy to take on the plucky underdog tag where winning titles are concerned.
The board and Mark Allen have a real chance in the summer to break the cycle of failure, be ruthless relieve Murty of his duties as first-team manager. I hope for everyone at Rangers’ sake they do exactly that and end this farce. It’s the only way we are going to get back to where we need to be.
