Steven Davis torn to shreds for ‘insulting’ Rangers remark after behind-the-scenes suggestion at Ibrox
Gary Keown has blasted Steven Davis for his post-match press conference after Rangers lost 2-1 against Aris Limassol in the Europa League on Thursday.
As quoted by the Daily Record on 5 October, Rangers’ interim manager claimed that he “couldn’t fault” the effort of his players in Cyprus while also suggesting that everything is hunky dory behind the scenes at Ibrox.
Keown refuses to have that and has hit out at the Northern Irishman for the way he handled what he believes to be one of the Gers’ worst-ever results.
Writing in the Scottish Mail on Sunday on 8 October (page 95), Keown said: “My God, that press conference afterwards. Davis is a respected guy. However, he is not equipped for this and it is going to harm him as much as Rangers the longer it goes on.
“He needs to realise that you cannot do what you would have done as a player and just front out questions over one of the worst results in the club’s history by claiming everything is actually all right behind the scenes.
“Stating he was happy with the players’ level of effort was, frankly, insulting. Too many of those guys have a record of chucking it and they chucked it again in Cyprus, all right.”
All is not well
Davis has been thrown into the deep end so Keown’s words are a bit over the top.
If it was Michael Beale saying that or another manager who’d come into Ibrox who had a track record of doing press conferences while being the main man, that’s fair enough.
But Davis isn’t just having to learn how to deal with the press as a manager, he’s having to learn how to actually be a manager with a squad that’s disjointed, all over the place and seemingly out of its depth.
All is not well at Ibrox but Davis isn’t going to sit there and admit to that.
He’s here to steady the ship, whether that be in performances, at the training ground or being the face of the club to the fans for the time being.
A lot of people can see through it but a lot of Rangers fans also realise that if there’s one guy in Govan right now who’s giving it his all, it’s Davo.
Rangers cannot afford another slip-up on Sunday against St Mirren when they return to Scottish Premiership action.
Davis will have learned a lot from that defeat against Aris so let’s hope he can put what he’s learned into practice despite the quick turnaround in fixtures this week.
In other Rangers news, events 742 miles away could be making the Ibrox managerial picture more clear.