Rangers 'disgust' lingers at Auchenhowie after controversial behind-the-scenes sacking

Scott McDermott has blasted Rangers as Jim McAlister's sacking continues to leave a bad taste in the mouth at Ibrox.

Writing in the Daily Record (13 October), McDermott notes how Jimmy Bell's widow, Janice, has emptied her late husband's old kit room at Auchenhowie, "such was her disappointment and disgust at the club’s treatment of her late husband’s successor."

McAlister worked alongside Bell before taking over as the Gers' kit man full-time after Bell's passing. He was sacked unexpectedly by former chief executive James Bisgrove before the 2023/24 season got underway.

The lifelong Rangers fan won his unfair dismissal case against the club at an employment tribunal in February this year, with the Gers ordered to pay him a fee of almost £13,000 (Daily Record, 11 January).

Jim McAlister's Rangers sacking leaves a bad taste in the mouth

Bisgrove is not a man who is likely to be remembered fondly at Ibrox.

However, perhaps one of his poorest decisions might not be as well-documented among supporters of the club. Getting rid of McAlister in the fashion he did not only demonstrated a lack of class but was a warning sign of Bisgrove's ill intentions at Rangers.

He had no care for the club except to use it to push his own career forward.

And sacking McAlister is the perfect example of that selfishness. McAlister is a lifelong Rangers supporter and someone who embodied the history and integrity of Rangers.

Therefore, his sacking, while not headline news, can certainly be pinpointed as the starting point of where things started to go wrong for Rangers in recent times.

The club are all over the place at boardroom level. Their off-the-field mess is highlighted by getting rid of people who care for the club, like McAlister.

McDermott writes that the former kit man has no plans to return to the club. It is a sad reality, but in all fairness, it is difficult to blame McAlister for feeling that way.

In other Rangers news, the club are in line for a six-figure windfall after new Hampden Park developments.

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