Alex McLeish has reflected on his glory years as Rangers boss

Former treble-winning Rangers manager Alex McLeish has admitted he is not surprised at all to see Barry Ferguson leading the Light Blues as manager.

Ferguson is preparing to go toe to toe with Brendan Rodgers in his first Old Firm derby as a manager as he looks to improve on his predecessors who have managed just two victories in 21 matches against the current Hoops boss.

The fixture takes place on 16 March , marking the first meeting between the sides on this date since the days of Martin O’Neil and McLeish in an era where Ferguson often pulled the strings for the Gers at the heart of midfield.

“I always thought Fergie had something about him,” McLeish told Sun Sport when reflecting on his time in charge of the 45-cap Scotland international. “He knew his own position and what he could do in that position and he had fantastic knowledge of the game as well. I thought his tactics were really good in the first leg against Fenerbahce in Turkiye last week.

“He played that way because, at the moment, Rangers don’t have enough creative players to break down defences .He’s not as fortunate as I was in that Treble season in 2003.”

Alex McLeish reflects on his glory years at Rangers

Alex McLeish won two league titles, two Scottish Cups and three League Cups despite financial difficulties and is largely remembered as a huge success at Rangers for his heroics in guiding the team to a treble 2002/03 after re-signing Ferguson.

When reminiscing on his time at the club, McLeish added: “We had come in during the previous season when Celtic already had an unassailable lead in the league.We still managed to win two cups and that set us up for the following campaign. To win the Treble was a fantastic achievement and, of course, winning the League Cup that day set everything in motion for us.

“Claudio’s goal was brilliant. His speed was great to get to the loose ball in the box. It was a good finish.

“We were biting our fingernails by the end and got a bit of good fortune with big John’s penalty.It was a great start to the Treble season. That first trophy is always significant.”

The decision to sign a future Premier League manager

With Barry Ferguson, Claudio Caniggia, Ronald de Boer, Kevin Muscat and Peter Løvenkrands it’s fair to say that Alex McLeish had plenty of quality during his time at Rangers boss but it could be argued that the pick of the bunch or certainly one of the most exciting young prospects from that era was now Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, who starred in the midfield for the Gers.

When discussing the decision to sign Arteta from Barcelona, McLeish said: “Mikel was still 20 when we won that League Cup final.Having some fantastic experienced guys beside him with great quality brought the best out of him. We protected him as well as we could. We gave him a lot of responsibility for a young man of barely 20.When we first saw him, he was playing No 6 for PSG on loan from Barcelona.

“Andy Watson said he had quick feet and he was nimble but nobody ever put him under pressure. “We took him because we knew if he became a superstar and we hadn’t taken him we’d have ended up with egg on our faces. My main dilemma is that I couldn’t play him in the No 6 role because we had one of the best in Europe at that particular moment in Fergie!”