Celtic’s draw with Aberdeen at Parkhead gave Rangers the perfect opportunity to close the gap at the top of the table at the weekend.
Brendan Rodgers’ team squandered a 2-0 half-time lead as Aberdeen clawed a 2-2 draw at Celtic Park with two goals in ten second-half minutes.
With Rangers blowing their big chance to get closer to Celtic with a 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock, Ally McCoist went on a rant about his former club and branded them ‘hopeless’ as they now trail the Hoops by six points at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
McCoist admits Rangers are ‘not very good’ as they trail Celtic in the league
McCoist was clearly gutted at Rangers’ capitulation at Rugby Park and admitted that the ‘spine of the club is not right’.
McCoist told talkSPORT, “What can I say, we’re hopeless. We’re not very good. We need to get a bit of stability at the top straight away.
“What he [Philippe Clement] said yesterday after the game is probably, definitely, factually correct, but the fact of the matter is the performance levels are poor. Really, really poor.
“You’ve got to balance it out, and you got to be fair about it, Kilmarnock were excellent, at home in particular.
“A good, good team and Derek’s got them really well organised, difficult to beat and more than a match for anybody.
“From Rangers’ point of view, the chairman, John Gilligan’s doing his very, very best, and he will continue to do that. But a lack of stability at the top, no chief executive, spine of the club is not right.
McCoist takes aim at ‘poor’ Rangers players after latest defeat
And the rant did not stop there. After being asked if he felt there was nothing else that Rangers could have done to prevent the Kilmarnock defeat, McCoist took aim at the Ibrox players.
McCoist continued, “Oh, no I don’t take that for a minute. Players have got to look at themselves. Bang, shocking performance. It was a really poor performance. Don’t think I’m sidestepping the issue and not giving the players any stick.
“Poor midfield. Shocking goal to lose and never created anyone nearly enough. There are a couple of things.
After being asked by Jeff Stelling if Clement is the manager to take Rangers forward, McCoist replied, “I don’t think the club are in any position to start getting rid of people, because I don’t think they could afford it financially.
“But the fact of the matter is this, he has to get better results. That’s clearly the case. But where I would stick up for him a little bit, I’m not sure he’s been dealt the best hand of cards with some of the players he’s been left with.
“The recruitment prior to him coming is absolutely, not nearly good enough.”
Celtic next five Scottish Premiership fixtures pits Brendan Rodgers’ team against Motherwell (A), Dundee (H), Hearts (A), Kilmarnock (H) and Ross County (A).
Rangers, however, have a trickier schedule with St Mirren (H), Aberdeen (A), Motherwell (A), Hearts (H) and Dundee United (H) with United and Motherwell both breathing down the Ibrox club’s neck in the league.
If Rangers drop any more points and Celtic continue their good start to the season, their challenge to try and wrestle the title back from the east end of Glasgow could be over before the end of November.
Celtic now look forward to a tricky Champions League tie this week against an Atalanta side who have just recorded their fourth win of the Serie A season where Rodgers will be hoping to get his European campaign back on track.
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