Barry Ferguson opens up on ‘tough' Rangers moment as he admits ‘you could see he was hurting'

Scottish Sun

3 days ago

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BARRY FERGUSON had his fair share of big decisions to make during his stint as Rangers manager.
Now, he's opened up on the one that could've been the toughest of them all.
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Barry Ferguson has been opening up on his time in charge of Rangers
Credit: PA
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Ferguson dropped Jack Butland
Credit: Willie Vass
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Butland was benched in favour of Liam Kelly for the clash with Athletic Bilbao
Credit: EPA
Rangers legend Ferguson was made interim boss at the end of February in the wake of Philippe Clement's sacking.
European competition brought some joy with Ferguson leading the Gers to the Europa League quarter-finals, memorable dispatching Jose Mourinho's Fenerbahce in the process.
But domestically, he failed to oversee an upturn in fortune ant the Light Blues wound up finishing 17 points behind champions Celtic when all was said and done.
Ferguson, 47, had made no secret his desire to take on the job on a permanent basis.
But as the search for a new boss reached its endgame, Ferguson was informed he was no longer in the running.
Instead, a complete overhaul at Ibrox has taken place, with the new American owners installing a new manager - Russell Martin.
As Martin prepares to take charge of his first competitive game in charge, Ferguson has been opening up on his time in the dugout.
The former Gers skipper has taken up his previous ambassadorial role with the club again and has now also made his punditry return on Go Radio, having previously worked at the station prior to his Light Blues boss appointment.
Ferguson says "he loved every minute" of his time in charge, but has also lifted the lid on some of the tougher decisions he had to make.
Arguably the biggest of those was benching Jack Butland.
Barry Ferguson shrugs off Philippe Clement war of words as he hails Jose Mourinho as 'top class manager'
The former England keeper had been the undisputed Rangers No1 since arriving from Crystal Palace in the summer of 2023.
After a stellar first season at Ibrox, his form dipped during the course of the last campaign with regular errors creeping in.
Ferguson made the dramatic decision to bench Butland for the crunch Europa League quarter-final against Athletic Bilbao at Ibrox in April.
That was despite Butland having been the penalty shoot-out hero in the previous round against Fenerbahce.
Liam Kelly started and saved a penalty to preserve a 0-0 draw for 10-man Gers on the night.
After more than a month out of the team, Butland was installed back into the starting XI for the final two league matches of the season against Dundee United and Hibs.
Ferguson has now lifted the lid on what it was like to tell Butland he was going to be taken out of the starting XI.
Admitting it was a difficult thing to do, he revealed he could tell Butland was 'hurting'.
Ferguson said: "The Kilmarnock game, for instance, I had to change (Clinton) Nsiala.
"And then obviously the big one (Butland), a lot of people were talking about it, people think it's easy to make these decision.
"I don't like saying 'dropped', I had to make a change.
"It was tough because I like Jack Butland, I had a really good, strong relationship with him. I think he's a top goalkeeper as well.
"I just felt it was time to take him out the limelight a wee bit, just to let him recover."
Fellow pundit Charlie Mulgrew then asked: "How did you do it?"
Ferguson responded: "I pulled him in, I think that's the best way to look eye to eye, eyeball to eyeball. That's the way I like to do things. I did it.
"It was tough, it was hard to do. You could see Jack was hurting.
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"I always had the intention to bring Jack back. I brought Liam (Kelly) in, Liam did brilliant for me.
"You could see as the weeks were going on, Jack was starting to get a wee bit of confidence back.
"What I will say about Jack is that he trained brilliantly, he was a brilliant support for Kels.
"It's easy to spit the dummy out and say 'you know what, I'm not playing' but he was a brilliant support, trained really well.
"I brought him in the last couple of games of the season and you could see he was back to the Jack we saw the first season because he was top class."
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