RANGERS players and backroom people will do all they can to get Mac Gallienne to rescind his resignation as club first-team coach. ‘I’m going to lock him in a room and not let him out until he decides to come back,’ said injured captain Dave Parrott.
‘We will keep trying to get him back until we are blue in the face,’ said Matt Marquis, Gallienne’s right-hand man off the pitch.
Gallienne, who against all the odds took Rangers into third spot in the Priaulx League table and qualification for the Wheway, resigned on Thursday, the day after his out-of-form side crashed 7-0 to a rampant Bels.
As passionate about club football as they come, Gallienne said it was not just that result which had made his mind up.
‘It wasn’t the final straw as such, but I decided yesterday [Thursday],’ he said.
‘It’s just too much for one man to be honest. I need a break,’ added the workaholic, who has not only been coaching and preparing the side, but carrying out groundsman and renovation work around the St Andrew’s headquarters.
‘They’re a good bunch of lads. But it’s been three-and-a-half years and that’s long enough.
‘To be honest, I’m disappointed. I was enjoying it.’
Mike Edwards, the Rangers chairman, said he still hoped to get Gallienne to change his mind.
‘I had two chats with him on Thursday and another today.
‘What I’ve said to him is that we’ll have a further chat when I get back on Monday week.’
‘He gets very frustrated when people don’t pull in the same direction as he’s pulling in.
‘It would be a bad loss. He’s done a damn good job for Rangers.’
Marquis said that Dave Brehaut would step up from assistant coach to take charge of the team for today’s home game against Sylvans.
‘At the moment, Dave’s going to assume the role of caretaker coach,’ said Marquis.
‘But we’ll keep trying to get him back.
‘We’re gutted. He’s put so much work into it, got us into the Wheway. But we’ve had a horrible couple of months. We’re still missing six very important players.
‘I’m shocked and everyone feels the same as me,’ said Marquis, who had no trouble pulling out the tributes.
‘He picked it [Rangers] up when it was on its knees and drove it forward.
‘He’s left now before seeing the job through.
‘They keep saying that one man doesn’t make a club but in this case it’s very close.
‘But I can understand his reasons.’
Parrott, the red-and-blacks’ star performer last season but who has missed much of the new campaign through injury, said: ‘Until I speak to him, I won’t accept it.
‘Without him it would be a bit of an uphill struggle.’
At the start of the month, Gallienne blamed himself for the club’s poor start to the season.
‘We’ve had a bad start, but that’s down to me because I’ve had a bad back and we had a poor pre-season.
‘We’re now paying for it but we’ll catch up. Now the [upgraded] pitch is sorted out and we’ve got money coming in, it’s all looking positive.’
Article posted on 30th September, 2006 - 12.00am
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