McLeish leaves Rangers with head held high, but lack of cash still rankles

Published on Saturday 6 May 2006 01:06

ALEX McLeish's farewell to Ibrox tomorrow is unlikely to feature a ticker-tape parade, but, for the outgoing Rangers manager, release from the unremitting strain of this tumultuous season will be reward enough.

On the approach to his final match, with Hearts the visitors, McLeish admitted that these last ten months of his four-and-a-half years in the job have made impossible demands of his fortitude and left him yearning for the sabbatical from football he promised himself as long ago as January.

"It's been a draining season, no doubt about that," said McLeish. "There has been a lot of pressure and it's never let up. But I have to say that, at the time I had the choice of staying or leaving, I'm glad I decided to stay and see it through."

It was at the end of Rangers chairman David Murray's infamous "probation period" in the first week of December that McLeish faced the dilemma. It will be recalled that Murray had said that if results did not improve over a designated number of games - including the Champions League and a visit to Celtic Park - action would have to be taken.

Losing to Celtic (for the second time in ten days) and Hibernian and drawing with Falkirk - virtually confirming the loss of their league championship - would probably have been fatal for McLeish had his team not secured the draws away to Porto and at home to Internazionale that made Rangers the first Scottish club to reach the last 16 of the European tournament.

As it was, with no replacement available at the time, McLeish was, in effect, given a reprieve, and chose to remain at his desk. That would change in January, of course, when it was announced that he would be leaving at the end of this season.

It was the opportunity for high achievement in Europe - an area in which previous ignominies had seriously detracted from the worth of the two titles and five cups he had won at home - that was at the core of McLeish's decision to stay, despite a clamour among disaffected fans, and certain quarters of the media, for his removal. He was always aware of the stain on his CV caused by the failures abroad and felt an urgent need to try to remove it. Significantly, McLeish yesterday nominated the accomplishment in this most unproductive of all his seasons as his personal highlight.

"Fans never forget winning titles and silverware and, of course, they were great moments for me, especially the first league championship," he said. "Perhaps reaching the last 16 of the Champions League is not that highly regarded by many people.

"But when I think of other teams from Scotland who went before and failed, teams with more basic quality and who certainly cost a lot more, and I think of the injuries we had, the number of times we had to call on players who were not first choices, I feel very proud of having reached that particular milestone."

Having been financially compensated to his complete satisfaction - Murray, to his credit, is scrupulously fair in these matters - McLeish has been eulogising Rangers throughout the past four months, emphasising the "fantastic" experience and privilege it has been to manage "this great club".

There is no question, however, that he will also retain a measure of resentment over the economic restrictions that governed his tenure. Those paeans to Rangers in recent months have semi-regularly been punctuated with little hints of his dissatisfaction at having to take the rap for signing players on the cheap he would otherwise not have countenanced.

As recently as Monday of this week, when discussing the towering defender, Marvin Andrews, McLeish said: "Maybe five years ago Marvin is a player we wouldn't have signed." This was an unmissable allusion to what he felt was too often the triumph of financial necessity over choice.

On this theme, he was more expansive yesterday. "I think it would have been interesting if there had been huge spending power," said McLeish, possibly pining for the unbridled purchasing facility that allowed his predecessor, Dick Advocaat, to register a net deficit in the transfer market in excess of 50 million.

"But at the time I came here, the chairman needed somebody who would relish the challenge, knowing there would not be much money to spend. I was the right man at the right time."

This is tantamount to confirmation of the open secret that McLeish was recruited from Hibs on the cheap in comparison with the earning of Advocaat and, before the Dutchman, Walter Smith. It was only after landing the domestic treble at the end of his first full season that McLeish was able to re-negotiate a contract that more than doubled his original salary to around 850,000 annually.

He confirmed that it may be some time before he is negotiating his next contract. Despite the recent vacancies that have arisen in the English Premiership - at Charlton Athletic and Middlesbrough - and media speculation over the likelihood of his being made an offer, those jobs are likely to be filled before McLeish is ready to return to the game.

"I have read that I'm in for the Charlton job," he said. "But it is quite untrue. And there is no way I am going to be throwing my name into the hat just for the sake of it. I will take the break I have promised myself and my family. I'll probably go to the World Cup and take in a few matches.

"You have to remember that I've been involved in football at a high level in Scotland non-stop for more than 30 years. I think when the decision was made to leave Rangers, it was a weight off my shoulders and, I think, off the shoulders of those around me."

With tomorrow's match quite meaningless, McLeish will take his leave in unusual circumstances. "I have no idea how I'm going to feel," he said. "Whatever emotion I experience, it will be spontaneous. But nothing is forever and, as I've always done, I'll look forward rather than back."