Spiers on Sport: Ally McCoist looks exposed as Rangers manager

To some, it remains utterly mystifying. How can McCoist's Rangers repeatedly play such poor football? How can a team stacked with seasoned top-flight Scottish players perform so woodenly?

Well, it probably isn't such a mystery. Lord knows, the politics at Rangers have been a mess in recent years, and so there are always extenuating circumstances. But the truth is, few people believe McCoist is an able football manager.

The evidence has piled up that he can't sufficiently plan a team, inspire a team, and make Rangers better. Weeks, months and years all appear to have confirmed this.

Even the most ardent Rangers supporter admits that, let alone all the other miseries off the pitch, watching this team on it for the past three years under McCoist has been a grim task. Little of it has been a pleasure.

I don't believe for a second that McCoist does not understand football…of course he does. But you find many in the game, in McCoist's position, for whom knowledge and ability are two distinct qualities.

An able and gifted football manager doesn't just have knowledge. Far more pertinently, he has a strategy, he can motivate a team, and he wins people round with his brand of football.

The cruel truth is, McCoist has failed to convince anyone on all three of these counts.

It won't do here to rake over all the openly cited failures of McCoist's reign as Rangers manager so far. There have been too many games, too many competition setbacks, to tediously list. But amid it all, there has been one constant.

McCoist's team recurringly fail to change or improvise in times of adversity. On the contrary, with setback looming, they grind on. People duly ask: is this a lack of imagination in the players, or in the dugout?

Another aspect which has disheartened many about McCoist's reign has been his instinct to go with gnarled, tried-and-tested players rather than youth.

McCoist has not ignored youth - by no means. But his sense of safety, and lack of risk, in going for the Richard Fosters and Jon Dalys of this world has been blindingly obvious. As a manager, he appears absolutely risk-averse, which might be a trait he inherited from Walter Smith.

Even with an impoverished infrastructure at Ibrox, can McCoist really not know of Scotland's best young players, and want them at Rangers? His team actually played against Andrew Robertson's Queen's Park, yet McCoist's instinct is to sign a Foster, a Stevie Smith.

Here is the worst bit. Even down amid the snottery fields of the lower leagues in Scotland, how many games can any Rangers fan recall in which they felt their team was roused by McCoist? The answer is, precious few.

On the contrary, on the odd occasion when Rangers have staggered over the line against seemingly inferior opposition, too often it has resembled a drunkard finally making it home over the threshold.

The fact that the re-founded Rangers under McCoist have barged their way up through two divisions - and been champions by 24 pts and 39 pts respectively - is beside the point. With a budget of their size, Rangers seeing off small, part-time clubs is no evidence at all.

Now we are seeing harder evidence in the Championship: clubs, still way below Rangers' size and might, being able to offer a stiffer challenge. This season, for McCoist, may provide more damning evidence.

The Rangers manager is actually in quite an awkward position just now. No matter how poorly he fares, it is common knowledge, due to the absurd remuneration he has been on, that sacking him would be expensive, maybe even impossible, for the club.

It was McCoist who made the phrase "we don't do walking away" famous in the context of Rangers. But, would he walk away himself, if he believed he was hurting Rangers? People say this is a naïve view, but I firmly believe McCoist cares deeply for his club.

He is a very engaging and likeable character. He is also a Rangers legend. He just isn't a football manager.