WILSON SNUBS GERS
Southampton guru knocks back director of football job
ROSS WILSON has rejected Rangers’ offer to become their new director of football.
The 34-year-old, Southampton’s highly-rated director of recruitment and scouting, topped Gers’ list for the newly-created role.
However, after two weeks of constant dialogue and negotiation, the Scot formally told Ibrox managing director Stewart Robertson and finance chief Andrew Dickson last night that he
was staying put at St Mary’s.
It’s understood Wilson had prepared Robertson for the decision as early as last week but the club kept the door open for a change of heart until the last minute, while they continued their pursuit of Portuguese boss Pedro Caixinha as their head coach.
Record Sport believes Wilson, who was linked with a move with former Saints boss Ronald Koeman to Everton last summer, gave serious consideration to the blank-canvas role offered to him at Ibrox.
But ultimately the former Falkirk, Watford and Huddersfield man felt he had too much to give up at Saints.
Rangers are expected to now turn their attention to Paul Mitchell, Wilson’s predecessor at Southampton, whose deal with Spurs was ended yesterday.
Meanwhile, Caixinha will be stuck in the desert taking charge of Al-Gharafa’s secondstring today instead of flying to Glasgow to prepare for Sunday’s Old Firm showdown.
Record Sport revealed yesterday the 46-year-old had put his travel plans on hold for at least 24 hours after the bid to appoint him as the 16th manager in Rangers’ history stalled unexpectedly.
It’s understood the delay centres around the size of the compensation package which would be due to the Qatari club and also to Caixinha who is prepared to rip up the remainder of his £2million-a-year contract in order to get to Glasgow.
The Portuguese coach had originally hoped to arrive in Scotland no later than yesterday to give him enough time to get his ideas across to the players at the club’s Auchenhowie HQ.
But he was still holed up on the Persian Gulf last night having agreed to take charge of today’s Al-Gharafa’s reserves for a game against league rivals Umm Salal.
Caixinha’s next move will depend on whether or not Rangers can finalise a package for him.
Our source said: “After the second-team game on Wednesday the season in Qatar stops for a month. Pedro had already booked flights to return to Portugal for a holiday but this arrangement was made several weeks ago.
“But the talks about moving to Rangers have been continuing over the past few days. It’s still possible he will be in Glasgow for the weekend but we’ll have to just see.”