There is a reason why Barry Ferguson hasn’t returned to Rangers as a coach.
As with Ally McCoist it is perfectly fair to separate the playing and coaching careers of an individual – on the pitch he’s a club legend, in the dugout? Not so much.
Recent rumours of a return to Ibrox to assist Giovanni van Bronckhorst were shot down by Heart and Hands’ David Edgar who claimed that the talk is “categorically” not true, I’d say that was pretty unambiguous.
The Barry Ferguson as assistant rumour is categorically untrue according to club.
— Heart & Hand Podcast (@ibroxrocks) November 16, 2021
For all his exploits on the park, it has two be remembered that he was far from angelic during his playing career, it’s one thing having a winning mentality but you also have to act like a grown up.
He had his chance and blew it, when Pedro Caixinha was interviewing for a local assistant, Ferguson showed a complete lack of self awareness when he asked where he saw himself in five years’ time and replied “sitting in your seat”, it’s one thing being confident, it’s another to be disrespectful.
And, as told to the Open Goal podcast, that he saw fit to criticise the new manager’s techniques and philosophy during the interview further explains why he won’t step foot inside the manager’s office – unless we draw Alloa Athletic in the cup that is:
“He was asking about the Scottish game and I start talking about Pittodrie, Tynecastle, Easter Road, Fir Park. Horrible places to go.
“You’ve got to change. Sometimes you’ve got to roll your sleeves up and win the battle. He’s looking at me and says ‘no I play this way and this way only’.
“I said it’s not going to operate, that’s not going to work at Rangers, and he just looked at me and I thought I’ve got no chance of this job.
“I’m glad I never got it because you see if I did get it I’d have probably been sacked after three or four weeks. The guy never got what Rangers is all about.”
If Ferguson had shown a bit of humility and intelligence, he could have told Caixinha everything he wanted to hear and then been an influence in the dressing room, who knows, he may even have been tasked with the caretaker manager’s job when Pedro was eventually sacked – that he doesn’t realise this was his golden chance and instead decided to behave in the same way he did as a player says it all.
On the pitch, he was the perfect embodiment of a Rangers, off it? I’ll let you decide for yourself.
You having a laugh? I’ve got other reservations about Barry being back but to use is interview he had with an absolute muppet of a Manager as an example, you’re off your nut.
Footballs a man’s game, its not an office job he was going for….you have to have a sense of humour and if it had been a Scottish or British manager that he had been interviewed by, he would have simply had a chuckle at Barry’s ” Sitting in your seat” comment.
Cant believe i just sat and read this……
That’s the issue though. It wasn’t a British manager, if he’d been more savvy he could have got the job and got his foot in the door, there’s a time and a place for self confidence and that wasn’t it. Look at his coaching career since then, hardly backs up his opinion does it? I love Fergie but he’s carried his playing career mentality into coaching and there is only so far you can go with “getting stuck in”. You and Fergie are right about the physicality of the game but that wasn’t the place to say it and it cost him a job, which was the point of the article.