text: Walter Smith says Ally McCoist deserves a chance to prove himself as a successful manager at a stable club. The Ibrox legend worked closely with McCoist and coach Kenny McDowall before the duo assumed the reins at Rangers during four years of unprecedented turmoil off and on the pitch. Charged with leading the club back to the Premiership from the bottom tier, McCoist finally resigned and was placed on gardening leave in December and is still earning £14,000 a week while his 12-month notice period runs down. Walter Smith says Ally McCoist deserves a chance to prove himself a successful manager at a stable club . McDowall, who reluctantly took over as caretaker boss before leaving in March to be replaced by Stuart McCall, is also awaiting a final severance deal which would free him up to work elsewhere. Yet despite leaving the club under a cloud, Smith insists that both men have something left to offer in football, and he blames boardroom turmoil under Craig Whyte, Charles Green and the Mike Ashley-Easdale Brothers axis for contributing towards an unmanageable situation. ‘I think they want an opportunity,’ said the former Rangers manager and chairman of his two former colleagues. ‘After working with them for a number of years and them getting the opportunity to go in and take over, which I got when Graeme (Souness) left, the boys were always hoping they would get the opportunity. ‘There was no guarantee of that, but they got it, and you have got to say that the circumstances they worked under were probably the poorest of any manager at any time in Rangers’ history. ‘People can make their own judgments of how a manager does a job. All I would say is that everyone has to have support. ‘I got the support of David Murray when I was manager at Rangers and he was a big help to me. They never had that help, they didn’t get any help. ‘Stuart (McCall) has come in at a time when everybody is looking a bit brighter for a change at Rangers. It is a good time for him to come in. Stuart McCall is now in charge of the Scottish Championship side and has impressed since taking over . ‘It certainly wasn’t a good time when Alistair took over. Craig Whyte came in and that coincided with Alistair, I felt, not getting a fair opportunity. ‘It is very difficult to judge him as a manager under the circumstances that he worked in. I certainly wouldn’t have liked to have worked under them anyway.’ The McCoist legacy has drawn unfavourable comments from supporters. Signings such as Dean Shiels, David Templeton and Ian Black arrived on wages which were barely justified by their performances in a light blue shirt. Some voiced doubts over McCoist’s tactical acumen while others asked why younger players weren’t given more of a chance to blossom in the lower leagues. Yet Smith argues that both McCoist and McDowall deserve to be remembered for what they did during his own highly successful second spell at Rangers, prior to the financial tsunami which plunged the club over a fiscal cliff. ‘I was the manager, Alistair was the assistant manager and Kenny was the coach and, for four and a half years when the club was well run, we did well,’ said the former Scotland boss. Smith believes Ally McCoist deserves a chance to prove himself a successful manager at a stable club . ‘I am not a miracle person, I couldn’t run Rangers Football Club on my own. The people that I worked with there did a terrific job. I know their strengths. Everyone has got strengths and weaknesses and I know theirs. ‘I read in the paper that Ally can’t manage. He had never managed a football club before, and neither had I when I took over. ‘Imagine when you have never managed a football club before, going into Rangers and being there for four years under the circumstances that they were in? ‘People say: “He will ask Walter Smith for advice” but I had never been in that circumstance before, so how could I give him any advice in terms of how Rangers were being run? It is an unfair judgement for people to make on him because of the circumstances. McCoist is Rangers record scorer but was axed as manager amid speculation surrounding the clubs future . ‘Alistair and Kenny would take a lot of the training, and I read that he (McDowall) couldn’t coach. Kenny McDowall is a terrific coach. He is excellent at his job and one of the most organised people I have ever worked with. Yet I hear all these assessments. ‘If you don’t get results, people make those assessments, but they are not correct. ‘For me, the main circumstance is why they didn’t work out under Alistair and Kenny, who didn’t want to be the manager. The circumstances weren’t right.’
target: Walter Smith believes Ally McCoist deserves another managerial job .
  Ibrox legend believes McCoist still has something to offer in football .
  McCoist is still being paid £14,000 a week while his notice period runs out .