I've been fortunate enough in my career not to have worked with chairmen or directors who tried to interfere too much in team affairs.
David Murray used to bring in a manager at Rangers and let them get on with it, and it was the same at St Johnstone, Dundee United, Aberdeen and the rest as well. Here at Ross County the chairman Roy MacGregor would never consider getting involved in that side of things and is happy for Jim McIntyre and myself just to get on with it.
That relationship between a chairman and his manager is always pivotal to a club's fortunes. The board might have discussions with the manager about signing targets or how the budget was to be spent but they never tried to control or influence what happened on the pitch. Nobody ever said to any of my managers, "you must pick him". It's a no-no for me if you can't select your own players.
So while I can't empathise with what Kenny McDowall and Allan Johnston have been through this week they certainly have my sympathy. Would I like a chairman to make decisions behind my back? Absolutely not. It's not right. Allan caught a lot of people out when he announced he was leaving Kilmarnock. He obviously wasn't happy at Robbie Muirhead being sold to Dundee United without him knowing about it and decided to make a stand.
It's not nice when you lose your best young players, it's worse if it happens behind your back, and even worse when you find out at five past midnight on deadline day. I can understand that Kilmarnock maybe needed the money but you have to let your manager know what you're doing. Otherwise you're just disrespecting him.
Some managers just put up with that kind of thing because they need the job and the money but Allan has obviously decided not to do that. He's tendered his resignation because he doesn't think it's the right way to do things. Maybe he feels he can't work under those circumstances and is maybe fortunate enough financially to be able to walk away from it. And you can't blame him.
It's obviously a lot more complicated at Rangers, what with Kenny having already handed in his resignation and working his notice. In a way I can understand what the board were trying to do. They have got this tie-in with Newcastle through Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias and thought they could help the Rangers team by bringing in five new players. I know John Carver at Newcastle really well and we had actually hoped to bring Haris Vuckic to County but I got the call on deadline day to say he would be joining the rest at Ibrox. I can understand that. We might be a league above them but Rangers remain a big attraction for a lot of players just because of the size of club. So the board were trying to help Kenny but maybe didn't go about things the right way.
They maybe saw how the Old Firm game went and looked at the team's place in the table and thought, "let's just get some players in and try to strengthen". Llambias obviously knows his Newcastle players and he's maybe looked at the Rangers team and thought the ones at Newcastle were a better quality and would enhance the team. And the way the Rangers players are performing just now that wouldn't take much, let's be honest about it. The players cannot argue that it's wrong to bring in five Newcastle loanees given the displays they've been turning in.
So Rangers are quite right to address the situation, although it's not the usual manner in which clubs do business. What the board did wasn't right but I don't blame them for trying to improve the squad and add some depth there.
I don't think the Rangers board are dictator types although it maybe sounds like that now as they're telling Kenny who to play. They probably just didn't go about things the right way and that's maybe why Kenny came across as frustrated in his press conference when he said that he expected the Newcastle boys all to play if and when they're fit. He's on his way out at Rangers, we all know that, but as a manager you like to think that the buck stops entirely with you when it comes to decisions on who plays and who doesn't.
SIGNING up Kris Commons for another two years looks like being a great bit of business for Celtic. It's not by any fluke that the team's performances over the last few weeks have been enhanced since he went back into the team and they're now back top of the league and in the League Cup final. Kris has got his way and got the security he wanted with a two-year deal. He wanted to feel like Celtic wanted him in the long-term and he's got that now so everyone there is happy.
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