Stevie Smith looks set to lead an interim Rangers coaching team for Saturday afternoon’s Scottish Premiership match at Ibrox against Dundee United, with incoming boss Kevin Muscat’s arrival delayed by the ongoing Chinese Super League, where his current side Shanghai Port are in the latter stages of a league title showdown.
Under 19’s head coach Smith will take the side alongside a coaching team of former Rangers youth player and current youth coach Brian Gilmour, head of performance Rhys Owen and the only surviving member of sacked head coach Russell Martin’s backroom team, goalkeeping coach Sal Bibbo for the weekend’s fixture, which could end with Rangers 14 points behind league leaders Hearts if results go wrong.
Smith, 40, came through the youth ranks at Rangers and made his debut against Hearts under the management of Alex McLeish in 2004 and played 110 appearances across two spells (2004-2010 and 2013-15) being part of three top tier league title winning sides, one third tier league winning side, as well as collecting both a Scottish Cup and League Cup winners medal and has been back at the Rangers Training Centre since 2021 as a youth coach and was also part of former teammate Steven Davis’s interim backroom team in 2023 after Michael Beales removal from the managers role.
Smith has spoken about how his time as a youth at Ibrox and breaking into the first team can benefit the youth prospects currently at Ibrox, following his sides CAS Elite league win over Kilmarnock at Auchenhowie late last month. Following this match he spoke to The Rangers Journal where he said: “That's why I'm here. I think I do have that experience of being a player here. Whether it's come through the academy or being at the first team side of the building.
“There are not many things that they'll go through that I've not been through myself or played with players that have been through similar things. I think that experience helps me but it's never ever about what I did as a player here or the things that I achieved. It's always about them.
“It has to be about them and how can we make them better and how can we push them to get to that side of the building and stay there.”
His side, whilst performing well at youth level, have lost all five of their Challenge Cup ties against senior clubs from SPFL League 1 and 2, including a 1-0 defeat away to fourth tier side Dumbarton last Saturday after which he spoke to Rangers TV, where he said: “I don't care what age you are when you turn up with a Rangers team. I always turn up expecting to win. That's just my expectations.
“I will never change for anybody or anybody's age. But over the next few days, we'll probably sit back and look at that and say, it's good that we've got such a young squad and they're learning quickly and they're adapting to these environments. But on the day, I'm turning up with the same ideas as I've always got, and that's to turn up and win.”
While the mentality seems to be correct some Smith, a question remains over what style of play he will take into the match against the Arabs on Saturday, after the Kilmarnock game he spoke about how his team’s need to be symmetrical to the first team, at that time under the guidance of Martin, and it remains unclear whether he will change this now the former boss has departed or whether the game plan will remain the same for the time being, on this he said: “The first team staff have been excellent in terms of passing on information, but they've not been adamant that we have to play the exact same as them.
“But what we can't do is send players round the corner that don't know the information that the manager's looking for. It is a bit of balance and it’s about speaking to the coaching staff, watching games and taking that information and giving it to the players.”
Smith did work under some top Rangers managers including McLeish and Walter Smith and has taken lessons from each as a player into his coaching philosophy. As well as working under Beale, Phillipe Clement and Barry Ferguson as a coach. He also played under Steve Clarke at Kilmarnock so can be more rigid and defensive if needs be as both the Scotland boss and Walter were.
The true answer may be somewhere in the middle, with some similar messages as the previous coaching team as to not change too much too soon, but with some obvious changes being made to stop the same mistakes and shortcomings continuing post-Martin. Smith is the man with the power, albeit for a weekend only, let's see if he can stop the rot.
Smith will take charge this weekend in what is expected to be his only match in charge, with incoming assistant to Muscat, Neil McCann set to take the reigns from Monday onwards until the Australian’s arrival at the end of the Chinese season on November 22nd.