NOW HE’S READY
Wilson to finally accept director of football role at Rangers EXCLUSIVE
RANGERS are poised to land Southampton’s Ross Wilson as the club’s new director of football.
The respected Scot was top target for the role two years ago, turning down a switch to Ibrox when he claimed the timing was wrong.
The loss of former Manchester City academy chief Mark Allen for ‘family reasons’ last month has left Rangers seeking a replacement to work with manager Steven Gerrard.
Sportsmail understands Southampton’s head of football operations has held positive talks with the Ibrox hierarchy and is keen to return to Scottish football where he started out with Falkirk.
Wilson, 35, moved to English football and worked for Watford and Huddersfield before joining Southampton, snapping up the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Victor Wanyama and Fraser Forster from the Scottish Premiership. Explaining his decision to turn down a move to Ibrox two years ago, Wilson (right) admitted he was tempted by the job.
He said: ‘The people at Rangers, there was contact, of course. We had some discussions, they were fantastic.
‘I had great conversations with Andrew Dickson, Stewart Robertson, Graeme Park, Dave King — the conversations were all really, really good. Ultimately, everything they said was hugely ambitious, great plans for what they are trying to do at the club. ‘But it just wasn’t the right time for me to leave England and come back to Scotland — and definitely not leave Southampton at that moment in time.’ Allen left Rangers last month to pursue what he called ‘other options’.
IT took Rangers’ very own Captain Marvel just five days to go from hero of the hour to villain of the piece.
For James Tavernier, the high of scoring two penalties to help take apart last season’s nemesis Aberdeen in a 5-0 victory at Ibrox was replaced by the crushing low of Thursday night’s 2-1 Europa League loss away to Young Boys.
The Rangers skipper was personally culpable for the goals scored by Roger Assale and Christian Fassnacht.
The latter came in stoppage time as the Swiss side recovered from the loss of an Alfredo Morelos goal to clinch a 2-1 win that denied Rangers top spot in Group G. It only cemented what many observers feel, namely that the 27-year-old Englishman’s defending can, at times, be suspect.
Yet there is the other more positive side of Tavernier, of course. The man who was involved in 37 goals for Rangers from right back last season, scoring 17 and creating 20.
It was an achievement that saw him break John Greig and Sandy Jardine’s joint record for most goals in a season by a Rangers defender.
With Tavernier at arguably his lowest ebb after giving away two goals in Switzerland, Rangers boss Steven Gerrard took time out yesterday to remind the former Wigan player’s detractors that he has dug his Ibrox team-mates out of plenty of holes in the past.
And he backed his captain to show the sort of mental fortitude necessary to bounce back from Thursday night’s horror show, starting with tomorrow’s visit of Hamilton Accies to Ibrox in the Premiership.
‘James is only human. He is going to make mistakes,’ said Gerrard. ‘And obviously the mistakes have had an influence on the outcome of the game.
‘But he has been fantastic for us. There have been many times when he has bailed us out. And the times are few and far between when he lets us down.
‘James is man enough and big enough to accept what happened on Thursday night.
‘Part of being a leader is moving on from mistakes and taking accountability for performances.
‘James is someone who will put himself up there to be shot down. He takes responsibility. In certain situations, with certain players, you think it may have an effect on them moving forward.
‘But with James, it wouldn’t surprise me if he plays well, bounces back and provides a game-changing moment for the team this weekend.’
Despite Tavernier’s errors costing Rangers dear, Gerrard feels it would be wrong to lay all of the blame for a damaging defeat solely at his captain’s door.
‘It’s a team game and a lot of things happened within the match,’ he argued. ‘Of course the mistakes (by Tavernier) will be highlighted but we also had players who missed chances on the night.
‘We had set-piece opportunities that we missed and there were mistakes in the build-up to the goals as well.
‘Of course, those two situations had a big impact on the outcome of the game. But we are all in it together and we move on from it. There is no finger pointing.’
On social media, the reaction to Tavernier’s mistakes has been typically merciless. But Gerrard does not believe the criticism — online or otherwise — will get under his skipper’s skin ahead of tomorrow’s visit to Govan by Brian Rice’s Accies.
‘We are all certainly aware that the modern game is very social media-driven,’ added the Rangers manager.
‘When we win, we all get a lot of praise and I’m sure James has experienced that as well. But when it doesn’t go well, you expect a backlash.
‘I get it, the players get it, people at different clubs get it. You just have to accept that we are living in a world where it won’t go away.
‘But I’m not sure that the players look into it all that much. I certainly don’t. I don’t go looking for the praise when we beat Aberdeen 5-0. I just roll with whatever it is.
‘The important thing is that we bounce back from the other night and build on that really strong, positive performance against Aberdeen last weekend.
‘On Sunday against Hamilton, it is the last fixture before the international break and we want to take maximum points from that one.
‘I think I’ll be forced into changes due to injuries. We had about six players with knocks or tightness after the Young Boys game. But I want to go with as strong a team as I can.’
Croatia international left-back Borna Barisic backed Gerrard’s stance over Tavernier and insisted the Rangers players are all firmly behind their captain.
Guilty of playing a woeful pass to Connor Goldson as Young Boys levelled early in the second half, the skipper further blotted his copybook by making a hash of what should have been a routine clearance at the death to let Fassnacht score the winner.
‘Of course James will be very disappointed but you can’t blame him because we lost the game,’ said fellow defender Barisic.
‘We had a couple of chances but we didn’t score them. James slipped on the artificial pitch, so I don’t want to blame him.
‘As captain, he has been really good for me. He always puts the team before himself and if you ever need something he is always there for you.
‘I think even on the pitch he shows me a lot. He is just a very good captain and we win and lose as a team.
‘I actually don’t think we deserved to lose the match. I think we deserved to take at least a point.
‘But Young Boys are a very good team, who have had a couple of good Champions League campaigns in recent years, so we have to respect them.
‘The difference between playing against some teams in the Scottish league and in Europe at a high level is that in Europe you will be punished if you make a mistake.
‘But mistakes are normal in football. If no-one ever made a mistake all games would always end 0-0.
‘But in football there is always another game coming up — and we want to win it and be happy at the end.’