There is a well-known saying in football about never going back to an old club, however, Barry Ferguson was never going to turn down his dream job at Rangers.
It was made clear that the Hall of Fame legend was “only” an interim Rangers manager, not that the man himself diluted the importance of the role.
The former Ibrox hero has spoken about it being his Rangers squad and his players, despite only just inheriting what is a rag-tag group of journeymen and promising youngsters who might have potential but haven’t grasped the concept of consistency.
With little to play for domestically, Ferguson’s remit was to restore pride, ruin Celtic’s procession to the title and, maybe, extend the Europa League run.
A couple of boxes have been ticked even if there is now little doubt about whether or not Barry Ferguson has what it takes to get the Rangers job on a permanent basis.
Barry Ferguson has blown another chance to be Rangers boss
Ferguson’s CV as a manager wasn’t what saw Patrick Stewart reach out and ask him to cover until the season.
It was his reputation as a player and as a figurehead that Rangers fans could get behind and, at least, understand that decisions would be based with the club’s best interests at heart.
Stewart wants to appoint a sporting director before a new manager with San Francisco 49ers technical director Gretar Steinsson said to be helping too.
Despite the high-profile nature of the job, there hasn’t been much in terms of speculation or names linked with the Ibrox hotseat.
One name that won’t be on the list is Ferguson.
Or he shouldn’t be, at least.
He is saying all the right things; about standards, about performances that aren’t good enough, about what he wants to see, and what fans deserve to see, however, he has the ability to change what hasn’t worked in the past.
On two specific occasions during his short tenure, he hasn’t.
Ferguson oversaw, arguably, the worst performance of the season at Ibrox against Motherwell, and it wasn’t much better against Hibs.
Worryingly, Ferguson said that he didn’t see it coming, despite watching his team concede two goals in all but one of their last seven games.
The whole picture wasn’t painted in the dramatic win over Dundee which at least showed a bit of character, but the hosts could easily have won and scored five or six goals in the process, and nobody could really have complained.
Ferguson ignored Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity by hoping that the same tactical ideas as Philippe Clement would produce different results, instead, things domestically have worsened.
What has gone wrong for Ferguson?
As with the torturous showing against Motherwell, Ferguson et al failed to identify why Rangers were struggling so badly.
They stuck to plan A and came unstuck.
Hibs, like Motherwell, were more than happy to see Rangers wingers cutting inside into where they had reinforcements with the full-backs only sporadically overlapping.
Add Barry Ferguson’s name to that of Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Michael Beale and Philippe Clement in a list of managers that tried to over complicate something that Celtic have been showing how to do successfully for years.
After blowing his chance to land a dream job at Rangers under Pedro Caixinha, Ferguson has done the same again, only this time, it is his actions, rather than his words that rule him out of contention.
