When a club the size of Rangers finds itself in its current predicament, the gun should point at EVERY person in the building.
Players who aren’t performing, running down their contracts or looking disinterested. The manager for his tactics and ability to get the most out of his squad. The board for spending too little to help the manager and improve the team. And of course, the sporting director on the signing of players and what he’s actually doing behind the scenes. The gun points to everybody. They ALL need to take their share of the flak and responsibility for their roles within the club.
And right now at Rangers, every one of them needs to be doing it better. Ross Wilson seems to be getting it in the neck from supporters. Due to poor results, he’s now under more scrutiny and I can understand that. But this theory that he’s the guy who solely identifies and signs all the players for Giovanni van Bronckhorst? I’m sorry, I just don’t buy it.
Of course, you can criticise the recruitment. But you can’t blame one man for it.
I don’t know how Gio and Ross work together or what their relationship is like. But do we genuinely believe that Ross’ remit is to sign every new player at Rangers? Surely not.
It can’t be that way. If that is the case, it’s a relationship between head coach and sporting director that is doomed to fail.
If things aren’t going well, the manager can blame the sporting director – because they’re not his players. And the sporting director can say to the manager: ‘Well, they were good players at other clubs so you’re to blame for the coaching’. That dynamic simply can’t work.
Is criticism of Ross fair? Of course it is. But signing players is a collaboration between the manager, his staff who will feed information and the sporting director.
They are all part of it. That’s my experience of the process, albeit not at clubs the size of Rangers.
I’ve spoken to chief scouts at top clubs around Europe. They provide information to the manager and sporting director as well before signing a player.
So it’s madness to believe that one guy controls it. That’s not the right way to operate and I don’t believe it’s how it works at Rangers.
Let’s be honest, the recruitment at the club for the last three transfer windows hasn’t exactly been a rip-roaring success. And the business done in the summer hasn’t been successful.
The team are nine points behind Celtic and have suffered heavy Champions League defeats. At least four of the seven signings haven’t hit the level required.
But it’s unfair to lay the blame purely at Wilson’s door. Everyone who has played a part deserves it in the neck.
One thing I’ve heard from fans is: ‘We’ve got a Dutch manager so why haven’t we signed Dutch players?’.
I get that, given Gio’s background, he has a Holland legend in Roy Makaay beside him along with Dave Vos who worked at Ajax. At Celtic, Ange Postecoglou has signed players from Japan and Australia that he knows well.
In 2008, I got back to Rangers because Walter Smith had worked with me at Scotland and thought I could add value for the club. Managers all over the world sign guys they know will impact their team. It’s not rocket science. But it’s not always easy, either.
Listen, I’d be surprised if Gio hadn’t made attempts to sign players from the Eredivisie. They’ve signed James Sands and Malik Tillman on loan, as well as the likes of Rabbi Matondo and Ridvan Yilmaz for decent money from Germany and Turkey respectively.
You do wonder if there aren’t players Gio and his staff have worked with previously in Holland who they could have got for the same outlay. Gio knows the demands at Rangers and what type of character and personality is required to succeed at the club.
So they must have looked at players in Holland who he feels could do a job. But for whatever reason, they’ve not been able to get them in. They’ve been linked with Xavi Simons, Joey Veerman and Danilho Doekho in recent years but haven’t got deals done.
You’d think the Dutch market would be affordable to them. Celtic signed Giorgos Giakoumakis from VVV-Venlo for less than £2million so they could certainly have dipped into it.
But all of these doubts and question marks just feed the theory that Gio isn’t the guy signing players at Ibrox and it’s all down to Ross. I’m not protecting Wilson here, by the way. I simply don’t believe that scenario of events can be the case
Are we seriously to believe that he said to Gio in the summer: ‘There’s Antonio Colak, John Souttar, Ben Davies, Tom Lawrence, Yilmaz, Matondo and Tillman – get them in the team and work with them’.
I’m just not buying it. That would be incredible.
But because of how it’s gone this season, that is now the opinion of a lot of Rangers fans who are upset at progress. It has led to serious focus on Ross and the job he’s doing. And that’s only right, just as it is for everyone inside that club right now.
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