There have been a host of names linked with the vacant manager’s job at Rangers with Philiipe Clement and Kevin Muscat the two widely reported to be who the board is deciding between, but there has been no sign of high-flying Scotland boss Steve Clarke.
There are, of course, several reasons for this, however, it is still a question that has been posed by one prominent Scottish football journalist.
Ewan Murray of The Guardian, known for his love of Hearts, has considered why Rangers aren’t making the most obvious of appointments in Steve Clarke.
Why Rangers were right to dodge Steve Clarke
To form the argument, first of all, you need to read what Murray’s justification is.
A comparison to Walter Smith’s management style and, in particular, the state that we were in in 2007 when he returned to Rangers is one consideration.
This though, is the crux of the article:
“Clarke’s pragmatism, knowledge of the Scottish game, organisational skills and ability to instil an appropriate level of fear into players would serve a rudderless Rangers well.”
Clarke isn’t pragmatic, he’s defence minded and sets a team up to be well organised and hard to beat.
How many times during his Scotland tenure has he either scraped a win against a “lesser” nation or the performance has been abject.
Rangers need a manager who can be pragmatic in Europe but flexible enough that they can set up a team to face teams content with packing the box, Steve Clarke knows how to do the latter but not the former.
Murray mentions Clarke’s fractious relationship with Rangers supporters too, this alone is enough to rule him out.
His argument is no more sound that suggesting that Neil Lennon should be considered as Rangers manager, if anything, he is better qualified than Steve Clarke!
