Mentally weak- Billy Dodds slams the Ibrox squad Russell Martin inherits

Billy Dodds has put the boot into the Ibrox squad claiming that 70% of the players that he worked with were mentally weak.

The former Inverness Caley Thistle boss was drafted in as part of Operation Staunch led by Barry Ferguson in late February to give supporters a lift by seeing Real Rainjurz men in charge after the miseries of Phil Clement.

The Proper Football Manager was a dead man walking as he approached a year in the job, despite the reassurances of Paddy Stewart the Belgian boss was sacked following successive home defeats to Queens Park and St Mirren.

Dodds, Neil McCann and Allan McGregor were drafted in on short term deals, new boss Russell Martin has opted out of employing any of the old guard in his management team.

Tom Lawrence, Ianis Hagi and Leon Balogun left at the end of their contracts, so far not a single offer has been made for the serial losers left running down their contracts.

Any club thinking of making an offer to sign the left-overs might have a re-think after they take on board the thoughts of someone that worked up close with the Ibrox losers for just under three months.

Asked about the biggest problem that Barry Ferguson and his backroom team faced when they took over in February, Dodds told BBC Sportsound:

Mentality. Right away I was like ‘there’s a few weak ones’. I said to you off-air, when you go to a club, everybody gets recruitment wrong.

You tend to find that 30 per cent are not probably the right players for the club and 70 per cent are, and that 70 per cent pulls the 30 per cent along.

But at Rangers it was probably the opposite with a 30-70 swing the other way, where the 30 per cent were good enough and were trying to pull the 70 per cent with them, and it just wasn’t happening.

You’ve got to be consistent when you’re at Rangers, even if you are playing poorly, still win the game.

And they had a squad there that probably wasn’t mentally strong enough to put a consistent run of games winning or not losing together for a long period of time. They kept letting themselves down on the odd occasion in between good results.

Or they kept getting the occasional decent result in among the normal performances that saw Dodds, Ferguson and Co having to wait until the final week of the season to celebrate a home win- in the dead rubbers.

It seems that Dodds wasn’t required to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement when his contract was terminated, or, like the EBT from his playing days he forgot all about it.

Who’d ever have thunk it that wee Doddsy, Grrrreegsie, Fergie and wee McCannae would throw their former charges under the Parks of Hamilton bus…. shockerooonie.

— Fattyfallon (@fattyfallon) July 5, 2025