THERE were times during a long, relaxed conversation with Richard Gough yesterday when the former Rangers captain looked in turn pained and baffled by what has been going on at his old club.

Gough splits his year between Scotland and the USA these days but one way or another he catches up with all their matches. When he runs out at Ibrox on Monday afternoon, having signed up for a legends game against Manchester United, the 51-year-old will experience the sights and sounds that were once so familiar for him. He knows the impressions will be misleading: Rangers, for now at least, are not the club where he was once in his pomp.

Gough grasped for the names and faces of Rangers men he could trust as he met the media to promote the legends match, namechecking Ally McCoist, Walter Smith and even director Ian Hart and former board member Dave King, the latter pair he endorsed as reliable. Gough's Rangers dominated the Scottish football landscape and he associates McCoist with triumph and success, too. He felt bruised on his old pal's behalf as McCoist's path to winning the Irn-Bru Third Division title was littered with slips, stumbles and embarrassments.

"The Rangers supporters are always very opinionated," he said. "They are great supporters but demand a certain level of performance from the manager and the players. Alistair knows that. If he had won the league by 50 points, there would still be some criticism.

"McCoist is a good friend of mine and I think he has done a remarkable job with off-field matters. Those have taken up a lot of his time. People have said to me there have been some horrific results but that can happen in football. It's a very young team. It's not easy to play. You are only as good as your last pass at Rangers, not your last game. I hope it will be much easier for Alistair next year. I hope he gets to deal with football matters more."

The last time they spoke McCoist told him he was hopping back and forth to London on business meetings. Even that amounted to relative calm compared to last pre-season. "He was jumping around like a madman at the beginning of the season, trying to get players in," said Gough. "This season he's got a bit more time because he can't do anything until September 1 [when the club's registration embargo is lifted]. He'll understand it a wee bit better.

"Last year, he got the best player from St Johnstone, he got the best player from Hearts, he got the best player from Kilmarnock. Those weren't third or second division players, they were the best players at their Premier League teams.

"Unfortunately for Dean Shiels, although I never saw enough of him, he struggled with injury. Francisco Sandaza got a bad injury and then got sacked, and Ian Black's got himself in a lot of hot water so he's never had a really consistent season. The foreign ones he brought in, it must have been a real shock to their system so he may not go down that route again so easily."

It is not only another squad Rangers need to assemble, but a complete executive management supporters can trust. Former chief executive Charles Green and commercial director Imran Amhad must be replaced on a permanent basis. They both have shares which may become available and the identity of the buyers will be crucial in determining how Rangers are perceived and trusted by their own fans and others.

"There has to be certain people in place," said Gough, alluding to the reigns of disgraced former owner Craig Whyte and then Green, who resigned under a cloud of suspicion as a club investigation began. "The one thing that worried me in the first place was that there was no-one who understood the values and traditions when they took over the club. I hope someone comes in who does that.

"I am a personal friend of Dave King's and would like to see him do something. He has been under investigation himself in South Africa [from the tax authorities] but if it was that bad then he would have been locked up before now. He is a smart cookie and someone like that would be great because you would know he is not in it for the fast buck.

"We are not a football club and the team on the other side of the city is not just a football club. We are the fabric of this city. When I'm in the States and people don't know who I am, I say I'm from Scotland and they ask me 'do you like Rangers or Celtic?' We all get that and that's because people associate Glasgow with the two big clubs. No matter what division we play in – even if we were on a public park – Rangers would still get huge support.

"I hope people who come in here don't try and make a fast buck. It is the people's club. I used to say to Sir David Murray, who I got on well with, that he was the custodian of the club for the fans. You are an owner in name, but it's more like looking after a trust fund which will be here for a long, long time."

Gough, Brian Laudrup, Arthur Numan, Michael Mols, Lorenzo Amoruso and Nacho Novo will appear in Walter Smith's Rangers Legends team against Manchester United Legends at Ibrox on Monday, kick-off 2pm. Dwight Yorke, Denis Irwin, Quinton Fortune, Jesper Blomqvist, David May will be Bryan Robson's United team. Tickets are £17 for adults, £13 concessions and £5 for kids, with discounts for Rangers season-ticket holders.