Mark Hateley claims Rangers legend Ally McCoist was a better finisher than the likes of England and Italy legends Gary Lineker and Paolo Rossi.
The legendary former England striker also claims that a whisper in McCoist’s ear helped him lose weight, sharpen his focus, and go on to become the Ibrox club’s greatest ever goal scorer.
Mark Hateley and Ally McCoist formed a formidable partnership during the Rangers 9IAR era and the two are almost synonymous with one of the club’s greatest periods of sustained success.
But in what is a glowing testament to McCoist’s ability, Hateley believes the striker was a better finisher than some of the greatest forwards of his era.
Mark Hateley says Ally McCoist was “the best”
Speaking on the Under the Cosh podcast, Mark Hateley was asked about Ally McCoist and his famous role with the Rangers number 9.
Hateley claims that initially he was expected to play with Maurice Johnstone, but that the two didn’t exactly compliment each other on the pitch.
Hateley then claims, alongside manager Graeme Souness, the two knew that Ally McCoist was capable of much more and helped guide the striker to legendary Rangers fame.
“The story with Alistair,” started Hateley. “I knew who Alistair was, I know he scores goals, and I knew what was going on between Graeme and Alistair.
“And I saw exactly what Graeme saw in Alistair; he saw more. After about a week I said ‘why’s this guy not scoring 30, 40 goals a season?’
“I had a chat with Alistair and I said to him, ‘I’m going to be the 9, so you need to be close to me all the time, no further than 15 yards from me, you need to look where I am all the time, don’t focus on the ball, focus on me and take your positions from me’.
“In order to do this he had to be a little bit fitter and all that sort of stuff and Alistair understood this. He was about half a stone overweight, if you can lose that, I said to him ‘trust me, we’ll score goals, you’ll score a lot more goals’.
“As soon as we got to play together, the rest was history. It was boom, like we’d been playing together all our lives.
“Honestly, he’s the best finisher I’ve seen and that’s with Lineker, Paolo Rossi, Ramon Diaz, all these players I’ve played with. He’s just a natural.”
Legendary Rangers double-act etched into Ibrox history
This is certainly very high praise indeed from Mark Hateley, who played for some of European football’s top clubs and the English national side as well for Rangers alongside Ally McCoist.
During the Hateley & McCoist era, the duo scored just under 300 goals in five seasons with Ally McCoist claiming back-to-back Golden Boots.
Those players name dropped by Hateley are also not too shabby themselves; Spurs legend Gary Lineker is regarded as one of England’s greatest ever strikers, Paolo Rossi is regarded similarly by Italy, with Ramon Diaz a legendary Argentine forward who played in Italy and France.
It’s massive testament to the ability of Rangers legend Ally McCoist and just goes to show how good a player the club had in the iconic striker.
Ally McCoist remains Rangers’ all-time top goal scorer, netting 355 goals for the club, with Mark Hateley scoring 115 times for the Ibrox side.
