How might four Bears fare in Rangers' hour of need?

In beaming up four Rangers men to plug the gaps left behind by Philippe Clement's fallen enterprise, chief executive Patrick Stewart has decided, somewhat predictably, to go where many have gone before at Ibrox.

The club's fixation in employing ex-players as coaches hit a new level on Monday. How many Rangers men does it take to change a club? Turns out it's four, albeit as part of an interim collective.

Barry Ferguson, who has managed Clyde, Kelty Hearts and Alloa Athletic, is head coach until the end of the season. He hasn't held a managerial position since leaving Alloa three years ago. It's fair to say that Ferguson's stellar era at Rangers as a player did a whole lot of heavy lifting in his employment as caretaker boss.

He's supported by Neil McCann, a terrific BBC pundit and a big personality. His managerial jobs were at Dundee in 2017-18 and as Inverness Caledonian Thistle caretaker in 2021. McCann is bright and energetic and has been brutally honest in his punditry about Rangers' weaknesses.

Billy Dodds, another respected Sportsound voice, is a part of the temporary regime too. Like McCann, he's been outspoken on where Rangers have been going wrong under Clement. Of the four coaches, he has had the most success by far.

As assistant coach at Ross County, Dodds won the League Cup in 2016 and, as manager, he took Caley Thistle to the Scottish Cup final in 2023.

The fourth man is Allan McGregor, a legend of the club in goals but whose coaching credentials are thin, to put it kindly.

McGregor has kept a pretty low profile since he retired as a player. He hasn't given off the impression of a man desperately keen to get involved on a training ground, but here he is. Another Bear in the big house.

From elsewhere in Scottish football there will be derision at the old guard being sent for in something of a blind panic. Was John "Bomber" Brown unavailable? This is where Rangers are right now, though.

With a review of the club's operations in train, a sporting director to find and a new manager to recruit, they have gone to the short-terms option of a Bear Scramble - men who have an intimate knowledge of the club and the league.

Clement's credibility ran out when his team lost to St Mirren on Saturday, a 10th time this season, even outside of Celtic games, when Rangers failed to beat domestic opposition. It was such a limp performance on the back of the loss to Queen's Park that he couldn't hope to survive it.

The Belgian is a strong character, but he looked hopelessly diminished on Saturday evening. Booed to the rafters by the supporters, the news of his exit came as no surprise.

The Ibrox Four have to pick up the pieces now. Their in-tray must be in danger of collapsing under the weight of things they must do in order to make their months a success, which, in their position, is a relative concept. What can they achieve ahead of a possible takeover and a new managerial regime moving in?

It's supposed to be fun, but too many of these Rangers players look hesitant and scared, taking easy options instead of doing the brave thing in possession.

That's a by-product of pressure and the consequences of failure, so the new coaching ticket had better lighten the mood. The weight of the world appears to be on the shoulders of these players and Clement's day-to-day intensity will probably not have helped.

The players look broken. There's a job of coaching and a job of psychology to be done here. They need direction and motivation.

As much as tactical issues, they need their heads cleared first. The new coaches need to lift the mood with positivity and energy and hope like hell they can galvanise a beaten dressing room.

It's been said that Rangers are a team of moments, which is kind of true. They rely heavily on Vaclav Cerny to do something. If it's not Cerny, it's Hamza Igamane and, if it's not him, then, er, who else is there?

Igamane is a talent, no doubt about it, but he's gone quiet. No goals in seven games is a terrible drop-off for a guy who scored 10 in his previous 12. He's young and maybe the grim mood at Rangers has got to him, which makes the next point crucial.

They can't give them domestic trophies, but they can provide some reason to believe that next season might be better. McCann and Dodds have spent all season pointing out weaknesses in Rangers' defensive structure and in their attacking shape. Now the heat is on them to actually do something about it.

It would have been easy for them to stay in the studio and comment from a safe space - talk is cheap - but they've abandoned the safety net and deserve a lot of credit for that.

They have to improve players. Clement did that in a blistering start to his time at Ibrox, but he fell away badly after that.

Once the interim team moves on, they have to be able to point to numerous players and say that they're in a better place to cope with the strains.

When the managerial team arrive in the summer, they need to have more substantial characters in their dressing room. More leaders. More guys with the confidence to speak and problem-solve mid-game. They're all too timid now. Toughening up the mentality is an achievable goal for the interim crew.

It wasn't games against Celtic - or any on the testing fields of Europe - that did for Clement. It was the relentless toil of trying to break down organised teams who defended deep and with discipline and organisation.

Celtic nearly always find a way because they have a manager and senior players who have nous. Clement struggled more and more as the season went on. His inability to win games against St Mirren (two defeats), Queen's Park, Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, Hearts, Dundee United, Motherwell, Hibernian and Dundee is what did for him.

The temporary coaching ticket need to crack the code of the low block. If they do, the skies will brighten somewhat.

Clement did a terrific job in getting Rangers into the top-eight of the Europa League. An automatic last 16 spot was hard-earned and well-deserved. Those types of games where Rangers were the counter-attacking underdog were the ones that Clement got right.

They have Jose Mourinho's Fenerbahce next week and the week after. These are Rangers' cup finals now. Fenerbahce have Fred (although suspended for the first leg), Filip Kostic (from the Eintracht Frankfurt Europa League final team), Sofyan Amrabat (of Morocco World Cup 2023 fame), Edin Dzeko and Dusin Tadic.

Knocking them out would be a massive achievement. It would mean Rangers' season would still have relevance and the caretaker crew would have feelgood and something to build on.