EXCLUSIVE: Ally McCoist on 1989, 2012 and what he REALLY thinks of Rangers’ new owners

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Ibrox Noise

·27 September 2025

EXCLUSIVE: Ally McCoist on 1989, 2012 and what he REALLY thinks of Rangers’ new owners

In the second part of our Ally McCoist exclusive, Ibrox Noise learned where the Rangers legend stands on 1989, 2012 and how he truly feels about the 49ers Enterprises as owners. Ally McCoist on Rangers new owners.

Ally was speaking exclusively to Ibrox Noise via football betting site talkSPORT Bet

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IN Is this current era worse than the start of 1989 when you’ll remember being bottom of the table after two matches? You were heavily part of that season, and it turned around big time after Terry Butcher’s epic opening header at Parkhead in the third match. Can this season do anything like that?

“There are a couple of things I would say to that. Firstly, it was two games. Secondly, and it’s quite important, Terry Butcher might have been the best centre-half in Europe at the time. We had him on the team.

So I would have to tell you there was always a confidence that we would turn things around. But I do take the point, that was a poor start from us.

No, we were fairly confident that that was never going to last. And as I say, when you’ve got the England captain rising at the back post to put a header in, you’re fairly confident that it’ll change.”

IN: Do you believe the 49ers ownership are the right guys to steer the club forward?

I think it’s still very early in the relationship. They’ve done a good job at Leeds, handling the situation in a very encouraging way. They haven’t just gone straight for money, money, money.

They’ve tried to build, and at this early stage, it looks like a successful pattern. So I don’t think it’s going to be an immediate turnaround at Rangers. As a fan, I’d just like to see continued steps forward.

I want them to have an open relationship with the supporters, letting them know their plans for the club moving forward and how they see Rangers in the future.

Effectively, what I want to see from the new owners is an atmosphere where fans are confident the club is being looked after.”

IN: The vibe around the club isn’t good right now, how do you compare it to 2012- which you were very much in the eye of the storm.

“No matter how bad it is at this moment in time, and it’s not good, we never, ever want to go back to 2012, that’s for sure. Because that was the lowest point by a mile in the club’s history on the pitch, in footballing terms that is.

But in terms of the positioning strength of the club, that was without doubt the most difficult period in the club’s history. So you’re right, there has to be a little bit of balance.

Are we disappointed at this moment in time? Yes, of course we are. Do we want to see improvement? Yes, of course we do. We want to see a change in the level of performance, want to see change in results.

But the one thing that we cannot ever afford to happen, and this is getting back to the new owners again, we cannot afford to go back to the horror of 2012 where the financial worries and the financial problems of the club led us into administration and liquidation, which was 13 years ago but I still close my eyes and feel as if it was yesterday.”

Analysis

What do we take from Ally’s comments? He believes for a start that this isn’t as bad as 2012. We’d respectfully disagree slightly. While we feared the horror of losing our club, the club, players, fans and he himself were more united than Ibrox Noise can ever recall. Today the fractures go deep through all layers of Rangers and we’ve never seen all of Rangers this toxic. We completely understand that he was at the centre of it back then and carried the whole club on his shoulders, for which Rangers fans should always be grateful to him for. He was an icon and our saviour in those dark days.

In terms of 1989, he has more than a point. The squad we had was staggering in the late 80s – Butcher, Stevens, Steven, Ally himself – it had to turn round when you had Europe’s best defender in your ranks.

As for the owners? Again, we’d respectfully maybe disagree a bit – unless they take positive action on Russell Martin, they are sadly unfit for purpose. Rangers are going into the ground right now and they choose not to arrest that.

We’ll have a little more from Ally’s wide-ranging chat in later content!