Jimmy Nicholl hands radio advice to new Rangers boss Steven Gerrard
If the last man to manage Rangers could pass on one piece of advice for Steven Gerrard it would be to avoid tuning his car radio to medium wave.
Jimmy Nicholl only spent five months on the coaching staff at Ibrox but he became attuned to the huge scrutiny those at Rangers are subjected to, particularly when he took interim charge for the final three games of the season.
The 61-year-old had been Graeme Murty’s assistant and saw first hand the pressure an inexperienced boss can be put under with the Gers.
“You’re going to get a lot more criticism than you are the clubs I was working at previously,” Northern Ireland assistant Nicholl said. “I knew that; it was just the sheer intensity.
“Years ago I was manager and I had a club car. It didn’t have medium wave in it. I was getting slaughtered on the radio but I never heard it. It was a wee lesson to me.
“Because I never heard it, I was going into work no different. Maybe you can’t do it, maybe you’ve got to be tuned into what the media say, what the supporters say, it’s up to you. We’re all different.
“If Rangers won, I was happy. If I read the papers, listened to the radio or looked at social media, it was not going to make me any happier.
“If we got beat, I was a wee bit down. If I read the papers, listened to the radio, I’m going to be worse. So why would you want to make yourself feel worse than what you already are?
“You’re the one that has to get the thing going. The manager has to pick the players up. It’s a different responsibility as manager.”
Whether or not Gerrard will be successful will likely hinge on the recruitment the club makes in the coming transfer windows.
“It’s great being cheered by 50,000 people but if things go badly, can you handle being booed by 50,000?” Nicholl added. “There were players from League One, it turned out they weren’t bad players but they were never in a position where they were getting booed by 50,000 people.
“You need character to play at these places.”