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Ally McCoist: For the first time I feel like a Manager


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Rangers gaffer Ally McCoist: For the first time I feel like a real football manager

GERS boss Ally McCoist has revealed he has relished a summer which has notably been devoid of the type of off-field dramas that have plagued the club and the beleaguered manager in his three years in charge.

SNS Group coisty.jpg Rangers manager Ally McCoist has enjoyed his summer tour of North America

ALLY McCOIST is savouring the first summer of being able to fully concentrate on football as Rangers manager instead of dealing with off-field dramas.

And the Ibrox gaffer has fired out a message of defiance to those who have caned his signing policies, attacked the style of play under his stewardship and believe he is not up to the job of leading the club back to the top of the Scottish game.

McCoist has enjoyed an unusual June and July this year.

Rangers boss Ally McCoist jets back from US tour for critical budget talks with Graham Wallace

For the past two summers, through turmoil and chaos at Rangers, he has assumed every role from accountant to ambassador, counsellor to crisis manager.

McCoist wasn’t able to relax on a family holiday without the phone ringing and dragging him back to Glasgow to deal with another calamity.

At times, focusing his mind on his players and football was almost impossible.

But it’s been different in 2014.

McCoist got away for a break, he identified and secured signing targets and he’s been able to properly plan and oversee a pre-season schedule.

Having just taken his team to North America, relief was written all over his face as he said: “For the first time I feel like a football manager. Touch wood, a lot of the issues are away now.

“There are still smaller issues but nothing like on the scale of what they were.

“For the first time in a long while we are confident of just being able to focus on managing and coaching the football team.

“This summer was the first holiday I’ve had that I did not need to come home from.

“It was a couple of weeks over in Portugal and it was brilliant.

“When I look back at the time when we couldn’t play games I find it unbelievable. What was that all about?

“The worst part? Not getting our licence until 36 hours before our first game.

“When you look back on that it was incredible.”

McCoist has his fingers crossed that the chaos is behind him because he’s got plenty on his plate trying to get his team up to the Premiership.

Even if he does, however, there is a suspicion some fans still won’t fancy him. McCoist has admirers but doesn’t have to look very hard to find his doubters.

Winning League Two and League One at a canter brought a general shrug of the shoulders, with the manager told that’s exactly what should have happened.

He’s been battered for a lack of style, bashed for exits from cup competitions and even had his signing policies criticised.

McCoist was slated for recruiting the likes of Jon Daly, Dean Shiels and Ian Black for the lower leagues instead of turning to youth.

When he signed Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller, the same complaints surfaced.

But McCoist has come out fighting. He takes the criticism and bounces it right back with his matter-of-fact responses.

He said: “People talk about me not playing enough youngsters.

“It’s just not possible because some of the youngsters would have been eaten alive in League Two and League One. Also, the bottom line is the youngsters have not been good enough or they would have been doing it.

“People say to me, ‘You have signed Boyd and Miller, what message does that send to young players?’

“I’ll tell you what message it sends out. That is the level you need to perform at. It’s that simple.

mccoist.jpg Rangers manager Ally McCoist spends time with the fans

“No one is just going to give you a game.

“Watch those guys, watch what they do, reach that level and then you will get a game.

“The one thing we will agree on is that, if Walter Smith can get pelters as the manager of Rangers, everyone will get pelters as manager of Rangers. The facts are that sometimes it was not pretty in the first season but the boys won League Two by 24 points.

“Last season they won League One by 39 points and were unbeaten but the only people who will give them credit for that is us as the management team. That’s fine. We don’t need credit from elsewhere.

“I have been involved in Scottish football for long enough to know that’s how it goes. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest.”

McCoist is only bothered about Rangers returning to the top. And he isn’t just talking about winning promotion from the Championship and playing in the Premiership.

Competing against the best is simply not enough. As far as McCoist is concerned Rangers will only be restored to their rightful place when they are the best.

He said: “The job is to get back into European football again and challenging in the top flight.

“I still feel we would need investment for that. It’s not rocket science. You can argue about the value of the players we’ve lost, whether it is £20million, £30m or £40m.

“But you cannot just lose those players, replace them with free transfers and expect them to do the same things.

“We would all get a lot of satisfaction from getting back to the top flight but that would not be the job finished.”

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Big season for Coisty. I think this season will be the one that defines him as a manager one way or the other. You cant please everyone but the Manager needs to prove his doubters wrong by winning the League and playing attractive football. I appreciate that there will be games that we will need to dig in but we have the best squad in the championship so our expectation should remain high.

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I've wanted nothing more than for Ally to succeed as a manager but for the past few months I've seen this really bad attitude creeping in, just defending anything that goes against him with poor excuse after poor excuse.

What he's just said here, about bringing Boyd and Miller in and then turning to the youth and saying to them "perform at this level or you're not getting a game". I'm sorry but that's embarassing.

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I've wanted nothing more than for Ally to succeed as a manager but for the past few months I've seen this really bad attitude creeping in, just defending anything that goes against him with poor excuse after poor excuse.

What he's just said here, about bringing Boyd and Miller in and then turning to the youth and saying to them "perform at this level or you're not getting a game". I'm sorry but that's embarassing.

100% agree with this .Quite simply he has got to win the league this season in style or beat it off the premises .I just can't be positive about him now but I'm positive we can have a good season .
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£20 million plus!

Was always his way of doing the leagues.

Overspend by millions compared to our competition to get to the top league. Then buy a new team when there. Frightening.

Honestly think he believes we are in the same place we were in the SDM days.

If we were to give him a serious budget to spend it would be a travesty. Its as if we are just to ignore the £20m spent on wages getting us back to the top league, and then give him another 20m plus to spend AND salaries on top.

The concept of trying to mould any type of squad / team for when we get back to the top league has NEVER been on Allys agenda imo.

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