Rangers chief executive Jim Gillespie today outlined to supporters of the Ibrox club why Derek McInnes was appointed this summer and revealed it was because he was a “Klopp-style manager”.
McInnes, who took Hearts to within minutes of their first Scottish title in 66 years last season, was lured back to Govan in June after German head coach Danny Rohl departed for Red Bull Salzburg in Austria.
The former St Johnstone, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock man has endured a difficult start to his tenure – his new-look team has drawn with Dundee United away and lost to Hibernian at home in the William Hill Premiership and lost the first leg of a Europa League qualifier to Jagiellonia Bialystok in Poland.
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Many of the supporters who attended a shareholder meeting in a Glasgow city centre hotel this morning expressed their unhappiness with summer recruitment and the performances of the team.
One fan asked chairman Andrew Cavenagh, vice-chairman Paraag Marathe and Gillespie to explain their reasons for bring in McInnes - and the latter revealed it was because his teams played the same attacking football that Jurgen Klopp advocated during his time at Liverpool.
“It’s very simple,” said Gillespie. “There are two different types of managers – you get a Klopp-type manager and you get a Guardiola-type manager.
“I think in terms of Rangers’ game model and what fans’ expectations are we wanted a Klopp-type manager, who was on the front foot and played aggressive football and created chances and scored goals. Derek McInnes is a Klopp-style manager.
“Underneath that is the structure that he wants to play, the conversations about how successful he has been. He is just off the back of a great season at Hearts. The character the Hearts team showed.
“Some of the characteristics that he has, his Scottish experience, he has managed over 500 games I think, were a factor. So there were lots of challenging conversations and questions, there was also analysis of games by the recruitment team.
“We have always got a list of managers who we believe fit our squad and game model. At the time, when the managerial appointment came about, there was only one name that ticked all the boxes for us to go and get and it was Derek.
“We have strong beliefs – and I know we have had difficult results – that Derek will bring success to the club. It wasn’t just get Derek McInnes."
Gillespie added, "In April, when we were away in Spain, we were talking about managers. Because you just don’t know when, if you’re playing really well, someone will come in and take them and if you’re doing really badly, you have to make a change. So you always have to have the contingency and Derek McInnes was high on the list for a long time.
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“And when the opportunity came up through conversations with Danny to move on, it was a conversation we revisited regarding the skillsets, the characteristics. Do they fit the game model? Do they understand the challenges going forward? Do they buy into the club blueprint? How do they fit in with the rest of the management team? All these things that you do.
“You always like to see the whites of people’s eyes because that tells you if they have the passion and we had lots of conversations around that. Although it took a week in a sense, it could have taken a day. But we wanted to make sure. And Derek to be fair had a lot of questions he wanted to have answered as well.
“So that was the process. No one gets a free ride. You don’t get a job at Rangers unless you’ve gone through a thorough process and we believe we have the right person for that role.”
