As per one of the latest reports by The Daily Record, Alex McLeish has been deemed as the favourite to capture the managerial post of Rangers. Although Aberdeen’s boss, Derek McInnes led the market since the post was vacated by Pedro Caixinha, McLeish leads at this stroke of the hour, with the interim manager, Graeme Murty also in the contention. The scenario has just become feistier and only time will tell as to which of them eventually gets the throne at the Ibrox Stadium.
McLeish would be a decent and justifiable capture for the Gers, as he has managed the club in the past as well and is well acquainted with Scottish football. It was during his reign between 2001 and 2006 that the Glasgow-based club tasted a tremendous amount of success, as he lifted as many as seven silverwares with the club. A reunion might give fruitful outputs in due course of time as McLeish has the know-how to take the side forward in the right direction.
Under the tutelage of Caixinha, the Light Blues did struggle considerably and the results that dished out hardly met the yardsticks. The Portuguese was appointed as the successor to Mark Warburton after he left midway last season, but the very appointment of Caixinha, who had no prior experience of Scottish football, was questioned at the onset.
One of the tasks he was assigned to do was to curtail the gap between Rangers and their arch-rivals, Celtic, which he miserably failed to do.
Caixinha lost all three of the Old Firm derbies against the Celts and his side were eliminated from the Europa League by Luxembourg’s minnows, Progres Niederkorn, which was absolutely humiliating.
Subsequently, elimination from the League Cup was soon followed by a 1-1 draw against Kilmarnock, which finally saw Caixinha getting axed by the board. The Teddy Bears did win two games under the interim manager, Murty, but were outclassed by Hamilton Academical on Saturday as the Accies secured a 2-0 win away from home.
It goes without saying that a permanent manager is the dire need of the hour for Rangers and McLeish, who has previously managed some notable clubs like Motherwell, Aston Villa and Birmingham City, could be an astute signing for them.
Rangers did make a lot of signings in the summer and have plenty of resources at their disposal and what they need urgently is someone who could instil charisma and winning mentality into the ranks, which McLeish could certainly do.
