Rangers legend Ally McCoist has slammed his former club’s pursuit of a director of football as “absolute nonsense”.
The Gers are on the lookout for a director of football and were knocked back by Southampton‘s head of scouting and recruitment Ross Wilson earlier this week. The club are currently without a permanent manager after Mark Warburton’s exit last month, and former manager McCoist believes bringing in a director of football is something that won’t help Rangers.
“A lot of people are talking about a director of football but I just think that is absolute nonsense,” warned the 54-year-old, as quoted by the Scotsman.
McCoist has offered little support to the idea of appointing a director of football at the Ibrox outfit, stressing that budgetary constraints mean the role is not the solution to the club’s current problems.
“Ross Wilson might be the best director of football on the planet but what’s his budget at Southampton? He might come up to Rangers and not have a budget. Work that one out. I’m not blowing the concept completely out of the water but it’s absolute garbage for people to think a director of football is going to solve the club’s problems.
“Jock Stein, Walter Smith and Alex Ferguson didn’t need a director of football. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea but it won’t solve the problem,” he added.
Rangers are close to appointing the Portuguese Pedro Caixinha as their new manager. They are presently being guided by Under-20s coach Graeme Murty, and results have been mixed under the 42-year-old so far.
While McCoist has admitted that he knows not a lot about Caixinha, he believes the problems at Ibrox run deeper than just the manager.
“In terms of the new manager, I’m probably in the same boat as 95 per cent of Rangers supporters in that I don’t know a lot about him [Caixinha]. But anyone is a risk in that job at the moment, anyone. I don’t think the manager is the biggest thing needing sorted out. It goes a lot deeper than that.”
The detest for a continental model at Rangers from McCoist is understandable, but such a way of operating may help the club plug the gap between themselves and Celtic in the long run. Recruitment needs to be shrewd for a club working with means well below Celtic, and appointing a director of football may allow them to widen their reach and compete with their Old Firm rivals.
Rangers play Celtic for the fourth time this season on Sunday. The Light Blues are currently third in the table, six points behind second-placed Aberdeen.
It has been a mixed return to the top flight for the Gers this season. While challenging with Celtic for the title was the ambition at the start of the campaign, attentions have now turned to a strong second place finish and reaching the Scottish Cup final after a period of struggle during Warburton’s last few weeks at the club.
Celtic stand in the way of the Light Blues’ quest for back-to-back Scottish Cup final appearances, while the gap between themselves and Aberdeen can be narrowed when they travel to Pittodrie on 9th April.
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