Expert says Gers board are right to hold fire on hiring

It has been three weeks exactly since Pedro Caixinha was sacked following a bitterly disappointing start to the season and many supporters are growing increasingly concerned by the failure to bring in a replacement.

A host of high-profile candidates, including Sam Allardyce, Frank de Boer, Steve McClaren, Alan Pardew, Gus Poyet and Giovanni van Bronkhorst, have been linked with the vacancy since Caixinha departed last month.

Derek McInnes, the former Rangers player who has led Aberdeen to three consecutive second-placed finishes in the Ladbrokes Premiership in the past four seasons, remains the overriding favourite.

However, Nick Watkins, whose Q4 Management company advises major sporting organisations on leadership and strategy, believes it is hugely important to their future success that they refuse to be rushed into an appointment.

“Managers are normally fired on a Saturday night and a new one is appointed on a Monday morning,” he said.

“No thought is given to the appointment and the process. But the manager is a hugely high-profile appointment. It is an appointment that every fan gets excited about or disappointed about depending on who comes in.

“Often these decisions are panic decisions. Whenever a manager gets fired, the vultures are very quickly flying over the carcass.

“All the CVs of the out-ofwork managers come flooding in. The same old names, the Sam Allardyces, the Davie Moyses, get bicycled around. The chairman may decide to go with a safe pair of hands. There is always this panic to get somebody in quickly.”

Watkins added: “I would hope that because of the delay in making the appointment, they are being considered in who they are going to bring in.

“What is important in these situations is the vision of the club, its strategy, its core objectives, what it wants to achieve.

“They have to identify who is best placed to steer the club to its strategy destination. What you don’t want is a knee-jerk reaction and somebody being appointed who they then find the wrong person, who is the wrong cultural fit, whose style of management is not right for the club.

“They have to ask how the players will respond to this particular appointment.

“If they are taking an extra week to think about it suggests they have not been romanced by some of the names who are linked with the position. They have to ask if a manager’s ambitions fits with that of the club and the board. Is he a person who the players and fans can relate to?”

WATKINS (inset), the former chief executive of Swindon Town, worked with Rangers during a time they were blighted by serious off-field unrest and got a glimpse into the mess they were in.

He was involved in the appointment of Graham Wallace as Ibrox chief executive back in 2013 – but he quickly identified the former Manchester City chief operating officer was inheriting an “impossible situation”.

“I had contact with Rangers when they were going through all that shenanigans with the