McCall, in first television interviews, came across as a broken and beaten man as Rangers boss but Motherwell fans should refrain from indulging in too much schadenfreude at his expense.It was McCall who took an 'only just' top six side in 2010 and turned us into cup finalists for our second appearance at the big show in 60 years, gave us a Champions League experience and league finishes unmatched for more than 70 years.
Yes, he made errors in the cups and was in charge for two of the most embarrassing results in our history but if the last few days have shown nothing else, it is that the ups and downs with Motherwell can be as sudden as they are fleeting.
In football the vast majority of spells with a club end in either failure or betrayal. McCall chose not to abandon ship to Sheffield United last summer – a decision both parties are likely to quietly regret – but when things went wrong this season, he chose to walk away when the club showed no sign of firing him.
McCall will take a lot of the responsibility for our poor league season and had we gone down he would rightly have been on the receiving end of severe criticism – despite having left the squad in the hands of someone else with more than half the campaign remaining.
It is all too easy as a fan to turn on former heroes. Scott McDonald and Stephen Pearson will testify to that from our current squad and there are a host of others in the past who may feel hard done by depending on their circumstances.
McCall did well for us – overall – but the play-off defeat his Rangers team suffered also showed just why his departure was so necessary.
No Motherwell fan will demand perfection and, given our resources, there is nothing wrong with making mistakes. So long as those mistakes are the basis of future improvement.
At Motherwell McCall oversaw first leg losses on the European stage almost as a matter of course. Losing to the teams we lost to was far from shameful but the naive way Rangers pushed forward on Thursday evening to be picked off was exactly reminiscent of our toils against Pana, Levante and Kuban.
McCall arguably got things right in the second leg. Rangers kept it tight initially and tested our defence with long balls – with a little luck, they'd have got the breakthrough.
When we defended correctly though, he had little choice but to gamble heavily with predictable consequences in the second half. Again, reminiscent of our toils against Pana, Levante and Kuban.
It is understandable that McCall will not be back at Fir Park any time soon given his personal circumstances but when he does reappear, he should be treated with respect rather than disdain; for what gave us and for knowing when to give up.
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