Brendan: Rangers need a strategy
BRENDAN RODGERS insists Rangers need a clear off-field strategy before they can get things right on the park.
After seeing off his second Old Firm managerial rival in less than 18 months, the Celtic boss, left, expressed sympathy
for Pedro Caixinha, sacked just seven months after replacing axed Mark Warburton at Ibrox.
Rodgers believes a united front in the boardroom is just as crucial as the man in the dugout.
Rangers have been criticised by some for losing sight of their rebuilding job because they are focusing too much on closing the huge gulf to the six in a row champions.
Celtic finished 39 points ahead of their rivals last season with Rangers failing to even finish second despite being tipped to challenge for the title in their first season back in the top flight.
As the search begins for Caixinha’s successor, Rodgers said: “Key strategy is important. Everybody has to be aligned to the strategy you’re following.
“There has to be a leadership that’s clear and that everyone is aligned to. You can’t divert from it.
“That’s the simplicity of it. If it’s fragmented and people want to chase one team, others want to do it a different way, then that’s when there is a problem.
“It has to be clear what the strategy of the club is. What the senior directors and ownership want.
“From that, you get the right personnel in place. If you don’t have everyone pulling in the right direction, it’s a problem.
“One of the first things I said when I came in here was that we had to have one vision – which makes one club. That’s what we’ve focused on.
“So that’s where it starts. The top end, that strategy and interest has to be unified. The key is you worry about yourself.
“You can only control yourself, how you run your club, you can only control your manager. Pick your manager to come in and then it is up to him when he comes in how he works.
“I feel a lot of professional empathy for Pedro. They are big jobs, big pressures and I was disappointed for Pedro. He went in with great enthusiasm – and went into a big club where there is big expectancy.
“It hasn’t worked out for him, so I’m sad for him. But that’s football.
“I didn’t really get to know him. We met first at the Under-17 game, the Celtic-Rangers match near the end of last season, when he’d just come in.
“After that, it has only been when we’ve spoken after games. He has a great enthusiasm for football. And he had a certain way in which he wanted to work.
“I don’t have an idea what they’re thinking, the people who make the decisions. So I wouldn’t have a clue.”
Gers director Alastair Johnston insisted his club have to find a manager in the Rodgers mould who can transform the club.
Ahead of today’s home clash with Kilmarnock, the Northern Irishman laughed and said: “They’d be doing all right, wouldn’t they?
“Seriously, there are enough good managers there who will want the job. The big clubs, there are big pressures to deliver – and that’s what they’ll want the next manager to do.”