Ally McCoist tells Russell Martin how to make his Rangers mark with bold move over Nico Raskin
The Rangers icon has reacted after a Premier Sports Cup victory over Hibs.
Ally McCoist reckons Russell Martin could make a major Rangers statement by selecting a new first team captain.
The Light Blues boss had protests launched against him before and during the 2-0 Premier Sports Cup quarter final success versus Hibs on Saturday. After recent omissions from the team, Belgian international Nico Raskin was awarded Man of the Match and netted the opener before Bojan Miovski tapped home a winner before half-time.
McCoist was looking over events at his former side at the weekend, and is stunned as to why head coach Martin bombed Raskin out of squads for games against Celtic and Hearts. The club hero reckons more will be needing done by Martin to win over disgruntled fans and he thinks replacing James Tavernier as captain for Raskin could do the trick, even if there’s the unanswered question of that creating new issues.
Ally McCoist on Nico Raskin at Rangers
He told talkSPORT: “I watched the game coming up the road from Liverpool v Everton. We were a lot better. We got a bit of luck with their disallowed goal, but we didn’t get any luck the week before when three big decisions went against us.
“I can’t believe Raskin didn’t play in the last couple of big games. Clearly something happened that we haven’t been privy to. But you can’t do anything to affect the team because the team is everything so in my view Raskin must play because the team is above any personal feud.
“If there’s been a breach of discipline I get that and understand that and there will be occasions you have to clamp down on that. But I don’t think you can do that to the detriment of the team longer term. One of the things he could do that certainly would get a lot of, if not the majority, of fans back onside with that decision would be to make Raskin skipper longer term.
Nico Raskin on return to Rangers team
“Looking at the middle of the park, Raskin in there with Diomande in there or Aasgaard No. 10 is not a bad midfield at all. And I think Russell Martin has to keep wining games but he has to do some other things as well to attempt to get the fans back onside. Does it create a problem itself changing captain? I’m not so sure. It would be a heck of a statement.”
Raskin said of his omission to Premier Sports: “Well, it is in the past now. We have to move forward. We have put in a good performance in on the pitch, we have to look forward and build on that. Everything has not been perfect. I did not enjoy part of it, I think the manager didn't enjoy part of it and now we had a good chat and well, hopefully we can just work together and have a good spell together and look forward.
"There are things that happen in football. We are an emotional club, an emotional team, so I just want to win. We just want to give back to the fans what they give to us. I think the support I had was amazing. For someone who was not born here, it just feels amazing. When I go on the pitch I try and give everything for my team-mates and for the fans and just try to win every game now.”