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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
Sport
Luke Pawley

Explained - Ross Wilson's football philosophy and the career that led him to Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest have handed former Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson a key role at the City Ground - but just who is the Reds' new chief football officer?

Wilson arrives after a successful few years in Scottish football, but he had come under fire from Rangers fans recently for their perceived lack of progress and poor recruitment - just as Celtic emerged from playing second fiddle to Steven Gerrard's Gers.

But the 39-year-old is still highly regarded in English football and brings plenty of board-level experience with him to Forest, where he is expected to work closely with both owner Evangelos Marinakis and head coach Steve Cooper.

READ MORE: Steve Cooper sent Forest warning after Filippo Giraldi exit

READ MORE: Forest old boy issues plea to fans ahead of Man United clash

The Glaswegian director started out in football at Falkirk, where he was responsible for heading up their football development and administration between 2004 and 2011. That was his first job in football after completing a degree in social science.

From there, he moved south to Watford, where he spent just over a year as football business director before moving on again to become head of football operations at Huddersfield Town for three years.

Then came the best part of five years on the south coast with Southampton, where he was director of football operations and held a seat on the board. He stayed at St Mary's until 2019, when he moved on to take up the sporting director role at Rangers during a time of great success under Gerrard after years in the doldrums.

Wilson worked closely with Gerrard as Rangers won the Scottish Premiership in 2020-21, before hiring Giovanni van Bronckhorst as boss when Gerrard left for Aston Villa. Under the Dutch boss, Rangers reached the Europa League final.

Wilson was also crucial in helping Rangers achieve record fees for their players, with Nathan Patterson's £16m move to Everton and Calvin Bassey's £23m switch to Ajax amongst the highlights.

Speaking to 90min in 2021 about his football philosophy, Wilson said: "You have to change throughout, adapt and reflect what you're thinking. Yes, your principles inside stay the same, but you have to keeping adapting.

"We have built a modern infrastructure here [at Rangers], we have built up many things such as analytics in data and analysis across different areas, but we are always building. I am not saying you rip it up and start again, but it is a constant evolution."

So Wilson arrives at the City Ground with plenty of experience, but he will have to be quick to impress owner Marinakis - who is more than keen to get his future player recruitment spot on after criticism of the way Forest have gone about their business since winning promotion to the Premier League nearly a year ago

Is Wilson a good appointment for Forest? Tell us in the comments section

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