Derek Johnstone: McCoist will always be a legend at Rangers

He reached a settlement over his contract after a meeting with Dave King this week and is no longer involved with the club.

But he will always be a supporter and he should always be held in the highest esteem by the fans.

It might not have worked out for him as a manager, but he was working in an extremely difficult situation for so long. We have been over that many times.

Dave has said there is no problem with Ally, he has been great all along and he was entitled to do what he has done.

The bottom line for me is that you cannot take away what Ally did for the club and he will always be welcomed back to Ibrox.

It was great to see Dave say he hopes Ally and his mum are back watching games again soon, because she is a wonderful woman.

There will be fans who are not happy with Ally and that is always going to happen. You will never get 100 per cent of supporters fully behind a player or a manager.

There were bad times during his tenure as manager and he will put his hands up to that.

But he never got the backing he needed or the chance to do the job like those before him have.

Ally’s contribution to Rangers will not be forgotten and what he did for the club, on and off the park, will be rightly remembered fondly.

There will be fans who recall the situation with John Greig when he left the club after a spell as manager and what the reaction from some supporters was then. Years later, he was voted the Greatest Ever Ranger.

Anyone who has given the service John has, and Ally has, to Rangers cannot be forgotten, no matter the highs and lows they have had through their careers.

He is an out and out Bluenose, his records will never be beaten and he deserves to always be regarded as a legend at the club.

Now that he has moved on from Rangers, he can get on with his life. His heart will always be with Rangers, though.

And I am sure he will want to come back and watch the team and support them. He will wish Mark Warburton and Davie Weir well as they look to get Rangers back to the top flight.

He has taken a fair bit of stick over the last few years but now it is a chance for him to get on with his life. There is no need to rake up things from the past.

There will always be people who will take a dig at Ally and say, ‘He made enough money, he should have given the money up’. But he was treated, as Dave said on Thursday, poorly by the people who were in charge of Rangers.

Ally and Dave have a good rapport and there is a mutual respect there. That is why they were able to come to an agreement quickly when they sat down to discuss matters.

There will be cynics out there who will say the timing is good for Ally and that he has something else lined up. But he has to get on with his life.

I have no doubt that television companies would jump at the chance to have him on board. If that happens for him, great.

In terms of Rangers, it is all water under the bridge now, though. We have Mark and Davie in and the fans are enjoying their football again.

We can look back at all the managers we have had and look at the good and bad points from their tenure. But that is history. It is where we are now and where we are going that is what counts.

Now that this is all sorted, everyone can move on. Rangers fans have a man in charge who has put the smile back on their faces so let’s keep it that way rather than going back over old ground.

In the coming months, everything that has gone on over the last four years will come out and will be across the front pages again.

But it can’t take the focus off what the team and the manager are doing at the moment.

Throughout the history of Rangers, there are managers who have been great and managers that haven’t been as successful. That happens at every club.

Hopefully Mark goes on to become a hugely successful manager at Ibrox and can finish the journey that Ally started and get Rangers back into the Premiership. If he can, I am sure Ally will be delighted for him. Ally will come back to Ibrox and watch games, I have no doubt about that.

He will be welcomed back by the club, and rightly so, and I hope the fans welcome him back as well.

We need to lighten up and let Oduwa enjoy himself and show off his skills

IT was a joy to watch Nathan Oduwa against Raith Rovers last weekend at Ibrox.

It was a terrific performance and he certainly deserved the standing ovation he received when he went off.

The Rangers fans are rightly loving watching him in action, but the reaction from some calling him a showboat is incredible.

We are crying out for entertainment in this country, and anyone that has a pop at him needs to take a look at themselves.

It is fine pulling off those kind of flicks and tricks in training, but it takes a brave player to do it in front of a big crowd at Ibrox. It is wonderful for him to attempt it.

There is one player I think of when I see Oduwa playing and that is Ted McMinn.

He used to get the ball and run and didn’t know where he was going or what he was doing at times!

But he had so much ability and he just loved taking players on and beating them, and Oduwa is the same.

There is nothing worse for a defender than seeing someone like him running at you at speed.

Pace is a wonderful thing to have, but when you combine it with that guile and natural ability, it makes you quite a player.

Rangers fans haven’t seen someone like him for many years.

Hopefully everyone else enjoys Oduwa as much as we are, because we need to lighten up and encourage entertainers in our game.

Rangers not ready to challenge Celtic yet

DAVE KING has set his sights on the Premiership title next season. You have got to have goals and ambitions.

But, for me, right now, I don’t think Rangers are ready to win the top flight just yet.

Yes, we will bring in better players in January and we will keep building but it is going to be a big ask to win the Premiership next term.

With the team we have and the way we are playing, we are huge favourites to win the Championship and we are certainly good enough to compete in the top flight.

But Celtic have got the best squad in the country by far and I don’t think anyone will get near them again this season. Aberdeen won’t be a challenge to Celtic and they will win the league by double figures again.

With the squad we have just now, we would definitely finish in the top six, and probably in the top four in the Premiership. But that is no good for Rangers.

We have to be winning leagues and winning cups and Mark Warburton will know what he needs to do, and how he has to strengthen, to get his side in a position to challenge for those honours.

If the board back him and we are able to bring in the four or five players we need to strengthen the squad, there is a chance we can challenge Celtic for the title sooner rather than later.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done before we are at that stage in time for next season, though.

Your question for Derek Johnstone

GARY WILLIAMS from Glasgow asked DJ what he thought of the plane farce in Tbilisi last week?

We know there is a lack of money at the SFA, but when you are taking the national team all that way for a vital game, you have to do things properly and do everything you can to make the preparations as good as they can possibly be.

To have the players cramped up in seats was not good enough and, while it is not an excuse for the result, it wouldn’t have helped them.

What happened on the return, you can’t help. The weather is one of those things. But they weren’t prepared to pay the money to keep the plane in Tbilisi.

The SFA have taken a lot of stick recently, and rightly so. One thing is for sure, I don’t think they will make the same mistake again.

If you have a question for Derek, just email him at dj@eveningtimes.co.uk and we’ll print the answer alongside the question.