There are few names more associated with Rangers Football Club than Ally McCoist.
A lifelong bluenose, Super Ally lived the dream as the club’s most legendary ‘number nine’ and remains Rangers’ greatest ever goalscorer.
But those 355 famous strikes are just part of McCoist’s Ibrox legacy with the bonafide Rangers legend also spending a successful stint as Walter Smith’s assistant.
Taking the reins himself in 2011, it was Ally McCoist who shepherded Rangers through the financial tumult of 2012 and the most difficult era in the history of his beloved team.
And he doesn’t always get the thanks he deserves for doing so.
But leaving the Rangers hot seat in 2015, McCoist continues to do his bit for the club in a non-official ambassadorial role though his work in the media.
This morning the legendary former Scotland international has used one of his platforms to take aim at the current Rangers regime and the unacceptable state the club finds itself in.
McCoist ‘genuinely devastated’ by Rangers
Ally McCoist hasn’t minced his words on TalkSPORT as he guts Rangers for ‘not being where they should be’.
Referencing the club’s poor recruitment, McCoist admits that it’s ’heartbreaking’ to see the team he loves ‘miles off it’ both on and off the pitch.
The comments are likely to strike a chord with fed-up supporters, some of whom this week hung a banner at Ibrox saying ‘enough is enough’.
It comes with the club failing to reach the Champions League, going through four managers in three years and failing to halt the domestic dominance of Old Firm rivals Celtic.
“I’m genuinely devastated at what’s going on at my club,” McCoist said.
“I’m looking at it and the recruitment, goalkeeper (Jack Butland) aside and (Dujon) Sterling aside, has been unbelievably poor. They have given money to people to spend who quite frankly haven’t spent it wisely at all.
“We’re not even playing our home games at Ibrox now. The fans, I’ve seen it in the last couple of games – there’s big gaps at Hampden. That’s not Rangers. That’s not where Rangers should be.
“On the pitch, miles off it and it breaks my heart to say it, but we’re miles off it.
“And off the pitch as well we’ve got an unbelievable amount of work to do. There doesn’t seem to be any leadership. The previous chief executive has gone to Saudi Arabia and I’m not sure about the job he did, by the way.
“There was a few quid spent on players – £3-4million here and there. Not for me or the Rangers supporters. We’ve got problems and they have to be addressed as soon as possible.”
Ex-Gers manager has Clement ‘sympathy’
Ally McCoist knows all about the challenge of the Rangers manager’s chair at Ibrox.
As we explained, the legendary former Gers striker was heartbreakingly tasked with rebuilding the club in the wake of Rangers’ financial implosion.
Whilst McCoist will be the first to admit he never always got it right as the club’s manager, there is no manager in our history who has had to deal with such challenges whilst in charge.
McCoist has expressed ‘genuine sympathy’ for current boss Philippe Clement and has claimed that a Premiership title win this season would be ‘one of their greatest triumphs’ in Rangers history.
“I have genuine sympathy for the manager because at this moment in time it’s pretty clear he has to get a few out the door before he can get any in,” said McCoist.
“The fact of the matter is the squad at this moment in time, I don’t think, sadly, is good enough to win the league.
“The best we can hope for is always to win it and I am the eternal optimist but if Rangers win the league it will be one of their greatest triumphs ever.”
The comments of Ally McCoist come after fellow 9IAR Rangers legend Charlie Miller took aim at how the club was being run last week.
