The other day, Scottish football delivered one of those weird, funny moments that pop up every now and again, courtesy of Ally McCoist while he was commentating on the Ibrox club’s game against Fenerbahce. McCoist is an absolute clown—I can’t stand listening to the guy. Especially since I know that the “cheeky chappie” persona, which so many in the media seem to adore, is nothing more than a facade.
McCoist is also an idiot. Earlier today, I talked about Lennon and how insightful his comments often are because, as a former manager, he knows the game inside out. Of course, McCoist is also a former manager—but McCoist has never won anything in management.
He has never coached a top-tier team for any meaningful length of time. Lennon is a title-winning boss. Lennon’s record in Europe is vastly superior to McCoist’s, whose European record extends to losing a handful of games that plunged his club into an existential crisis. He has never been offered another managerial job since.
But it’s not just that he’s a narrow-minded fool that makes him unbearable. It’s the fact that he is so nakedly biased in his commentary whenever he’s covering an Ibrox club game that some of the most ridiculous things come out of his mouth. And the comment that made me laugh out loud came with 20 minutes to go in Turkey when he said, “I’ll tell you what, they’ll be glad they don’t have a game this weekend.”
I turned to my old man and said, “Glad? They’ll be glad to be out of the Scottish Cup? They’ll be glad that they aren’t still competing for a domestic trophy? Glad?” And McCoist just carried on commentating as if the lunacy that had just come out of his mouth had never left it.
Not a second of thought went into that comment. It was out of his mouth before he even realised what he was saying, and even after saying it, he still hadn’t clocked how daft it was. And this is what makes me laugh about this alleged “great European run.” It would be different if they realistically had a chance of winning the competition.
But they don’t. There are still too many good teams left for that to be even remotely plausible.
And let’s not forget—this is a team that was knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Queen’s Park. The only reason they’re even in the Europa League, getting all this praise, is that a very poor Dynamo Kyiv team knocked them out of the Champions League qualifiers. Yet here they are, getting all puffed up and overconfident again.
Here’s a bit of context: at the time of writing, Aberdeen are playing Queen’s Park right now and are 4-1 up.
So if I were the Ibrox club, I wouldn’t be getting carried away. If I were McCoist, I certainly wouldn’t be getting carried away. Far from being delighted that they don’t have a game this weekend, they should be utterly devastated. They should be utterly ashamed.
But it’s amazing that no one pulled him up on that. It’s amazing that no one actually said to him, “Really? So they’re happy to be out of the Scottish Cup?” Some of their own supporters must have been shaking their heads in disbelief. Some of the other members of the media must have realised how ridiculous those words were the second they left his mouth—but not a single person said anything.
And yet, this is nothing compared to the ridiculous coverage Barry Ferguson is getting right now. I said this in a piece the other day: he really does have a chance of getting the Ibrox job. I genuinely believe it. The reaction to that San Marino result has been so over the top that there are people in the media actively lobbying for him to be appointed.
The whole club lives in a bizarre fantasy world. If you look at some of the reports today, they are so wildly exaggerated that it’s absurd. Now, they’re talking about a takeover that could cost £100 million. And at the end of that, they still expect to have a transfer budget, as if the investors who pump that money in won’t expect to get it back. They are completely disconnected from reality.
This season has been an absolute disaster for them—of biblical proportions. It has been catastrophic for everyone connected to the club. It’s brought down a manager. It’s virtually brought down the board. The fans are as disillusioned and furious as they have ever been.
But they’ll be relieved to have no game this weekend? If you believe Ally McCoist, that is.
We have taken everything from them this season. The Scottish Cup was all they had left to cling to, and Queen’s Park ripped that from their grasp and left them with nothing but vague dreams of winning the Europa League and appointing Barry Ferguson. But they’ll be glad about all that, right Ally?
That club, and everyone around it… absolutely mad.
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
San Marino??
Going by his logic, they will be gutted they have a game the weekend after the home tie ?
Prescriptive taxt…
Ment josef Mourhino
Uses the same keyboshrd as me.
Yes, I hard the sneaky wee shit making that stupid comment as well, and m pretty sure he was very happy that he could continue without having to elaborate on it.
He has a speech impediment…..his foot.
The hun press and media probably won’t turn on Ally or Ferguson. The know what they hear and understand it fine but they will promote them as tools to be weaponised against the board even if the board are no longer in place. If Ferguson were to get humiliated by us and went on an even more humiliating run domestically than they have been on, they will never target him. He like that other useless article McCoist is one of them
They might turn on him (Fergushun) if he loses the two Glasgow Derby games to Celtic…
If he doesn’t then bloody hell – it won’t look good on our beloved Hoops for sure !
Your articles on Lennon and McCoist, glaringly highlight the difference in their mentality and competence as pundits.
Lennon comments with intelligence and real insight, whilst the cheeky chappy’s sycophantic, slapstick approach, is as predictable, as it is dreadful.
“You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
Very relevant when you listen to Super Sally ! HH
The guy is an absolute charlatan, noted it straight away as well,at one point he called it a free week,cannot stand listening to his pish on commentary,another soup taker
I’m not sure there is “too many good teams” left in the tournament, there’s some big names but look at the results, they’re not playing well. There’s no stand out teams.
Fully share all of the above sentiments.
I live in SE England where unfortunately they absolutely adore McCoist. They loved him on QOS and the love in continues with his insightful no nonsense commentary.
Given the battles I had with the locals around their adoration of Slippy and how he, as expected, easily won the SPFL Title aka the pub league showing us Celts how inferior we are, I didn’t see any point in any slagging of Coisty
At one point he said that he had a conversation before the game with wee Barry, and that the two of them had agreed on the system The Rangers were going to play, but he had kept the secret. My God talk about Amatuer FC. Oh how I hope wee Barry gets the job. We’ll surely have won the League by the time we go to Ibrox, I would happily accept a defeat in the dead rubber,if it helped him get the job.
Wee Barry and his 5-year old boys fringe weren’t good enough for Alloa, but he’s plenty good enough for theRangers who got beaten by window cleaners and plumbers in the Scottish Cup.
We’ll cover wee Barries wages, get him signed