A DISTINCT LACK OF DIRECTION AT IBROX
Rangers have missed a chance. It was short-sighted to dismiss the idea. It would have relieved the pressure on the coach With a good, experienced director of football, the likes of Joey Barton would never have been signed
DAVE KING was in full
mode at an Ibrox media conference to launch season-ticket prices, setting out his Rangers vision and claiming over-investment was likely to be needed to nail top-flight ambitions.
It was early in June 2015 and there were five candidates for a manager’s role that, after some debate, the chairman said would not require the additional appointment of a director of football.
Plans for such a structure had been shelved, it emerged, as King fielded a question over a link with former SFA performance director Mark Wotte.
His response of ‘who is Mark Wotte?’ generated a few giggles in the room as he dismissed the Dutchman with that merciless putdown. It was a dent only to Wotte’s ego and he’d recover from it without any lasting harm.
But the question of damage now is how much harm has been done to the critical rebuild of Rangers by the twoyear delay to establishing a modern, sustainable football club model?
The wheels had been set in motion for a frantic chase of Celtic, via smashing the Championship then a heavy dose of dubious recruitment under Mark Warburton and his handpicked chief scouting appointment Frank McParland. Now that the reset button has been pressed, Wotte wonders how much valuable catch-up time has been wasted.
The Dutchman, who now works with the Royal Moroccan Football Federation, was fascinated to learn last week that Rangers had finally committed to a director of football and head-coach plan — two years after talking Ibrox director Paul Murray through all the positives of the only club procedure he recognises.
‘I think Rangers have missed a chance,’ declared Wotte. ‘It was shortsighted back then not to appoint a director of football. I’m not talking about myself, but about someone who knows Scottish football and the culture of the club.
‘Paul Murray was a great admirer of the organisation of a director of football. We met for two hours. He asked me how it worked, how we did at Southampton, my work in the position at Feyenoord and when I was the coach working under Hans van Breukelen at Utrecht.
‘You will then remember Dave King saying: “Mark Wotte — I’ve never heard of him” — and that was after I had been SFA performance director for three years. He was not up to date with the situation in Scotland, being based in South Africa, so I don’t blame him. But it was an awkward moment, especially when Paul Murray had officially invited me to his office to discuss the job at Rangers.
‘Maybe it should have been a worry because I’d already chatted with Dave King in the boardroom at half-time in a game against Hibs. I introduced myself, mentioned the academy and wished him luck for the future.
‘Paul Murray never promised or offered me the job but he picked my brains and you might think he was close to Dave King. But it wasn’t a problem. I learned that Rangers didn’t need a director of football and we left it at that.’
Two years later, implementing such a set-up is one of the ‘corrective measures’ to remedy the Ibrox club in the aftermath of the explosive end to a 20-month period of Warburton, David Weir and McParland as the management team.
King has expressed his anger at the manner in which the budget was spent, predominantly last summer when the board was persuaded to go an extra few miles to secure 10 new signings including experienced English Premier League players Joey Barton, Niko Kranjcar and Philippe Senderos. As King raged in his statement last Saturday, a large portion of the wage bill saw very little playing time.
Under a director of football, Wotte stressed, there would have been no chance of a Rangers board deviating from their original plan of four or five quality signings last close season.
‘I understand that, when Rangers were a Championship club, perhaps they thought they didn’t need a director of football on their budget,’ said Wotte. ‘But that’s missing the point. I try to convince everyone that appointing one is actually saving money in the long term.
‘With a good, experienced director of football, who possesses some vision, Barton would never have been signed. A good director of football will sign a couple of players with a good prospect of return on investment. They don’t all work, of course, but it
can make the club a lot of money. He puts everything in place. You can’t hand the future of a club to two or three people in a management team who may move on in a couple of seasons if results don’t go well or if they get a better offer.
‘And it is really they who decide whether you invest £10million on a player. If you see all the signings and all the money involved, cancel one of them and give the opportunity to a boy from the academy. That’s saving more than £300,000 straight away.
‘A club shouldn’t risk giving power and authority to one man. Like you saw with Warburton, they gave him all the power for signing players and, after one-and-a-half years, he’s gone. With a director of football, you should agree the framework.
‘When you tell the coach what the budget is, you can’t exceed that sum. Otherwise you get the tension of the coach saying: “I wanted to sign a player but we don’t have the budget”.
‘But if you’ve signed up for that, then there can be no complaints. You then find a style of play that can thrill the supporters.’
As Hearts head coach Ian Cathro hinted on Friday, European football would be baffled as to why there is such an issue in Scotland with the concept.
Hearts owner Ann Budge handed responsibility for all football matters to Craig Levein when their rebuild began in the wake of administration, confirming that the appointment does not need to be some mysterious foreign figure and that a club can operate just fine being guided by one of the Scottish game’s old hands. Alex McLeish, like Levein a former Scotland manager, might be ideal as the Rangers version.
‘Levein and Hearts is the prime example in Scotland where it’s working well,’ noted Wotte. ‘Robbie Neilson had a lot of support from Craig as a young manager starting out. It’s nothing to do with the size of the league, it’s about how you want to run your business. ‘It’s an accepted part of a club in Europe. For me, the director of football is an ex-coach who has been there, knows the dressing-room dynamics, knows the club and its expectations. He should protect the academy players instead of signing so many from abroad or other sources. ‘Barrie McKay is evidence of a player who came through the Rangers ranks, was totally ignored in the first place and almost lost to the club. Now he’s one of their best players. ‘If there are problems with the coach, then the director of football should deal with it before it comes to the board or the owner — and that could be welcomed at Rangers. ‘The coach can concentrate on improving his players and his team, finding a blend between academy and signings.
‘He shouldn’t need to deal with agents, recruitment. The coach would more time on his hands, freedom to work on players and concentrate on preparation to win as much as possible.’
Bert van Marwijk, Ruud Gullit and Ronald Koeman’s brother Erwin were head coaches while Wotte filled the technical director’s post at Feyenoord. Like Rangers, the Dutch club were crippled by financial restrictions between 2004 and 2006 — yet expected to still compete for titles.
‘It was tough to survive that period, leading a top club without financial budgets,’ Wotte recalled.
‘The expectation was always that you need to run for first place. Fourth, therefore, was a disappointment. There were many problems. It was my first job as director of football and it was a tough school of learning.
‘I’ve seen it from both sides. I’ve been a coach working in that system. Your director of football must think carefully about appointing the coach because it’s his coach.
‘It’s vital that both men speak the same language when it comes to objectives, playing style, how to be successful. I can’t see another way.’