Ibrox Noise has held back on this particular entry for some time. We want everything to work out, and we love Derek McInnes and so much of the new Ibrox setup. The problem is that the early signs have vindicated something Ibrox Noise noted early in McInnes’ reign. It does not inspire any assurance about the club’s direction. Derek McInnes isn’t Rangers manager?
Rangers’ strategy raises concerns
We are happy with at least some of the people now in place. However, we have several misgivings about the strategy. The fact that the summer transfer window has been this poor so far rather justifies that concern.
It all harks back to when Rangers unveiled our new manager in July. Naturally, Rangers unveiled McInnes to much fanfare, with CEO Jim Gillespie flanking him.
One of the most pertinent moments during the entire press conference stood out to Ibrox Noise. However, we put it into the filing cabinet ‘under one to watch’.
It concerned an answer about McInnes’ position as manager, specifically the title.
Is McInnes really Rangers manager?
This has been a big issue for Rangers fans. Instead of managers, Rangers have employed head coaches in recent years.
Philippe Clement appeared to be one. Danny Rohl certainly was one and so was Russell Martin.
Rangers do not do head coaches. The job description does not fit that particular type of role. Consequently, Derek McInnes arriving as head coach would not have been terribly popular.
Calling him manager was just a fan pleasing notion. That suggested a Walter Smith style manager with his finger in every important Rangers pie.
It suggested someone with full control, essentially acting as the puppet master.
However, when McInnes faced a question about this during the press conference, CEO Jim Gillespie provided the answer. Ibrox Noise noted that response under one to watch.
Gillespie described how Rangers called Derek McInnes manager to honour and respect the club’s past managers. That was as far as his statement went.
To be exact:
“There is no real difference between Derek’s role and Danny’s role. Ultimately, we have given a nod to the history of this football club. That was important to Derek and important to us. That is why he is the Rangers manager.”
He did not confirm that McInnes actually performs a manager’s job. He only confirmed the title.
The hint is that Derek McInnes is actually just Rangers’ head coach. He may have slightly more authority than a head coach normally would, but not much.
The signings Rangers have made appear to support that conclusion.
Are these really McInnes signings?
We now know that while Rohl took a deluded level of credit for signing Shankland, it was not a McInnes signing. Shankland was a Shankland signing and a Rangers signing.
The boy was chomping at the bit to come. Rangers’ scouting and recruitment staff knew he was available. Consequently, it was an easy deal to complete.
Rohl’s claim that he persuaded Shankland and discussed the deal through a video link was slightly deluded. However, he was also the coach at the time and did discuss the deal.
McInnes only did not stand in Shankland’s way when he left Tynecastle.
Cammy Devlin, his old charge at Hearts, appears to be McInnes’ only direct choice. Nobody else looks remotely like a McInnes style signing.
These appear to be random slop signings scouted from random leagues elsewhere in Europe.
Nobody will tell us that Derek McInnes had the slightest clue who Daisuke Yokota or Vanja Dragojević was. There is also no question that he knew nothing about Olwethu Makhanya.
These guys are absolute left field, radar tracking signings from the recruitment programme at Ibrox. They would never have been McInnes’ first choices.
Nobody will persuade us otherwise in a month of Sundays. Most Rangers fans have questioned whether these are indeed McInnes signings.
Obviously, many will still follow the ‘trust the process’ notion. However, did McInnes really choose to sign Ben Godfrey? Was that his scouting choice? We highly doubt it.
McInnes remains a head coach
That is the point. McInnes will sign off on these players, but recruitment gives him slop one or slop two. He then has to choose.
McInnes does not simply bring every player he wants to the table and get them all. It does not work like that.
He remains a head coach, just like Rohl was, and will take what he is more or less given. He probably has slightly more influence than an actual head coach, but not by an awful lot.
He is not Rangers manager in the way that we understand one to be. He is not like the Alex McLeishes, Walter Smiths or Dick Advocaats of the past. Derek McInnes isn’t Rangers manager at all.
Derek McInnes barely has any more influence at Ibrox than he did at Hearts. It is as simple as that.
Unless, of course, you truly believe he was completely responsible for Rangers signing Dan Neil? Probably not.