Walter Smith is no stranger to resurrecting a flailing Rangers Football Club.
Firstly, alongside Graeme Souness as assistant in 1986, he was tasked with winning a first title in nine years. They delivered. Two years later, after Celtic had initially wrestled the title back, the first of nine in a row was won. Walter eventually took the helm himself in 1991 and the rest is history.
Then in January 2007, Walter got the call from Ibrox after a disastrous Paul le Guen reign.
Taking assistant and club legend Ally McCoist with him, Smith left the Scotland national team behind and answered it. The following season, Smith reached the UEFA Cup final and won the first of three league titles in a row.
Now, at the age of 70, Walter’s management days seem very much behind him. Football is a different world and Walter has hung up his Rangers tie once and for all – at least as a manager.
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Following the club’s demotion to the bottom league, Walter has never shied away from his responsibility as an ambassador of the club. He has welcomed new faces, welcomed new managers, and helped influence decision making at the highest level.
He’s a club legend and he has personally felt the ups and downs of the last decade with us. How he must be feeling now.
In Steven Gerrard, we have a manager with all the class of Smith himself. He is someone who has an aura big enough to fill a void that’s really been there since Smith left in 2011.
Whatever happens in the coming months and years, for the first time in a long time Rangers have a manager who leads, speaks for and embraces the Rangers fans.
As he took up a seat in the Director’s Box yesterday, that includes Sir Walter himself.
