Rudderless Rangers are heading for the rocks

There is a new man at the helm, but Kenny McDowall is probably the most reluctant caretaker manager is the history of football.

Yesterday’s humiliation at Easter Road will not have helped one little bit.

For most, this would be an opportunity to showcase their coaching credentials and put themselves in pole position for the job on a permanent basis.

When the Rangers Board placed Ally McCoist on gardening leave, it was left to his right-hand man to skipper the vessel in his absence.

With the Ibrox club now languishing in the wake of leaders Hearts by 15 points in the Championship, it most certainly isn’t a case of steadying the ship. More like trying to prevent HMS Rangers sinking without trace.

The Light Blues are miles off course right now. McDowall has to find a safe harbour, ideally at the top tier of Scottish football. You have to wonder, however, if he even has a compass.

If he was to pull off what many consider to already be mission impossible and somehow win the title, it would be incomprehensible for him not to be offered the post long-term.

But there lies the problem. McDowall doesn’t want it the job that is as opposed to winning the title.

Certainly not in these circumstances when he feels his best friend has been stabbed in the back.

McDowall, due to his contract obligations, was unable to speak anywhere near as freely as he might have wanted when he was unveiled as the stand-in gaffer until the end of the campaign. To do so would have put a future settlement at risk and, like McCoist had done before him, he’ll now have to pick and choose his words carefully to avoid talking himself into the sack.

But you can rest assured he believes the off-the-field circus that has engulfed Rangers throughout McCoist’s tenure has prevented any of them from doing their job as well as they would have in normal circumstances.

That, of course, is something very much open to debate.

Others would argue, regardless of distractions and interference, the vast resources available to the Rangers coaching team should have been more than enough to merit both better performances and results than have been achieved.

How much of a viable excuse can the Boardroom battles be used to paper over the cracks that have become more and more visible on the park?

In normal circumstances, a change of manager sparks a reaction. All that appeared to happen at Easter Road yesterday was that the toys were thrown out the pram.

What doesn’t appear to be in doubt, though, is how Rangers will now to coached and set-up under McDowall. If any Rangers supporters were expecting a dramatic change and for McDowall to put his own mark on the team now he is his own man then think again. To do so would be the ultimate act of betrayal in McDowall’s eyes.

“It would be wrong of me to sit here and say I’m going to change because anything Ally McCoist has done has been with my blessing,” he said. “He would ask my opinion and, in terms of keeping it the same, then absolutely, I will. What we’ve got to do is try to get more consistency.”

While not every first-team player was a major fan of the manager, which is always the case at any football club, the majority genuinely liked McCoist. His departure will have had a negative effect overall. And another move that hasn’t gone down well within the Rangers dressing-room was the demotion of first-team coach Ian Durrant.

McDowall, on instruction from the Board, informed the nine-in-a-row legend he was to stepdown to the Under-20s, with Gordon Durie heading in the opposition direction.

It has been viewed for exactly what it was a blatant attempt to undermine the remaining members of McCoist’s fiercely loyal coaching team.

The more cynical among us would suggest it was an attempt to force them into jumping rather than eventually having to be pushed and paid the remainder of their contracts.

Certainly, such efforts won’t work.

As a lifelong Rangers supporter, McDowall is more determined than ever to somehow steer the club out of the Championship and into the top flight.

For him, it would represent mission complete and the end of a journey that has taken him and the rest of his crew through hell and high water.