Rangers best player announces unexpected retirement

It wasn’t a shock to see Rangers sacking Philippe Clement – even though Patrick Stewart had backed him just a few days earlier.

But it was a major shock to see the Ibrox chief executive drafting in Barry Ferguson as caretaker boss. It just made me wonder what kind of transfer fee Record Sport got for the move. Perhaps they couldn’t afford me.

And after about 20 minutes at Rugby Park the other night I was expecting to see him back in the newspaper by the weekend. Fair play to Barry. He got a reaction from the players – eventually. The initial response looked like Rangers were going to be even worse.

Instead, they rallied and it was a positive result on a night that could have gone badly wrong. I did find it quite interesting Ferguson was hailed as a managerial genius for hooking Clinton Nsiala after less than half an hour – when Clement got absolutely battered for doing the same with Bailey Rice a few weeks ago.

It turned out they were both right. Clement is a goner though and it’s Ferguson left carrying the can until the end of the season. But what then? Rangers have raided the media but they have got so many Rangers cheerleaders in the dugout they should have taken pom poms to Rugby Park the other night.

In all seriousness, fair play to Barry. I admired him as a player and I admire him having the guts to take on this job at a tough time. I know from experience on the pitch, he was an outstanding midfielder with a real drive, real aggression and will to win. He could more than play a bit too. Back then Rangers had certain values and a certain mentality – qualities that are severely lacking at the moment.

I’m surprised at the move, but I guess Barry has been called on to try to light a fire under this squad and to bring back some of those values to the current squad.