PLENTY of people were caught off guard when the news broke that Barry Ferguson was in the running to be the new Rangers manager.
After the sacking of Philippe Clement it was expected the Ibrox club would promote someone from within as caretaker, like a Kevin Thomson, or reach out to a former player currently not in a coaching job such as Neil McCann.
Barry Ferguson will take charge of his first Rangers game against Kilmarnock[/caption]
As it turned out, the latter IS now part of the current Rangers coaching set up – but as one of Ferguson’s trusted assistants.
Ferguson was confirmed as the head coach of the Light Blues until the end of the season on Monday and his first game is against Kilmarnock tonight.
Given his last coaching job was three years ago and his managerial experience up to that point was in the lower leagues (with mixed results) being thrust into one of the biggest jobs in Scottish football came as a surprise to many.
One of those was a old adversary – and team mate – of the former midfielder.
Jackie McNamara played against Ferguson during their heyday in the late nineties and early noughties and they were regularly in Scotland squads together.
It would be fair to say they know each other fairly well but McNamara was still taken aback when he learned of the role Ferguson was landing.
Speaking on Open Goal, McNamara admitted he thought the story was a JOKE when he first read it.
He said: “I thought it was April the 1st or something. I was surprised.
“It’s a strange one.
“From the outside, Barry was in an ambassador role. It’s like, ‘You just take it until the end of the season’.
“Billy Dodds has been a manager, Neil McCann’s been a manager and Allan McGregor is in as the goalie coach.
“Maybe they don’t think it can get any worse from what they’ve seen in the last few weeks.
“You need a bit of passion, but you need a direction, a set-up where you know what Rangers are going to do.
“When you look at Rangers, it’s a team of individuals. There are one or two decent players, but what’s their structure? What are they trying to achieve?
“With Celtic, you know exactly what they are doing with Brendan’s structure.
“But with Rangers, it’s like, ‘What are we doing? Who is going to go and win the game for us today? Is [Vaclav] Cerny going to be the man?’ It’s a big job.”
When asked if the fact Ferguson & co haven’t been coaching recently, McNamara said: “That shouldn’t matter. It’s football.”
Jackie McNamara and Barry Ferguson were captains of Celtic and Rangers in the 00s[/caption]
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