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Guardian McCoist interview.

KaiserJon

By KaiserJon
in Jimmy Bell's Kitroom

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stevemac

stevemac 5,000

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20 minutes ago, AlCapone said:

If you copy and paste it I will 

Ally McCoist: 'It’s like having a blether with a mate. Jon Champion is a breath of fresh air

The former Scotland striker on his time in charge of Rangers, Steven Gerrard’s title push and finding his voice as a pundit

Ally McCoist is in full flow. Tales of expeditions on the other side of the Atlantic have accelerated from catching salmon in Alaska “on rivers with bears 40 yards away from us” to being strapped into a boat in Guatemala while hauling in 450lb marlin. “An hour and 20 minutes. Amazing.” Next, pursuit of the golden dorado in Patagonia. McCoist depicts fingerless guides, screaming: “Don’t go near them!” as piranha leap. “It was magnificent.”

So is McCoist’s storytelling. His warmth and entertainment factor should be news to nobody; be it fishing, football or anything in between. He is the definition of a media natural. Perhaps the necessity to watch more football on television is pertinent but recent, broader recognition of the 58-year-old’s talents is notable. Punditry and co-commentary, especially in conjunction with Jon Champion, has afforded McCoist fresh prestige. “Someone said to me I am now appealing to a football market in England,” he says. “That’s rather than the grannies, the over 65s who loved Question of Sport. Of which my mother was one, by the way.”

McCoist and Champion’s endearing connection dates back to the 1998 World Cup. “It’s a friendship,” says McCoist. “It’s like having a blether with a mate. He is a breath of fresh air. I’ve got so much respect for these guys. Clive Tyldesley, Peter Drury … all of them. Their work ethic in terms of soaking up knowledge, doing their studies and analysis is amazing. I didn’t appreciate it until I started working with them.”

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At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, McCoist’s cultural references – Kazan falling to Ivan The Terrible in 1552 a highlight during a drab fixture – drew smiles. “We were careful not to go over the top, you don’t want to start ripping the backside out of it,” he says. “But it provided light relief in some of the games.

“When am I going to get a chance to go to Sochi or Samara or Nizhny Novgorod, 50km from a chemical warfare factory? Experiences like that you couldn’t buy. There’s still the wee boy in me that loves to go out and have an adventure.”

In Scotland, the reference point for McCoist could never relate to media work. He was the record-breaking striker at Rangers towards whom Celtic supporters always seemed to have – if quiet and grudging – admiration. “I’m proud of that,” he says.

“One of the reasons Old Firm supporters could relate to me was I was one of them, playing for the team I wanted to play for. If we scored at Celtic Park, the only people I wanted to celebrate in front of was Rangers supporters. I wasn’t interested in getting involved with the opposition. I had a lot of respect for where I was and who was there.”

McCoist was among those to carry the coffin of the former Celtic player and manager Tommy Burns at the funeral in 2008. “Tommy Burns was a brilliant human being. One of the biggest compliments ever paid to me was that I was to Celtic supporters what Tommy was to Rangers supporters. You’re not universally loved, far from it, but you are accepted.”

This accentuates a human element. McCoist is an immensely proud father of five boys. Special praise in context of the past year is reserved for Mitchell, who is now 22 and spent almost a year in intensive care when born. “It has been tough,” McCoist says. “My ex-wife has done an unbelievable job looking after and protecting him. He goes to a special place during the day but hasn’t been able to go because of circumstances. He has to be looked after because of his special needs.

“His brothers haven’t really seen him. We had him up at Christmas but we have to be so, so careful. As a family we miss him, more than anything, and hope there’s a day soon where we can get back to some form of normality.”

McCoist offers no tears for modern footballers but has no desire to trade generations. “You couldn’t put a price on what we had,” he says. “I could go fishing with Paul Gascoigne, I could go for a pint and a game of doms with Ian Durrant. There’s no way I would play now rather than the era I played in. We had a life.”

When goalscoring ended, McCoist’s path looked obvious. He was an assistant to and mentored by Walter Smith back at Ibrox. In one of fate’s cruel quirks, McCoist’s taking the Rangers managerial reigns in 2011 coincided with financial implosion. “I wish I’d had normal circumstances,” he says. “David Murray [the former Rangers owner] said to me: ‘We’ll never really know what kind of manager you were. But you were definitely a crisis manager.’

“I would never know but looking at me you have to say it was affecting my health. Lack of sleep, not eating right, no rest. Getting away from it certainly did me a lot of good.”

McCoist was in office as Rangers were plunged into administration, liquidation and Scottish football’s fourth tier. Those in the background, although identities changed, were permanently unconvincing. He departed in late 2014, with Rangers still not returned to the top flight.

“People wouldn’t believe it,” says McCoist of the circumstances. “It was absolutely insane. I am the Rangers manager who ended up in a witness stand in the high court, thinking: ‘Is this what it’s come to?’ There were people involved at our football club who had no right to be there and should never have been near the place.

“As much as it was the dream job at the wrong time, I’m quite pleased that we were involved. Myself, Kenny McDowall, Ian Durrant, Gordon Durie, Jim Stewart … we knew the club better than anybody. We suffered with the supporters. I look back and say, in a masochistic way, that I’m pleased it was us.”

There is an occasional desire to expand upon nefarious characters and dubious deals. “If it served a purpose,” McCoist says. “The only thing that registers is: ‘Do the fans deserve to hear some of the stuff that went on?’ I think they do to a large degree. But then I sit back and ask why I should stir it all up again. The club is in a great place now.”

That McCoist remains immersed in Rangers as a supporter is clear when he is asked if even a tiny element of him is envious he did not sample the stable environment currently enjoyed by Steven Gerrard. “There is no feelings other than pleasure and admiration here,” McCoist says. “There will be nobody, I can guarantee – Steven, Gary McAllister, Alfredo Morelos, James Tavernier, the entire board – happier than me if we win this league.”

What of Gerrard, with Rangers close to that title? “The way he handles himself, his players, his press conferences – he just looks and sounds like a Rangers manager should. I just think he’s got it. He picks things up very, very quickly.”

McCoist rails slightly at the notion of coaching passing him by, given he has not been applying for jobs. Having left Rangers, he initially planned a dugout return. “I had some interviews – QPR, Blackburn, Sunderland,” he says. “It has worked to my benefit that I didn’t get any of them. Particularly Sunderland – a club that I dearly love – just completely lost its way. When I didn’t get those jobs I just felt I had to do something. I’ve been really, really lucky.”

Football’s loss was the gain of broadcasting and, by extension, the rest of us.

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AGM_72

AGM_72 3,630

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Time and distance has probably given me a bit of perspective on McCoist's managerial tenure with us. Perhaps it's obscured the bad, a little.

I think he worked wonders in that first season in division 3 to simply get a team together and fight fires behind the scenes - it's hard to guess whether we'll ever know the extent of some of it.

I've been guilty of this in the past, but it's generally overlooked that he did give youth a chance in the bottom tier as well. Not to say the youths were ever going to be amazing players by any stretch, I just think he wasn't a good enough manager to ever develop them effectively or the team as a whole - it always felt like we lacked proper direction on the pitch. You could see that in the way we went out of europe in his first season, or how we chucked a way a massive lead before Christmas. Or being outplayed by Forres Mechanics in the cup :lol: 

But it's easy to say in hindsight that we would have been better off with someone else in charge because of how it worked out for his team on the pitch by the time we'd reached division 1. I'm not sure I completely buy into the idea that we'll never know what type of manager he would have been, but he was obviously impaired by the circumstances. 

The guy remains a hero, regardless of how desperate things got during his managerial term.

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AlCapone

AlCapone 7,678

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3 hours ago, RDB14 said:

You are asking him to click on it so he can copy and paste it because you don't want to.... click on it? :confused:

Okay I’ll point out the obvious to you leftard..... I’m asking him to put a copy and paste up for everyone in his OP rather than all of us giving that racist rag the hits. Obvious really 

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folkestoneger

folkestoneger 8,116

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5 hours ago, offminorthreat said:

His status and legacy is undoubted. Absolute hero and legend and I include his time in the manager seat in that, not for trophies but for keeping it all together. 

 

Surprised the usual absolute roasters on here who love to slate him haven't been in here yet. 

Mostly because I said all I had to say before and see no reason to go over it again.

Let bygones be bygones etc

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KaiserJon

KaiserJon 12,393

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35 minutes ago, McEwan's Lager said:

Ended up watching that for about the 100th time and now am watching the Real McCoist video for the 50th time.

Those 90s vids crack me up, him going out and choosing a Christmas tree in it :lol: 

My favourite 90s video is Old firm Classics. Big DJ, Greig and Jardine. 

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stevemac

stevemac 5,000

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I'm not sure he is necessarily a bad pundit, I think he is pretty good, and RE being softer towards them, again I'm not so sure - I think he is just trying to be more balanced and neutral, which you have to be as a pundit. Aye, its fantastic having Boydy getting sly digs in at their expense but realistically to succeed you need to be more balanced. If we are playing shite, say it like it is, likewise with them. I certainly prefer him to Crocker and Walker, even if it is in say an Old Firm or something

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