Journo predicts ‘question may appear’ on Rangers backroom role amid Michael Beale ‘pear shaped’ verdict
A “question may appear” over whether Rangers look to appoint a sporting director after the club’s summer recruitment under Michael Beale went “pear shaped”, says Daily Record journalist Ben Banks.
Banks wrote a feature for the newspaper’s online edition on Tuesday (10 October) looking at seven questions for the Gers as they look to appoint Beale’s successor.
One of them was whether they would now look to step up the search for a successor to Ross Wilson, who left Ibrox to join Nottingham Forest, after the nine signings made under Beale during the summer have had a mixed level of success.
“Since Ross Wilson’s exit for Nottingham Forest earlier this year left this position vacated, there’s been a constant rumbling that the door has not been shut on a replacement,” Banks wrote.
“(Nico) Raskin and (Todd) Cantwell’s arrivals looked to have shown Beale was capable of identifying the players need but the summer shopping spree already looks pear shaped, and perhaps in hindsight a firm figurehead would have helped him out.
“It’s the norm for most clubs at the highest levels – and even in some of the lower divisions. Cases like Ange Postecoglou at Celtic where he took the major lead on recruitment as well as managing is rare, and success off it even rarer still. The new man may want to focus on the squad rather than getting embroiled in tasks away from the pitch so the sporting director question may appear.”
No-brainer
Managers and coaches work in all kinds of different ways when it comes to player recruitment.
Traditionally, it used to be recognised that a sporting director or director of football was the kind of model used more predominantly on the continent and British managers liked a more hands-on involved with signing players.
But let’s be honest, if you want to be a major player now you have to have some of oversee of footballing decisions and recruitment, and that figure needs a whole team of people working for them – analysts, scouting teams etc.
Football is global and quite frankly if you are not exploring the different markets out there to bring in the best talent then you are going to be stagnant, and frankly Rangers’ recruitment shows that a complete re-think is needed.
Bar Jack Butland, have any of the nine players brought in during the summer by Beale shown they are worthy of a spot in the team? Abdallah Sima too perhaps given the winger is at least getting among the goals. But frankly Rangers need to get with the times.
In other Rangers news, Barry Ferguson has named Nigel Pearson as a surprise candidate in the Ibrox manager race.