The appointment of Alex McLeish in 2001

Tony_Montana

Tony_Montana

Active Member
Remember this but was quite young... but was it a suprise appointment at that time and were the fans happy with it?

His CV beforehand with Motherwell and doing well with Hibs the year before was decent enough I suppose but wasn't jaw dropping.

Were the fans happy to see Advocaat get shifted aside and was there any other candidates for the job?

Not wanting to turn this into a thread about his time as gaffer just the reaction when he was appointed.
 
He won fans over quite quickly in the first 6 months by beating the filth to win both cups but when he was first appointed it was massively underwhelming.

I'm sure there was a rumour going about the night we confirmed him that we were going to appoint another top Dutch manager - I think Guus Hiddink might have been the rumoured name - so to go from maybe getting Hiddink to announcing Big Eck was like FFS.

Eck was fine when he still had Advocaat's players (Klos, Numan, Amo, Moore, Ricksen, Ferguson, De Boer, Mols, Lovenkrands, etc) and up until summer 2003 he did a good job. Then the downsizing started in earnest.

2003/04 and 2005/06 was genuinely some of the worst shit ever.
 
Gogso said:
He did OK for us to be fair. Put zebadee back in his box
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he did well initially with what was still a quality squad

the minute he had to buy in it went to shit

still did better than i thought he was going to but finishing third summed him up TBH
 
Were our finances not constrained after the Advocaat era? I get the impression he was probably as big a name as we could get with our budget for the next few years.

Obviously, there were a couple of big fees paid but it was nothing compared to the years before (or to the ever increasing finances of clubs in the big 5 leagues).
 
It may have been underwhelming but it had came to light that Murray had left us in a bad way financially and it was the beginning if the downsizing of our club and mcleish was the cheap option.
I mean no disrespect to Mcleish though as he gave us 3 of the most exciting and happiest days with the 2 helicopter Sunday’s and the scottish cup final win v them.
 
Completely underwhelming. McLeish had finished 2nd in his first season at Motherwell but then finished 2nd bottom twice and then left them 2nd bottom when he jumped ship to Hibs where he was promptly relegated.

Got Hibs promoted at a canter, finished 6th then 3rd but was on a horrendous run of form at Easter Road when we appointed him.

His record before Ibrox was on a par with appointing someone like Tommy Wright or Jim McIntyre right now.
 
Adovcaat bottled shortly after oneill arrived.
Murray and advocaat dressed it up that alex was the next big thing, up and coming young manager and all that.
Advocaat was moving upstairs etc, was gone quite quick after alex arrived i think.
 
Bromp Carlisle said:
Were our finances not constrained after the Advocaat era? I get the impression he was probably as big a name as we could get with our budget for the next few years.

Obviously, there were a couple of big fees paid but it was nothing compared to the years before (or to the ever increasing finances of clubs in the big 5 leagues).
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No chance was Alex McLeish the biggest name manager that would have been interested in taking over, regardless of what our finances were.
 
I value what we do in Europe more than I think a lot of our fans do (who just seem to care about beating the scum).

It's why I've, by and large, been really pleased with how this season has went so far (despite us currently sitting 6th in the league).

On paper getting to the last 16 of the Champions League (and we were unlucky not to make the Quarter Final's) is the best we've ever done in the competition in it's modern format and should make me look back at Season 2005/06 with some fond memories.

I don't.

That season was the absolute nadir of Eck's spell at the club - and even something as important as getting out our Champions League group for the first time - did absolutely nothing to lift the utter despair that was that season.

In the end it was that bad under Eck.
 
I Must have been in the minority but I was quite pleased at the time, he had done well at both Motherwell and Hibs. It was obvious we had lived beyond our means with Advocaat and had to reign ourselves in a bit, for me he fitted the bill quite well.

His record with us was also reasonable. Yes we have a couple of bad years, his final one in particular was dreadful but he also won us the treble and gave us the two most memorable league wins in living memory. And he also got us to the last 26 of the champions league, facts often overlooked when discussing Eck.
 
thetoptier said:
he did well initially with what was still a quality squad

the minute he had to buy in it went to shit

still did better than i thought he was going to but finishing third summed him up TBH
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To be fair to him we were dramatically cutting costs with the spectre of a £70m debt hanging over us. I don't think any manager could have adequately replaced the Advocaat era players with guy on a fraction of their fees and wages.
 
It's hard to pick Eck's worst signing tbf.

And not all of it is his fault; we went from Murray giving Walter and then Advocaat basically a blank cheque - to Martin Bain and Eck bringing in guys on a shoestring - there was always going to be a big drop off in quality, but it probably still shouldn't have been as bad as some of it was.

His list of signings in full btw:

Year One
Mikel Arteta (basically an Advocaat signing)
Steven Thompson
Jerome Bonnissel
Kevin Muscat
Dan Eggan

The last 3 did pretty much zero. Arteta was a good player in 2002-03 but then was getting benched for Boab Malcolm a year later with many our fans calling him a shitebag. Even then I thought Stephen Thompson was a prick - I was right.

Year Two
Zurab Khizanishvilli
Paulo Vanoli
Nuno Capucho
Henning Berg
Emerson
Egil Ostenstad
Hamed Namouchi
Gavin Rae
Frank de Boer

Dreadful. Some genuine contenders for worst signing of all time in there. I liked FdB at least.

Year Three
Dado Prso
Alex Rae
Marvin Andrews
Jean-Alain Boumsong
Dragan Mladenovich
Nacho Novo
Gregory Vignal
Thomas Buffel
Barry Ferguson
Soti Kyrgiakos
Ronald Wattereous

So much better. Eck being Eck there had to be one howler in there with the Serbian Zidane though.

Year Four
Ian Murray
Brahim Hemdani
Jose-Karl Pierre-Fanfan
Julien Rodriquez
Federico Nieto
Filippo Maniero
Olivier Bernard
Franny Jeffers
Kris Boyd

The pits.

Two lowlights I have to mention; in classic FF style we heard we were getting an exciting young Argentinian attacker on loan and managed to work ourselves into a frenzy convinced we were getting Messi...and then Federico Nieto was unveiled.

And the mercurial Mr Maniero. 'Pippo' was signed on the last day of the transfer window and then pretty much never seen again. :D
 
At the time it was a "what the f*ck are we doing appointing a sheep shagging bastard as our manager" time.. But he certainly done a grand job for us.. I have no irks with big Eck.
 
I was also quite young but I was pleased at the time, just anyone other than Advocaat was a relief.

Eck was thrown under the bus a little bit, after the treble we thought we could get away with downsizing. We would have done far better with Ferguson, Numan and Amoruso in 03/04.

05/06 still leaves me a bit confused, I don't think some of the players in that squad were anywhere near as bad as they were made out to be, just didn't work.

I'm glad he left when he did though it was getting nasty. Gave us some great memories which greatly outweigh the not so good ones.
 
Tumshie said:
People always have a go at McLeish saying he only won trophies with Advocaat's team but Advocaat couldn't get near that mob ever since the wee leprechaun came on.
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Helicopter Sunday was mostly Eck's team, considering his brief included offloading the big earning stars to bring the debt down I think he worked wonders, some dodgy signings but also the likes of Boumbsong, FDB, Prso, Novo and big Marv, some very bad spells in his era but May 2005 is now part of the clubs glorious history and one of the biggest sickeners dished out to the bheasts ever
 
If you check out Heart and Hand the Rangers podcast on Patreon a new weekly show that chronicles McLeish’s whole time here has just started and it’s well worth a listen.
 
thetoptier said:
he did well initially with what was still a quality squad

the minute he had to buy in it went to shit

still did better than i thought he was going to but finishing third summed him up TBH
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Sums it all up nicely.

Absolutely insane that some wanted him back after Pedro, and in charge of the dross we had.
 
[QUOTE="Amato Turn, post: 2373574, member: 10260

And the mercurial Mr Maniero. 'Pippo' was signed on the last day of the transfer window and then pretty much never seen again. :D[/QUOTE]

Didn’t Maniero leave after about 3 weeks ?

I dread to Think what is received in terms of a singing on fee/ wages etc for exactly zero return. Even by Eck’s standards a truly dismal signing.
 
very underwhelming .

big ecks reign was a mixed bag to put it mildly .

a winless record at the time . a long winless run against the soapdodgers . unforgettable title wins . a treble . euro run and he won the same amount of trophies as the "lauded" saint martin oneill .
 
He carried himself like a Rangers manager should - I was hopeful we'd hired a good young coach.

He now looks and sounds entirely dissimilar from that man.
 
I think it was the moment most of realised that murrays"s reckless spending had not gotten us any further in terms of European pedigree, and things were about to get a bit more uncomfortable for us,, we did of course have some great times after then, ,2 trebles no less,
 
Disraeli said:
[QUOTE="Amato Turn, post: 2373574, member: 10260

And the mercurial Mr Maniero. 'Pippo' was signed on the last day of the transfer window and then pretty much never seen again. :D
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Didn’t Maniero leave after about 3 weeks ?

I dread to Think what is received in terms of a singing on fee/ wages etc for exactly zero return. Even by Eck’s standards a truly dismal signing.[/QUOTE]
I have no memory of this player at all.

Big Eck did a decent job in the main. Put wave-after-wave back in his box and scooped two of our most memorable championships. Less said about his last 18 months the better.
He did a good job with wee Tommy' s Motherwell squad initially but was caught out when he had to bring in his own players.
He can hold his head high but I'm glad he didn't get another shot with us even before the Gerard appointment. He's had his time and should enjoy his retirement.
 
I remember the day after he was appointed, as my 22 stone English teacher in Paisley Grammar insisted that Eck was a Roman-Catholic Celtic fan, and it was great to see Rangers move with the times. Fat cow kicked me out of the class for pointing out she was talking shite; asked how she knew Eck was a tim and she said "I've lived in Barrhead for years," and I replied saying my dad went to school with Eck and Peter Weir, and Eck was most definitely a Proddy and a bluenose. (My dad said that Weir genuinely did have a soft spot for Aberdeen as a lad, but also liked us too; hated the tims.)

Incidentally, saw this same teacher a few times in church in Neilston; she's not a 19th Century Terrorist, so %^*& knows what she was playing at.

But, aye. I love Eck. His strength is turning around someone's else team, granted, but he also didn't have the budget to spend that Murray blew during the Advocaat era. He also brought in a few players like Capucho and Emerson who, on paper, looked decent signings and then flopped spectacularly, so as much as he signed some amount of shite, some signings were shite with hindsight rather than being obviously bad recruitment.

I think he should have left in 2005, rather than keep the hotseat warm for Le Guen. That last season really sours a lot of folk on a manager who delivered five trophies in a season & a half, then delivered another last day title triumph two years later; overall a good track record in Europe too. Murray hung him out to dry by waiting on Le Guen, then hung him out to dry all season with the "we'll review his performance - nah, we're sticking with him" stuff.

Would I have wanted him to be our gaffer again? Probably not. He's not moved with the times, and the transfer market he followed the most - France - no longer provides bargains. But would I have preferred him over Pedro, Murty or McInnes? Aye.
 
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The players had stopped playing for Advocaat. Eck came in and revitalised the squad culminating in a treble in 2003 where we genuinely played some of the best football I’ve seen us play.

Then came the downsizing. Despite that we did great business in the summer of 04 which led to helicopter Sunday.

Eck was a funny one. It was either breathtaking success - usually dramatically - or soul bending failure. There was never any middle ground. His last season included both.

Initially, I don’t think it was underwhelming. People were glad to see Advocaat step aside. As good as he was for Rangers his time had come to an end.
 
We papered over the cracks with McLeish.

Highs

He brought us a treble.
He managed to bring in some fantastic players.
He took us to the last 16.
He could beat the scum.

Lows

10 games without a win
Awful record against poets
Some stinking signings
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He was no where what was required for a rangers manager. He is a quick fix manager but when he goes into the market it was scary.

It was a underwhelming appointment with a mixed outcome.
 
Underwhelming.

What was to come was some of our biggests highs - then lowest of the lows.
 
Bromp Carlisle said:
Were our finances not constrained after the Advocaat era? I get the impression he was probably as big a name as we could get with our budget for the next few years.
Click to expand...

Murray had already warned in early 2000 that our spending was more or less out of control and that we were going to have to start tightening our belt.

He then sanctioned over £30m more in transfers during the following year so I think there was perhaps a sense amongst the support that it wasn’t as bad as he’d originally made out.

So when Advocaat came to ‘move upstairs’ in December of 2001 the appointment of McLeish, who’d done well with Motherwell and Hibs, but had hardly been outstanding, was a huge wake up call.

Most fans wanted George Graham from what I remember.
 
He came in at a time when the spending had been done by Advocaat and it really was managing the existing players and a job to do on a budget.
 
How could anyone be excited about Eck after Advocaat? So, like everyone, I wasn't overly enthusiastic when he signed.

I do remember his first game in charge and saying to the guys that he will definitely shore up our previously leaky defence under Dick. He did.

He also started really well with two cup wins and a treble, although downsizing and some disappointing failures on the signing front let him down. It also has to be remembered he signed some terrific signings as well, and delivered Helicopter Sunday.

Anyway, underwhelmed at the outset, OP, but he ended up having nothing to be ashamed of when he left.
 
I’ve been thinking about this very question this week after listening to episode 1 of The Eck Era on the excellent Heart and Hand.

My recollection, and this may be more hindsight than reality, is that I was more relieved than anything else. Advocaat’s position had become totally untenable and we needed a change and I was ready to give whoever came in a shot, on the basis it couldn’t get worse.

I don’t remember being excited about McLeish, but I certainly remember talking to mates about how he’d shown “potential” as a manager and that it might work out. I just didn’t think our team of that time, with all it’s egos, was a good place for someone who wasn’t the finished article. McLeish only fuelled this in his early days with an almost childlike excitement at being appointed, which made me worry he’d be overwhelmed by the characters in our dressing room.

The whole thing felt like downsizing, it felt like a cheap gamble, and clearly that’s exactly what it was. To be fair to Eck, 18 months on I think he had got us all on side. Then the wheels came off, on and well and truly off again. So the initial uncertain reaction to his appointment was probably the right instinct.
 
omegaman said:
Murray had already warned in early 2000 that our spending was more or less out of control and that we were going to have to start tightening our belt.

He then sanctioned over £30m more in transfers during the following year so I think there was perhaps a sense amongst the support that it wasn’t as bad as he’d originally made out.

So when Advocaat came to ‘move upstairs’ in December of 2001 the appointment of McLeish, who’d done well with Motherwell and Hibs, but had hardly been outstanding, was a huge wake up call.

Most fans wanted George Graham from what I remember.[/QUOTE]
I’m not sure about “most” but I remember him being heavily favoured by many. I don’t remember there being a favourite, but Graham was one of a handful of front-runners amongst the people I knew.

Despite having admired his achievements at Arsenal, I really wasn’t a fan simply because I never want someone we can’t trust to not to act in their own best interests rather than that of the club.
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I remember seeing on the back of the Sunday Mail that McLeish was going to get the job and laughing to myself that there was nae chance of that happening.

To be fair you couldn't fault the first 18 months. You also can't blame McLeish for the fact that the 03 side was sold and he was scraps to replace them with.

McLeish did a fantastic job I saw summer of 04. He got Prso and JAB on Bosmans then paid £500k for Novo. No one will ever forgot Helicopter Sunday.

It would be a good story if it ended there.
 
yosser hughes said:
I think it was the moment most of realised that murrays"s reckless spending had not gotten us any further in terms of European pedigree, and things were about to get a bit more uncomfortable for us,, we did of course have some great times after then, ,2 trebles no less,
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2 trebles pretty sure it’s only one 02/03? A double in 04/05
 
The 2002 cup final and a treble the following season seems to be forgotten by a lot of fans.

Especially when you consider we were downsizing as well.

4 trophies on the bounce at any time isn't to be sneezed at.

I remember him as a dignified manager that sadly now seems a shadow of his former self.
 
LJ50 said:
The whole thing felt like downsizing, it felt like a cheap gamble, and clearly that’s exactly what it was. To be fair to Eck, 18 months on I think he had got us all on side. Then the wheels came off, on and well and truly off again. So the initial uncertain reaction to his appointment was probably the right instinct.
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As has been said many times before, the really weird and frustrating thing with Eck is that it was either great or dreadful.

That he managed to get that squad playing again, and in 2002/03 especially we played some tremendous football, win a treble, and then, after the complete shambles of 2003/04 somehow pick us up and win yet another title is really quite remarkable.

And then in his final season he managed to combine being dreadful and superb in one by finishing third in a two horse domestic title race, but somehow take us into the knockout stages of the CL and come within a baw hair of the quarter finals.

Looking back, if we’d been offered that in Dec’ 2001, would we have taken it?
 
Many were not happy at the appointment but he did well with the little generals squad of talent and should be applauded for that and gave us some great times like the Lovenkrands final, helicopter sunday and out the CL group.

It turned to garbage when we had to sell rather quickly and a historic garbage run followed.

Then success again. Boom and bust but the club was a shambles with Murray and Bain at the helm.
 
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