Dreams do come true, just ask Barry Ferguson. On the 25th February, he will sit down in the press room as Rangers manager, albeit interim, something he’s longed for since hanging up his boots in 2015.
That ten-year journey has at times been painful as his coaching pathway fell foul of players incapable of delivering even a modicum of the quality he possessed as a player.
Now, in 2025, he faces a massive task trying to get a trick out of a group of failures who have cost yet another manager his job at Ibrox.
Barry’s band of Ibrox brothers in the dug out must try and motivate a squad incapable of rising to the challenge of St Mirren, twenty-four hours after Celtic lost to Hibs in Edinburgh.
Believe me, being able to talk a good game in broadcasting is going to be tested to the full with this bunch of underachievers wearing the jersey today.
Fergie, Doddsy, Greegsy and Neil would walk into this current team if they were at their peak of playing, but the big question now is can they coach?
I know Barry well and he will be thinking if I can get a few good results and let the Ibrox fans see some fight in this team, maybe, just maybe, I can land this job on a permanent basis.
I wish him well, contrary to some people’s perception of him as a ‘Ned’, he is a thoroughly decent and kind man who has matured beyond the boy in a Rangers tracksuit ready to fight anyone in Bothwell.
My gut feeling is he will manage to get some kind of spark out of them in the short term, but whether that ignites a desire from fans, current board and possibly a new board to hire him long-term remains to be seen.
The biggest problem Barry will have in the short-term is a Celtic team cantering towards a title and possible treble.
That is a sight that hurts Rangers fans and they do not want to see their side go down with a whimper in the remaining games against their great rivals.
If Barry can lay down a marker in any of those games and maybe one special night in Europe, maybe, just maybe, the dream can continue beyond the summer.
