Today Richard Gough (Everton) made the announcement that this will be his last season in the EPL having suffered with injuries. He will in all probability be returning to the family home in the States, not to return to Kansas City Wiz but to coach the USA under 17 team, I realise to land a top job abroad one has to have the pre-requisite certs, with Gough I do not know if he has, as I have said before its not the case in the EPL , job`s for the boy`s who do not threaten the boss,so to speak.

IMHO that a great chance is going abegging for a club, in this case OUR club to recruit this man as asst manager for the next season under Robson. On what do I base this opinion? , okay, just an old fashioned gut feeling that he is the man we need , it is not just the players who can be the deadwood , there appears to be some flotsam and jetsam floating at all levels. BTW no-one mentions Milne, is he still there keeping a low profile?, smacks of Keith Burtenshaw (remember him), at Aberdeen for 5 years as director of Football, what did he do Dad?

Back to Gough, a 110% player who gave his all for club and country a inspirational skipper, articulate speaker and as all professionals who have played/trained with him will tell you, the one guy who kept himself in shape, the older he got , the harder he trained , other threads and Stephs column remark on the lack of fitness shown and the seemingly undisciplined approach at the Riverside, make no mistake this guy would change all that, more than anything else he is well respected in the game. For once Newcastle look ahead , and in years to come I am sure Gough and Shearer could be a formidable team. Alas for Rangers, Advocaat had already lined up Jan Wouters or I am sure that Murray would have gone for Gough. The more I think about it, the more I like it, might even just get a reaction from the present squad as obviously the training ground has been lost and to make do with limited player changes but the same managerial team for next season will not cure a damm thing , at their age Robson/Wadsworth are unable to change, recruiting players only is not the answer and any- one on here who thinks so should maybe look at what the other causes may be and how to alleviate them.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001

Answers

*Wouters Jan, introduced Gazza to the wearing of the Eminem mask !!! **Stevo, There are now 11 orange at Rangers, all papers are full of the Dutch, myself /Macbeth and others will soon be authorities on The Total Football Country, any comments on Wouters apart from his Ajax experience, all saying it came to early for him.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001

A post full of experience-based common sense Buff.
Sadly, it will fall on deaf ears - you see, the present regime believe they know best on everything.

-- Anonymous, May 04, 2001

Buff- Rangers seem to have gone more Dutch than Barca under Van Gaal. I do wonder how healthy it is for a club to have such a predominance of players and staff from one non-native land. Difficult to comment on Wouter prior to his disastrous reign at Ajax other than he was a highly respected ex-pro (Utrecht, Ajax,PSV and Bayern Munich) who seemed destined for a long managerial career. He joined the training staff at Utrecht, then at Ajax under Morten Olsen and when the latter was sacked both supporters and the media seemed convinced Wouters was the right man for the job. Quite why was never clear to me, Ajax were in difficulties post-Van Gaal and Wouters had no experience of being in charge but, none-the-less, he was duly appointed. If it ever comes out in UK Buff, see the film/video 'Ajax:There you hear the angels sing', an extraordinary fly-on-the-wall documentary made during Ajax's centinary season in which Wouters plays a leading role and was eventually sacked. Jan comes over as a man lacking confidence and authority. His reputation was so badly damaged that he failed to gain a coaching post since. The kindest verdict is that it was 'too much, too soon', and that anyone would have struggled at Ajax's wretched ArenA stadium (where the grass doesn't grow, or even stay put). But Jan's interventions in the transfer-market were badly judged, and his side were a shambles. The verdict of one commentator who I respect was that Wouters is capable of becoming a decent Coach (read Manager) but not at the highest level. Advocaat came to Rangers after winning Dutch championships. The jury is still out on Wouters.

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2001

Buff,

I understand your sentiments about Gough, old gnarled pro who's seen it all. I guess he's the Scottish version of Stuart Pearce. I've always struggled with him since all the stories in the early/mid 90s about his preference for "youth development work". There were so many stories, from people I'd view as close to Rangers, that there must have been something in it. I'd hate him to come to Newcastle and the News of the World to expose old news again.

As for the Orange Huns. I feel they have gone too far. The only Scot who is a first choice is Ferguson, this cannot be right. When you see some of the Dutch performances, particularly Ricksen, you have to question whether it works.

-- Anonymous, May 05, 2001