{"id":199731,"date":"2025-10-14T16:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T16:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/199731\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T16:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T16:03:10","slug":"kevin-muscat-leaked-rangers-intel-by-neil-mccann-as-four-lessons-emerge-from-surging-next-boss-chat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/199731\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Muscat leaked Rangers intel by Neil McCann as four lessons emerge from surging next boss chat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Muscat has emerged as the favourite to replace Russell Martin with McCann as part of his staff(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Shanghai Port boss Kevin Muscat<\/a> is rapidly moving up the Rangers next manager shortlist amid the escalating search for Russell Martin’s successor.<\/p>\n

Title-winning boss Steven Gerrard pulled out of the running<\/a> with former Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Rohl<\/a> emerging as the favourite for the job after impressing Andrew Cavenagh<\/a> and Paarag Marathe of 49ers Enterprises during talks in London.<\/p>\n

But Muscat – who lost out on the job to Philippe Clement in 2023 – is back on the Ibrox agenda despite being in the midst of a title tilt in China.<\/p>\n

Neil McCann was part of Barry Ferguson’s interim management team last season – and had been earmarked by Muscat two years ago as a potential assistant.<\/p>\n

Now McCann could be drafted in to steady the ship if Muscat sees out the Chinese Super League season in Shanghai until November 22.<\/p>\n

But there is plenty of information that McCann could have passed on to the Australian before stepping into the hot seat. Record Sport takes a look:<\/p>\n

Handling Nicolas Raskin<\/p>\n

The midfielder had a public fallout with Russell Martin last season – and Neil McCann has admitted the Belgian international can be a tough player to manage.<\/p>\n

However, McCann reckons he has the secret to managing Nicolas Raskin<\/a> – which Muscat may need to lean on.<\/p>\n

He said to Sky Sports: “The disruptive nature of Nico came from him challenging us last season on the training field. Whether you were going through shape towards a game, he would question you.<\/p>\n

\"Rangers'Rangers’ Nicolas Raskin (R) with head coach Russell Martin(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

“I had a very heated exchanged with him regarding how we wanted him to play as a left-sided eight and he was coming in to where Connor Barron was. I was saying, ‘you’re actually disrupting how we want to play’. I showed him five or six examples and he took it on board.<\/p>\n

“He still had something to say, ‘well I can come in and start things’, and you have to be strong with him. But you have to understand that once it seeps into him, and he gets it, he generally accepted it last year.”<\/p>\n

Clamping team leaks<\/p>\n

It has been a persistent problem at Rangers in recent years – the team lines leaking out before a game. Russell Martin faced it – but McCann reckons that he cracked the code alongside Barry Ferguson and Co last season.<\/p>\n

McCann told the BBC: \u201cWe had teams getting out as well last year. Going out very early as well. We had a word with the players and said we are aware the team is getting out, if you\u2019re disappointed try and keep it in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of these training sessions are filmed now and there\u2019s access to the filming daily, so that\u2019s a risk. That\u2019s something I brought up about not having access to training footage the day before a match \u2013 say it\u2019s a Friday shape session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t want anybody having access to that outside the coaching team. But there are various ways the team can get out. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s anything malicious and it\u2019s someone being left out and saying \u2018right I hope they get stuffed tomorrow I am going to let the team out\u2019.”<\/p>\n

All out attack<\/p>\n

One of Russell Martin’s big problems was getting goals from his strikers Bojan Miovski, Youssef Chermiti and Danilo during his brief tenure.<\/p>\n

(Image: Luke Nickerson\/Rangers FC\/REX\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

That’s something McCann will look to solve if handed an interim tenure – and a job alongside Muscat.<\/p>\n

He previously noted after the goalless draw with Celtic: “It’s trying to find a balance for Russell Martin right now with this Rangers team. It will be a real disappointment not to have any shots on target, that’s concern.”<\/p>\n

Winning mentality<\/p>\n

At times, struggling Martin appeared more focussed on his principles on how the game should be played rather than results on the park.<\/p>\n

But with the club languishing in eight spot in the table, former Ibrox midfielders McCann and Muscat are unlikely to adopt the same philosophy.<\/p>\n

McCann knows the only way to keep the fans on side is with victories, and told Martin after a 2-0 Premier Sports Cup win over Hibs: “The only way he is going to turn opinion if the fans are against him – and they are against him – is by winning games.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Muscat has emerged as the favourite to replace Russell Martin with McCann as part of his staff(Image: Getty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[48115,86566,59,82510,86662,63766,2714,55682,8058,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-199731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-andrew-cavenagh","tag-danny-rohl","tag-gb","tag-kevin-muscat","tag-neil-mccann","tag-paraag-marathe","tag-rangers-fc","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}