'Big changes needed at Rangers'

A View from the Terrace presenter Craig Telfer insists "big changes" are needed at Rangers and the new manager will need to rebuild - as this season feels like a write-off for the Ibrox club.

"Certainly, Kevin Muscat has got a decent pedigree, played for Rangers for a season in the early 2000s, very successful time as well, won a treble with them," said Telfer on the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast.

"As a player, probably one of the dirtiest players that's ever kicked the ball in the last 30 years, just go and look at his Wikipedia page and read the list of the stuff that's under his reputation.

"He's certainly quite a hard, no-nonsense kind of manager, but I think as well as his personality as a player, he's been able to channel that into something a lot more positive as a manager.

"It's all very well going in there and giving players the 'hair dryer' treatment. The players at Rangers seem quite soft and I think that's perhaps a big issue. You can go in there and you can shout at them, and you can try and control them. But if the players just aren't reacting to that then I don't know what you do.

"They're already 11 points off Hearts. It feels, though, at this stage of the season, like it's a bit of write-off for Rangers and it's just about getting into January, try to ship out some of the players, and get to the summer and make big changes."

Former Celtic and Hibs midfielder, now East Kilbride coach, Scott Allan says that Muscat's experience of going for titles and the aggressive style of play of his teams are positives should he come to Rangers.

"The fact that he's proved he can be successful and win things, that's obviously a big plus in terms of coming to a club like Rangers. He has demands and he's been in situations where he's fighting for titles," said Allen.

"In terms of his style of play, it is a lot more aggressive. Russell Martin was meant to be that way as well. It's how you can come to a club like Rangers and really implement that - because you do come up against certain styles that you might struggle to break teams down.

"The question for me is do they have the players who can really break teams down when the going gets tough?

"The biggest thing that's been questioned of this Rangers team since the start of season is mentality. So how does Kevin Muscat then build that mentality into winning games at a time in the season? You're trying to change that in a very short space of time."