2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Keith Jackson)
It’s difficult to know these days what boxes they are actually attempting to tick. But, whatever it is Rangers are looking for in a prospective new manager, Derek McInnes must be feeling as if he’s been put through the longest job audition in history. On Sunday afternoon he proved his credentials all over again as his Kilmarnock side bullied and harassed Celtic out of the stride which has allowed them to collect 31 points from the first 33 available this season.
Yes, ultimately Brendan Rodgers and his players got out of town safely with a 2-0 win but that scoreline doesn’t come remotely close to explaining what really went on at Rugby Park, as McInnes showcased once again how capable he is of rolling around in the managerial mud with the Celtic boss. Rodgers has said it itself – and many times – over the years. He respects McInnes for a very good reason and is probably quietly delighted that Rangers have, thus far, failed to make an appointment which seems so obvious to almost everyone else.
If the metric for judging what makes a capable, worthy Ibrox boss is the ability to be competitive against the neighbours, then McInnes is the ultimate no brainer when the axe finally falls on Philippe Clement and removes the Belgian from his mounting misery. Since the turn of the century, no other manager in this land or any other has chalked up more wins against the Parkhead club than any non Rangers boss. And Clement is currently sitting on a total of no wins from five Old Firm derbies as he staggers onwards in the general direction of next month’s League Cup Final at Hampden.
On Sunday night, he looked every bit as lost as he has done throughout the start to a season which is bordering on complete and utter embarrassment. Sure, Rangers scraped a 1-0 win at home to Hearts to at least take a three-point bite out of the enormous lead both Celtic and Aberdeen have built at the top of the table. But this was the latest in a long line of wholly unconvincing, hard-to-watch performances which are becoming Clement’s signature dish one year into the job.
The home support has run out of patience with the manager and, when the levels of exasperation reach these levels it’s only a matter of time before the inevitable, messy and financially costly end. The only unanswered question now is, how much longer will this prevaricating continue? When will this will-they-won’t-they charade come to an end? At what point do Rangers have to concede McInnes is the man best qualified to lead them out of this malaise? Deep down McInnes may wonder if he’ll ever be accepted back at Ibrox after rejecting the offer to replace the hapless Pedro Caixinha back in December 2017. But the truth of the matter is he didn’t turn Rangers down.
On the contrary, he verbally accepted the position only to then be talked out of putting pen to paper at the eleventh hour during a face-to-face with Dave King . More than that, McInnes had actually picked the starting XI to face Ross County on December 9, the day before he sat down with King and realised he was on the verge of placing himself in an impossible position. It was only during that conversation that McInnes convinced himself that he could not work under a chairman he knew he could not trust.
And, it should be remembered that he made the agonising decision to turn it down after seeking the advice and guidance of his trusted mentor Walter Smith . It was Smith who told him to listen to his own instincts and to stick to his guns when the insufferably shifty King attempted to reposition the goalposts during the final round of contractual negotiations and McInnes received the wisest of counsel. As a matter of fact, that required quite an emotional effort from the great man, given that he always regarded McInness as a Rangers manager in waiting as well as something of a kindred spirit.
He saw more than a bit of himself in McInnes and that assessment alone is as good a reason as any for Rangers to be battering down his door. Caretaker chairman John Gilligan will know of all this to be true. In fact, not all that long after King’s clumsy, classless intervention led to McInnes staying put at Pitttodrie, the pair bumped into one another in a chance encounter on a golf course somewhere in Florida.
McInnes actually ran across a fairway to get Gilligan’s attention before explaining to him the real reason behind his decision and letting him in on the chaos King had created behind closed doors. At that time Gilligan was still serving on the Rangers board. It didn’t take all that long before he too came to the conclusion that life with King was too much like hard work and opted to step away from the club.
In other words, Gilligan knows the circumstances around that whole farrago better than anyone. And that gives him something of an advantage where this current, ongoing crisis situation is concerned. Of course, he’d rather not be forced into confronting it at this point, while he is heading up the search for his own permanent replacement as well as a new chief executive and director of football.
But the fact of the matter is Clement’s position is rapidly becoming untenable and his relationship with the support may already be broken beyond repair. Should he fail to beat Rodgers at the sixth attempt at the national stadium in a month’s time – and there’s the very real potential for that final to get completely out of hand – then Gilligan will have no choice but to step forward. There’s a very strong argument that he should be doing something about it right now, given that Rangers are already languishing nine points behind both Celtic and Aberdeen, with a second placed finish in the league already a matter of serious doubt.
What Rangers need is to arm themselves with a manager who is capable of giving Rodgers a legitimate cause for concern. The overwhelming body of evidence shows that man is McInnes and the sooner Rangers get around to recognising it the quicker they might begin to recover from the catastrophe of Clement’s 12 months in charge..
