JURY STILL OUT ON IBROX-BOUND TALENT SPOTTER WILSON

THE theory around Ross Wilson seems to be that he was a key figure at Southampton and helped build the team who were so exciting to watch a few years ago. Under the management of Mauricio Pochettino and then Ronald Koeman, they became best-of-the-rest in the English Premier League. The Saints qualified for Europe in successive seasons, the highlight being a Europa League victory over Inter Milan at St Mary’s back in 2016. The key thing to note in all of this is that Wilson was appointed in March 2015, by which point a lot of the groundwork had already been done. Look at Southampton’s key players at that time. Sadio Mane, Fraser Forster, Victor Wanyama, Dusan Tadic, Nathaniel Clyne, Luke Shaw, Toby Alderweireld, Graziano Pelle, Steven Davis and Morgan Schneiderlin. Every single one of these players were already at the club by the time Wilson arrived. His one big claim to fame is that he signed Virgil van Dijk in the summer of 2015 and made a huge profit in selling him to Liverpool. But, overall, his record is actually quite ropey. Big-money acquisitions like Guido Carrillo, Mario Lemina, Sofiane Boufal and Mohamed Elyounoussi, now on loan at Celtic, are names that will haunt Saints fans. Southampton have splashed a lot of cash over the past couple of years with no tangible results. They once again look like they’ll be in a relegation battle this season. Listen, if Wilson takes the director of football role at Rangers and signs another Van Dijk, fair play to him. But the jury is still out. He still has a lot to prove as and when he takes the gig at Ibrox.