Barry Ferguson leaves role as Rangers interim head coach
The Gers have confirmed the 47-year-old, who was asked to take over until the end of the season in February following Philippe Clement's exit, has departed along with Neil McCann, Billy Dodds and Allan McGregor following Saturday's 2-2 final-day draw at Hibernian.
A statement on the club's official website said: 'Everyone at Rangers Football Club would like to pass on their heartfelt thanks to Barry Ferguson and his staff, with yesterday's game at Hibernian being their final match in charge.
💙 Everyone at Rangers Football Club would like to pass on their heartfelt thanks to Barry Ferguson and his staff, with yesterday's game at Hibernian being their final match in charge.
👉 Read More | https://t.co/mbcvIVY6Jk pic.twitter.com/Zmelq628s2
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) May 18, 2025
'Club legend Ferguson answered the call in the club's hour of need back in February and has overseen several memorable moments during his time in charge, not least progression to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League and a terrific victory at Parkhead.
'A Hall of Fame member, Ferguson will now leave this role along with Neil McCann, Billy Dodds and Allan McGregor, with enormous gratitude and best wishes of everyone at Ibrox for their efforts in these last few months.'
Ferguson took charge of 15 games in all, winning six and drawing five as the club he represented with such distinction as a player finished second behind champions Celtic, but 17 points adrift.
He said: 'I've already lived the dream as a player and as captain of Rangers and to do so as head coach in these last three months has been an enormous honour for me.
'There have been some ups and downs, but I have loved this experience and given it my all throughout.
'I want to thank Neil, Billy and Allan, the three staff members who came in with me, and all the other staff who have supported me during my time in charge. Indeed from everyone at the training centre and at Ibrox, the backing I have received has been phenomenal.
'Above all, I want to thank our supporters. There is no doubt this has been a difficult season, but the backing the team and I have continued to receive in spite of that has been incredible.
'I have said, no matter how this period panned out, I would always remain a committed supporter of the club and I look forward to remaining a Rangers ambassador.
'I wish whomever becomes the new manager, every success in the job.'
Chief executive Patrick Stewart thanked Ferguson and his staff for their work and revealed the hunt for a permanent replacement for Clement was 'progressing well'.
Stewart said: 'Barry, Neil, Billy and Allan all had distinguished playing careers with Rangers and they have all enhanced their standing with the club for their work since February. The reception they received at Ibrox on Wednesday night was fully merited and I know meant so much to Barry and his team.
'The search for our new head coach is progressing well, and we look forward to concluding our process in the coming period.'
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Daily Record
41 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Russell Martin warned Rangers is no quick fix as former Ibrox lieutenant preaches patience to new regime in a hurry
Issame Charai recently negotiated his exit from Govan after a sit down with the new boss before landing a top job elsewhere Issame Charai was happy to accept there was no longer a place for him as a new era began at Ibrox. But the former Rangers first-team coach sincerely hopes the American regime now in charge can make space for a more patient approach. Charai made the move to Glasgow only as recently as January as he signed up to join Philippe Clement's coaching staff. But within less than a month, the man who hired him was gone as the Belgian boss paid the price for an alarming drop off in results. While Clement and the rest of his backroom team departed Ibrox, former Morocco Under-23 coach Charai was kept on board to help caretaker gaffer Barry Ferguson steer the side through to the end of the season. It's now Russell Martin at the wheel, however, with the former Southampton head coach chosen by new chairman Andrew Cavenagh and his partner Paraag Marathe to lead the club towards a fresh dawn. As for Charai, he's heading off on his own journey now having decided to call it quits following sit-down talks with Martin and new sporting director Kevin Thelwell. There's no hard feelings, especially not now that the 43-year-old has quickly landed a new job managing Belgian top-flight outfit Westerlo. 'I had a good chat with Russell and with Kevin,' Charai told Record Sport. 'We talked about my situation in the club. But I saw that Russell was coming in with an assistant Matt Gill. 'It was actually very respectful. We had a good chat, and then we talked about our job description, and it was quite the same [as Matt's]. 'And then I said, you know, 'I think it's better that we take a decision as soon as possible so I can try to get something else'. 'And then when we announced that we'd agreed mutually to part ways, my phone started ringing! 'So then it was about making the right decision about which club to join.' Rangers have had a string of major calls to make themselves lately. Axing Clement was the one they did their best to hold off from making but in the end the anger of an increasingly furious fanbase left the previous Light Blues board with no choice. Martin is the new regime's pick to become the club's fourth boss in as many years. But Charai has warned Rangers is no quick fix. Asked if the club needed stability and a fresh start, Charai said: 'Oh, absolutely. And I think that's the job of Kevin. 'He's trying to find out exactly what the club needs together with Russell and then drive it forward. 'Obviously with the knowledge that Russell has about Rangers, they're going to have to come up with a good plan together. 'And it has to be a plan that can sustain the club for a long number of years. 'What I felt when I was at Rangers was that everybody wanted to win every game. So there was this pressure that you cannot change. 'And you can feel also that the competition with Celtic is so important. They want to stay in competition with Celtic. 'The best thing for Rangers would be to have a short and a long-term vision. 'So that means that you work on the long-term vision, but at the same time, you would have also something where you can deliver quite fast results. 'The teams in the Scottish league have a level. 'You make your analysis on what you have to do directly to get results, but then you have to build for sustainability in those results. And this is the most difficult one.' When it comes to the short-term, there's hardly a second left to waste, with the club's opening Champions League qualifier just 23 days away. So far, the only new faces Martin has welcomed are former Dundee playmaker Lyle Cameron and Bournemouth loanee Max Aarons. The more jittery section of the Ibrox faithful are already in full-on panic mode as this summer's transfer dealings stutter into action. But Charai said: 'They know when they have to be ready. So that means I believe that they should be ready. And they will be ready. 'It's not like they didn't know there was going to be a European game and they had to be ready at that time. 'The takeover took some time and then they were appointing a manager, which took some time too. 'And then obviously you cannot go and bring in players that the manager wouldn't support, they he wouldn't want. 'So that took a little bit more time than expected.' Charai just wishes Clement had been afforded a little more time too. The pressure on the former Club Brugge and Monaco gaffer became intolerable in the days after his side's disastrous Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Queen's Park. But having had to contend with off-field issues, including a temporary move away from Ibrox and the slashing off his budget last term, Charai hopes in time that his friend's critics will take into account the mitigating factors. 'That wasn't an ideal situation for Philippe,' he said. 'And I think a certain moment after the Queen's Park loss, it went more than normal. 'I think he did a good job at the club. He was working hard and OK, it wasn't easy because it took some time before Patrick Stewart to come along as CEO. 'Also, with the club's finances, it wasn't an ideal situation. So I feel for him and also for Nils Koppen because they did actually hold the club very high. They worked very hard for the club. 'But OK, obviously there's a decision that was taken at that moment. 'And yeah, they asked me to stay and help the new staff. So, that's what I did. 'Should people take on board the circumstances Philippe was operating under when they judge his time in Glasgow? Of course. Because you can see also that after a certain moment, I had the feeling it was more personal with them. 'At first all that mattered was what the players did on the pitch - but then it became a little bit more personal. 'But you can see that afterwards the same problems recurred again. 'You had a positive vibe at one point - but then you saw a lot of things coming back again. 'So, that doesn't mean that it was all solved. 'I think at a certain moment, the pressure from the supporters and from maybe the press became a little bit too much. 'But actually if you can see there were some good results, obviously the Celtic game. 'But there were also a lot of losses so they have to question that it's not always been the coach. 'It was also the fact that there were some financial issues. And we couldn't bring in the players that everybody wanted to bring in. 'But I have to be honest, my time in Glasgow was a good experience. A lovely experience because I was working in a new competition that I didn't know. And I also had the privilege to work with Philippe and Barry. 'They had different ways of thinking which was interesting for me. 'At the same time, also playing in Europe was actually a very good campaign. 'And working for a top club with a lot of pressure. 'So that was, that was something that I added to my experiences that I really enjoyed."
The National
an hour ago
- The National
To play for the sake of playing in changing amateur scene
What a prospect. An additional five years of grumbling, cursing, muttering futility? Joie de bloomin' vivre, eh? This fascinating, flummoxing game, of course, remains a constant work in progress so perhaps a few more seasons spent clattering and thrashing away will finally lead to some sort of modest improvement? I very much doubt it. Despite being mired in this seemingly perpetual state of ineptitude, rarely does a week go by without me actually learning something new about my own golf. That means I was ignorant of about four things over the past month. Extend that process back over, say, 30 years, and that's a mightily impressive accumulation of complete and utter ignorance. They do say, of course, that ignorance is bliss. Well, that's what my playing partners sympathetically inform me after they've watched one of my tee-shots and chorus, 'where the hell did that go?' Anyway, we're rambling here. Which is not unusual in this column. Wandering through the grounds of Hampden Park the other day – nurse, I've gone from rambling to aimlessly wandering - I gave a passing nod to the old motto of Queen's Park fitba club, Ludere Causa Ludendi. 'Is that not the combative Italian midfielder Rangers have had their eye on?,' chirped the sports editor. Those of you who are well-versed in Latin will know that it means, 'to play for the sake of playing'. This maxim reflected the club's long-standing commitment to amateurism and the Corinthian ideal. Of course, the Spiders are a professional outfit now so that's gone out of the window. Rather like their finances. In the upper echelons of the amateur scene in golf, meanwhile, I was reminded of the changing face of the unpaid game recently when doing some work at the Women's Amateur Championship in Nairn. In an international field, which started with a line-up of 144 players and was whittled down to two finalists over the course of six days, the oldest player was Scotland's Jennifer Saxton. She was, wait for it, a venerable 28. If Saxton was considered the veteran in the draw, then it made this increasingly decrepit correspondent feel as ancient as the standing stones of Callanish. In an event packed, by and large, with full-time players who will, no doubt, have ambitions of turning professional, Saxton stood as a monument to the increasingly rare breed that is the career amateur. 'We all joke about it, but I sit at my desk every day at work then try to come out and compete with these young guns,' said Saxton, who can certainly still cut it at the top-level and proved it with victory in the prestigious St Rule Trophy a couple of seasons ago. To play for the sake of playing and all that. Back in 1981, the celebrated, decorated Belle Robertson won the Women's Amateur Championship title at the age of 45. A feat like that at such a vintage is unlikely to ever be repeated. Those, of course, were different golfing times. These days, the career amateur is something that's almost as charmingly antiquated as a thatched roof, as players hurtle off into the professional game on a rapidly birling conveyor belt. Saxton, a marketing manager with golf technology firm, Shot Scope, is well aware that she's in the minority. 'I wish more people would do the same,' she said of juggling the nine-to-five with the competitive cut-and-thrust. 'It would be good for the game if people were working in golf and trying to compete as well. 'My golf started getting better when I worked. Golf is a breakaway from that. I learned how to score without putting in the hours of practice.' The proof remains in the pudding. Yesterday, Saxton was named in the Scotland side again as she retained her place for the forthcoming European Women's Amateur Team Championship. She will be joined in that squad by Hannah Darling, the highly talented 21-year-old who is poised for her amateur swansong before making the pro plunge later in the season. Darling, who helped GB&I win the Vagliano Trophy for the first time in 20 years at the weekend, has stockpiled a vast haul of national and international silverware since bursting onto the scene and landing the Scottish Girls' Amateur Championship at the age of just 13. Amateur accomplishments and accolades, of course, do not guarantee professional prosperity. But nothing does in this predictably unpredictable pursuit of complex demands. Paul Lawrie, for instance, had very little amateur pedigree but, through drive, discipline, talent and that special undefined something that you can't bottle, became a major champion, multiple tour winner and Ryder Cup player. Others, eagerly championed and tipped for great things after glory-laden stints in the amateur ranks, disappeared off the face of the earth. There's no one-size-fits-all model for success and someone like Lawrie, as well as Scots like Catriona Mathew, Janice Moodie, Colin Montgomerie, Sam Torrance, Sandy Lyle, Russell Knox, Martin Laird, Gemma Dryburgh or Robert MacIntyre, were and have been successful for very different reasons. Darling has ticked plenty of boxes along the way. Let's hope she ticks a few more when her inevitable move into the paid game arrives. Let's hope, too, that Saxton continues to thrive as a career amateur. And as for this correspondent? Well, let's hope that scientific research is right and I winkle out a few extra years on this earth, even if it merely prolongs the golfing incompetence. Ludere Causa Ludendi, indeed.
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
To play for the sake of playing in changing amateur scene
This fascinating, flummoxing game, of course, remains a constant work in progress so perhaps a few more seasons spent clattering and thrashing away will finally lead to some sort of modest improvement? I very much doubt it. Despite being mired in this seemingly perpetual state of ineptitude, rarely does a week go by without me actually learning something new about my own golf. That means I was ignorant of about four things over the past month. Extend that process back over, say, 30 years, and that's a mightily impressive accumulation of complete and utter ignorance. They do say, of course, that ignorance is bliss. Well, that's what my playing partners sympathetically inform me after they've watched one of my tee-shots and chorus, 'where the hell did that go?' Anyway, we're rambling here. Which is not unusual in this column. Wandering through the grounds of Hampden Park the other day – nurse, I've gone from rambling to aimlessly wandering - I gave a passing nod to the old motto of Queen's Park fitba club, Ludere Causa Ludendi. 'Is that not the combative Italian midfielder Rangers have had their eye on?,' chirped the sports editor. Those of you who are well-versed in Latin will know that it means, 'to play for the sake of playing'. This maxim reflected the club's long-standing commitment to amateurism and the Corinthian ideal. Of course, the Spiders are a professional outfit now so that's gone out of the window. Rather like their finances. In the upper echelons of the amateur scene in golf, meanwhile, I was reminded of the changing face of the unpaid game recently when doing some work at the Women's Amateur Championship in Nairn. In an international field, which started with a line-up of 144 players and was whittled down to two finalists over the course of six days, the oldest player was Scotland's Jennifer Saxton. She was, wait for it, a venerable 28. If Saxton was considered the veteran in the draw, then it made this increasingly decrepit correspondent feel as ancient as the standing stones of Callanish. In an event packed, by and large, with full-time players who will, no doubt, have ambitions of turning professional, Saxton stood as a monument to the increasingly rare breed that is the career amateur. 'We all joke about it, but I sit at my desk every day at work then try to come out and compete with these young guns,' said Saxton, who can certainly still cut it at the top-level and proved it with victory in the prestigious St Rule Trophy a couple of seasons ago. To play for the sake of playing and all that. Back in 1981, the celebrated, decorated Belle Robertson won the Women's Amateur Championship title at the age of 45. A feat like that at such a vintage is unlikely to ever be repeated. Those, of course, were different golfing times. These days, the career amateur is something that's almost as charmingly antiquated as a thatched roof, as players hurtle off into the professional game on a rapidly birling conveyor belt. Saxton, a marketing manager with golf technology firm, Shot Scope, is well aware that she's in the minority. 'I wish more people would do the same,' she said of juggling the nine-to-five with the competitive cut-and-thrust. 'It would be good for the game if people were working in golf and trying to compete as well. 'My golf started getting better when I worked. Golf is a breakaway from that. I learned how to score without putting in the hours of practice.' The proof remains in the pudding. Yesterday, Saxton was named in the Scotland side again as she retained her place for the forthcoming European Women's Amateur Team Championship. She will be joined in that squad by Hannah Darling, the highly talented 21-year-old who is poised for her amateur swansong before making the pro plunge later in the season. Darling, who helped GB&I win the Vagliano Trophy for the first time in 20 years at the weekend, has stockpiled a vast haul of national and international silverware since bursting onto the scene and landing the Scottish Girls' Amateur Championship at the age of just 13. Amateur accomplishments and accolades, of course, do not guarantee professional prosperity. But nothing does in this predictably unpredictable pursuit of complex demands. Paul Lawrie, for instance, had very little amateur pedigree but, through drive, discipline, talent and that special undefined something that you can't bottle, became a major champion, multiple tour winner and Ryder Cup player. Others, eagerly championed and tipped for great things after glory-laden stints in the amateur ranks, disappeared off the face of the earth. There's no one-size-fits-all model for success and someone like Lawrie, as well as Scots like Catriona Mathew, Janice Moodie, Colin Montgomerie, Sam Torrance, Sandy Lyle, Russell Knox, Martin Laird, Gemma Dryburgh or Robert MacIntyre, were and have been successful for very different reasons. Darling has ticked plenty of boxes along the way. Let's hope she ticks a few more when her inevitable move into the paid game arrives. Let's hope, too, that Saxton continues to thrive as a career amateur. And as for this correspondent? Well, let's hope that scientific research is right and I winkle out a few extra years on this earth, even if it merely prolongs the golfing incompetence. Ludere Causa Ludendi, indeed.
