Archie Knox insists even the great Sir Alex Ferguson would struggle...

[ian1964 10,595]

...with the current Gers team.

 

Knox fears the gap will only grow unless the Ibrox side are able to dramatically improve their playing squad.

 

ARCHIE KNOX insists even the great Sir Alex Ferguson would struggle to restore Rangers to their former glory.

 

Speaking at the launch of his autobiography, The School of Hard Knox, the former Gers No2 claimed serious investment is needed if the Ibrox club are to ever challenge Celtic again.

 

Alongside Walter Smith, Knox helped deliver nine-in-a-row as Rangers swept all before them in the 1990s.

 

But the landscape of Scottish football has changed entirely since then with Celtic now the dominant force.

 

And Knox — who worked as Fergie’s assistant at Aberdeen and Manchester United before joining Gers — fears the gap will only grow unless Rangers are able to dramatically improve their playing squad.

 

The 70-year-old said: “Right now I would say even Sir Alex would struggle, yes. Unless you have the players and you recruit well or be lucky enough to have good players then you are not going to do it.

 

“For Rangers to get back to what they once were then they need to have the same level of player as Celtic.

 

“Celtic have better players. It is not rocket science. There is no magic formula for it. You simply have to have better players who have better attitudes than the rest of the teams — and then you have a good chance of winning.

 

“In terms of trying to catch Celtic and overtake them then the task is major. I don’t see anybody doing that in the near future.“There is no question that Celtic can deliver at the moment.

 

“The level of player that Brendan Rodgers is bringing, getting the likes of Patrick Roberts back and Kieran Tierney being a phenomenal player, Stuart Armstrong improving all the time and Leigh Griffiths scoring goals as he does and having six players in the Scotland team is great for Celtic.“You never know, I don’t know a lot about the players at Rangers, whether they can come in and lift Rangers, I’m not sure.”

 

As well as assessing the current state of Rangers, Knox spent time yesterday reflecting on a life in football.

 

From Forfar, to Dundee, to Aberdeen, Manchester and Glasgow — Knox knew only success.

 

In 1983, he sat alongside Fergie on the bench in Gothenburg as Aberdeen stunned Real Madrid to lift the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

 

At Wembley seven years later he was beside his pal once again as Ferguson ended Manchester United’s wait for a trophy with the FA Cup and, alongside Smith at Ibrox, he helped shape one of the most successful eras in the club’s history.

 

Knox smiled: “It’s been phenomenal. I’m the luckiest guy in the world.“You need luck. My first job was at Forfar where Sam Smith was the chairman, and if he hadn’t been there, I would never have survived in football, never for the length of time I did.

 

“His influence was phenomenal. He kept me going, no question. Then I was lucky enough to get a job like Aberdeen. I think Jim McLean had a huge influence on that.“When Pat Stanton left and Alex was looking for something else, Alex and Jim were quite close, and I knew Jim from playing at Dundee United.

 

“I knew Alex from coaching courses and things like that, but not as somebody to go out with or anything like that. We weren’t that close.“I think Alex said before that when I was less than a couple of weeks in at Aberdeen, he was doing the training and I was taking the young boys in the afternoon.

 

“I said to him one day ‘what am I doing here?’ and he asked what I meant. I said, ‘I’m here and I’m picking the fluff out my bellybutton in the morning, I thought I was coming in to do the training and stuff.

 

“He said ‘oh, aye?’ Then he went away to think about it, came back to me in the afternoon and told me that from the next morning, I was doing the training. And he never interfered after that point or at any time at Man United. He’d be involved with tactical discussions and things like that obviously. I had to ask him for that chance, and I didn’t want to leave it more than two or three days.”

 

During a stellar career that also saw him work for Scotland and with Craig Brown at both Motherwell and back at Aberdeen, Knox forged a fearsome reputation.

He did so because of the big names he had to handle like Paul McGrath, Bryan Robson, Paul Gascoigne, John Hewitt and Ally McCoist.

 

Knox insisted: “I never had a problem with any of these boys because you lay down the ground rules right from the start.“Timing for starters — if you’re not there, you’re not training with me.

 

“It’s a couple of laps of the park if you’re late. They all had these watches where you press the button and, say it was starting at 10 o’clock they’d be going, ‘He’s three seconds past!’“So, it would be, ‘Round you go, two laps! You’re not with us.’ And that went for everybody. No exceptions whatsoever.”

 

Knox admits he would struggle to pick his best moment in the game.

 

He said: “I’ve had hundreds of them, hundreds.“The ones that stick out obviously are the Cup Winners’ Cup with Aberdeen, the FA Cup with Manchester United, winning nine in a row with Rangers, although I was only there for seven.“And I was in charge at Dundee when Hearts lost the league on goal difference in 1986.”

 

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/football/1530729/archie-knox-sir-alex-ferguson-rangers-struggle-challenge/

[Rousseau 9,884]

For me, having better players is only part of it. There has to be a way of playing that is better, and more successful. Using Barca as an example: Real Madrid always tended to have 'better' or more expensive players, but they couldn't get close to Barca when Guardiola was in charge; Barca had a better way of playing that nullified the 'better' Real players. We need to find a way of playing that allows us to become more than the sum of our parts; because, quite frankly, we're not going to be close to Celtic financially for a long time.

[Uilleam 5,681]

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,

There are thousands to prophesy failure,

There are thousands to point out to you one by one,

The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,

Just take off your coat and go to it;

Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing

That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

[Gribz 745]

I beg to differ with Archie. I dont think Sir Alex would struggle. He may not win the title but he wouldnt be dropping silly points against mid table sides. He automatically gets an extra 10-20% out of players and the fact its his club would give him some drive. Just a pity we wont actually get to see Sir Alex manage Rangers just once.