While the thoughts of Rangers’ new custodians have so far been contained to prepared statements and open letters, no one of a light blue persuasion has been left in the dark about how the club will now operate.
The desire of Andrew Cavenagh, Paraag Marathe and their cohorts to take the team back to the top of Scottish football is a matter of record.
The strategy doesn’t involve any outlandish promises or shortcuts. They believe they’ll get there through investment, leaning on their considerable expertise and by working smarter.
Sober and sensible while still cognisant of the level of expectation they’ve signed up for, the tone of the Americans’ introductory remarks was in sharp contrast to some of the baseless boasts spouted by so many who’ve been in their position in recent times.
After watching the previous well-intentioned board run out of ideas, energy and time, Rangers supporters are entitled to be excited by all of this.
To a man, the Americans are serious people, each with impressive track records in their respective fields.
Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart welcomes sporting director Kevin Thelwell to Ibrox
Thelwell has officially taken up his post at Rangers after the expiration of his Everton contract
Rangers need an appointment as successful as Marathe’s choice with Leeds boss Daniel Farke
49ers Enterprises, which has Marathe as its president, has serious clout when it comes to developing sporting institutions. Forbes recently valued the company at $5.97bn.
There will be an initial cash injection of £20m via a share issue at Ibrox which will predominantly go towards strengthening the first-team.
Kevin Thelwell, who’s now started his sporting director role, and Dan Purdy, who’s replacing Nils Koppen as technical director, will be tasked with identifying targets to ensure this sum is spent wisely.
Thelwell’s first words might well have come from the mouth of his employers. It’s been some time since anyone at Rangers talked of the need for success as well as sustainability.
There’s no great secret to this new modus operandi. The club will seek to cash in on assets with suitable replacements waiting in the wings for a fraction of the selling price.
Brighton have been the Premier League’s greatest exponents of this player trading model in the past few years.
Davide Ancelotti remains the bookies’ favourite but has also been linked with Swiss club Basel
Leeds, where Marathe is chairman, aren’t far behind them. The Elland Road coffers were swollen by £130m in the past year through selling Georginio Rutter, Crysencio Summerville, Luis Sinisterra and Archie Gray in a season in which they won promotion.
Closer to home, Rangers fans only need to look across the city for evidence that it can work. Hearts too, now hope to follow Celtic’s lead.
Amid all the optimism that’s come on the back of another barren season at Ibrox, though, there lies a simple truth.
Without the right man in the dug-out, no amount of restructuring behind the scenes or a redefined strategy at any football club can deliver success.
And unless Thelwell, Cavenagh and Marathe get that crucial call right in the coming days, the so-called American revolution won’t be planting any flags in the ground any time soon.
In many respects, things were simpler when 49ers Enterprises took full control at Leeds in 2023.
Russell Martin remains hotly fancied for the Ibrox post and plays an attractive brand of football
Having just been relegated from the top-flight, Sam Allardyce’s short-term contract had expired. Marathe needed to hire a specialist in winning promotion from the Championship.
Fortuitously, Daniel Farke, who’d twice taken Norwich City up, had just left Borussia Monchengladbach. He was the obvious choice. Two years on, he’s taken Leeds back to the big time as champions.
Can Rangers also hit the bullseye? For a kick-off, that would mean appointing a manager who at least has the side contending for the title next season. Another distant second place to Celtic and he just won’t last.
He’ll need broad shoulders to handle the unique pressure which comes with managing one of Glasgow’s big two. He’ll also have to be fully aligned with the strategy which Thelwell and Purdy will oversee.
As job descriptions go, it’s enormously challenging. Rangers have got much more of these key decisions wrong than right in recent times.
You can understand why the new regime is taking their time with this one. From Fergie to Jose and through to dear old John McGlynn at Falkirk, history shows us that putting the right man behind the wheel can be transformative for any football club. There are myriad examples of bad choices having the opposite effect.
Farioli was in tears as Ajax’s title dream died, but Ibrox job would be quite the pick-me-up
No matter how this plays out, no one will ever be able to accuse Rangers of acting in haste.
It’s now 16 days since Barry Ferguson took charge of the team for the last time against Hibs and 15 since Rangers confirmed he’d be moving on.
Chief executive Patrick Stewart would have been working on filling the vacancy long before then, though, with Thelwell also involved in the conversations as he prepared to leave Everton.
Even as the interview process concludes, you get the impression that there could be a late change of heart.
Since Steven Gerrard dropped out of the race, the favourite tag has been swapped daily between Davide Ancelotti and Russell Martin. Francesco Farioli and Brian Priske remain in the running.
The one thing that can be said with certainty is the list of candidates fills a wide spectrum. There’s no identikit.
Brian Priske is the outsider of Rangers’ four options but is also the most experienced candidate
Do the board feel lucky? In that case Ancelotti will win the day. The Italian has never taken charge of a single match in professional football. But he’s been with his famous father Carlo at Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton and Real Madrid. Basel are apparently the latest club willing to take a chance on him. If they do, it will go one of two ways.
Martin appears to be the safer bet. He knows Rangers from his short and forgettable time as a player there.
He’s been a manager at MK Dons, Swansea and Southampton. His ticket was hot when he defeated Marathe’s Leeds in the 2024 play-off final, but he was sacked after Saints performed dismally in the Premier League.
He’s an advocate of possession-based football. MK Dons once scored a 56-pass goal on his watch. As laudable as that was, you might question if it’s the right approach in a league where opponents will invariably sit in.
That may also count against Farioli. Yet the Italian, who became a manager for the first time in Turkey aged just 31, took Nice to fifth in the French league and was set to guide Ajax to the Dutch title last season until a late collapse.
All eyes will now be on Thelwell as he prepares to make his first, and biggest, decision at Ibrox
If it comes down to experience, Priske would make a compelling case. At 48, he’s by far the oldest candidate (Martin, second oldest, is 39).
While his last posting at Feyenoord didn’t work out, the Dane won the title in his homeland with Midtjylland and took them into the Champions League. He won the Czech league with Sparta Prague and made inroads in the Europa League. He ticks a lot of boxes yet, oddly, there’s not much noise around him.
We’ll know soon enough who’s signed up for a life of unrelenting clamour.
As the final countdown begins, Rangers have options yet there’s still no obvious choice. No pressure then.
