Interviews begin for Ibrox posts
RANGERS have stepped up their search for a new manager and director of football in a bid to arrest the Ibrox side’s Premiership tailspin. It is understood club chiefs have already started interviewing candidates for both roles, following Sunday’s 2-1 league defeat at Dundee. There are further meetings planned with hopefuls in London in the coming days as Rangers look to reshape their management structure after the acrimonious departures of Mark Warburton, David Weir and Frank McParland. Under-20s coach Graeme Murty was in charge at Dens Park, but he could not halt a run that has seen Rangers win just once in their last six
league matches. Paul Hartley’s Dundee claimed their first home win over them since 1992 thanks to goals from Mark O’Hara and Kevin Holt before Joe Garner’s consolation. The defeat left the Ibrox side trailing second-placed Aberdeen by six points, with fourth-placed Hearts just five points behind Rangers. If they cannot turn around their form slump, the club’s dreams of a return to European football next season will be in jeopardy — a situation likely to spur chairman Dave King’s board into action. Former Rangers boss Alex McLeish remains favourite for an Ibrox return, but ex-Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew is believed to have moved up the reckoning ahead of the likes of Derek McInnes, Tommy Wright and Frank de Boer. Ross Wilson, Southampton’s director of recruitment and scouting, has already met with Ibrox managing director Stewart Robertson, with a view to taking on the new director of football post. But there are a number of other candidates vying for the job, including Spurs head of recruitment Paul Mitchell, who is currently on notice, with Robert Rowan, Brentford’s 26-year-old head of football operations, an outsider for the post. However, no appointment for either position is expected this week, meaning Murty is set to remain in charge when Rangers travel to face bottom side Inverness on Friday. And the interim Ibrox boss challenged his players to respond to suggestions they have a soft centre by showing their tough side against a Caley Thistle team battling for their top-flight lives. ‘Whenever Rangers run into town, there’s an expectation and there is an intensity that goes up from the opposition,’ Murty told RangersTV. ‘We need to match that intensity when we are playing other teams and actually impose our intensity upon them rather than accepting what they are going to give us. ‘I can’t see it going anything but the same when we go to Inverness. They are going to be in our faces. They are going to look at us and say: “We’ve an opportunity to upset people”. ‘Playing for Rangers, you have to accept that. You have to actually relish the fact that they are going to come and give us it and then say: “Right, fine. We’re still going to play, we’re still going to be brave and we’re going to match everything you’ve got and we’re going to be better than you”.’