Michael Stewart blasts Rangers over exit-linked Robby McCrorie despite ‘real success’ verdict on Jack Butland
Rangers will “pay the price” for a lack of “strategic thinking” over their management of Robby McCrorie despite the “real success” of Jack Butland, according to Michael Stewart.
The pundit said on BBC Sportsound, via Football Scotland (9 September), that the club lacked “foresight” last season after bringing back the “absolute legend” Allan McGregor by playing Jon McLaughlin instead of the former academy product, who has been left to “wither on the vine” at Ibrox.
McCrorie, 25, didn’t get a run in the first team until the final few matches of the season and was apparently ready to leave during the summer after Butland was brought in to start, amid interest from the likes of Manchester United.
Stewart said: “Robbie McCrorie, for example. Butland has been spoken about as a real success and he has, there’s no doubt about it – everybody knew he could go and do the job.
“But he’ll be on a good wage and you have someone like McCrorie who has already at the club. Now McCrorie is 24, 25 now and the problem I see is, does anybody know what’s going to happen with McCrorie?
“He is a product who has been invested in by the club and now he’s been left withering in the vine.
“I just think last season, what should have happened at Rangers was, they signed Allan McGregor for another year knowing it is his last year.
“Rather than starting Jon McLaughlin as your number one, the club should have had the foresight to be saying ‘right, we’ve got this young guy, we need to know if he’s going to be our number one long-term.’
“So we start him as our number one and if it doesn’t work, we know definitively that we need to find a long-term solution. But this season, we have Allan McGregor – an absolute legend – to fall back on and give us the cover.
“That’s just strategic thinking and it is one example. I don’t see that often enough at Rangers and I think they pay the price for that.”
Messy
On paper Rangers have a good set of goalkeeping options at the moment, with ex-England international Butland considered the best of the summer arrivals so far.
In McCrorie they currently have an able deputy, who showed positive signs when he was eventually drafted in by Michael Beale last season, with three clean sheets from four.
But if he is unhappy with his progression and continues to head for an exit then the club would arguably only have themselves to blame.
Unless Butland gets a big-money offer elsewhere he is set to remain the top option for the foreseeable future, so McCrorie is faced with being close to 30 before his next chance to stake a claim to the starting jersey.
After only two more Rangers appearances (six) than he has had loan moves (four) it would be no surprise if he wanted to seek regular football elsewhere.
McGregor was expected to retire after the Europa League final two seasons ago, so when he came back for a final campaign it made little sense for either him or McCrorie that Giovanni van Bronckhorst then turned to the now 36-year-old McLaughlin.
The veteran is still at Ibrox but didn’t appear to have many prospects of being a starter long-term, so while Butland may have been needed either way it has rather left McCrorie in limbo that he never got an extended run.
In other Rangers news, friction mooted between Beale and the Ibrox board after contradictions amid sack pressure on the Gers boss.