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Ancelotti positive after Rangers meeting - but could Modric follow? IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Guillem Balague BBC Sport Columnist @GuillemBalague Davide Ancelotti held fresh talks with Rangers about their managerial vacancy in London last week and wants the Ibrox job, with further discussions planned over the next few days. The Italian was approached by representatives of the Scottish Premiership club earlier this month and was able to outline his vision at an in-person meeting. It was one in a series of conversations between the Ibrox club and the Ancelotti, 35, who has been working under father Carlo at Real Madrid. It is believed those discussions went well, Ancelotti is first choice, and that a resolution can be reached in the coming days. Real players have heard about Ancelotti's potential destination, including 39-year-old midfielder Luka Modric, who is leaving the Spanish giants this summer but has yet to decide on his next move. However, Rangers' ongoing takeover has slowed the process. Current chief executive Patrick Stewart is leading the manager search along with the existing Ibrox board. However, the club's prospective new owners - an American consortium involving Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises Global Football Group - and sporting director-in-waiting Kevin Thelwell are also in the conversation. It had been thought Ancelotti would join his father in his new role as boss of the Brazilian national team, but those plans have now changed as he focuses on becoming a head coach in his own right. Ancelotti previously assisted Carlo at Bayern Munich, Napoli and Everton, having been at AC Milan and Borgomanero as a player. 'Rangers must move fast to get Ancelotti... and maybe Modric' – analysis Rangers are now up against the clock. If a decision isn't reached by the end of this week - or, at the very latest, by the first week of June - they risk missing out on Ancelotti. The Italian has options - three other high-level opportunities - from clubs that value Ancelotti's experience, his modern approach, and ability to connect every layer of a club: from the dressing room, to the media, the ownership, and the boardroom. That comes not only from being by his father's side at Bayern, Napoli, Everton and Real Madrid, but from a personal conviction that clubs should build lasting cultures, not just chase quick wins. He wants to leave behind something enduring - an identity, a structure, a way of working that survives his departure. Ancelotti envisions a technical staff built not around a strict hierarchy of "manager" and "assistant," but a group of five or six specialists, each focused on a specific area of the game. It's collaborative, long-term and methodical. And he's ready. IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES Image caption, Luka Modric played his final game for Real Madrid at the weekend but has not yet committed to a club for next season Those close to him describe a warm, grounded character - humble yet completely assured of his ability. He has spent years in the background, often in the shadow of his father. At Real Madrid, he was widely credited by players as the architect of many modern improvements. Internally, some believe Carlo wouldn't have won as much in his second spell at the Bernabeu without Davide at his side. And the players know it, including Modric. When asked whether he'd fancy coming to Rangers, he didn't say no. Whether or not that's realistic, it shows the kind of gravitational pull Davide carries - backed not just by a famous surname, but by the trust of elite players. Other players have also asked Ancelotti to take them to Scotland. He won't be travelling with Brazil during the upcoming international window. That's telling. His immediate focus is elsewhere. He would only join his father if none of the options he has on the table come off. If Rangers want to make this happen, they need to move fast. The logic points towards Ibrox. The fit is there and the enthusiasm is mutual. But hesitation, at this stage of the managerial carousel, can be costly.
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Dave King mentioned in his recent interview that the 49ers lot will have a long term plan in place, and that they'll be sticking to it. So i take from that , that any new manager will be given time ,regardless of results. It could get messy very early on.
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We need a young manager with modern ideas and methods. Look at Brighton & you’ll see what I mean
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Modric really would be ending his career if he comes here. I know he’s a tough little devil but sledgehammered by September is the likely outcome.
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Hah, yeah it probably does read like that. Apologies. My Rangers infused misanthropy is hard to hide currently, eventually they break us all.
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You've really gone off on one, haven't you. I just thought the idea of having a 'group of five or six specialists, each focused on a specific area of the game,' was interesting. It maybe deserves its own thread.
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Whoever our next manager is he should just chase quick wins. Quick wins will get everyone behind him and buy him the time to implement longer term ideas. The average tenure of a manager in the SPFL is now just 16 months. You have to assume everyone applying for our job knows that before they apply. Talk of long term plans is for the birds, if we're not challenging for the title next season the knives will be sharpened. I'll predict that by the end of September if the side isn't playing well and winning the games it's expected to win there will be voices on here, and elsewhere, demanding change. I mean his Dad won the league and the Champion's League last season and was sacked this season, so I suspect Ancelotti Jnr understands this.
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BBC reporting positive talks and possibility of Modric as well. Oh my days.....
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Not 'just' chase quick wins.
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Not chase quick wins? He'll be gone by October then. Whoever comes in needs quick wins, if he wins the league next season he'll be given medium-term, but short of the Treble and a European final he can forget about "long-term" at Rangers. He must surely know that.
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The Rangers Summer 2025 Transfer Rumours and Deals - Thread
L72 replied to der Berliner's topic in Rangers Chat
Luka Modric Put forward by Guillem Balague that Davide Ancelotti might want to bring him to Rangers.. -
From the above interview with Don Carlo, I think it's actually him rushing things. Like decide what needs done because are you going to be my assistant at Brasil or not.
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Does he know he's coming to a footballing backwater?
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Some less than subtle pressure being applied by Ancelotti's management team it seems. Rangers might not mind as it may also serve as a useful opinion poll. One suspects the next week should offer some clarity on both this appointment and the takeover. Will that appease Davide?
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'The ltalian has options - three other high-level opportunities-from clubs that value Ancelotti's experience, his modern approach, and ability to connect every layer of a club: from the dressing room, to the media, the ownership, and the boardroom. That comes not only from being by his father's side at Bayern, Napoli, Everton and Real Madrid, but from a personal conviction that clubs should build lasting cultures, not just chase quick wins. He wants to leave behind something enduring- an identity, a structure, a way of working that survives his departure. Ancelotti envisions a technical staff built not around a strict hierarchy of "manager" and 'assistant," but a group of five or six specialists, each focused on a specific area of the game. It's collaborative, long-term and methodical.' Interesting...
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Yes, whoever scouted him perhaps has never seen us play. Rangers Review have mentioned a few times when we scouted him he performed well for teams with little or limited possession. They were sure it was going to translate to real quality for a team like us that has a lot of the ball.. We definitely need a clear out of scouts. I want the club to confirm whoever scouted Davies, Matondo and Ridvan is no longer with the club.
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The Rangers Summer 2025 Transfer Rumours and Deals - Thread
der Berliner replied to der Berliner's topic in Rangers Chat
Like many players before him, he fell victim to strange shoehorning by his manager(s). Where did we play him? Left midfield/winger! Let's have a look at his stats ... For Rangers ... 44 games, on average 56 mins per game. Of those registered* (31): he played 14 as left midfield (3 goals / 0 assists), 2 as left winger. 10 (1/3) in attacking midfield, 3 (0/0) in central midfield. The rest of his career (including Rangers) ... 368 games, average 65 mins per game. Of those registered: 146 attacking midfield (oops) (24/24), 50 central midfield (6/4), 21 right winger (1/2), 21 left winger (3/5), 20 DM (1/1) and 18 left midfield (7/0). Like we did with Hagi, we utilized players in non-natural positions, rather than play them where they were (and probably are) at their best. Hagi was mainly a playmaker/AM (97 overall, 25 of which for Rangers), but we turned him into a right winger (77 overall, 53 for us). But God forbid, there had to be two DMs/CMs who contributed so much to our game ... Much of last season, we mostly played with 3 DMs/CMs ... the end product was predictable. * Not all positions played at every game have been registered at TM, mainly due to the lack of minutes being played. -
If things go badly again he might be back before the end of November.
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Good guy Balogun.
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Kicking off the season at Hampden set us back right away and in truth we never really got going after that. The CL defeat with some corrupt refereeing really hurt us too. But our early season away form killed any title chance. If I recall we had one win from first 6 away games and had a negative GD at that point which is about a third of the way through. Never winning a title with that form. It was our inability to take the many good chances we created that cost us and even though Dessers ended up with a decent tally, his glaring misses cost us points time and time again. Our midfield took a while to gel and didnt chip in with enough goals to see us over the line in the games when the forwards were missing. Getting robbed in the LCF in December was a missed opportunity to get sacked the cheating scumbag Connor, and we had ample opportunities to get Walsh sacked/demoted too but our bottle merchant board do not fight our corner in these issues and we have no friends in the media willing to do the job alone. The SC defeat to Queens was a loss too far for Clement and he had to go but then bringing in BF was a total disaster IMO and we should have had a better plan ready to go as Clement was on a shoogly peg for ages so it wasnt as if it came from nowhere. Again the board to blame. The last 2 months of the season was pure torture, a dead rubber win at the piggery notwithstanding, and it was only the increasing talk of a takeover that prevented full scale revolt from the fans, who voted with their feet and numbers fell away massively in the last few games. A couple of decent performances and results in Europe, making the top 8 was a great achievement, especially so when 4 of our 8 opponents finished above us so we played the best on offer and came through admirably. Report card - team 5/10, board 0/10. Same old failings, same marks, must do better.
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Tonight’s game it’s Real Betis 16/5 Chelsea 8/11 Draw23/10 Saturdays game it’s Inter Milan 2/1 PSG 21/20 Draw. 9/4
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