Alex McLeish has admitted that new Rangers wasn’t for him.
As soon as Mark Warburton got told that he had resigned McLeish was in front of every news outlet touting himself to take charge at Ibrox.
The silence from the club was deafening.
When he took charge over from Dick Advocaat in 2001 McLeish had the promise of a £1.5m ‘tax free’ EBT, a club flat to sell and a budget swelled by being able to offer players token contracts boosted by ‘tax free’ EBT payments.
The reality of 2017 is entirely different at Ibrox. With no overdraft facilities, a going concern warning on the last audited accounts while trying to chase Aberdeen for second place it’s not a challenge that the former Ibrox boss fancies.
“It was totally different to when I first went,” he admitted to Sky Sports. “It just wasn’t for me at this time of my career. I felt that there is a lot that goes with it as well, in terms of the other side of the actual football and training.
“There is a lot of politics and I don’t know if I needed that at this stage of my life. I wasn’t close. I had doubts about it. I did speak to them and I said that if they were to come back and offer me it, I would like to speak further.
“It was a very casual chat. It wasn’t what I would call an interview, it was meeting old friends again and seeing where they were going with the club
“They say don’t go back and that was in my mind but they asked to speak to me and it was worth listening to what they had to say but I believe Pedro Caixinha was probably uppermost in their minds even at that time.
“I was never 100 per cent, ‘yes, I am going back to Rangers’. I wouldn’t have just walked straight back in without some further talks.”
Brother Pedro has the task of dealing with incredible demands and expectations with no money to spend.
The drip drip of soft loans from the Three Bears is keeping the club from administration with no sign of getting close to breaking even.
Caixinha must try to get the best out of players who are mostly contracted for another three years as he attempts to turn around a 30 plus points gap on the champions.
