Can we really judge Ally McCoist’s performance as manager?

[DJXL 61]

"McCoist must be the biggest mistake of Walter Smith's managerial career and doubly so by recommending him to follow as manager, what did Smith see in McCoist that we have failed to have shown to us."

I read the above comment is another thread.

Well I imagine Walter probably saw what the rest of us saw at the time, a new and inexperienced manager being given the chance to take on the top job after years of mentoring from Walter himself. Similar to the opportunity that Lennon was given with Celtic the year before. And so we all though over these past few years we would have been watching the two young managers go head to head for the title.

It all started extremely well for McCoist, with Rangers taking (if I recall correctly) a 15 point lead (albeit Celtic having two games in hand) over a Celtic being managed by an ever increasingly erratic Neil Lennon.

Now imagine if the entire financial meltdown hadn't actually happened. If Whyte hadn't been a crook, if there had been no Administration, etc. etc.

Would we have won the league that year? I would imagine so, and possibly by quite a considerable margin. What would have been the opinion of Ally then? Rather high I imagine.

How would Ranger then have performed under Ally the two following seasons? We'll never know, but could Ally have taken three in a row instead of Lennon?

I'm sure there's every chance.

And I doubt Lennon would have stayed in the job as long as he did, instead he got to coast through on easy street, cutting his management teeth, knowing that Celtic were guaranteed the title each year.

The meltdown of course did happen, and along with the 10 point deduction, it had to affect Rangers top to bottom, down through the management and the playing staff and on to the park. Since Whyte announced Administration on the steps of Ibrox that day, the circus has continued on and on and on, and not stopped. It has been one farcical and unbelievable thing after another.

This is not the situation that Ally or any other Rangers manager should ever have been working under. And the situation appears to be getting worse and worse on an almost daily basis, again this has to have had a knock on effect filtering down onto the performance on the pitch. There is simply no way it couldn't have done.

Ally has done the job through the most unthinkable circumstances, circumstances which has probably made the job beyond the realms of difficult, but probably out right impossible. So with this unprecedented and incomprehensible situation that McCoist has been placed in, can we really judge how he has performed?

I'm finding it difficult.

Ally McCoist - was, is, and always will be a Rangers Legend.

[TheCutch 4,340]

You asked if we would have won the league if no admin had happened, and say you think yes by a big margin....

You do realise that by the time we went into admin that 15 point gap you mentioned was now a 4 point gap in the tims favour?

[TheCutch 4,340]

Also, whatever has been happening in the boardroom, is absolutely NO excuse for the type of "football" we have played over the past 3 seasons.

Has the boardroom palavar meant that Ally has to use the same team / tactics every game even when it's clearly not working?

Did it mean we need to have the same substitutions game after game that we all know will take place before a ball is kicked?

Did it mean that players needed to be played out of position time after time even when there was no need to do so?

And I say all of this as Ally's biggest fan in his playing days.

Quite simply, he does not have what it takes to be a good football manager.

[Rfc#1. 1,877]

"McCoist must be the biggest mistake of Walter Smith's managerial career and doubly so by recommending him to follow as manager, what did Smith see in McCoist that we have failed to have shown to us."

I read the above comment is another thread.

Well I imagine Walter probably saw what the rest of us saw at the time, a new and inexperienced manager being given the chance to take on the top job after years of mentoring from Walter himself. Similar to the opportunity that Lennon was given with Celtic the year before. And so we all though over these past few years we would have been watching the two young managers go head to head for the title.

It all started extremely well for McCoist, with Rangers taking (if I recall correctly) a 15 point lead (albeit Celtic having two games in hand) over a Celtic being managed by an ever increasingly erratic Neil Lennon.

Now imagine if the entire financial meltdown hadn't actually happened. If Whyte hadn't been a crook, if there had been no Administration, etc. etc.

Would we have won the league that year? I would imagine so, and possibly by quite a considerable margin. What would have been the opinion of Ally then? Rather high I imagine.

How would Ranger then have performed under Ally the two following seasons? We'll never know, but could Ally have taken three in a row instead of Lennon?

I'm sure there's every chance.

And I doubt Lennon would have stayed in the job as long as he did, instead he got to coast through on easy street, cutting his management teeth, knowing that Celtic were guaranteed the title each year.

The meltdown of course did happen, and along with the 10 point deduction, it had to affect Rangers top to bottom, down through the management and the playing staff and on to the park. Since Whyte announced Administration on the steps of Ibrox that day, the circus has continued on and on and on, and not stopped. It has been one farcical and unbelievable thing after another.

This is not the situation that Ally or any other Rangers manager should ever have been working under. And the situation appears to be getting worse and worse on an almost daily basis, again this has to have had a knock on effect filtering down onto the performance on the pitch. There is simply no way it couldn't have done.

Ally has done the job through the most unthinkable circumstances, circumstances which has probably made the job beyond the realms of difficult, but probably out right impossible. So with this unprecedented and incomprehensible situation that McCoist has been placed in, can we really judge how he has performed?

I'm finding it difficult.

Ally McCoist - was, is, and always will be a Rangers Legend.

Meh...Ally

[DJXL 61]

You asked if we would have won the league if no admin had happened, and say you think yes by a big margin....

You do realise that by the time we went into admin that 15 point gap you mentioned was now a 4 point gap in the tims favour?

Things were going awry quite some time before the Admin was actually announced, and had already filtered onto the pitch, in my opinion anyway.

[DJXL 61]

Also, whatever has been happening in the boardroom, is absolutely NO excuse for the type of "football" we have played over the past 3 seasons.

Has the boardroom palavar meant that Ally has to use the same team / tactics every game even when it's clearly not working?

Did it mean we need to have the same substitutions game after game that we all know will take place before a ball is kicked?

Did it mean that players needed to be played out of position time after time even when there was no need to do so?

And I say all of this as Ally's biggest fan in his playing days.

Quite simply, he does not have what it takes to be a good football manager.

Again, extraordinary circumstances, that I believe had to affect things on the pitch.

Every managers tactics etc. are questioned when results go the wrong way, in this instance it may not be the entire root of the problem.

Also I believe, that if Ally had been manager under "normal" circumstances we may have seen a very different manager.

[Bluenose 1965 21]

Sorry OP, but you're an Ally apologist. When Walter gave him the chance to run a team that was winning leagues, he struggled in the cups. We lost European games against inferior opposition. As mentioned, the tims overturned a 9 point deficit (fuck that 15 point bullshit) in December, not due to February admin. Popcorn teeth motivated his team. Ally didn't.

He's signed lower level SPL players to beat 3rd and 4th level plumbers and electricians. When we've had big games in cups, we've lost. We're a play-off away from the SPL and we've lost as many good young players (Telfer) as we've developed (MacLeod).

We've allowed multiple players to drag our name through the mud (Black betting scandal and Mohsni headbutting an opponent in a friendly), yet continued to select them as first choice.

As much as Ally McCoist did for Rangers as a player - He's taken away as a manager.

He can't manage - He should do walking away.

[loyalfollower 1,543]

All we can compare with is his managerial ability and resources against our opponents. Rubbish is being polite, there's no way that he needed to recruit all these expensive wash outs to play horrible football. We bullied our way to promotion twice and now we come up against a wee of quality and composure we just can't cope. His judgement of players doesn't fair well and his tactics are just as bad now as they were in the spl- anyone remember papac in midfield? Football management is not his forte and now we know why all his ex team mates never thought or saw him as a manager

[HG5 11,112]

I think the power games of the admin summer may have moved his thinking in other directions, making him think he really was 'Mr Rangers'.

After which managing lower division football didn't really float his boat.

Preventing him going through the gears & developing as we climbed through the leagues, as some expected him to.

[supermac 115]

Yes.

In our first season under Ally everything was going great, then Naismith got injured. Ally did not have a plan to compensate for his loss.

In the lower leagues he has no excuses as we still had more resource than any other club. Yes he won us promotion x 2 but he's left a squad that is devoid of leaders and players in which we can build a solid base on for many years to come. Lewis Macleod being the exception there, but we'll see what happens with him in January.

[ianferguson 2,619]

Unless we're blind and deaf and cannot count to eleven.

[Malvern 11,329]

Don't know if I can judge shit football on display or not OP, I can however count to 20 unaided so making sure I go into a game with a full subs bench is well within my ability, sadly not always within the managers abilities apparently (yes just one small petty example of a "mistake" happening in public).

[JCS 649]

Even after all we have had to endure, there are still those who believe that McCoist is a victim.

I will not attempt to reiterate all the arguments again, suffice to say that the man has reduced our football to the standard one would expect of a Sunday league team.

NO one - and I repeat, NO ONE - could credibly argue that our football has been entertaining or attractive. Indeed, the opposite is the case! We are almost unwatchable, disorganised, disjointed, devoid of skill, ability, initative and creativity.

McCoist - and his incompetent coaching team - are the ultimate exponents of the 'hit and hope' style of football. With the exception of, perhaps, two players in the squad, we completely lack flare, creativity and imagination.

Our 'back to front' style is easily countered, even by the most basic of part time teams, and we are - more often that not - cancelled out by vastly inferior sides.

We are slow, ponderous and lethargic in every area of the pitch; our players appear disinterested and unenthusiastic, and we have no heart, no 'steel', no 'grit' and determination - we are an empty shell, simply going through the motions!

Add to those factors, McCoist's fixation with deploying his players out of position; persistently picking players who are so obviously under-performing; failing to instil even a modicum of discipline in a team that consistently 'loses it' on big occassions, and you have a recipe for disaster.

And in recent weeks that disaster has come home to roost!

But this is not just a recent phenomenon but, rather, a system and style developed, and nurtured, over four seasons. If truth be told we have been haemorrhagging fans for some considerable time now - nothing to do with conscious boycotts but, simply, that many fans are no longer prepared to put up with a second rate manager who churns out unwatchable, cringeworthy football.

If you were in a cinema and didn't like the movie, you would get up and go. If you were in the theatre and the performances were amateurish, you would complain bitterly. If you want to be enterained, you certainly won't go to Ibrox!

That's what McCoist has done to Rangers - that's why the fans are voting with their collective feet!

If he stays any longer - if there is a realistic prospect of him remaining to see out his notice - then Ibrox will be deserted.

People may criticise this board - and God knows they would be justified - but the decision to go is McCoist's, and McCoist's alone! He has monumentally underperformed. He has created a Rangers team that no one fears and everyone is confident of beating. We are, indeed, the laughing stock of Scottish football.

[Creampuff 22,628]

They'd already all but caught us when we went into administration. Of course we can judge his performance, he's been here nearly four years.

[CanadianBacon 2,088]

He is officially the worst Rangers manager in my lifetime.

A complete and utter dud.

To describe this wanton money-grabber as "hopeless" would be doing a disservice to other hopeless people out there.

He's nothing more than a self-centred spiv. It's all about Ally.

I despise the man now.

[sammy cox 664]

Sorry OP but Allys management has been a disaster from day one.You can make all the excuses of the day but to people like myself who actually go along to Ibrox and watch football and not through Ally tinted glasses it is blatantly obvious he and that bunch of chancers in the dug out haven't a clue.As pointed out by some others

Lost the league lead to THEM beore admin

Knocked out 2 euro comps before admin

Knocked out league cup before admin

Knocked out scottish cup before admin

Not a very impressive start and has not done any better since considering his expenditure over the seasons

[CaptainofIndustry 921]

Yes we can. He's been a fucking disaster.

[sammy cox 664]

Spot on JCS

[onefootwillie 1,518]

Even allowing for administration and all that has happened afterwords the football has been shocking. It's hit and hope and that's down to the management team. I have been watching Rangers for 53 years and this is by far the worst football I have seen Rangers produce.

[Bluepeter9 5,167]

"McCoist must be the biggest mistake of Walter Smith's managerial career and doubly so by recommending him to follow as manager, what did Smith see in McCoist that we have failed to have shown to us."

I read the above comment is another thread.

Well I imagine Walter probably saw what the rest of us saw at the time, a new and inexperienced manager being given the chance to take on the top job after years of mentoring from Walter himself. Similar to the opportunity that Lennon was given with Celtic the year before. And so we all though over these past few years we would have been watching the two young managers go head to head for the title.

It all started extremely well for McCoist, with Rangers taking (if I recall correctly) a 15 point lead (albeit Celtic having two games in hand) over a Celtic being managed by an ever increasingly erratic Neil Lennon.

Now imagine if the entire financial meltdown hadn't actually happened. If Whyte hadn't been a crook, if there had been no Administration, etc. etc.

Would we have won the league that year? I would imagine so, and possibly by quite a considerable margin. What would have been the opinion of Ally then? Rather high I imagine.

How would Ranger then have performed under Ally the two following seasons? We'll never know, but could Ally have taken three in a row instead of Lennon?

I'm sure there's every chance.

And I doubt Lennon would have stayed in the job as long as he did, instead he got to coast through on easy street, cutting his management teeth, knowing that Celtic were guaranteed the title each year.

The meltdown of course did happen, and along with the 10 point deduction, it had to affect Rangers top to bottom, down through the management and the playing staff and on to the park. Since Whyte announced Administration on the steps of Ibrox that day, the circus has continued on and on and on, and not stopped. It has been one farcical and unbelievable thing after another.

This is not the situation that Ally or any other Rangers manager should ever have been working under. And the situation appears to be getting worse and worse on an almost daily basis, again this has to have had a knock on effect filtering down onto the performance on the pitch. There is simply no way it couldn't have done.

Ally has done the job through the most unthinkable circumstances, circumstances which has probably made the job beyond the realms of difficult, but probably out right impossible. So with this unprecedented and incomprehensible situation that McCoist has been placed in, can we really judge how he has performed?

I'm finding it difficult.

Ally McCoist - was, is, and always will be a Rangers Legend.

It was easy - big budget - a dog could have won those leagues - cups - and so on. Some folk don't want to acnowledge anything positive about Ally, nor acknowledge just how difficult managing a team is with no stability or leadership at the top - the support is angry and that anger is getting directed at the only man who has tried to provide leadership and continuity !

[Leeds_Bear 8,110]

You have to ask yourself what's more important Ally McCoist or Glasgow Rangers - the latter wins hands down for me every time. You can be 100% sure that if another manager had the same record as Ally he'd be long gone by now.

Ally McCoist - was, is, and always will be a shite football manager

[sammy cox 664]

Please tell me what is positive about Ally and his management team.Please don't give me he stood by the club shit,so did 30,000 odd Rangers fans without the backing of those guys there would be no club to walk away from.All of the management have been well rewarded compared to the rest of Scottish football to produce what exactly what positivity can anyone honestly say these guys produce because I for one cant see it when I go to ibrox.Perhaps its the everyone back defending corners and free kicks when the opposition leave 1 or 2 guys on half way line,perhaps its the lets play a right back at left back when we have a left back sitting on bench,perhaps its the lets shell the long ball forward and HOPE something happens,perhaps its wait till we go 3 nil down at home before we get the FUCKING BUS DRIVER out the dug out with his little white board to make a change, perhaps its their ability to spot future good players playing in lower leagues perhaps its just down to the fact without millions to buy his way out of trouble the lot of them are getting found out for what they are

[sassaaaa 11,406]

Another poor Ally thread , where did all these new posters come from ?

[Courtyard Bear 41,357]

Pass the sick bucket.

He lost one player in a team inherited from Walter and it all went tits up, he's a useless manager OP just get over it.

[CanadianBacon 2,088]

Pass the sick bucket.

He lost one player in a team inherited from Walter and it all went tits up, he's a useless manager OP just get over it.

Can't see that happening any time soon.

The OP only has eyes for Ally.

These are politically correct times....man-love and all that.