People were laughing at Rangers when Aberdeen announced that Derek McInnes would be staying at Pittodrie.

I personally don’t think going after a manager and not getting him is embarrassing. It’s not great but that’s it happens, Derek made his decision, and that should be respected. You win some and you lose some, that’s football both on and off the pitch.

Rangers then released a statement putting over their own side of the story and let’s be quite frank the statement was completely and utterly shambolic.

Firstly they basically try and assassinate McInnes’ character:

The position of Rangers manager requires an ability to win football matches and the mentality to cope with the demanding off-pitch environment that goes with being the Rangers manager. This is a critical aspect of our assessment of any candidate during the interview process.

After the two games against Aberdeen, we requested permission to engage with their manager to assess his readiness and willingness to consider the Rangers position. This was declined. We were subsequently made aware by Aberdeen’s statement that, at this stage in his career, it would be best for him to remain in his current post. We endorse that position because moving to a massive club like Rangers is a big step with concomitant risk.

For me, that’s basically pointing to Derek’s poor results against Celtic and then saying he’s not ready for ‘a massive club like Rangers‘.

Now the biggest point here is that the Gers board clearly identified the Dons boss as the best candidate to approach. They  thought he was ready and capable when they contacted Aberdeen seeking their permission to speak to him.

I have to mention use of ‘concomitant’. I pretty sure it was a word that was googled plenty of times as fans of every Scottish football club tried to decipher it’s meaning. It even ended up trending on Twitter.

The chief statement writer at Ibrox loves showing off their intellect by thrusting such words into his or her writing. All it does, well apart from a bit of forced education, is make Rangers look like a laughing stock within the game. It gives other sets of supporters something to rib the Light Blues about. Demonstrated last night with the Aberdeen fans unfurling a banner which read ‘Concomitant You Reds’ during their Scottish Premiership game with Dundee.

The last paragraph of the statement will anger quite a few fans in the Ibrox stands:

In the meantime, we have great confidence in Graeme Murty, who will continue as interim manager at least until the end of the year. The manner in which he has approached this task is a credit to himself and the club.

That shows that the Rangers board really wanted McInnes and that they don’t have a Plan B.

Graeme Murty is a terrific man but he’s not ready to be the gaffer at Rangers Football Club. He did beat Aberdeen twice in a week but he has also lost to Hamilton and Dundee during his second stint as interim boss.

Why do the club need another month or so to come up with another name? Especially after sacking Pedro Caixinha back on the 26th of October. They’ve had plenty of time to identify a few possible replacements. In the meantime, Pedro is back in employment at Mexican club.

How many times does a sacked manager land a job before his previous employers fill his former position?

Former Gers players, pundits and journalists have come out slating the Rangers statement. It’s not easy to get so many in Scottish football but the vast majority of people seem to agree that it was horrendous.

On Twitter and forum boards, Rangers fans have been very vocal in their anger over the statement. They believe it’s made the club look like a sad joke. They believe that they support a club of significant class and that was lacking on Thursday night.

Wow! Just seen that Rangers statement. Undignified, infantile and wretched. To attempt to degrade the character of DM to take the focus off the abject incompetence of this board and their awful decisions and shabby appointments is shameful, absolutely shameful.

— RangersMostly (@Gri64) December 7, 2017

That's a really arsey statement from Rangers.

— Alasdair McKillop (@AGMcKillop) December 7, 2017

It looks like a lukewarm approach from our board to McInnes was met with a tepid response for him. That statements though….good lord.

— RangersMedia (@RangersMedia) December 8, 2017

It makes Rangers look petty, bitter and pathetic. Scottish football sides need to learn when and when not to make statements.

All the statement writer at Ibrox has done is make the Gers board look bad and they can ill afford any more embarrassing situations that has the faithful questioning their competence.

Posted on December 9th, 2017 by scott
Filed under: Article