Muscat

Callum: This is becoming the worst disgrace in the history of Scottish football. When are the powers that be at Ibrox going to realise that if it is Thelwell and Stewart that continue to be the stumbling block then they have to be removed immediately? Three potential managers have turned us down in a little more than a week. Shocking and embarrassing.

Michael: Thelwell and Stewart want too much of an input into first-team affairs and this is what seems to be the breakdown. Both of them need to go. If Andrew Cavenagh and Paraag Marathe wanted Gerrard and Muscat then the deal should have happened – after all, they are the ‘bosses’.

Isobel: The club knew Muscat’s situation at the outset, so why go ahead at all if they were so desperate to get someone in ASAP? It is utter incompetence and breathtaking arrogance to believe they could get him in earlier given he was on the cusp of a second title. The whole management group including the Americans have dragged a proud club into the gutter in this continuing omnishambles. It is absolutely disgraceful and I actually feel for the players in all this, left leaderless, rudderless and hung out to dry.

Neil: It’s becoming clear that if the new manager wants control of recruitment then Thelwell is going to be the problem. Time for the owners to take control and show they are capable of running the club.

Stuart: I’ve supported this club since my late dad took me to my first game back in the late 1970s, spent thousands travelling across the UK and Europe to watch them and this is quite ‘simply the worst’ I’ve ever seen from top to bottom. Poor boardroom choices, poor management and poor recruitment. Thelwell and Stewart have to go as they’re simply filling their pockets whilst making a complete mockery of what was once a proud club.

Sonny: Sack the board. The Americans have somehow managed to turn the club into a bigger shambles than the previous administration, which I thought was impossible. We’re a laughing stock and there’s hardly an array of great candidates remaining. Embarrassing.

Brian: What a shambles and what an absolute shocker from those in charge – the blame must lie with Stewart and Thewell, who could not even make a double act as a pantomime horse. I am at a complete loss bordering on despair.

Alexander: The main problem appears to be Thelwell and Stewart. If these two are the reason we can’t get a deal finalised then get rid of them. Rangers are too big to be run in such a haphazard way. The supporters aren’t going to take much more of this nonsense, maybe an empty Ibrox and not renewing season tickets will wake the owners up.

During a 19-year playing career that yielded 123 bookings and 12 red cards, Muscat was once branded the “most hated man in football”.

Post-retirement, he revealed, external former Rangers manager Alex McLeish did not trust him to play in an Old Firm derby during his brief spell at Ibrox.

It is to the Australian’s credit that he has since gone on to somewhat shake off his hot-head image in an impressive 13 years in management.

His glowing CV attracted Rangers two years ago, but he reportedly missed out on the job when the club opted for Philippe Clement instead.

At that time, former Rangers team-mate Neil McCann told BBC Scotland that the Ibrox side would be getting someone with “presence” who “understands the league, the intensity, the rivalry and how to get the job done”.

Muscat was then first-team boss at Yokohama F Marinos, where he won 2022 J-League after taking over from Ange Postecoglou following his exit for Celtic.

He also succeeded Postecoglou at Melbourne Victory after a period working under the current Nottingham Forest head coach.

It was in Melbourne where Muscat’s managerial career began, winning the A-League Championship twice in five-and-a-half years before his move to Japan.

Runners-up spots in the J-League in 2021 and 2023 bookended his 2022 triumph in Yokohama.

Muscat became a title winner in a third different country last year in China, and he is on the verge of another with just four games remaining as his side sit top with a two-point lead.

Across his managerial tenures in Australia, Japan and China, his win rate stands at 54%, with his teams scoring an average of 1.9 goals per game while conceding 1.2.

His Shanghai Port side scored 96 times in a 30-game league-winning campaign last year.

Those numbers suggest this is a coach who can win while implementing a front-foot approach. How that translates to Scottish football is unclear, though.