Rangers gaffer Ally McCoist reveals being constantly under the spotlight as an Old Firm manager takes its toll.
Long after he has left Rangers, Ally McCoist will still be lauded for the line: “We Don’t Do Walking Away”.
Delivered two years ago at the club’s darkest hour, it was a rallying cry that struck a chord with the Light Blues support.
It helped mobilise fans behind a squad unrecognisable from those they had become used to following.
And with their help and money they began a journey through the lower leagues that could culminate in a step up to the Premiership next season.
Yet while acknowledging the importance of seeing the job through, the manager has admitted the turmoil off the park does take its toll. Though seemingly endless, it has peaks and troughs.
And a week which has seen the club linked with a man wanted by Interpol, threatened with a fan boycott and fall short of a hoped-for target of £4-million through a share of issue has once more tested McCoist’s resolve.
Asked whether a time would come when he would need a break from it all, the Rangers manager showed the sort of decisiveness he was famed for in his days as a prolific goalscorer.
“There is absolutely no doubt that time will come,” he said.
“100% it will come. There is absolutely no doubt, no doubt at all, that managing Celtic and Rangers is at an entirely different level, in terms of the intensity and focus on you 24/7, than you get elsewhere.
“I even include some of the big names in England in that statement.
“Obviously there are far bigger clubs, which have had European success and play in the Champions League. That is not the point I am trying to make. It is about the spotlight you are under up here.
“Everybody, myself included, has got a cut-off point, there is no doubt about that I cannot give you a timescale but I can tell you right now it will come.”
McCoist is realistic enough to know that day will dawn either through his own actions, or the actions of those who occupy the Ibrox Boardroom.
Thanks to their impressive 4-0 win over Raith Rovers on Friday night, the Light Blues moved to the top of the Championship.
Yet, even this early in the season, it clear the division possesses much more quality than the Light Blues have encountered in the last two years.
“Football is a results business,” McCoist acknowledged. “I might not get the opportunity to let my cut-off point come. There are lots of reasons it could get taken away from you. But right now there is so much work to be done, and I want to continue with that.
“There will always be something else to do. Our main job, from our point of view, is to get back to where we feel we belong, which is in the top flight competing and challenging. We have got a long way to go before we are nearly there.”
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