Steven Davis declared himself “very honoured” after getting a call “out of the blue” to take charge of Rangers on an interim basis following the sacking of Michael Beale.
The 38-year-old Northern Irishman, who had two fruitful spells as a player at Ibrox, was invited by the Gers board on Sunday evening to take the reins until they appoint a new permanent boss.
Davis will be assisted by fellow former Rangers players Alex Rae and Steven Smith, as well as coach Brian Gilmour and goalkeeping coach Colin Stewart.
“I’m very honoured,” he told Rangers TV on Monday. “The call came out of the blue a little bit. I wasn’t expecting it but I’d just like to try and repay the trust the club have shown by putting me in this position.
“Obviously it’s not a position we would like to be in, we’re disappointed with where we’re at at this moment in time but I’m really looking forward to the challenge.
“I’m delighted to get the opportunity. I believe in the group we’ve got. Things haven’t gone the way we would have liked and we find ourselves in this situation but I’m sure with ourselves and the fans pushing in the same direction we can go on and get some good results.”
Beale paid the price for a dismal start to the season, with Rangers third in the cinch Premiership – behind St Mirren – and seven points adrift of city rivals Celtic after three defeats in seven league matches.
In addition, they suffered a 7-3 aggregate defeat by PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League play-off round in August, with a raft of summer signings having failed to shine so far.
Davis and the rest of the interim coaching staff must rouse the team following Saturday’s humiliating 3-1 defeat at home to Aberdeen as they prepare to head to Cyprus to face Aris Limassol in the Europa League on Thursday.
Rangers’ next league match is away to second-placed St Mirren on Sunday before the international break brings a fortnight in which they can try to regroup and bed in a new manager.
“Ultimately we have to get results first and foremost at a club like Rangers,” said Davis. “I just want to try and get some pride back in terms of the way we play and try and get the boys’ confidence back as well.
“We’ve got a really good group here. I see the level of application here, I’ve been in and around it long enough with the majority of them, so I just want to get that belief back in the team and give them a platform to go and show their best performances.”
Davis is unlikely to be considered for the role on a permanent basis, with Kevin Muscat, Chris Wilder and Frank Lampard among those having been linked with the vacancy in the aftermath of Beale’s exit.
However, the Northern Irishman intends to use his spell in charge as a learning curve.
“Management was something I’ve considered for further down the line,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting this opportunity, it hadn’t crossed my mind, but it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.
“It’s going to be a great experience for me and I’m really looking forward to the challenge. Everybody knows what the club means to me. My approach is just going to be the same as I was as a player, and that’s just to give it my best. Hopefully that will be good enough.”
Beale wished Rangers well for the future as he issued a social media post within hours of his sacking backing the Ibrox club to get back on track.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx4Ku0AoE86/?hl=en
The 43-year-old took to Instagram in the early hours of Monday morning to wish Davis all the best.
“Thank you @RangersFC to everyone behind the scenes at the training ground and Ibrox, to the board, staff, fans and all the players,” he wrote. “I will always follow and support the club from afar and wish you every success.
“Now is the time for everyone to unite fully behind Steven Davis and the team in the coming games.
“There is still so much to play for this season and I have a strong belief in this group of players. Thank you and good luck.”
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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