Maurice Ross knows exactly what the new Rangers management team and Barry Ferguson are all about.
The former Rangers right-back played alongside all four of Barry Ferguson, Neil McCann, Billy Dodds and Allan McGregor during his time at Ibrox.
Speaking on BBC Sport’s Scottish Football Podcast, Maurice Ross has been reacting to the news that Rangers have overhauled their coaching team with his former teammates.
And the ex-Rangers defender insists that it’s all about ‘standards’ with the former Scotland international even taking aim at the Ibrox centre-backs for wearing gloves during a cold snap!
Maurice Ross criticises Rangers defenders wearing gloves
The Rangers team are not blameless in this current fiasco at Ibrox with Barry Ferguson promising a ‘clip around the ear’ for anyone acting out of line.
Rangers have gone through a succession of managers who’ve been unable to steady the ship ever since Steven Gerrard left in 2021.
Maurice Ross is convinced that a drop in standards is central to the club’s downturn with little things, such as the Rangers defender’s wearing gloves, sending the wrong signals.
”Small things, and it sounds really silly and it’s maybe a wee bit archaic of me,” said Ross.
”But we’ve not had that cold a weather here, I’ve seen Rangers centre-backs wearing gloves three weeks ago, four weeks ago.
”The only two people on the pitch. Rangers centre-backs wearing gloves. C’mon, what’s happening?
”Two Rangers centre-backs. Not the number ten. Not the number nine. The centre-backs.”
Maurice Ross has also welcomed Rangers’ decision to appoint several of his former teammates as they look to stop the rot at Ibrox.
Worryingly, the former Rangers defender had noticed what he describes as a ‘lack of Rangers people’ at Ibrox in recent visits.
”It’s something I did notice when I’ve been back at the club the last three, four months,” explains Ross.
“I don’t mean to put too much on it, but there was a lack of Rangers people in the building.
”There really was. There was a lot of suits, but it’s good to see more Rangers people in the building.
”Yeah, I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.”
Underperforming Rangers players need ‘digging out’
Barry Ferguson comes into the job at Rangers having spent the last few years, very publicly, working as a pundit and columnist.
As part of his remit, Ferguson has had to criticise the Rangers team at times with everyone from James Tavernier to Nedim Bajrami getting it in the neck.
Now set to take the reins at Ibrox, Maurice Ross was asked if the Rangers team might not take too kindly to Ferguson’s previous criticism.
It’s a suggestion that was laughed off by the treble-winning former Rangers defender, who suggested that when it comes to criticism, this underperforming team better get used to it.
”Players should be digging players out,” Ross explained.
“Players should be doing it, it shouldn’t need to be managers every day.
“The standards that are going to come in here, I’m telling you now, when that pass is played two metres behind somebody when Rangers are going forward, it will be dugout.
”It will nitpicking, it will become annoying, but it will be, ‘no, no, no, this is why you’re here, playing that pass incorrectly is not on here’.“
Maurice Ross believes that raising those standards and getting that message across is central to Rangers appointing Barry Ferguson in the first place.
“It feels like they’re going back to the people that were in the building when Rangers were successful,” said Ross.
”That comes with behaviours, that comes with attitude, that comes with certain standard settings and I think that’s what will happen on day one.“
