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His record elsewhere is unimpressive, his style of football is old hat (and boring to watch) and he refuses to change it, no matter how badly it's going.

While Koppen cut the wage bill by five million, we still then spent £12m on players that made the team worse, and yes we performed worse this season than last, significantly so. He overseen the selling of decent assets that we told we'd received £5m for overall, but was really £800k. So between what the spent, what he lost, contributed to the £17m loss we're operating at. He was careless and not very effective. Was right to be moved on if didn't fit with new plan.

As long as its not Rousseau Martin i'll be happy.

It’s a fair question. MK Dons Pass marks for steering them from relegation the first season and lifting them to 13th the next season. They finished 3rd after he left. Hard to judge without knowing more about it. Certainly looks a decent achievement, without being outstanding. Swansea Finished 6th and 4th the seasons before Martin, conceding 53 and 39. Martin took them from 4th and 39 GA to 15th and 68 GA (74% increase in goals conceded). Second season 10th and 64 GA. 5 points better than first season. After he left, Swansea finished 14th but only conceded a more normal 57. I’d say not really a success. Major red flags there for me too, specifically for Rangers. Southampton Newly relegated after a long time in the EPL, so definitely expected to bounce back up. Finished 4th conceding a lot more than teams around them again, 63, showing it wasn’t a Swansea problem. Gained promotion via the playoffs so of course he has to get credit for getting it over the line. And it suggests he certainly has something about him as a manager. But for me, more red flags, and I think Southampton expected top 2 having the second highest wage budget and it went down to the playoffs, which is a bit like penalties in terms of uncertainty. EPL season, won’t judge him too much other than to say he certainly didn’t surprise anyone did he? Almost record breakingly bad whilst being 17th in terms of wage budget. Is it a bad record? No. Just some red flags in my opinion, especially in terms of whether he is a good match for Rangers.

Thelwell: “[The search for a new manager] has been progressing well, and the club and I look forward to bringing that to a conclusion in the coming days."

Fans have already made up their mind, which is fair enough. I just wish they could articulate their reasons, rather than going on vibes.

KEVIN THELWELL has today begun his role as Sporting Director as the summer of change here at Rangers moves up a gear. Thelwell, 51, was at the Rangers Training Centre this morning for the first time, following the end of a successful tenure with Premier League side Everton. He arrives just 72 hours after the club’s majority ownership changed hands to a consortium of investors led by Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises. Speaking on his first day, Thelwell said: “It’s a great honour to be joining Rangers, particularly at such an exciting moment in the club’s history. “While there has been significant work going on in the background prior to my arrival, that naturally accelerates from today, and top of the priority list will be the appointment of a new Head Coach for our men’s first-team. “That search has been progressing well, and the club and I look forward to bringing that to a conclusion in the coming days. "This is a new chapter for Rangers, and while we recognise success won’t come easy, our goal is clear: we need to win. “My focus is on delivering that, with discipline and ambition. We’ll give everything to move this club forward as quickly and sustainably as we can.” It can also be confirmed that Nils Koppen will be leaving his role as Technical Director. Nils has played an important part in reshaping the club’s football operations over the past 18 months. He will leave with thanks from the club for his contribution and professionalism, and best wishes for the future. To support a smooth handover, Koppen is currently working closely with Thelwell and Dan Purdy, who has joined Rangers as the new Technical Director. Purdy arrives from Everton, where he has been part of the football department since 2014. He has held a variety of roles across scouting and analysis, most recently serving as Head of Recruitment. He will now lead on all aspects of our recruitment and talent identification pathway, spanning the men’s, women’s, and academy programmes. https://www.rangers.co.uk/article/kevin-thelwell-begins-role-as-sporting-director/3o0nLYFFL8KYgLCCZE5AZV

Point being, there's far better out there than Dessers. The problem is having a good scouting network that can find the gems.

Cost-wise, it wont be cheap but it is likely to be cheaper than flying the squad overseas for an equivalent period. Given where we are, with the takeover only just now completed and not having a manager, it seems like this is probably the best compromise available, other than just staying at home. Given the location, it will be relatively easy to organise closed-door friendlies with English/touring clubs. I also wouldn't be surprised to see at least one away game down south that the fans can travel to around the same time. Also, I've stayed at the St Georges complex - its very nice and I've no doubt a number of fans have already booked to stay at the same time as the club are visiting.

I heard we're training at St George's to wind up Scottish nationalists. So it's worth every penny, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm always a little wary of some of the opinions passed off as facts on some podcasts. Much of it feels like it was briefed and you have to ask whose agenda that fulfils. Everton are shopping in very different market to Rangers. The much quoted £20 million would just about cover the fee Everton paid for Ndiaye, they paid a similar amount for an Irish right back who I've literally never heard of. Let's see what they know about the players Rangers can afford to sign. Koppen at least understood the market Rangers need to operate in. I felt Koppen was an easy scapegoat for a lot of last season. He was told to reduce the wage bill by a significant amount. He did that without making the side significantly worse than it was the season before. It wasn't better but I'm not sure that was ever realistic. The club had so much going on behind the scenes in the last 12 months that you wonder how any of them were able to work successfully. Perhaps a period of stability is upon us and the new team will benefit from that. I hope so.

I noticed that as well. A total waste of money, and it will be a considerable amount of money at that. A week's accommodation for probably around 50 people plus the training stuff, laundry etc all of which we have sufficient and very similar standards at home. I could understand if they wanted warm weather training and stick on a friendly at the end to pay for it, but this just seems ridiculous.

I might be wrong, but weren't our new owners minority shareholders when Leeds were relegated?

How come getting Southampton promoted to the EPL but failing to keep them there is seen as failure for Russell Martin but getting Leeds relegated then promoted to the EPL is seen as success for our new owners?

To be fair to @compo it’s usually me banging on about the Iron Curtain and while acknowledging the sublime skills and arts of Gascoigne and Laudrup, the greatest sight for me at Ibrox was the slide rule accuracy of McMillan’s passes unleashing the devastation that was Alex Scott. But these days are gone and in the past, etc etc. Achievements and tradition mean nothing to young Africans or Europeans nor indeed to young Scottish players unless they are boyhood fans of the club. A manager’s prime skill is to mould a team to play effective football. If he can get them to do it with a bit of style, so much the better. If he can do it with average players, he’s possessed of genius.

Don’t know about MK or Swansea but for Southampton it was traditionally decent mid table in the EPL and good Cup runs. Think Brighton, Brentford, Bournemouth.

Allegedly gets it where he is, don’t think he’d expect it anywhere else.

I'm still not convinced it will be either of the names mentioned.

Does Knutsen not require a % of transfer income made by the club? that would be a non-starter for us.

I accept that. I just think it will be less of a concern at a club with better resources than 90% of their opponents. What's real success at Mk Dons, Swansea and So'ton, though?

Everton have identified Rangers midfielder Mohamed Diomande as one of several midfield targets this summer. (Daily Express) Former club FC Twente are "seriously interested" in a return for Rangers defender Robin Propper. (soccernews.nl,- in Dutch) Left-back Ridvan Yilmaz is another Rangers player being linked with his former club as Beskitas begin transfer talks. (Aspor.com, - in Turkish)

The unknown is a concern. It would be a gamble. If we were linked to someone with a track record I’d probably favour them, hence why I’ve favoured Knutsen even time. The quotes from the Southampton fans back up what I could see in Martin’s record though. Not enough evidence that he can balance the positive style with a proper defensive structure. And not enough evidence of real success either.

I think he's a DoF in USA somewhere.

Purdy replaces Koppen as Ibrox technical director Rangers' new American owners are continuing their restructuring of the club by appointing Everton's former head of recruitment Dan Purdy as technical director to replace Nils Koppen. Last week, a US-based consortium, including the investment arm of the San Francisco 49ers, completed a multi-million pound takeover of Rangers. New sporting director Kevin Thelwell officially begins his role on Monday, and the club have moved to bring in Purdy to work alongside him, as they did at Everton. Koppen, previously head of scouting for Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, originally joined Rangers as director of football recruitment in January 2024 before the Belgian stepped up to become technical director 10 months later. Now the club's new owners have decided to move in a different direction, though Koppen will assist Thelwell with the transition into his new role. The Ibrox club are expected to appoint a new head coach soon, with Davide Ancelotti and Russell Martin believed to be the two main candidates. Andrew Cavenagh will be confirmed as the club's new chairman at an annual meeting at the end of June. His vice-chair will be the current chairman of Leeds United, Paraag Marathe. Patrick Stewart will continue as chief executive. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cj3j2ndd4x7o