Only recently – after the Old Firm defeat – we were told that Giovanni van Bronckhorst needed to appoint a Scot to his backroom team and that Barry Ferguson is one name that should be near the top of the list.
Vital Rangers has been more than vocal about this in the past, as a player – legend, as a coach/manager – no chance.
He had his chance and he blew it.
It’s almost five years since Pedro Caixinha asked Ferguson where he saw himself in five years time – his infamous response of “where your sitting” hasn’t quite worked out the way he either thought or hoped it would.
Now, after resigning from his job at Alloa, he has once again reiterated is desire to return to the club he loves, speaking on the Go Radio Football show, via The Daily Record:
“I don’t care what level it is, whether it’s 11-year-olds or a seasoned pro, at some stage I would love to get back to Rangers.
“There’s no doubt about it but it’s not happened for a number of reasons. It’s still my club and I’ll support them. I watch them, I hope they win every single game they play in.
“I was in for talks when Caixinha was there. I had a meeting. And I just felt it wasn’t going to work.
“He had totally different ideas and you’ve got to respect that. He was asking me about different sides of the game in Scotland.
“I was explaining if you go to places like Pittodrie, Easter Road, Fir Park, Tynecastle – it’s roll your sleeves up.
“Sometimes it’s a battle. You can’t always play the nice, attractive football. But he had a certain way he was going to play and that was the only way he was going to play.
“So unfortunately it never worked out and they went for Jonatan Johansson at the time and I wished him all the best.”
You get the impression that Ferguson doesn’t realise that not every player is as talented as he was, invariably, if he won the “battle” he would come out on top because of his superior technical ability and it was the same with some of the team-mates he had around him.
As we’ve seen under Steven Gerrard, times have changed and teams have to be well drilled and set up to break teams down with clear plans for both in and out of possession – it isn’t enough to pick a team, formation and then send them out with a rousing pre-match team talk.
His coaching record outside of his time with Kelty, where he enjoyed a vastly superior budget to the other teams in the league, has been far from impressive and that’s the reason why he won’t be back anytime soon. Ferguson has to prove that he can offer more than just heart and passion if he genuinely wants to fulfill his dream of a return to Ibrox.