Manager thanks Rangers for letting him sign a player with ‘massive’ potential

Manager thanks Rangers for letting him sign a player with ‘massive’ potential

As far as nightmarish debuts go, Jonathan Woodgate’s infamous performance for Real Madrid is still pretty much the standard. After waiting 13 months to make his first game for the Spanish giants, the injury-plagued centre-back instantly scored an own goal and received a red card in a debut performance that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Robby McCrorie, on his first appearance after leaving Rangers, did not have quite as bad an afternoon as Woodgate did in that fatal 2005 match against Athletic Bilbao. However, as the former Ibrox goalkeeper let a 25-yard strike slip past his grasp, McCrorie’s Kilmarnock debut did not start off well. According to Killie manager Derek McInnes, the good news is that McCrorie may be able to work these mistakes out in pre-season before the competitive season begins.

McInnes is certain that McCrorie will end up being an excellent piece of business for the Ayrshire club, implying that the former Scotland Under 21 international took a salary cut to get the type of regular first-team playing that proved out of reach in Glasgow.Robby McCrorie makes ‘sacrifice’ to leave Rangers
“I think we’ve done really well to pull this transfer off. Obviously its a permanent deal, really important to us,” the former Aberdeen boss tells Sky Sports of a man who had attempted to leave Rangers in January before Philippe Clement put a stop to it.

“Robby is a goalkeeper who has had a good reputation for a while now, he’s just not had that experience or that game time. Working at a big club, good players and good professionals, I think it was the right time for him to come and luckily we have been the benefactors of that.

“We knew at the end of last season that (former Bournemouth loanee) Will Dennis was leaving. We were looking for, ideally, our own goalkeeper rather than a loan. We asked the question a couple of times but we thought it was going to be out of our reach.

“So a lot of people have come a long way to make this deal happen. We’ve got to thank Rangers for the co-operation in this. Robby himself has made a huge sacrifice in terms of financials as well which says a lot about him.”

Robby is the second member of the McCrorie clan to work with McInnes.

The Rugby Park manager also worked with Ross McCrorie at Pittodrie, helping the former Rangers defender win a move to England with Bristol City. McCrorie won a spot in Scotland’s Euro 2024 squad after a successful Championship campaign. Kilmarnock sign goalkeeper with’massive potential’. “I understand the type of boy we’re getting. A good family that is very hungry. “I think we’ve done really well to pull this transfer off,” McInnes says, with McCrorie departing The Gers after only seven first-team appearances for the club he joined over a decade ago. “I think there has been some resentment that he hasn’t gotten more playing time. For a long time, Ranger shave had top goalkeepers and it’s no shame in Robby not getting ahead of those.

“But he has to get on with his career at the age he’s at and build that career for himself and come out of the shadows a bit.”

Scotland boss Steve Clarke confirmed last year than the national team were keeping tabs on McCrorie.

He added, however, that McCrorie would struggle to force his way into the Tartan Army picture as long as he was stuck behind Jack Butland in Rangers’ pecking order.

Could that move to Kilmarnock be the first step towards McCrorie establishing himself as one of the first picks for his country?
“We feel he’s got a lot of good attributes and the potential is massive for him,” McInnes tells me. “We believe we have a top asset on our hands, a goalie with the potential to perform great things. “Not only with us. Hopefully, he can break into the national team.” Rangers compensated for McCrorie’s departure by bringing ‘excellent’ Liam Kelly back to Ibrox after his contract with Motherwell expired.

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