Barry Ferguson never shirked a tackle as a player and he has taken this approach into his managerial career too after his Rangers team to play Athletic Club was announced.
With Jack Butland dropped, the interim Rangers manager showed that he isn’t afraid to remove the big earners from the team, if they are failing to meet the standards that he demands.
The former England international wouldn’t have had much of a defence had he tried to argue his cause given the number of goals that he has directly been at fault for Rangers losing, especially since the turn of the year.
Having started his career as an ever present, Butland is now facing a familiar story after spells at both Crystal Palance and Man Utd took a similar path.
Speaking to former Birmingham City teammate and fellow England international Ben Foster on Fozcast, Butland has explained why he might not put up with it at Rangers if it is a situation that doesn’t improve.
Jack Butland won’t take well to being benched by Rangers
When asked how the move to Rangers came about and the chance to play in front of 50,000 every other week at Ibrox, Butland told Foster:
“I felt like I needed to play football.
“I want to play football. I didn’t enjoy being on the bench. I don’t like not playing.
“So, I knew I needed that. But then you look at it and you think, well, you started a career really young. The people think I’m older than I am.
“The people think I can still do it. And I’m like, I know I can. And I feel wicked, feel physically great and everything.”
Butland is still young for a goalkeeper and spending the years before he signed for Rangers in 2023 on the bench appeared to whet his appetite for proving the doubters wrong.
When Michael Beale was struggling to get a tune out of an imbalanced Rangers squad of his own creation, it was Butland who was a shining light.
It looked like replacing Allan McGregor wasn’t as difficult as first thought with the only problem being whether or not Rangers could actually keep a hold of him.
A £6m bid from Nottingham Forest was rejected and Gareth Southgate appeared at Ibrox to assess the in-form stopper.
What went wrong for Butland?
After failing to make England’s last set of international friendlies at the end of the 2023/24 season, everything seemed to go downhill culminating with the costliest of errors in the Scottish Cup final against Celtic.
It is a rut he hasn’t been able to get out of with a series of high profile, and very basic errors throughout the campaign.
The only surprise, is that he wasn’t dropped sooner.
If it is any consolation to the 6ft 5inch tall keeper, it’s that there will be a new manager and a clean slate in a matter of weeks, he just has the small matter of Liam Kellt’s efforts against Athletic Club to get past.
