KENNY DALGLISH
Director of Football can work for Rangers
RANGERS appear to be set on having a director of football and a head coach as their preferred structure to take the club forward.
Having that combination is much maligned in this country, but I think it is the way ahead for the Ibrox club.
I speak from experience, having filled that role at Celtic with John Barnes as the coach.
And during my second spell managing Liverpool, Damien Comolli had the role of being the director of football “upstairs”, while I was left to run the first team.
The secret to making the partnership work is to have the guidelines down in black and white from day one, so that each individual is aware of their particular role and responsibilities within the structure.
That way there can be no grey areas. If things happen to go wrong, then it won’t take a detective or a lawyer to work it out, it will be there in the rules that were set out.
You need to put things in place to limit the chances of a collision further down the line.
On top of that, for the partnership to work and progress to be made, there has to be trust and honesty from both individuals.
You need to be respectful of one another. If there is the slightest hint of one guy going behind the other’s back, or a blame culture setting in from one to the other, then the relationship is doomed.
You can’t stick your nose into the other person’s domain.
Neither of the persons involved can go into their work looking over their shoulder.
I have to say Damien was brilliant at his job with Liverpool. We knew how to get the best out of one another, and he was fantastic at dealing with agents and transfers.
He stuck to his side of the bargain. I never negotiated contracts or transfers.
When I was in my director of football role at Celtic in 1999-2000, I’d give John Barnes some names of potential signing targets, and he would have the final decision as to who the club would pursue. John also decided on the players he wanted to move on. The financial people at Parkhead would then take it from there.
Having a good scouting structure is also important to making the system work, and it would usually be the director of football’s responsibility to address that.
There doesn’t need to be fancy titles for that. The chief scout is what it says on the tin.
Take John Park, for example, when he was at Hibs and Celtic. He would be told the areas of the team that needed to be strengthened and he’d get to work.
He’d watch countless hours of footage from games all over Europe and beyond, and also fly to games to watch a player in the flesh.
No doubt, he’d then make background checks on a player’s personality and character.
He’d then filter down the list of names, and present a few to the manager to take it from there. It worked well for Celtic and the effect the likes of Victor Wanyama and Virgil van Dijk had on the club’s finances has been well documented.
Those are the kind of players Rangers would love to be able to bring to their club in the not-too-distant future. They need to spot them young, pick them up for a bargain, showcase them and then move them on for as large a profit as possible.
But they need to put people in place before that materialises, and I’m sure the club will be working hard behind the scenes to lure the best people possible.
Of course, vacancies have been created because of the departures of Mark Warburton, Davie Weir and Frank McParland.
I’m not aware of the full set of circumstances as to what has actually happened behind the scenes at Ibrox in the past week or two, but it’s a disappointing end to something that had a lot of promise.
Ally McCoist and his staff took Rangers from the bottom tier to the Championship. Mark and his men then completed the job and they appeared to have a lot of momentum.
They beat Celtic in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup last season, but I suppose that defeat inspired Celtic to go and take the swift action that resulted in Ronny Deila being replaced by Brendan Rodgers.
They then lost 5-1 to Celtic at Parkhead in the league and Rangers’ greatest rivals have been getting further and further away from them ever since.
Generally, directors don’t want to sack managers, but that usually happens when important games are being lost.
Sadly, it’s not been a simple parting of the ways at Ibrox. It’s always disappointing when lawyers become involved and statements fly back and forward.
So the sooner it is resolved, the better it will be for all concerned.
Combination is much maligned in this country, but I think it is the way ahead for the Ibrox club