Rangers have been lurching from one crisis to the next since Steven Gerrard left for Aston Villa with his side top of the Scottish Premiership table.
One player who experienced it all was Ryan Jack, who has revealed all to the Open Goal podcast.
Released by the club in the summer after spending seven years at the team he supports; the Scotland international’s time was blighted by a knee injury suffered by a late challenge from Motherwell’s Cedric Kipre.
Ryan Jack tells all in post-Rangers interview
At 32-years old, Jack’s reliability isn’t going to drastically improve as he looks for another club, at home or abroad.
Rangers have experienced a rollercoaster ride during Ryan Jack’s time at Ibrox and these are the big takeaways from the warts and all interview.
Rangers need to fix the infrastructure at the club
From Jack’s discussions with the podcast, the only time there has been any stability, Rangers won the league.
There was an experienced sporting director and a manager who knew how to raise standards with a transfer strategy that saw a mix of promising talent and proven experience brought together.
Philippe Clement has made changes behind the scenes and his voice should be listened to given the clubs he has worked at in the past and the success that he has enjoyed.
Alfredo Morelos should have been sold
Has a player ever been disciplined more by a club than Alfredo Morelos and not been sold or released?
Multiple issues on and off the pitch and yet Rangers still wanted to stop the Colombian from leaving on a free transfer in 2023.
Then, you add Jack’s story about the build up to the 2019 league cup final:
“I’ll never forget. We played Celtic League Cup final, Celtic won 1-0 with the offside goal – I think it was (Christopher) Julien, wasn’t it?
“We were unreal in the game but Buf (Morelos) missed honestly about eight sitters, could have scored five, missed a pen. The day before we were not going to hotel and that, Gerrard was like ‘we’ll just keep it simple, the way it is.’
“We were training at 11. Gets to like half 10 – ‘Anybody seen Buf?’ It’s like ‘nah, he’s not in’. It gets to 11 and the gaffer is like ‘right, we’re going to need to go and train.’
“Day before a cup final and he’s still not it. We’re phoning him and his phone is off. We’re on the pitch at half 11, been out for half an hour and, no joke, he comes out with not a care in the world. Boots untied, socks tucked into the training joggies and just struts onto the pitch and tries to join in.”
Gerrard was rightly fuming but, ultimately, let him away with it and started Morelos the next day.
Morelos was a star for Rangers at a time when they needed a talisman, this shouldn’t have let him get away with murder though.
The £16.25m bid from Lille would have allowed Gerrard to replace Morelos and strengthen in other areas.
The end result was Morelos virtually downed tools for long periods in his last two seasons at Ibrox and his attitude to fitness sees him back in Colombia when he should be at his peak.
Michael Beale had far too much control
Despite being a success under Gerrard as a coach, Beale replaced Giovanni van Bronckhorst and tried to do it all by himself.
He couldn’t translate being able to set up training sessions and having good ideas to getting the results on the pitch.
Jack explained how Beale took on all the work himself in terms of coaching and recruitment in a tenure that Rangers are still struggling to recover from.
There have been too many changes with no club cohesive plan
One of the issues Jack addressed was the different types of managers he has played under.
Different styles of play, training types, intensity of training, all having been changing almost yearly.
All of which have been shown through studies to be key factors in high injury rates.
Rangers must have a long-term plan for all of the above even if future managers might tweak things.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst should have had more time
If Rangers were consistent and almost predictable under Gerrard, Van Bronckhorst’s pragmatic approach relied on having the best possible players available.
When he had to cope with Leon King and James Sands as a centre-half pairing, the writing was on the wall.
The run to the Europa League final saw Jack praise the Dutchman’s tactical nous but it coincided with losing the Scottish Premiership from a leading position.
Focus turned to the manager when individual defensive errors against Motherwell, Ross County and Dundee United were more costly.
After qualifying for the Champions League the following season, injury saw Van Bronckhorst stripped of new signings like Ben Davies, Rabbi Matondo, Ridvan Yilmaz and Tom Lawrence with key players like Connor Goldson and Alfredo Morelos also missing.
Gio had shown that he could set a team up against Celtic – despite a couple of big defeats – when he had his best players available.
Rangers should sign Kenny McLean
When asked about his experience at the European Championships, Jack was probed on who was the best training in the squad.
His answer wasn’t Billy Gilmour, Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney or Scott McTominay – it was Kenny McLean, a player who has been linked with Rangers almost all summer.
Jack praised the intensity that McLean trained at and how vocal he was throughout the sessions.
Qualities that Rangers midfield could do with now.
In a two-hour long interview, Jack spoke at length about Pedro Caixinha’s tenure and how impressive an individual Steven Gerrard was but the insight that he almost inadvertently gave on the lack of joined up thinking at the club is something that the current board must get right.
If they don’t, the cycle will just continue.
