How much influence does our DoF actually have on recruitment?

[RANGERRAB 3,293]

30 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I don't see a recognisable profile from Gerrard to GvB to Beale, so I find it difficult to belive the DoF was responsible for them. If he was, there would be a recognised style and style to all of them. 

 

Three out of our last four managers have screwed up our recruitment and squad building; from Caixinha's Mexicans, Gerrard being unable to refresh and sell players, to GvB being unable to see a player or use them properly. Surely you don't want this to continue?

 

I'd like to see us have the best of both worlds: a DoF that is a specialist in recruitment and a coach that is good at working with the players at his disposal - which, I think Beale is good at; he's certainly got more out of the players that GvB had and signed.

Did the Rangers manager ask to sign Brandon Barker, Jake Hastie & Jordan Jones? Or was it someone else? 

 

Look,  I’m not anti-DoF. I think his role needs to be much more clearly defined. The 2 we’ve had seem to me to have over-stepped their role a bit on several occasions. 

[Rousseau 9,484]

2 minutes ago, RANGERRAB said:

Did the Rangers manager ask to sign Brandon Barker, Jake Hastie & Jordan Jones? Or was it someone else? 

 

Look,  I’m not anti-DoF. I think his role needs to be much more clearly defined. The 2 we’ve had seem to me to have over-stepped their role a bit on several occasions. 

I was unsure so I put them down as club signings, I think, but Mark Allen wasn't a recruitment expert. He was appointed to build the structure, which was necessary. I think Gerrard would have agreed to them, though; certainly at that early stage in our rebuild. 

 

I've outlined above how they've not overstepped their role at all. It's the opposite: they've not had enough influence. Just look at the hodgepodge of signings. I don't see how you can look at that and not see that it's the managers making the decisions. Do you think Beale would have signed Colak or Sands? 

 

I can agree that the role can be more clearly defined. I don't think the board know what they want, though. Hopefully the news guys get on with it soon.  

[RANGERRAB 3,293]

55 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

I was unsure so I put them down as club signings, I think, but Mark Allen wasn't a recruitment expert. He was appointed to build the structure, which was necessary. I think Gerrard would have agreed to them, though; certainly at that early stage in our rebuild. 

 

I've outlined above how they've not overstepped their role at all. It's the opposite: they've not had enough influence. Just look at the hodgepodge of signings. I don't see how you can look at that and not see that it's the managers making the decisions. Do you think Beale would have signed Colak or Sands? 

 

I can agree that the role can be more clearly defined. I don't think the board know what they want, though. Hopefully the news guys get on with it soon.  

So how much influence do you think the DoF should have? Should he alone sign the players with little or no input from the manager? I’d kinda suggest that’s a recipe for disaster. 

[Rousseau 9,484]

1 hour ago, RANGERRAB said:

So how much influence do you think the DoF should have? Should he alone sign the players with little or no input from the manager? I’d kinda suggest that’s a recipe for disaster. 

I don't see how it can be a 'recipe for disaster' when every elite side in world football has a sporting director. You must know something they don't.

[Frankie 8,182]

I think it's more joined up than saying it's solely one person or the other.

 

The head scouts (John Park > Mervyn Day | Andreas Fehse) will present a range of options whereby the manager will pick the ones he wants for his style.

 

The Sporting Director will oversee the process and ensure there's a strategy involved (e.g. we're not signing ten 34 year olds) in conjunction with the board (e.g. budget).

 

If there's any issue it will be they that instigate further change (e.g. new scouts/new manager/new SD). For example, whilst I doubt Wilson would be blamed for the purchase of a Matondo; he may seen as responsible for allowing assets like Morelos and Kent to leave for nothing as well as the failure of any given manager.

[ranger_syntax 3,793]

I no longer understand why there is any debate about the director of football.

 

The manager answers to the board and the board answers to the shareholders. Some stuff gets delegated and some stuff does not. If you are a rubbish manager, or a rubbish director, then you will get sacked.

 

What am I missing?

[ranger_syntax 3,793]

22 hours ago, Rousseau said:

A DoF should have a big influence on the recruitment strategy. 

 

Looking at our signings over the last 6 years (Wilson arrived Oct 2019), I can't see any overriding philosophy. I see a hodgepodge of players, signed by the three different managers over that period, each quite different from the other. 

 

We've seen a squad rebuild, transition into first-team players to push to win a title under SG; to youngsters, loans and older players under GvB; to MB signing players that he knows. The profile of MB's signings is better, but the idea of a DoF having a guiding influence is non-existent. 

 

I don't think Wilson, or Allen, had as much control as they should have had. 

 

What's the profile? Where's the recruitment philosophy?

 

(I've tried to colour code them to show who might have signed each player; some might be wrong.)

 

 

18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24		Key
Arfield	Hastie	Hagi	Sakala	Colak	Dowell		Gerrard
McGregor	Jones	Bassey	Lundstram	Lawrence	Stirling		GvB
Murphy	Davis	McLaughlin	Bacuna	Yilmaz	Butland		Beale
Katic	Stewart	Defoe	Sands	Cantwell			Club?
Goldson	Edmondson	Balogun	Diallo	Raskin
Flanagan	Aribo	Roofe	Ramsey	Souttar
Barisic	Helander	Itten	Zukowski	Tillman
Lafferty	Barker	Zungu		Davies
Grezda	Kent	Simpson		Matondo
McAuley		Wright
Firth
Polster
Kamara

I thought that Arfield and McGregor were announced a few weeks before Gerrard was even rumoured.

 

Murphy was also agreed well before Gerrard.

Edited June 12, 2023 by ranger_syntax

[Rousseau 9,484]

20 minutes ago, Frankie said:

I think it's more joined up than saying it's solely one person or the other.

 

The head scouts (John Park > Mervyn Day | Andreas Fehse) will present a range of options whereby the manager will pick the ones he wants for his style.

 

The Sporting Director will oversee the process and ensure there's a strategy involved (e.g. we're not signing ten 34 year olds) in conjunction with the board (e.g. budget).

 

If there's any issue it will be they that instigate further change (e.g. new scouts/new manager/new SD). For example, whilst I doubt Wilson would be blamed for the purchase of a Matondo; he may seen as responsible for allowing assets like Morelos and Kent to leave for nothing as well as the failure of any given manager.

Of course it will be joined-up. My point is that I don't think the DoF has as much control as he should, IMO. 

 

In your example of Kent and Morelos' contracts being run down. A DoF should just be acting, rather than leaving it to the manager. We know Gerrard was pretty forceful in refusing to sell players. It's another small example of our DoF not having the remit that he should - IMO.

[Frankie 8,182]

17 minutes ago, Rousseau said:

Of course it will be joined-up. My point is that I don't think the DoF has as much control as he should, IMO. 

 

In your example of Kent and Morelos' contracts being run down. A DoF should just be acting, rather than leaving it to the manager. We know Gerrard was pretty forceful in refusing to sell players. It's another small example of our DoF not having the remit that he should - IMO.

I think that's why Wilson ultimately lost his job. He should be telling the manager these players (or at least one of them) should have been sold. Gerrard or whoever else may not have liked it but it's a DoF decision.

 

At the very least, Wilson should have had in place an agreement that the players left as soon as it became obvious they were not delivering success - and by that I mean the SPFL title, not a European run. In his defence here, we still could have won the league in early January 2022 and, by the time, it became obvious we were not, it was too late to move them on as I'd fancy both players wanted to run their contract down by this time last year.

[Bill 13,717]

2 hours ago, Rousseau said:

Of course it will be joined-up. My point is that I don't think the DoF has as much control as he should, IMO. 

 

In your example of Kent and Morelos' contracts being run down. A DoF should just be acting, rather than leaving it to the manager. We know Gerrard was pretty forceful in refusing to sell players. It's another small example of our DoF not having the remit that he should - IMO.

If that's the case then the real problem doesn't lie with either the DoF or the manager. The issue has to be the MD who hasn't ensured there are functionally effective boundaries between the two roles.

 

It's clear to anyone with half an eye that Robertson was a weak character who should never have occupied the MD's chair. What's even more worrying is that the Chairman and his board either couldn't see Robertson's weakness or they were happy with it.

Edited June 12, 2023 by Bill