'Almost impossible': Rangers sent Mick Beale and Philippe Clement warning about next Ibrox boss
03/18/2025 10:00 AM
Andy Halliday is not getting too carried away even after a week in which the Rangers mad midfielder saw Barry Ferguson come out on top against both Jose Mourinho and Brendan Rodgers.
Just three days after Jack Butland’s penalty shoot-out heroics secured Europa League quarter-final football – and a two legged clash with Athletic Bilbao – Rangers travelled across the city to a stadium in which they had not tasted success since Steven Gerrard was in the visiting dugout.
That five-year wait for an Old Firm derby win away from Ibrox ended, however, in pretty spectacular style.
Hamza Igamane lashed a ‘phenomenal’ late strike past Kasper Schmeichel, ensuring that those first-half strikes from Nico Raskin and Mohamed Diomande would not go to waste.
A former teammate of his back in the early 2000s, Ross McCormack felt Barry Ferguson may keep the Rangers job if he could mastermind a run into the latter stages of the Europa League while picking up a statement win at Celtic.
Less than a month after he took interim control, the Ibrox icon is well on his way to achieving both feats, if he hasn’t already.
Rangers sent Mick Beale and Philippe Clement warning about Barry Ferguson
Halliday, however, is a little more reserved. Even defeating Celtic is not quite a ‘Ole’s at the wheel’, post-Paris Saint-Germain moment.
Rio Ferdinand’s infamous demands for Manchester United to ‘get the contract out, put it on the table, let him sign it and let him write whatever numbers he wants’ backfired a little when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s early impact dried up back in 2019/20.
Halliday also remembers Mick Beale going unbeaten in his first 14 games – winning 13 – in the Rangers hotseat. And we all remember how that turned out. Philippe Clement failed to lose any of his first 16 matches, meanwhile, stepping in back in 2023 after the Beale era turned sour.
“As it stands right now, I don’t think Barry Ferguson will get the job,” Halliday muses, feeling that the San Francisco 49ers will look for a coach with a greater track record of success once their takeover is completed.
“I think new investors will go for a star-studded appointment. Now, Barry Ferguson 100 per cent will have one eye on getting the job. What he as to do is bulk up his CV over these next three months as best as he possibly can.
“These Old Firm games, these European nights… [Succeed in those and Ferguson is] going make it almost impossible not to give him the job. But that has not been done in three weeks for me.
“Michael Beale came in, got an initial bounce, went on a really good run. Philippe Clement came in, got an initial bounce, went on a really good run. I still think Barry Ferguson has a little bit more to do.
“A fair bit more to do.”
Celtic and Fenerbahce triumphs but Ferguson still has questions to answer
Lest we forget, Rangers won their last Old Firm clash under Clement. Even more convincingly too. Hammering their rivals 3-0 only two-and-a-half months ago, Rangers dominated Brendan Rodgers’ side like very few Rangers teams have managed over the last decade or so.
Yet, Clement would be shown the door only a few weeks later as Rangers suffered embarrassing defeats at the hands of St Mirren and Queen’s Park while drawing at Dundee and Hibernian.
Furthermore, it is only a fortnight since Rangers lost 2-1 at home to Motherwell during Ferguson’s second game in charge. Halliday thinks it is against opposition such as this – Dundee and Hibernian are next to come on the domestic fixture list – which will give the greatest indication yet about Ferguson’s suitability.
“They might not have won them all but for me they have dominated the last three Old Firms and two of those were under Philippe Clement,” Halliday points out, part of the Motherwell side who triumphed at Ibrox.
“Rangers’ issues in a lot of games have been when they have to break the other team down. Like Celtic had to do to Rangers.
“When Rangers have to break down that low block, when the expectation is on them to go and win the game, I still think time will tell if they can do that.
“But if Rangers go on an eight-game unbeaten run in the league, if they go and beat Celtic at Ibrox and Barry Ferguson has got a Europa League final, its almost impossible not to give him [the job full-time].”
