Barry Ferguson slaughtered his players after today’s 2-0 defeat at home to Hibs made it five home defeats in a row, three of them coming under the interim manager.
Celtic are now two wins away from clinching #title55, that could be achieved before Ferguson’s face Aberdeen next Sunday.
The Pittodrie trip falls between two legs of a Europa League tie against Athletic Bilbao which carried the real prospect of four defeats in a row just as Celtic are winning four-in-a-row SPFL titles.
After victories Ferguson and his coaching team have been claiming all of the credit from their players, in three home defeats the former Alloa and Clyde boss has distanced himself from the serial losers signed up by previous managers.
It seems that installing Real Rangers Men has provided a very limited managerial bounce- Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Micky Beale and Phil Clement all went more than 10 games without tasting defeat. Ferguson has lost three of his seven matches in charge, falling in line with his overall managerial record.
Barry, how disappointing was that today?
FERGUSON: Worse than disappointing. God, where do I start? How long have we got? Spent a bit of time in the dressing room. A few home truths were told. Hibs deserved to win. That’s me just being straight.
You’ve talked a lot about standards and Rangers DNA since you came in. How tough is that to watch?
FERGUSON: That’s not a Rangers team. Miles from being a Rangers team. This is your bread and butter. And I’ve said it, I feel I’m repeating myself. European games, Celtic games are the easiest games to get up for. These are the games that this group of players struggle with and it was evident today. Yet we started good. Again, another mistake. Go into your shells, feel sorry for each other. Come back out after ten minutes. Finish okay. Second half, I demand a lot more from them. And I don’t get it.
Do you struggle to comprehend why the players can’t get themselves up for games like this?
FERGUSON: You’re playing with Glasgow Rangers. You can’t get up for games of football then… You shouldn’t be playing football. Especially here, you come into a place like this. Brilliant stadium and supporters. Packed to the rafters. Getting behind you. And we put a performance on like that. As you can probably see or hear, I’m fuming.
Do you fear some of these players aren’t mentally strong enough?
FERGUSON: I would rather keep that in-house if I’m being honest with you. But I seriously need to go away myself.. and I’m not just putting that on my players. I’m the guy who picks the team. I’m the guy who decides how we’re going to approach the game. So I need to go away tonight… I’ve made my mind up what way we have to go from now until the end of the season. And it might not be pretty to watch. And that, as a Rangers fan, coming to Ibrox, you want to see free-flowing, attractive football. I don’t think we can do that. So I need to go away and think long and hard what way we’re going to approach with my staff. But I’ve got a real good idea what way I’m going to go now for the end of the season. And it’s not going to change.
Barry, do you feel that the players are hurting like you clearly are?
FERGUSON: I asked them that question. Because I’m going to go back tonight and I’m going to be raging. I don’t want to see anybody. And it needs to hurt you. And I’ve asked them, is it going to hurt you? That’s my question to them.
Do you feel now that there’s places up for grabs all throughout that team?
FERGUSON: Yeah, there’ll be a series of changes on Thursday night. And I can say that right now.
Does that include the goalkeeper?
FERGUSON: No, listen. I get where you’re coming from with Jack. Listen, as I said, when I come up here, I’m open and honest. And I’ve said to Jack, it’s a bad mistake. He understands that. So I then need to go and we’ll see an hour and a half. Is it 90 minutes? An hour and 15 minutes when you get the team lines. You will see some changes. That’s why you carry a squad. If people make mistakes, people are off it, people don’t run as much as I think they should run, then they’re not going to play in my team. Because I watched that Hibs team who I thought wanted it more than us. And it hurts me to say that, but it is what it is. So it’s my job now to go in and try and come up with a scenario that that won’t happen going forward. And I tell you something, I’ll work hard at doing it. And I’ll make sure I do it.
Is it a case, Barry, of bringing in some of the younger lads?
FERGUSON: The young ones are always going to get an opportunity. Bailey, I think, is a bit behind in development. Listen, fantastic talent. You’ve seen the effect he had when he came on last Saturday. Unfortunately for him, he took a sore one in his knee. Went for a scan, it’s come back. Hopefully he’s going to be available on Thursday. You’ve seen young Findlay coming on, albeit it was only a few minutes. But I ain’t scared, because I know what I’m going to get for the boys. They’re going to dig deep. They’re going to run hard for you. They might not be experienced. So yeah, but I’ve got a lot of thinking to do over the next couple of days. But something I will do is I’ll be clear on what I’m going to do come Monday morning.
You’re up against a top side on Thursday now…
FERGUSON: Honestly, I’ve not watched them, because I’m very much game to game. My staff have watched them. They tried to talk about it yesterday, but I’m not interested. I had to concern myself with hubs. But tonight, I’ll have a mixture of watching what we all watched out there. I’ll obviously watch who we’re going to come up against on Thursday night. But listen, I watch all types of football. I know they’re a quality team. But again, these are the games where you don’t need to really motivate people, because you’re Europe. It’s a different kind of atmosphere. That doesn’t concern me. It’s these games out here that concern me. These are the games that have been the Achilles heel of this club for a long time and far too long. I ain’t going to sit here if it’s only for another seven or eight weeks. I ain’t going to accept that.
James Tavernier was said to be disappointed by today’s defeat, on Wednesday Ferguson will face the media to preview the Europa League match at home to Athletic Bilbao.
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