Boss ‘doesn’t have to sell’ before he buys

RANGERs sporting director Ross Wilson is adamant that Giovanni van Bronckhorst isn’t compelled to sell before he buys in the January transfer window.

The Dutchman agreed to succeed steven Gerrard in the wake of the club posting a £23.5million loss in the last financial year.

Although the £7.5m funding shortfall for this season will be covered by directors, there is widespread acknowledgement that the club’s well-documented player-trading model now has to become a reality.

But while accepting the Rangers hierarchy have so far failed to balance the books by offloading players, Wilson says that delivering transfer targets the new boss identifies isn’t contingent on that first happening.

‘Gio will take a view on the squad first and foremost,’ said Wilson. ‘We will then have a chat about how that looks. if Gio wants to do something, we’ll take a view on that and have a look at it.

‘There’s nothing set in stone right now. But we are absolutely aware we always want to improve this squad in any way we possibly can. if Gio thinks there’s something we’ve got to do, then we’ll look at it.’

Pressed on whether players would first have to leave for that to happen, Wilson added: ‘We as a club have been clear — there is no mandate that we have to sell players.

‘We have been clear in our communications that we see player trading as something that has to be normal for this club, as it is for nearly every club in world football.

‘We haven’t been strong on that in the past. But our investors have continued to back this club all the time. We have rejected some significant offers for players in the last two windows. We will do so again unless it’s the right offers, for the right players at the right time.

‘But if we accept any offers, then we will be investing back into the squad to keep taking us forward.’

Van Bronckhorst went on to play for Arsenal, Barcelona and his first club Feyenoord after leaving Rangers in 2001.

he took his first steps in management with the Dutch club in 2015, leading them to their first title in 18 years in 2017.

While Rangers did speak to two other parties before confirming Van Bronckhorst as Gerrard’s successor, Wilson says the notion of bringing him back to ibrox pre-dated the Englishman’s departure to Aston Villa.

‘As a club, we’ve always got to have a succession plan for key roles as we’ve built a really talented team of staff behind the scenes so we have to be ready,’ he said.

‘steven Gerrard did a wonderful job for us. i’ve got the utmost respect for him and he is someone i consider a personal friend but the down side of all that is that, in doing a wonderful job, i knew that someone at some point was going to come and take him away.

‘We had to be ready for that and i think the fact Giovanni sits here today probably answers the question that he was at the forefront of our thoughts. he was someone we were aware of for a long time. i’ve been in contact with Gio’s agent Guido Albers through my relationship with Ronald Koeman, so i was very aware of Gio.

‘We as a club had him right at the top of our list straight away albeit we wanted to speak to some other people as well as it would have been reckless not to do so. We wanted to be sure we were on the right lines and we certainly were.’

Van Bronckhorst watched sunday’s defeat to hibs from the south stand at hampden with many supporters perplexed as to why it was left to B team coach David McCallum to take the side.

Adamant that the incoming manager simply didn’t have clearance to take charge, Wilson said: ‘The process for the work permit concluded this morning.

‘it moved at rapid pace last week, much quicker than we thought, but the work permit process finished in its entirety this morning.’