Rangers' recruitment under Thelwell and Stewart was appalling... I'm not surprised they were sacked, says McCoist

Rangers legend Ally McCoist has backed his former club’s decision to sack both Patrick Stewart and Kevin Thelwell - describing recruitment under the duo as ‘appalling’.

The pair had been the target of intense supporter anger after a disastrous start to the season in which Rangers won only one of their first eight league games and suffered seven consecutive European defeats following a much-criticised summer recruitment drive.

Although domestic form has improved since Danny Rohl replaced Russell Martin as manager last month, the Ibrox club’s American owners have acted decisively to dispose of both Stewart and Thelwell as they try to get the club back on track.

Having had time to assess the landscape at Rangers since their summer takeover, chairman Andrew Cavenagh and vice-chairman Parag Marathe are now leading the search for new incumbents ‘that align with the vision for the next chapter’.

Rangers legend McCoist insists the move had been a long time coming.

‘The departures of Patrick Stewart and Kevin Thelwell are not a shock, not a surprise,’ said the former Ibrox striker and manager. ‘I’ve been constant with this all along, the recruitment has been appalling, really. It has been appalling. Not poor, not bad. Appalling.

‘We have signed players this year, and not one of them has been better than any of the players we have let go. So that’s one of the reasons that we are where we are.

‘We’ve signed one or two centre-backs, neither of them are as good as Leon Balogun. We’ve played a couple of boys at left-back, none of them are as good as Ridvan Yilmaz or Jefte. We signed the big boy up front, Youssef Chermiti, who will not score as many goals as Cyriel Dessers or Hamza Igamane.

‘Djeidi Gassama has played well. And he’s without doubt the best signing that we’ve made. However, he isn’t any better than Vaclav Cerny.

‘So, when you put it like that, it’s pretty straightforward. You’re signing players that aren’t as good as the players you’re letting go. Now that can only be a recipe for one thing, and it isn’t success.

‘It is not success. Look at the centre-backs, we had Conor Goldson and Balogun, solid boys, boys that went to the European final. You had Morelos up front, you had Ryan Kent. These are good, good players that are miles better than we’ve got at this moment in time. So the recruitment has to stand up and be scrutinised and accounted for. And it hasn’t been good enough.

‘So the decision effectively isn’t a surprise. I would expect the management or the ownership to probably say that fan protest wasn’t the be-all and end-all but you also have to listen to the fans.

‘I thought there was too much water under the bridge for them to survive, and I think that it’s no major surprise to me that it’s happened.’

McCoist added that the decision proved Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises are prepared to be ruthless at Ibrox.

‘I think the owners have maybe got a little bit of a shock at the reaction from the fans, media, and everybody,’ McCoist told TalkSPORT Bet. ‘They’ve shown they’ll be ruthless and they won’t stop in pursuit of excellence and take Rangers back to a level where they should be and where they belong.’