INFLUENCE OF ALLEN BECOMES CRYSTAL CLEAR WITH HIS ROLE IN BOSS COUP
WITH Mark Allen sat directly to his left in the Blue Room, Steven Gerrard explained how the structure of the Ibrox club’s football department holds appeal for the novice manager and enthused about the personnel who have his total trust.
Who would have thought that the muchmaligned Rangers pursuit for — and appointment of — a director of football would result in such a high-profile coup, never mind a seemingly perfect fit for the set-up?
For so long, Rangers fumbled and switched tack around the issue of a revamped plan. When Dave King and company seized the club back into safe hands in March 2015, a structure drafted by shareholder and veteran German coach Felix Magath — featuring a technical director type — was favoured.
By the end of a Championship titlewinning season, that idea was confirmed as shelved as Mark Warburton’s hand-picked ‘best in the business’ talent scout Frank McParland was given recruitment overlord status.
Then, following Warburton’s departure in February 2017, the director of football idea was back on the table as that regime’s signings, which included big-wage flop Joey Barton, were trashed by King.
But they got it the wrong way round. While the Rangers board were pinpointing Pedro Caixinha as the man to be trusted with the first team, they were still trying to woo Ross Wilson from Southampton.
Or Paul Mitchell at Spurs. Or Huddersfield’s Stuart Webber.
Wasn’t the director of football supposed to help the selection process of a manager or coach that he could work together with to nurse the club to health?
Manchester City academy director Mark Allen was appointed three months after Caixinha’s ruinous reign began. A strategy to install joined-up thinking at the club’s core turned to jumbled-up doing. Such is the regard in a nation that has never really ‘got’ the function of the role, Allen has occasionally been under scrutiny for his work at Rangers.
Never more so than in the hunt for Caixinha’s replacement. ‘What exactly is Mark Allen up
to?’ was the question posed by critics.
Well, he revamped the scouting network to employ, at its forefront, former Liverpool, England and Valencia analysis guru Andy Scoulding, whom Gerrard enjoyed working with for club and country.
He passed on a shortlist of candidates to the board within two days of Caixinha being axed and left it with them for consideration. Then, when the chance arose to explore Gerrard as a potential blockbuster answer to the club’s managerial revolving door, Rangers possessed the personnel to make it happen.
King is a golfing partner of Kenny Dalglish, a mentor to Gerrard. But Allen teed this up. He proposed the name and was at the forefront of the bid to lure the Liverpool legend to the Ibrox vacancy. ‘Steven Gerrard has always been on my radar and it was a question of “when”,’ revealed Allen.
‘I’m not saying we were thinking of him around that time (Caixinha’s sacking) but as director of football I have to have a plan and think through things. The opportunity presented itself through Liverpool, we went for it and I’m delighted that we got that opportunity.’
Amazingly, this is how it should work in directorof-football land.
Gerrard, with knowledge of the character and quality of the men he’d be working with, was persuaded to take the plunge at Rangers.
‘I knew Mark in his Manchester City days when we competed against each other and we’ve had many a football chat,’ explained Gerrard.
‘I know Mark the person as well. It’s important when you go into an opportunity like this, a journey like this, that you’ve got people that you trust. I have every confidence in Mark and Andy to give me that backing.’