Rangers legend Ally McCoist tells Sports Mole that there is “no stability” at the club and that it is harming the team’s chances of success.
Rangers legend Ally McCoist has told Sports Mole that the lack of stability at the club and the conditions under which manager Philippe Clement is being forced to work are detrimental to the team’s success.
John Bennett stepped down from his position as chairman of Rangers earlier in September and the club have failed to appoint a permanent successor, although former chairman Dave King has openly expressed a desire to return to the role.
Ex-director John Gilligan has taken over the position on a temporary basis, but the club are also without a CEO after James Bisgrove departed in May.
When asked about Clement’s position at the club, which has come under question in recent weeks, and the turmoil behind the scenes, Rangers legend McCoist told Sports Mole: “There’s just absolutely no stability within the club, and with that in mind, you’ve got to have a degree of sympathy for the manager.
“He’s looking above him and there’s no stability and his hands are kind of tied a little bit.”
The club’s instability also stretches to the football pitch, with the team having only played at Ibrox once this term due to delayed renovation work.
Temporary chairman John Gilligan will do a “fantastic job”
Rangers will reportedly look to replace Bisgrove in the CEO position before finding a permanent successor to Gilligan, but McCoist has voiced his support for the stand-in chairman to do well in the interim.
“The chairman’s resigned due to health reasons and we obviously wish him the very, very best, John Bennett,” McCoist told Sports Mole.
“So at this moment in time, effectively, John Gilligan’s just got back in as a sort of stand-in chairman, and I don’t have any doubt that John Gilligan will do a fantastic job to the best of his ability because I know John, and I think he’s an excellent man, but they’ve got to get it right behind the scenes is what I’m trying to say.
“No chief executive, we’ve got a stand-in chairman, we didn’t have a chairman for a period there.”
Gilligan has stated that he hopes a new CEO will be appointed by Christmas, and that he envisages himself being in his current position for a number of months.
Although Dave King has spoken about his eagerness to return to the club, there have reportedly been no conversations between Gilligan and King, with Gilligan having said that he would prefer if King were to stop airing his thoughts in public.
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McCoist: Rangers must act more “wisely” to compete
The prior chairman Bennett had only been in his role since April 2023, and despite having pumped millions of pounds of his own money into the club, Rangers were only able to win the Viaplay Cup during his tenure.
McCoist suggested that if the team are to succeed moving forward, the club will need to avoid repeating the mistakes of previous board members, and will need to ensure that adequate funding is in place for management staff.
“I feel for [Clement] at this moment in time because I think he’s been left a hand, perhaps from previous members of the board, if you like, where they’ve given money to previous managers that I don’t think has been spent wisely,” he told Sports Mole.
“I don’t think there’s any money left for him to bring his own players in so I think he’s effectively in a position where he’s having to play the cards that he’s been dealt.”
Celtic have won 12 of the past 13 top-flight titles, and while considerable work needs to be done in order to close that gap, Gilligan believes that Rangers’ trading model will eventually come good.
Indeed, he also reassured fans that the current situation is not in any way comparable to the difficulties of the mid 2010s, and that his job is simply a handover of responsibility.
Rangers will get their Europa League campaign underway on Thursday with an away trip to face Swedish side Malmo, a match which takes place amid growing speculation over the future of Clement.
Ally McCoist was speaking to Sports Mole on behalf of talkSPORT bet.