‘Perfect scapegoat’, ‘Excuses’ – Amoruso slams ex-Rangers manager over decision
Former Rangers captain Lorenzo Amoruso has savaged ex-boss Dick Advocaat for deciding to strip him of the Gers captaincy in 2000 – and claimed he was the “perfect scapegoat” for the then-Gers manager.
After being knocked out of the Champions League by Monaco, Advocaat decided to appoint a young Barry Ferguson as skipper as punishment for a catastrophic mistake Amoruso made against the Monte Carlo side.
Amoruso admitted he had no problems with Ferguson after being stripped of the armband but revealed the excuses Advocaat trotted out still make him angry now.
“People have been saying that myself with Barry, we had problems. Not at all. Definitely not for the armband,” Amoruso told BT Sport‘s David Tanner, as quoted by the Scottish Sun.
“I think at that time, I was for (Advocaat) the perfect scapegoat.
“I said to him: ‘What I understand is last year, two years ago, we were winning, and I was captain anyway.
“‘So what’s the problem about the armband? My attitude won’t change because I have the armband on’.
“And he said, ‘No, I can see you’re not performing well’, blah blah blah.
“Excuses. So many excuses that, honestly, even thinking about them, I get angry.”
Ferguson would go on to carve his name into Ibrox folklore lifting five Scottish titles, five Scottish Cups and five Scottish League Cups over two spells with the Light Blues.
Despite losing the armband to Ferguson, Amoruso stayed at Ibrox for another three years before joining Premier League Blackburn for £4million in 2003.
Football Insider verdict:
There was more to Amoruso losing the armband than met the eye although Advocaat could probably argue he was vindicated by the career Ferguson went on to enjoy at Ibrox. Amoruso not having the captaincy didn’t really change anything on the pitch as the big Italian was just as vocal after as he was before and continued to pull rank well after he was no longer skipper. History has shown Advocaat was far from good at dealing with players who weren’t the flavour of the month but the Little General still managed to get results so he must have been doing something right.
In other Rangers news, an outspoken BBC pundit has slammed this Gers player after the draw with Motherwell, claiming he was “unbelievably bad”.
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