Your legend status will count for nothing now, Walter Smith warns Ally McCoist

Walter Smith steps down at the end of a season which has seen him operate under severe financial restrictions and, without a change in ownership at Ibrox, he expects those restrictions to become tighter still once McCoist is in charge.

He believes that his current assistant manager's past as a Rangers player will help him settle into his new post, and that McCoist's status as a club legend will not be undermined by whatever befalls him in the top job but, at the same time, that status will not protect him if he cannot get results.

"I think there are a lot of comparisons to be made between Neil Lennon's situation and Ally's," Smith said yesterday.

"Both have known what it is like to play for their club, and that is an important factor.

"A lot of people come into a club without that knowledge, and I was one of them, many years ago. Some don't realise the overall intensity that there is at the Old Firm.

"Obviously they have different personalities, but I think Ally is ready to take the job, and it is something that he has always wanted to do."

Lennon has been embraced by the Celtic support since becoming manager last year, but the same was not the case with another former player at Parkhead, Tony Mowbray, when he became manager.

Similarly, John Greig, adored as a Rangers captain, had a miserable time as manager.

"There is a hell of a difference between being a popular player and being a popular manager," Smith said. "You have to earn the right to become a popular manager - being a popular player will not help you. It didn't earn John any leeway.

"What Ally needs now is a bit of the famous McCoist luck, and hope that the background situation at the club can be sorted out. Hopefully the club can get on to a bit of a more even keel."

But, even if Rangers' financial position does not improve and fortune fails to favour the new manager, Smith thinks that McCoist's tougher, determined side - the part of his character which is rarely glimpsed in public - will see him through. "Ally has got an edge to him that people don't see.

"Yes, Ally likes to smile, and look on the brighter side of things - that's why he provides a decent balance for me.As Ally keeps telling everybody, he is half-full, where I'm half-empty.

"Ally has a desire to win, and he has that in anything, whether it is golf, cards, or whatever.

"That is a side of Ally that you don't really get to see unless you get to know him, and I think that's one of the biggest things that you can take into management.

"Ally is a bright lad. He is also academically bright, and I'm sure all of that will help him. In my mind he has got all the attributes. But at the end of the day, like all of us, you maybe don't know how good you will be at it until you get the chance.

"Ally will need to carry with him a certain instinct. And, again, you either have that or you don't have it. You don't know until you are placed in the position.

"First and foremost I hope the circumstances of the job allow him to do well. But he certainly has the capabilities to handle it."

Having been in charge of McCoist as a player, Smith has been in a position to see beyond the cheeky-chappie stereotype and appreciate the former striker's less obvious attributes. Even so, he can recall a time when, like the general public, he could not envisage that someone with McCoist's happy-go-lucky nature would want to become a coach, far less be willing to take on such an arduous job as that of Rangers manager.

"I must admit I was a wee bit surprised when he started to show an interest in going on coaching courses and things like that. But that gave me a wee indication.

"I asked him to come (and work] with Tommy Burns and myself for the national team and I could see then that he had an interest in the mangement and coaching side of it.

"That obviously helped in my own decision in terms of my staff when I came back to Rangers."

Smith's return to Ibrox was in 2007, and he did not plan then to stay as long as he has.

In those circumstances, he has been impressed by the patience which, perhaps unexpectedly, McCoist has shown as he waited for the top job to become vacant.

Indeed, that patience extended to persuading Smith to stay on in the job for first one more year, and then a second.

"He's been patient enough. Even in my own head I didn't think I'd last the length of time that I have done so he has shown a degree of patience.

"I don't think there's anything I could say I've found out about him that I didn't particularly know before."

"Because of the club's circumstances, if he felt that he didn't want to take the job he would have all the reasons for not doing so at the present moment.

"But he doesn't even give that a thought. It's what he wants to do. It's what he's wanted to do since he came back. He's always known it was my intention to leave and, to his credit, it was him who talked me into staying at the end of each of the last two seasons."