The Rangers legends who could return to Ibrox as part of new masterplan in Govan

GlasgowWorld

Ben Banks and Martyn Simpson discuss what Rangers heroes could return to the club as part of a shake-up behind the scenes.

Transcript

00:00So Rangers have appointed Ish, a new technical director in Nils Koppen.

00:06He has been overseeing football recruitment and first-team transfers at Rangers in his

00:11year in charge of that department but now moves into a more encompassing role involving

00:16a few other areas of the club.

00:18He's provided a pretty honest interview via Rangers TV and club media and in that he's

00:23suggested that there will be some Rangers heroes of the past or certainly former Rangers

00:28players returning to Ibrox in some capacity if his master plan is to be pulled off for

00:34reinvigorating the academy there, which is falling on, well, currently without an academy

00:39chief but also perhaps not developed the players it would have liked to in the last four or

00:43five years in terms of first-team minutes.

00:46So I suppose, Martin, the big question is what type of people are these ex-players going

00:52to be?

00:53I think the obvious name that will spring to fans' minds will be Kevin Thompson, formerly

00:57part of the coaching set-up there.

01:00I think some people even talked him up as a potential first-team coach when he was in

01:03the ranks at Rangers.

01:07Barry Ferguson will be one that gets mentioned, he's obviously had a bit of managerial experience.

01:11Craig Moore potentially, he obviously works as an agent which might complicate things

01:16but certainly has contacts within the game, however, perhaps not an academy role, maybe

01:21more of a consultancy-based thing would suit him there and his expertise, but who would

01:28you think fits the bill?

01:31He's not directly said, Nils Koppen, that it's going to be the academy that these guys

01:35come into, but just generally at Rangers, what are the type of guys you could see coming

01:40back to the club?

01:42Kevin Thompson is the obvious one.

01:43If you were going to bring anyone in on a permanent basis and give them a contract,

01:46it would be him.

01:48I think just his track record of working with young players and his experience in management

01:54and his methodology and his style and just what he's about, yeah, he's the obvious one

02:00you would bring in.

02:01Like you said, there are lots of ex-Rangers players out there with managerial and coaching

02:07experience and even ones that don't.

02:09If you're just talking about bringing guys in as a one-off or for a couple of training

02:14sessions just to maybe speak to some of the younger guys, give them a few tips, tricks

02:20of the trade and all that, like you say, Barry Ferguson would be a good one, a Rangers legend

02:26in every sense of the word, one of the greatest players Rangers have had in the past 30 years

02:31and that's saying a lot because they've had a lot of great players in that time.

02:35I think the thing about Barry Ferguson that you always point out is anyone that's ever

02:41played with him always just talks up how good a player he was.

02:47I honestly think it wouldn't be fair to call Barry Ferguson underrated and that's saying

02:52a lot because of how highly rated he is in Scotland, but I still don't think he gets

02:56maybe the credit he deserves, but yeah, he would be someone that you could bring in and

03:01certainly would have plenty of words of wisdom and there's so many other players, someone

03:05like Kenny Miller, someone else who's had lots of experience, would be a great person

03:12for the young strikers to learn from, even if it's just a couple of training sessions

03:15with a youth team here or there, but yeah, I mean, it could be anyone.

03:20It's interesting because we've just had the Masters tournament there and you forget, you

03:25almost forget because someone, obviously remembering Pedro Mendes and that was a great coup for

03:32Rangers when they signed him, he proved every inch of the quality player we expect him to be.

03:37Bruno Alves, Bruno Alves was a Champions League winner, do you know what I mean?

03:41If you can't learn something from him, yeah, he was past his best when he came to Rangers,

03:45but still, there was a quality player in there, having someone like that and these guys, if

03:51they're willing to come and represent Rangers at a five-a-side kickabout in Aberdeen, then

03:58you would have to believe that they'd be willing to come over and impart a bit of wisdom

04:03onto the younger Rangers players.

04:06So they've got no depth of top quality players and legends that have such an affiliation

04:17with that club that I'm sure would be happy to come back and just do whatever part they

04:25can do to help, whether it's the younger generation or whether it is the first team, whatever.

04:32Like I say, I think these guys just have such a love for Rangers from their time there that

04:38they would be willing to go just that little bit extra to try and do something to help the club.

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