The Scottish Sun, in one of its latest reports, have penciled that Scottish Premiership outfit, Rangers, are in the contemplative stage of bringing the former Crystal Palace manager, Alan Pardew, to the Ibrox Stadium as their next manager.
The name of Pardew being surfaced is indeed a shocking, and in the same breath, a riveting one and the majority of the fans of the Glasgow based club must be delighted to see him getting linked to their club, for he is worth the fuss. So, is a smashing deal on the cards?
A few days ago, Pedro Caixinha was sacked by the Gers after he failed to inject resilience and flair into the players and Rangers’ sluggish run of form under his tutelage barely helped his cause. Caixinha never appeared to be a long-term solution to the woes which the Light Blues have been undergoing and hearing the voices of discontentment against him had become a frequent occurrence.
Rangers were knocked out of the Europa League by Luxembourg minnows, Progres Niederkorn, earlier this season and it was undoubtedly an unexpected event, for the football fraternity didn’t expect that to get knocked out by such a relatively unknown side.
During his reign, which lasted for 7 months, Caixinha’s side were beaten in all of his three Old Firm derbies by their arch-rivals Celtic, including a 5-1 humiliation. Results didn’t pan out as per the demands and the gap between Celtic and Rangers kept increasing.
The pressure did start to take a toll on his tactical nous and after being knocked out of the League Cup by Motherwell, the Teddy Bears could manage to secure merely a 1-1 draw against Kilmarnock, which eventually proved to be Caixinha’s last game as Rangers’ manager.
While Graeme Murty is serving as the interim manager, Pardew is one of the options Rangers are interested in. The 56-year-old is a manager of exceptional experience and pedigree, having managed the likes of Crystal Palace, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Southampton to name a few.
He is currently out of work and the Daily Mail has claimed that his representatives have contacted the Rangers’ officials. It has also been reported that Pardew had refused to manage Ukranian outfit, Dynamo Kiev, and is probably willing to ply his trade in the Premier League.
At this stroke of hour, any sort of materialization of a contract is still far from sight, and it would be interesting to see where the tale goes from here. Nonetheless, Rangers would be laying their hands on a fine manager if the speculated deal actually crosses the line.
