There are two big questions on the lips of Rangers fans as new manager Philippe Clement settles into life at Ibrox.
One is who will be, and will there be, a Director of Football, while the second is will Clement get a ‘Rangers-minded’ man on his coaching staff.
We have covered a bit of the DoF idea before, and will do so later, but for this one it’s the ‘Rangers Man’ that many Rangers supporters want to see behind the manager, giving him some views and context inside the club given that he is an outsider coming in.
The whole talk of Kevin Muscat as a ‘Rangers man’ was a bit thin given he only played 22 matches and wasn’t very good (ok he was absolutely terrible in all honesty) so the idea of a Rangers man on the staff is very important and a few candidates are out there.
Ibrox Noise goes through all the contenders if he is to appoint one and suggests our own preference.
Barry Ferguson:
Terrible pundit, no denying it, but few are bigger Rangers winners than Barry, who has the club’s best interests at heart and even if his views in the media are bonkers at times, he does speak from the heart as a fan and as one of us.
Kevin Thomson:
We were never keen on his inability to pronounce Morelos and other players’ names correctly (Morales, anyone) and that smacked to us of ignorance, and if he’s as good a coach as so many think why has he never had a job at coaching level aside Kelty? He’s begged publicly for jobs and been ignored repeatedly. He’s not as good as the reputation suggests and we think there are much wiser than he.
Neil McCann:
A well-respected pundit, might have grown up a Celtic/Hearts fan but once he signed for us he was 100% in. He is a good and wise Ranger, and was a decent manager for Dundee for a while – spotted Glen Kamara for Rangers and was our path to that signature. This is one who knows Rangers, what it takes, and speaks well.
Steven Smith:
An excellent speaker, one of us, extremely wise for his years, and did his best at the deep end assisting Steven Davis. He’d still be outstanding as a source of counsel, and has a fine knack of simplifying complex ideas.
Steven Davis:
Honestly, no, we don’t want him on the coaching staff yet. He did us a huge solid by being thrown in in panic into the deep end and sadly rather drowned – he’s still playing, his mind is on playing, and making him part of the coaching now would just be charity. He has things left to give to football so let him get on with getting fit and giving his playing career a last chance to get a final hurrah. Then if he wants to in the future he could join the coaching staff.
Kris Boyd:
Despite his flourishing TV career he absolutely is one of us and utterly has our best interests at heart. Has turned round his unpopularity among Rangers fans of a few years ago and became a cult hero during and after 55. He knows what Rangers is all about, and there are worse out there for wisdom. But he’s probably quite happy on Sky arguing with Mutton.
Graeme Souness:
He knows what he’s on about, and he’s as blue as they come. But maybe he’s still annoyed the club wouldn’t give him a proper position inside the club rather than ‘ambassador’. That said he was part of the interview team and was a big reason the club went with Philippe Clement so who better to guide the new man?
So, in summary, a few good candidates there, but our picks would be one of Smith, Souness, McCann or Boyd. If pushed, we’d go with McCann or Smith, but we’d be happy with either of the others too in truth.
Question is does Clement want such a man on his staff? We hope so.