Mccall Has 9 Games To Save Rangers

[The Dude 20,026]

As a few of you probably remember I posted something on here a few weeks ago that I'd done for Shoot magazine. Here's my latest on why McCall has 9 games to save our club.

Cheers guys.

http://www.shoot.co.uk/category/rangers-blogs/save-rangers-stuart/

[Marky. 6,963]

Really good, honest read mate Well done.

Reading about the Zaliukas thing, I'm not aware, what actually happened? You've written he "downed tools" ?

[the_r_sole 366]

shoot is still on the go!? amazing

[gazza27 15,333]

Good read mate

[cumnockbear 2,446]

Good piece

[The Dude 20,026]

Really good, honest read mate Well done.

Reading about the Zaliukas thing, I'm not aware, what actually happened? You've written he "downed tools" ?

Alloa took the lead, he instantly picked up a groin injury and had to come off. Iirc it's not the first time he's come off injured shortly after we've conceded.

[The Dude 20,026]

shoot is still on the go!? amazing

"The voice of football since 1969".

[Helicopter Sundae 6,195]

McCall certainly has a few games to get that shower into a team.

Do not know if he has it in him, but within the entire playing staff the club has, there is for certain a team that is waiting to be assembled.

He has to find it, and than we take our chance in the play offs.

How ironic would it be, if we get bitch-slapped all season by the Hivs, then turn them over when it really matters?

The young lads are the future, and the seniors who are now duff have to be dropped.

This is how Ally should have strategised, and was what every one of us wanted, but it never happened.

Now is the time.

[NeoGeo7 10,627]

Agree with you on the players and the size of the task however stating Rangers run the risk of becoming just another Scottish club are way off the mark. If that is the case i hate to think of the composition of our fans. Glory hunters who just thought 3 years and 3 lower league wins and we'll be back in the top flight challenging. Sounds awfully like what mccoist May have thought also......naive doesn't come close.

I honestly believe that should we not go up, looks to be the case, that the only thing that will keep attendances up is a new style of attacking, attractive and technical football. This requires a club to change its mentality for the best part of the last 20 or so years (excluding the advocaat years). This will all come down to the appointment of the right man.

Do I think McCall is capable of doing a good job? Yes.

Do I think he is the right man to change the club bottom up? No, it's not enough of a change.

It needs to be someone with new ideas, who can work with youth and who has good contacts.

Is this Cathro? Perhaps.

I'd always stated I wanted us to take in applications for the job and I still do.

Mccoist blew an opportunity to start afresh and he squandered it in favour of short term gain. If we go up I can't see us revolutionising our approach but we'll be in the top flight. If we fail to go up we cannot afford to waste such an opportunity.

[The Dude 20,026]

Agree with you on the players and the size of the task however stating Rangers run the risk of becoming just another Scottish club are way off the mark. If that is the case i hate to think of the composition of our fans. Glory hunters who just thought 3 years and 3 lower league wins and we'll be back in the top flight challenging. Sounds awfully like what mccoist May have thought also......naive doesn't come close.

I honestly believe that should we not go up, looks to be the case, that the only thing that will keep attendances up is a new style of attacking, attractive and technical football. This requires a club to change its mentality for the best part of the last 20 or so years (excluding the advocaat years). This will all come down to the appointment of the right man.

Do I think McCall is capable of doing a good job? Yes.

Do I think he is the right man to change the club bottom up? No, it's not enough of a change.

It needs to be someone with new ideas, who can work with youth and who has good contacts.

Is this Cathro? Perhaps.

I'd always stated I wanted us to take in applications for the job and I still do.

Mccoist blew an opportunity to start afresh and he squandered it in favour of short term gain. If we go up I can't see us revolutionising our approach but we'll be in the top flight. If we fail to go up we cannot afford to waste such an opportunity.

Are they off the mark though?Playing at Ibrox is today as intimidating for away players as a trip to East Fife. We have players taking confidence from a home draw with Alloa, Our gates have fallen 50% in the space of 18 months. Not sure if you were on here at the time but I was shouting VERY loudly about how going to D3 would me a terrible mistake for us as a club. I was dead against it from the start and still think fans championing it played straight into the hands of everyone who wants to see us fail. I'm not convinced anything would bring fans back if we were to remain in the Championship and as unpalatable as it may seem, most big clubs have a large number of fans who only really give a shit if you're winning things. Just look at Chelsea and Man City. It's amazing just how many new fans they've acquired since they started winning trophies regularly and spending 100's of millions on players.

[Bad Robot 21,512]

A good read but we will never be turned into just another club even with another season in a lower division.

I also agreed with the policy of buying in experienced pros which I thought was the correct way to guarantee promotion.

I agree with the op that I also never wanted put down the divisions.

[Ibrox_Nights 429]

A good read

If Law is getting it tight for their equalizer, though, then Jig should receive equal treatment.

As lazy and piss poor in equal measure.

[NeoGeo7 10,627]

Are they off the mark though?Playing at Ibrox is today as intimidating for away players as a trip to East Fife. We have players taking confidence from a home draw with Alloa, Our gates have fallen 50% in the space of 18 months. Not sure if you were on here at the time but I was shouting VERY loudly about how going to D3 would me a terrible mistake for us as a club. I was dead against it from the start and still think fans championing it played straight into the hands of everyone who wants to see us fail. I'm not convinced anything would bring fans back if we were to remain in the Championship and as unpalatable as it may seem, most big clubs have a large number of fans who only really give a shit if you're winning things. Just look at Chelsea and Man City. It's amazing just how many new fans they've acquired since they started winning trophies regularly and spending 100's of millions on players.

I take your point about the fans only being interested when they're winning. I fear we have more amidst our ranks than we initially thought.

I agree we are losing a lot by being in the lower tiers, though much of his was self inflicted by the previous management, but I won't be giving up on long term success if we don't get up. Promotion the year after wont be a certainty. We'll lose a large portion of the squad, which is actually more positive than negative with our current offerings, so it will take time to get a new team to gel. I do feel it's easier to get a brand new squad to play the way the man in charge wants, to train the way he wants, eat correctly etc. the trouble we have had is mccoist and co treated this as a piss take instead of saying we have 3 years to build the solid foundations that the club can look back on and be proud and cite that for its successes on and off the park.

I do hope we achieve promotion but I don't think I'm quite as fearful for the future if we don't. I just don't see a Leeds type situation as even with 25k attendances that still dwarfs the rest of this division and wih the right people calling the shots we can play much better football for a fraction of the cost we have seen over the last 3 years.

Can't help but feel so many people felt we were assured 3 league wins in a row, I was never under that illusion from 3 years ago, maybe that's why I perhaps do t have my doomsday specs on.

[The Dude 20,026]

A good read

If Law is getting it tight for their equalizer, though, then Jig should receive equal treatment.

As lazy and piss poor in equal measure.

Fair point alhough having just watched it again, I'm still wondering where the fuck McGregor was. He looked to be a good 10-15 yards ahead of Jig and Wallace

[A Gallant Pioneer 555]

I don't think our club could survive another year of mediocrity in the lower leagues, we simply have to go up.

[Ibrox_Nights 429]

Fair point alhough having just watched it again, I'm still wondering where the fuck McGregor was. He looked to be a good 10-15 yards ahead of Jig and Wallace

Our back line is like a horrible train wreck waiting to happen. You know it's going to inevitably happen at some point in the game, you just

hope and pray that it doesn't happen too often, and that when it does it doesn't lead directly to a goal against.

Someone posted recently alluding to all the great center halfs we have had over the years. Makes me genuinely sad

[The Dude 20,026]

I take your point about the fans only being interested when they're winning. I fear we have more amidst our ranks than we initially thought.

I agree we are losing a lot by being in the lower tiers, though much of his was self inflicted by the previous management, but I won't be giving up on long term success if we don't get up. Promotion the year after wont be a certainty. We'll lose a large portion of the squad, which is actually more positive than negative with our current offerings, so it will take time to get a new team to gel. I do feel it's easier to get a brand new squad to play the way the man in charge wants, to train the way he wants, eat correctly etc. the trouble we have had is mccoist and co treated this as a piss take instead of saying we have 3 years to build the solid foundations that the club can look back on and be proud and cite that for its successes on and off the park.

I do hope we achieve promotion but I don't think I'm quite as fearful for the future if we don't. I just don't see a Leeds type situation as even with 25k attendances that still dwarfs the rest of this division and wih the right people calling the shots we can play much better football for a fraction of the cost we have seen over the last 3 years.

Can't help but feel so many people felt we were assured 3 league wins in a row, I was never under that illusion from 3 years ago, maybe that's why I perhaps do t have my doomsday specs on.

Clubs our size don't get time to lay foundations for the future. We demand instant results and to hell with anyone who doesn't deliver.

Great our attendances dwarf the rest of the division but the point would remain that we would still be a Championship club. With Championship revenues. It's simply unsustainable.

I'm not sure about anyone else but Rangers SHOULD be assured of winning any league in Scotland outwith the top flight every single time. Not 99 times out of 100, not half the time. Every. Single. Time. We aren't a pishy wee club like Falkirk or Hibs and in all fairness the only reason we shouldn't win the top flight every time is Celtic.

[The Dude 20,026]

Our back line is like a horrible train wreck waiting to happen. You know it's going to inevitably happen at some point in the game, you just

hope and pray that it doesn't happen too often, and that when it does it doesn't lead directly to a goal against.

Someone posted recently alluding to all the great center halfs we have had over the years. Makes me genuinely sad

It reminds me of the Hutton, Andrews, Kyrgiakos, Smith axis of evil of 2004/05

[Reformation Bear 6,453]

I enjoyed reading the article. I hope McCall can produce some sort of winning motivation back into the team. He has the most difficult of jobs to do there having been left a legacy of managerial failure.

The future? Well if it is to be the Championship for another season and maybe more until a title winning side can be built then there seems to me little doubt that we will become more and more irrelevant as a football force in Scotland for a while to come. With every probability that attendances at Ibrox will fall until it becomes clear that a manager has got a squad that is not just capable of doing the job but actually doing it. There is also no guarantee that whoever is selected in Summer as a longer term manager will actually be successful. No guarantee whatsoever. There may be a difference between the type of manager who can get a team to scrap its way out of this division and a manager to take it to other higher levels of performance in the top flight. Whatever a Board does in picking a manager it had best not over-weight the selection with an eye to games in the top flight but then fail for a few seasons to get out of the Championship. Part of the problem this season seems to me to be that there has been management and squad that was maybe more minded to next seasons games by assuming we'd win promotion this season and nowhere near focussed enough on winning todays battles.

If its to be the Championship then to my mind it will be essential to drive the costs down to below expected revenue levels (lower ST sales and lower commercials and lower match day attendance). The time for betting that it'll be ok would be over. The time would arrive when there was not way to avoid the sort of cuts that get costs below revenues. Smaller squad, less well paid, fewer staff in general, closing stands if the ST sales do not justify keeping all 4 stands open, mothballing Murray Park. All of these and more would surely need to come into immediate consideration and with a mindset to err well on the side of financial safety. And that's just to survive.

If I'm wrong - and I'd like to be wrong - then I sure would like to hear from King and his new Board precisely how funding is to work for the season (or seasons) where we have to endure Championship football before the right manager is appointed who then builds the right team to win promotion.

[Ibrox_Nights 429]

It reminds me of the Hutton, Andrews, Kyrgiakos, Smith axis of evil of 2004/05

I think what we have now is even worse to be honest.

[The Dude 20,026]

I think what we have now is even worse to be honest.

Aye definitely. I'd long for that back 4 now.

[AlCapone 7,678]

As a few of you probably remember I posted something on here a few weeks ago that I'd done for Shoot magazine. Here's my latest on why McCall has 9 games to save our club.

Cheers guys.

http://www.shoot.co.uk/category/rangers-blogs/save-rangers-stuart/

Good article

[Smile 26,622]

I will feel no ill will towards McCall if he cant get our team promoted, will be gutted, but i will still question his choice of players at times though especially if he sticks with our Mickey Mouse defence.

The blame for this should be on Ally&McDowall and the lazy arsed unprofessional players who have chucked it and dont deserve the support.

[Tontospal 1,116]

Not sure if you were on here at the time but I was shouting VERY loudly about how going to D3 would me a terrible mistake for us as a club. I was dead against it from the start and still think fans championing it played straight into the hands of everyone who wants to see us fail

I can't agree with you enough on this point.

We should have shown courage as a club and support and told them where to stick their licence. The football authorities should have bent over backwards to protect our club, fans and the rest of Scottish football instead of blackmailing us in to being no more than a bit part player.

We are the victims of perhaps the biggest public sporting fraud of all time yet we were punished over and over again.

Indeed we are still being punished today as we are a shadow of the club we were.

[AlBear. 8,499]

I don't think our club could survive another year of mediocrity in the lower leagues, we simply have to go up.

Disagree tbh.

It is imperative we get up this season so we can expedite what has already been a laborious rise back to where we belong. But, not for our survival. We would, as we have done numerous times throughout our history, survive another disaster if the worst happens. Rangers means too much to too many to simply fade into obscurity. Undoubtedly it will hurt us and lengthen our exile as leaders of Scottish football, but not to the detriment of 143 years of history. It'll take longer but it will happen. As it always has before, we always come back.

What the last 4 years have shown is that as a community when things are at their darkest we rally, it's a shame it always seems to have to get that bad before it happens.