Barry Ferguson isn’t in an easy position at Rangers.
Firstly, taking over a team whose confidence is at rock bottom is always going to be tricky.
Then there is the fact he is coming in as an interim boss so the players know he’s only there short term, plus Fergie has been questioned due to his managerial inexperience at this level.
On top of that, being the manager of a club when it is on the brink of a takeover, with 49ers Enterprises close to buying a controlling stake, brings another layer of uncertainty.
An update this week stated the consortium have an ‘agreement in principle’ with Rangers while it was claimed there are guarantees about money being made available for transfers.
Ironically, before taking the temporary manager’s job, Ferguson is on record talking about the 49ers takeover could mean exciting times for the club.
People have debated whether he has a chance of staying on permanently if he does well, and Sam Allardyce may just have offered some insight into what the interim Gers boss can expect.
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Allardyce on managing Leeds during 49ers Enterprises takeover
Big Sam was the interim boss of Leeds United when 49ers Enterprises were in the midst of taking them over, brought in with four games left of the season to try and keep them in the Premier League.
That wasn’t achieved and instead of sticking around to see if he was wanted by the new owners, Allardyce took the decision to just walk away.
And to this day, he’s not sure if the Americans would’ve asked him to stay on or not had he waited.
Allardyce told the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast: “They might have said this before, when I got it in the period of time, should have been 12 or 14 games, if the director of football would have been big enough to pick an Englishman to come and do the job.
“And I’m not sure whether he was Spanish or… but certainly the manager they brought in was Spanish.
“But eventually they turned around to me with only four games to go and they did get rid of that director of football. So I always think that with more time I would have kept the Premier League status.
“But I can’t thank the support I got in just that four games from not only the staff but also the fans. They tried, they were behind us, but I was so disappointed that certainly the Tottenham game, because we’d seen such an upturn, even though it was only a loss at Man City 2-1, and then it was… we really threw it away, Newcastle at home.
“And then West Ham, had an opportunity, got in front, but the Tottenham game was a real disappointment in the end. I’ll always think that.
“Why didn’t I stay? Well, I wasn’t staying at that time because I was just thinking about the club changing hands. Was I going to be left with a case of the new owners come in and just get rid of me? And I’d had that happen at Newcastle, I’d had it happen at Blackburn Rovers. And I really didn’t want that to happen again.
“I don’t know whether they would have stayed with me or they wouldn’t. I thought new owners, clean break, San Francisco 49ers, but yeah, fantastic club.”
What Sky Sports said about Rangers takeover
The report from Sky Sports this week said: “A deal for Rangers to be taken over by US investors has been agreed in principle.
“Talks have been ongoing since the end of October and there is a growing confidence on all sides that it will be completed ahead of the new season.
“A period of due diligence is now taking place, while legal paperwork is drafted up.
“Paraag Marathe – president of San Francisco 49ers investment arm, the 49ers Enterprises – is one of two key figures in the takeover. He is working alongside health insurance tycoon Andrew Cavenagh, who is executive chairman of ParetoHealth.”
Encouragingly, they added: “It is understood that conversations have also taken place around guaranteed future investment, with the final figure to be determined based on variables such as European progression and player trading.”
