New boy McLeish blows into town like Alex

Eighteen years ago, plain old Alex Ferguson slipped inobtrusively out of a side door at Ibrox, his path and that of Rangers irreversibly separated. There was no escape, though, for Alex McLeish on Tuesday evening.

The man appointed as Rangers' new manager was ushered out of the main entrance where hundreds of fans were waiting for him. McLeish knows there is no hiding place in his new job.

McLeish had phoned Sir Alex on Monday night to ask whether he should leave Hibernian and take the offer to succeed Dick Advocaat. Ferguson the manager rejected similar overtures from Ibrox in 1983, preferring to stay with Aberdeen – where a towering redhead called McLeish was the cornerstone of his defence – but Ferguson the mentor offered different advice: don't do as I do, do as I say.

"Fergie told me to take it, he said it was the offer of a lifetime," explained McLeish, who cut a relaxed figure as he sat in Rangers' new £14m training complex on the edge of Glasgow. McLeish eschews "Sir" when it comes to Ferguson, even now, it's simply "gaffer".

The former Scotland player could not offer a greater contrast to the authoritarian leadership of Ferguson or Advocaat. At 42, he is a young manager but his first meeting with Rangers' multinational squad carried an unequivocal message. "I told them them, I'm the gaffer – no one else."

Advocaat's move to director of football at Rangers after three-and-a-half years in charge of the team has prompted many observers to say that McLeish will have his hands tied. British football has not enjoyed many joint-partnerships: Gordon Strachan – a former Aberdeen team-mate of McLeish – saw his relationship with Ron Atkinson founder after the latter moved upstairs at Coventry. Much closer to home, the John Barnes-Kenny Dalglish era at Celtic seemed to have signalled the death knell for all manager-director of football associations.

Comparisons with Parkhead irked David Murray, the Rangers chairman, who insisted there was a difference between Dalglish and his director of football. "As far as I know, Dick doesn't play golf," responded Murray. The difference, however, is not in the senior partner, but the junior one.

McLeish is no Barnes. He lost his rookie status long ago, by serving his time at Motherwell and then Hibernian, whom he guided to the Scottish Cup final last season and within a whisker of stealing runners-up spot from Advocaat in in the Scottish Premier League – yet by spending just a 20th of the Dutchman's £40m outlay.

"It was not me who decided on the system," McLeish said on Friday. "The chairman and Dick Advocaat did that. I'm simply the winner, who is at Rangers because of what they chose to do. Who knows why the system has not worked in Britain? But it does, abroad. People have said Dick Advocaat will be hanging over me like a vulture, but I would not be at this club if it were not for him. I don't see him as a threat. I know I will get a free hand to make decisions, but I would be foolish to ignore someone of his experience."

It is McLeish's relative youth which has disturbed some elements within the Rangers support. Ferguson was only a year older when he turned down the manager's job but the Rangers of 1983 – not even the fourth-best team in Scotland then – was a different beast to the one which is now the 16th richest club in the world with a turnover of £50m. "I know I have come here without a CV like Dick Advocaat, Louis van Gaal or Fergie and I understand that Rangers fans wanted a bigger name but I have the desire to succeed."

Advocaat has bequeathed a mixed legacy to McLeish. A Uefa Cup tie with Feyenoord – and a possible quarter-final tie with Leeds United – beckon, but the title is almost a forlorn hope and McLeish, as a native Glaswegian, knows that in this city being first is everything. "We are behind Celtic and we have to get above them," declared McLeish. "That is what Rangers, and Celtic, are about. The players who come here have to develop a strong mentality and realise that this is not like other countries – if you're second, you'll get stick."