THE roles and responsibilities – much like the job titles and descriptions – are nuanced and very much a product of the modern game. Success or failure is still judged the old-fashioned way.
That is certainly the case at Ibrox. In the last eight years, Rangers have now had a Head of Recruitment, a Director of Football and a Sporting Director.
The latter two, Mark Allen and Ross Wilson, will tell you that their respective remits were far more detailed and wide-ranging than simply identifying players and completing the deals. The former, Frank McParland, didn’t exactly live up to the ‘best in the business’ hype he was given by Mark Warburton.
The appointment of McParland in 2015 was still significant for Rangers, though. It was the start of a modernisation of a football department that was in danger of being left behind in the game.
Allen arrived from Manchester City two years later and Wilson was brought on board in 2019 after leaving Southampton. When it comes to assessing their respective legacies, their wheeling and dealing in the transfer market will shape the thinking of many and it is on their buying and selling records that they will be assessed.
It is decision time and appointment time for Rangers once again following Wilson's decision to quit and become Chief Football Officer at Nottingham Forest.
Only those behind the scenes will be able to explain another new-fangled title after Wilson, who was Director of Football Operations at St Mary’s, returned to the Premier League and ended a somewhat tumultuous Ibrox reign.
Time will tell what name Rangers assign to the role that must now be filled. The actions will speak louder than the words, though, and Wilson’s successor will be critiqued in the same manner that he was by a demanding, discerning support.
Advocates of the model will preach that recruitment is not the main priority of a position that also encompasses sports science, the medical infrastructure and the Academy and Women’s departments at Auchenhowie. But it is the scouting, signing and selling of players that makes Rangers money, that determines their path on the pitch and that will make or break reputations.
The assertion from the man himself that ‘Ross Wilson doesn’t sign football players’ was never going to cut it with the supporters when he spoke at the Annual General Meeting. As far as the punters are concerned, it is Wilson that identified signings and talked money and his less than impressive record in that regard saw him become a target for their ire.
The culture and environment at the training ground, the advancements in technology and processes are all fine and well and play a part in the bigger picture. But they are worthless if a winning team is not on the park and that must be the priority for the next man that assumes the position.
Managers live or die by their team selections and tactical choices. McParland, Allen and Wilson had to be measured against their signing record and that will be the be-all and end-all for the fourth figure to hold office at Auchenhowie.
Rangers have spent considerable sums in recent seasons as Steven Gerrard and Giovanni van Bronckhorst were backed. Come the summer, Michael Beale will be as well as new chairman John Bennett oversees the rebuild of the Ibrox squad.
The scouting structure is currently headed by John Park and much of the preparatory work for the window will already have been done.
The only downside of Wilson’s exit is that there is no senior operator within the football department, other than Beale, to close deals out and that will likely fall to Stewart Robertson, the Managing Director, while the hiring process evolves.
It will be intriguing to see how that ends. It would be a regressive step for Rangers to scrap the structure altogether but there is perhaps an argument for splitting it so that recruitment operates in its own right while the various other facets of the club are overseen by a different voice.
Ultimately, supporters want to see the best possible team on the park. Regardless of what the position is called, it will be for the next football figure to do the deals that deliver silverware, and keep him and his boss in a job.
