McCoist called out for his double standards against Celtic

Another controversial example of one rule for Rangers but a different one for Celtic players came to light as Ally McCoist spoke on BT Sport’s Scottish Football Extra this week.

The Daily Record reported on the discussion between McCoist, Chris Sutton and host Darrell Currie. The focus was quite rightly on Neil Lennon’s shocking statement about some players not wanting to be at the club anymore. But McCoist displayed that usual Ibrox heritage view of wanting to set different rules for Rangers players in a similar situation from his hard and fast view of the Celtic squad.

When discussing the Celtic position McCoist was super clear on the video:

"“If there are players at the club who don’t want to be there, then they have to leave. It’s as simple as that.”"

Currie pressed McCoist further by offering a ‘What if it was Odsonne Edouard’ scenario, purely as an example. Again McCoist was unambiguous:

"”Unless he pledges himself for another season then he (Lennon) has no option but to get rid of him.”"

We can all have our views on the position and agree or disagree with McCoist’s views. He’s absolutely entitled to an opinion and whether that is wishful thinking to weaken Celtic or not will remain to be seen.

The BT Sport discussion then turned to Alfredo Morelos and all the talk of offers, deals and transfers. Steven Gerrard has already said the players head has been turned by it all and his focus in training and on the pitch in games has been affected. Morelos was left out of the last game for that very reason. McCoist’s views here were slightly different. He advocated getting Morelos back on the pitch as he is more likely to score goals than the new signings Roofe and Itten:

"“I still think Morelos has without doubt got more goals in him at this moment in time than the other two.”"

Currie as host picked up on the point that McCoist had earlier indicated his view in the discussion that Celtic players looking to leave shouldn’t be playing and had to leave. Double standard alert here as McCoist explained his view on playing Morelos:

"“At this moment in time, particularly the importance of the season you can’t be seen to cut your nose off to spite your face.“Because if there is goals in him and he is the best option then you have to play him, I think.”"

Sutton and Currie challenged McCoist about setting different rules for Rangers and Celtic players which he denied as you’d expect.

Everyone is pretty used to the enduring position of things being different for Rangers so the views of an ex player at Ibrox promoting a light blue tinted perspective is no surprise whatsoever.