Struggling Rangers could send Muscat SOS – but would he even be interested?
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Glasgow Rangers are in trouble. The Scottish Premiership season is only ten matches in and they are already nine points behind Celtic. I know very little about Philippe Clement, Rangers’ manager, but I do know this: they will get nowhere near Celtic with Clement in charge.
Rangers aren’t even second in what is traditionally a two-horse race. That situation is absolutely unsustainable and I’d be amazed if the board weren’t already sounding out possible replacements.
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The problem is not just Clement. The club have spent a lot of money on players who don’t quite cut the mustard but will remain a drain on the books for some time… unless sold.
They desperately need a circuit breaker. And as they can’t get any new players until January, the only feasible circuit breaker is a new manager.
I was surprised Rangers didn’t appoint Muscat earlier.
It’s possible they did consider him, maybe even spoke to him, but he wasn’t appointed when he was clearly the best man for the job.
I’m aware that’s a big statement, so why is he the best man for the job?
Yokohama F.Marinos celebrate victory as manager Kevin Mascut lifts the trophy.
Muscat celebrating the 2022 J1 League title. (Photo by Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)
He played for Rangers so he gets the club. Rumour has it that Muscat was such a hard player and hated Celtic so much, that he was never allowed to play in an Old Firm derby for fear he’d be red-carded in the first five minutes. Attitude: check.
Muscat was actually a filthy player – famously voted the most hated man in Britain. And yet, he had a first class football brain. Anyone who watched the Socceroos during his time knows that, when he took time off from making career-ending tackles, he was a very classy player.
He had a fantastic sense of team shape and system which was obvious in the way he’d play long cross-field balls to start attacks from the depth of defence. Good penalty-taker, also. Game knowledge and strategy: check.
He went into management under Ange Postecoglou after finishing his playing career at Melbourne Victory. It’s true that Ange started the rebuilding at Victory but Muscat got to learn from the now-Tottenham boss and then took his team to glory. His tenure at Victory was one of their most successful eras ever.
He was then recommended by Ange for the Marinos job after Ange was headhunted by Celtic. Once again he benefited from a team already built by his mentor but did arguably better than Ange did when you look at where the teams finished. Muscat has come second, first and second in the J1 League.
Since then, he’s won the Chinese Super League with Shanghai Port at first attempt. Management learning, experience and success: check.
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Scottish football fans won’t like this, but the J1 League is at least the same level as the SPL and probably better. It is definitely more competitive because more than two clubs are able to win the league every year.
If the top ten teams from both leagues played each other in one-off matches, the J1 Leaguers would win at least nine of those matches. If you need more proof than this, Kyogo has been the most lethal striker in Scotland for four seasons but didn’t even make the Japan team for the 2022 World Cup.
Rangers fans will be highly suspicious of an appointment that looks like it’s copying Celtic, but the reality is this: Ange is obviously one of the world’s great managers. Many will tell you he is the greatest. Better even than Pep despite his lack of European success (so far). Why would you not want someone who learned his trade at the feet of the best manager in the world? (Or one of the best.)
Well, plenty on the Rangers forums have already said they don’t want Muscat. They describe him as a “project” appointment – no experience except in Mickey Mouse leagues. That’s exactly what the Celtic fans said when Ange was appointed. How they lamented his departure, but Rodgers has them humming now.
No European manager worth his salt would touch the Rangers job, but Muscat would probably have leapt at the chance, if it was offered before. He’s already turned down the Socceroos (by all accounts) which is one of the best paid jobs in international football. He’s earning a fortune in China and his stocks have never been higher, so would he even consider the Rangers job right now?
Given they’re already nine points behind (and how awesome Celtic look), he’d not have much of a chance at Rangers this year, but he would galvanise the club like no other manager could. He would get the very best out of the players he has available and would rebuild over the next two windows – applying what he learned from Ange and what he has perfected for himself.
There is no doubt that if Rangers appointed Muscat now, they would be serious contenders next season.
Kevin Muscat really hates losing.
Adrian Deans’ books can be purchased at any good bookstore or through ebook alchemy. His first sci-fi novel (Asparagus Grass) was published by Hague Publishing in July 2023.
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El Futbolero
El Futbolero
Roar Rookie
November 7th 2024 @ 2:48am
Muscat is currently under radar for many already. We will see if Rangers or China to have him first.
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Kitwally
Kitwally
Roar Rookie
November 7th 2024 @ 5:03am
If fun to imagine football scenarios but it would be extremely surprising if this one occurred. Muscat and his coaching team are on life-changing, huge money at Shanghai Port and he won’t leave there to go to Rangers. Well done to Kevin, but there’s a huge caveat to his achievements because Port are probably the wealthiest Chinese Super League team and the rest of the league a basket case, for example 43 people were banned for life in September for match fixing. Former powerhouse Guangzhou Evergrande – Asian Champions League winners in 2013 and 2015 – have severe financial problems and are currently in the 2nd division. In 2021 Jiangsu Suning were premiers (Sainsbury played for them) and then suddenly folded. Unfortunately in a similar, somewhat justified, and perhaps even more extreme extent than the A-League in Australia, local punters just don’t rate it with the majority being Eurosnobs, so Port’s average crowd in 2024 was just over 20,000 in a city with a population of more than 25 million. (I lived in Shanghai for 18 years, left at the end of 2021).
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