Tom English: Templeton move is a sad state of affairs

THE jury is out on whether Ally McCoist is a good football manager or not, but, in the business of crisis management, he has shown an aptitude that would have had his mentor, Walter Smith, tipping the cap in admiration.

Last weekend, Rangers performed horrendously at Berwick, hanging on for grim death for a point that they scarcely deserved, Berwick having had a perfectly legitimate goal disallowed in the closing minutes. It was the third such struggle on the road following on from their travails at Brechin and Peterhead, three away games and three major disappointments.

At Berwick it was humiliation for the club, an abomination to those diehards who still believe – or at least pretend to believe – that they are one of the world’s biggest operations. McCoist cut loose in the aftermath, successfully switching the news agenda from a heavy criticism of his own capabilities to a lambasting of his own players. The media reaction was that here was a strong manager who was about to annihilate his players, a leader who had had enough. In short, he got away with it.

Some Rangers fans bought the Ally Gets Mean message and others didn’t. When McCoist outlined his desperate need to bring new players to the club it would have been understandable had the Ibrox fans reacted by saying: “How about properly coaching the ones you have first?” Of course it is early days at the new Rangers and only a madman would suggest that they will not win the Third Division title with plenty to spare, but these early away games have been an awakening. In the parlance of the street, you’d have to say that in their visits to the homes of their new-found rivals, Rangers didn’t like it up ’em.

McCoist hasn’t got the bodies he was looking for. Instead of the five or six he said he needed just last weekend he only has a couple. Chief executive Charles Green might want to explain why the transfer business has been so modest given that the club, he tells us, is swimming in cash at the moment. He had his chance to prove it in the transfer market and he didn’t do it.

The high-profile capture is, of course, David Templeton, formerly of Hearts and most recently seen holding his own at Anfield against a Liverpool team containing Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Joe Allen. Templeton looked very much at home in such company, unfazed and up for the challenge. The fact that he is now a Rangers player represents an excellent move by McCoist, far more convincing than some of the foreign journeymen he has brought to the club. Templeton is a player of much potential. In the world they’re living in right now – and ludicrous though it may sound – you might even call his signing a coup.

It’s a grim saga, though. Templeton was going to be out of contract at Hearts next summer and didn’t appear ready to sign a new deal at Tynecastle. At 23, and with a burgeoning reputation, he might have fancied his chances of progressing his career in England, but nobody came for him. That’s a surprise in itself, particularly having played so well against Liverpool in both matches and especially because he wouldn’t cost a whole lot. Templeton has been bashed, understandably, for his lack of ambition in plummeting down the divisions – from whence he came in the first instance with his move from Stenhousemuir to Hearts – but we have to factor in the possibility that seeing out the season at Tynecastle may not have been an option for him even if he wanted it to be.

In the past, Vladimir Romanov hasn’t looked kindly on players who have refused a move from Hearts, thereby denying him money from transfer fees. Once Rangers made their offer, in the region of £800,000, it would have been fascinating to hear Romanov’s reaction to it and the words of advice he may have imparted to Templeton. “We need the money. Move now or rot in the reserves”. Perhaps. The first reaction to the move was to criticise Templeton for placing a greater value on salary than career development, but credence must be given to the notion that he was left with little option. With only one suitor and a Hearts owner maybe keen to cash in before it was too late, he may have had nowhere else to go but down.

Sure, Templeton will be buoyed by games at Ibrox and every second week in Glasgow he’ll be performing in front of crowds that he couldn’t dream about at Tynecastle and he’ll be getting paid more and will have more stability in his professional life. But it’s still the Third Division. It’s no place for a young player who has already shown himself capable of competing at a high level. If Rangers are made to work their way through the divisions to get back to the SPL, it will be 2015 at the earliest by the time they do it. Templeton will be 26 going on 27 by then. His bank balance will be healthy, but you have to wonder what his game will be like. Is it possible to play lower league football for three straight seasons and still maintain the standards he showed against Liverpool?

Rangers have signed an exciting player, of that there is no doubt. Good luck to them. That’s what they need to do. That’s why they exist, to try and better themselves. But the same goes for Templeton. His real reasons for joining Rangers remain unclear.

Maybe the idea of being a Rangers man turns him on, regardless of where they’re playing. But, whatever has happened behind the scenes, the likelihood is that Templeton has reduced his prospects of playing European football for the next four years (unless there’s a Scottish Cup victory). He has also virtually obliterated any chance of a Scotland cap and has, you’d have to think, taken himself out of the shop window for attractive clubs down in England for, regardless of how he does against the Elgins and the Annans and the East Stirlingshires, they’re still Elgin and Annan and East Stirlingshire.

His arrival is excellent news for Rangers. But in the greater scheme of things? In a word, sad.