Sally - Sally

POOR Ally McCoist - he waits all that time for the top job - and within two real games, his old "Sally" McCoist nickname is back. Indeed, the way his tenure in the grand office, at the head of the marble staircase has begun - one can almost imagine him gazing at the portraits of Messrs Wilton, Struth, Symon, White, Waddell, Wallace, Greig, Souness, Smith, Advocaat, McLeish and Le Guen and asking: "Why me?"

Of course, as he has admitted, his timing hasn't been right - better to have inherited with the club at a low ebb, rather than on the back of Walter Smith's three-in-a-row run of titles, garnered at a time of fiscal difficulty; but, like Tommy Burns across the city before him, he wasn't going to knock-back the job just because the time was not absolutely correct.

Football at the top level today is, more than ever, a results-driven industry - and nowhere more-so than when these results impact on the game's oldest rivalry, that between Celtic and Rangers. Once upon a time, an assistant manager, taking over either of the Glasgow jobs, would be given a breathing space, to grow into the job; the rival fans would have been prepared to accept a season or two of playing second fiddle, before growing restless. Not today.

McCoist is the fifth Rangers' assistant manager to be promoted to the big job. None of the previous four was required to deliver silverware immediately to the extent McCoist is.

The great Bill Struth, on succeeding the dead William Wilton, at least took over a title-winning side, one which had started to make Rangers, rather than Celtic, the dominant force in the city. When Struth took over, Celtic had won 15 SFL titles to Rangers' 10, although Wilton had delivered two out of the last three.

When the octogenarian Struth was ushered out of the front door at Ibrox 34 years later, the league titles tally read Rangers 28 Celtic 20, with Rangers having added a further seven unofficial wartime titles.

David White, the next number two to become number one was appointed in successon to the shamefully sacked Scot Symon at a time of turmoil, as across the city Jock Stein swung the balance of power back Celtic's way. He never really stood a chance against that managerial genius, and the carping from the sidelines of his ultimate successor, Willie Waddell, then a hugely-influential sports writer, undid him from the start, as the Deedle dubbed him: "the boy David".

Waddell had at least restored some equilibrium before handing over to his assistant, Jock Wallace, who benefitted from Stein's declining powers after his car crash to deliver a treble.

Then came Smith's succession to Graeme Souness, which kept an already rolling juggernaut progressing to nine-in-a-row.

So with three successful managerial hand-overs to one failure, Rangers, when appointing from within, have generally got it right. Another "failure" is therefore probably due.

Rangers are an institution, and there is an argument for appointing a manager who at least knows how that institution works. Struth, Symon, Waddell, Wallace and Greig all got the top job after many years within the club, while Symon and Wallace had earned their managerial spurs with trophies at lesser clubs. Smith and McLeish were fans, who, again, had learned the managment business elsewhere, while Souness led nothing less than a revolution in Scottish football. White had barely got to know the place after arriving from Clyde and there is anectdotal evidence that Symon didn't really want him there in the first place, although he had shown signs of managerial talent at Shawfield.

Advocaat and the ill-fated Le Guen were an attempt at bringing continental sophistication to Scotland, with contrasting fortunes - maybe we're simply not programmed for frites with mayonaisse or French cuisine up here.

So to McCoist. Almost certainly he would have benefitted from a spell as manager somewhere like Kilmarnock or Motherwell - to learn the ropes; but neither club is remotely a Rangers. Maybe the guarantee of Sir David Murray's continued support from the chair would have eased him through the first stressful months - but here he is, flung-in, to sink and swim and with a shiny new owner hovering above him, anxious to show his take-over of the club will be good for Rangers.

I do not envy McCoist his job, he is already under enormous pressure, after a less than stellar start. But, after he arrived at the club from Sunderland, and again when Souness benched him in favour of the Hateley/Johnson strike partnership, it seemed unlikely that Alistair would ever supercede Bob McPhail as the club's greatest goal scorer - but he did. So I would not rush to write-off Ally in the wake of a home draw to Hearts and a one-goal loss to Malmo.

That said, however, with a city financier in charge - creatures notorious for their short-termism, Alistair does not have long to turn things around.

The likes of Struth and Symon were used to seeing their sides struggle through August and September, but still deliver trophies in April and May - McCoist will not be given that amount of time, and while Rangers are still likely to be parading silverware round Ibrox come May, 2012 - unless things pick-up soon, it may not be McCoist who is gathering the managerial plaudits for any such success.