Rangers have been without a sporting director or director of football since Ross Wilson returned to the Premier League and joined Southampton, however, that has changed with the appointment of Nils Koppen.
The former PSV Eindhoven scout has been involved in analysis and recruitment of players at various levels and has been given the working title of director of football recruitment, charged with rebuilding the squad
Rangers, if they want to progress and have a sustainable player trading model, need to have someone with elite level experience in this role and that is exactly what the appointment of Nils Koppen brings.
Rangers director Nils Koppen has big task to repair damage
It may be a coincidence that Koppen worked with Philippe Clement at Genk, the Gers boss was going to be involved in the process but you would like to think that it was already well under way given that Wilson left in April.
The fallout from not replacing the previous sporting director is visible on an almost weekly basis.
A summer overhaul has seen just Jack Butland as an unquestionable success and only Danilo and Abdallah Sima as two others who can be trusted to do a job more often than not.
Not only did Michael Beale waste an awful lot of money and most of his transfer budget on fixer uppers like Cyriel Dessers and Sam Lammers but in Keiran Dowell, Leon Balogun, Dujon Sterling and Jose Cifuentes, we have a large percentage of the summer acquisitions have spent most of their time sitting on the bench or in the stands.
Rangers have obviously chosen Nils Koppen for a reason and adjusted his remit so that his main focus is on player trading and the scouting network.
This is a massive boost for Clement who now has a subject matter expert working behind the scenes who can bring other potential targets to the table and get the dels done.
PSV, as a club that has progressed to the knockout stages of the Champions League, a year after being knocked out of the qualifiers by us has shown what can be achieved in a year with a solid recruitment plan.
It’s not quite too little, too late, but his job is an awful lot harder than it would have been if he’d arrived before the summer window.
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