Joey Barton has played down any chance of Rangers landing Alex Neil.
Alex Neil, manager of Preston North End
Former Rangers midfielder Joey Barton has taken to Twitter in order to suggest that the Gers have no chance of landing Preston North End manager Alex Neil.
Rangers parted company with manager Pedro Caixinha on Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the 1-1 home draw with Kilmarnock and only three days after losing 2-0 to Motherwell in the Scottish League Cup semi-final.
The Portuguese boss lasted just seven months in the Ibrox hot seat, with Rangers’ gamble on the former Nacional, Santos Laguna and Al-Gharafa manager backfiring in relatively swift fashion.
Graeme Murty has been placed in caretaker charge again, just as he was after Mark Warburton’s exit in February, and the search is now on for another new manager.
A number of Scottish managers have been touted for the job, and one name that fans have suggested over the last 24 hours is Preston North End boss Alex Neil.
Formerly of Norwich City, where he won promotion to the Premier League in 2015, Neil moved on to Preston over the summer, and has enjoyed a superb start to life at Deepdale.
The Scot, an ex-Hamilton player and manager, has lost just two league games with the Lilywhites, whilst developing young players such as Ben Pearson, Tom Barkhuizen and Sean Maguire and handing first-team opportunities to youth graduates Ben Davies and Josh Earl.
Neil’s stock is rising again, and whilst some Rangers fans may be keen to land him, former Gers midfielder Joey Barton has taken to Twitter to rule out any chance of Neil heading to Ibrox to replace Caixinha.
Barton believes there is no reason for Neil to leave Preston right now as he has North End going well in the Championship, whilst suggesting that Rangers would struggle to lure anybody over from a job in England right now, and they must target out of work managers instead.
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