What is the latest on Rangers’ Sporting Director hunt?
Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart is leading the hunt for the club’s next sporting director alongside consultancy group Sportology, who remain in the final stages of an external review of the club’s football department that started in January. Gretar Steinsson, the 49ers’ group technical director, is not believed to have a formal role in the interview process with the takeover by a US-led consortium ongoing. Steinsson attended all three of the club’s matches before the international break, including a 3-1 win for Barry Ferguson’s side in Istanbul during the first-leg of their Europa League tie with Fenerbahce.
The priority for the club and Stewart is to make the right decision rather than the quick one and prioritise a correct fit for the sporting director role. As recently explored by the Rangers Review it has proven a costly decision to tear down, and now rebuild, the role that Ross Wilson fulfilled from 2019-2023.
“That role will put someone right at the top of the football tree; an experienced football person who will be responsible for all aspects of the football club to ensure they’re working together towards fulfilling our holistic joined-up plan,” Stewart said to RangersTV last month, while "complimenting" technical director Nils Koppen.
Beyond anything, the Ibrox club have lacked a figurehead with responsibility for judging managerial performance in recent seasons with that responsibility falling upon shoulders not qualified to acutely judge the nuances of the dugout. Rangers have been a club playing catch-up with their own ideas at the top level of the club and only long-term safeguarding can prevent that.
Rangers do not exist in a vacuum and like any business subject to the change in personnel and vision that’s been seen since 2021, decision-making has often been confused as a result of alterations in structure, responsibility and vision. For example at the end of January, there appeared club-wide buy-in to trust in youth before the end of the season, linked to changes in the academy, but interim boss Ferguson has favoured experience in matches managed to date. The club are already well down the line with changes in their recruitment and academy plans, alterations that require time and buy-in to flourish.
There is no doubt that the Ibrox outfit requires the right fit in this role, whether it be in the mould of an ex-player with real knowledge of the game or an experienced figurehead who has the final say on sporting decisions. Equally, time does not stop in football and it is a little under four months until the Champions League qualifiers kick-off in July. That does not afford an incoming executive with much time to appoint a permanent manager.
How are Rangers planning for the summer transfer window?
Multiple sources have relayed to the Rangers Review that summer transfer plans are fluid given the uncertain environment surrounding the club at present. Even if there is plenty of external optimism about what the future can look like at Ibrox there is little internal clarity about its exact nature given the ongoing takeover. For example, Rangers will likely have a new manager, sporting director and owners for the 2025/26 campaign - all of whom are key stakeholders in the direction and intention of what could prove another significant summer window.
During the 2024 summer transfer window one of the issues encountered by recruitment staff was the sheer volume of targets who reached the final stage of the identification process, thought to be near 40. The extra workload necessary to enact the checks and balances for potential transfers was not an ideal situation given the need to start winning at Rangers before the transfer window closes. With vital European qualifiers in July this time around, once more there is a lot of work to do in a short period.
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What’s more, several staffing roles still have to be fulfilled at the Rangers Training Centre, including a head of football operations. Clubs are normally well into their summer plan by the time the clocks go back in March and while plenty of background work and planning continues at Ibrox, staff are still planning for a variety of outcomes.
It is true that Nils Koppen, the club’s technical director, remains in place responsible for squad building and recruitment. The Belgian can point to Hamza Igamane, Connor Barron, Jefte, Clinton Nsiala and Vaclav Cerny as particular standouts from last year’s business. Koppen will continue to manage the academy and analysis departments in line with the promotion he was handed last year. However, as reported previously, the recruitment head was already performing several said responsibilities behind the scenes before becoming technical director.
Rangers have signed talented players and find themselves with a squad that boasts assets. Nico Raskin, Mohamed Diomande, Igamane and Jefte stand out at present. The club was also present at the latest Transferoom meeting in Berlin at the start of this week. Equally, young players must continue to play between now and the end of the campaign to develop and improve the club's talent-production reputation. The current squad does not require nearly the overhaul of last summer but undoubtedly there is a need for additions alongside considering the possibility of a major sale.
How realistic is it that Barry Ferguson stays manager beyond May?
Barry Ferguson’s appointment until the end of the season was painted as a temporary measure the day after Clement’s dismissal last month. Stewart was committed to not making a change in the dugout, in order to provide an incoming sporting director with time and space to assess the situation in the dugout. However, results ultimately made the Belgian manager’s situation untenable.
While Ferguson hasn’t talked up the full-time manager’s job in public, results, like last Sunday’s Old Firm win, will not do his chances on the outside any harm. If Ferguson continues to perform well over the final two months of the season the incoming sporting director could face a difficult early call in terms of his future. Is it realistic to assume that Ferguson, who has taken to the role comfortably, will settle back into an ambassadorial role next season and not desire the top job? Is there a situation where Ferguson is handed the reigns while a sporting director finds his feet over summer and considers what comes next?
In theory, the club have somewhat pressed pause, potentially to detrimental effect, on their long-term strategy at present - to prioritise young talent and bring down the average age of the starting 11. It was a process finding its feet by the end of the January window with several B team players promoted to the first-team, Findlay Curtis signing a new deal and Clinton Nsiala emerging as a genuine talent in defence. Now, Nsiala hasn’t started a match since Ferguson substituted him 30 minutes into a debut win at Kilmarnock while Rafael Fernandes, a 22-year-old defender very much in the Nsiala mould of signing, has missed recent squads.
Of course, John Souttar and Leon Balogun provide Ferguson and his staff with answers and ability now. Similarly, Tom Lawrence stayed on the bench as Rangers turned to Curtis, Bailey Rice and Paul Nsio against Manchester United and USG earlier this year. Now the experienced Welshman appears ahead in the pecking order but is out of contract in the summer.
Ferguson has lifted the mood and results at Rangers in his short spell to date, rewarding players and staff with the first week of the international break off following a testing game schedule since last November that featured no winter break. He should receive credit for two huge results - defeating Jose Mourinho and Celtic - especially given the testing turnaround last week. The biggest audition for Ferguson, you sense, is not proving an ability to win these big-game outings but fixtures where the club dominate the ball. Games away at Dundee and at home to Hibs proceed the double-header with Athletic Bilbao. It is these fixtures that will show if he and his staff have the tools to break down defences and offer domestic answers.
It continues to be the case that the appointment of a sporting director will supersede the next man in the dugout. All Ferguson can do in the meantime is make the most of the opportunity he has to date.