Simon Jordan makes Graeme Souness ‘sensible appointment’ claim amid Rangers CEO hunt

Philippe Clement will be thankful for the presence of Nils Koppen after Rangers lost CEO James Bisgrove and didn’t replace Ross Wilson as sporting director.

The manager has enough on his plate trying to rebuild his squad but having top-level cover would make his job a lot easier.

A new CEO is said to imminent in the guise of St Mirren’s Jim Gillespie, a name that hasn’t quite caught the imagination of the Rangers support given his non-existent experience of football at the level of the Ibrox outfit.

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Rangers urged to aim high in CEO hunt

Speaking on the 20th of August on Talksport to Jim White, former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan reckons that sights should be set considerably higher:

“No, not at all, they’ve got what, a £60m-£80m turnover? They can get very good operators to work in that business. Rangers are competing at the top of the Scottish Premiership, playing in Europe.

“Why in God’s name, wouldn’t there be a very, very capable operator go in there and operate and fix some of the challenges?

“I mean, I personally think, that from the football side they should bring (Graeme) Souness in there as some form of director of football or board consultant.

“I think that would be a very sensible appointment.”

Souness hasn’t been in a boardroom or dugout for the best part of 20 years so, despite his wealth of knowledge and experience, the game has probably moved on in terms of the specifics.

As an advisor to the board he could have more relevance, but it looks like that ship has sailed after discussions with James Bisgrove last season.

Rangers need a leader with experience of elite level football

Jordan is right, Rangers were in the final of a European tournament only two years ago and remain one of the highest ranked teams according to UEFA’s coefficient system.

The training ground is of an elite level, as is Ibrox(when not undergoing works) and a lot of the work done by Bisgrove has seen the club’s facilities help to contribute to the revenue almost every day of the year.

The foundations have been built after the takeover in 2015 for the right person to take Rangers to the next level.

John Bennett and his board should be looking for someone who has experience of where Rangers want to go to, not someone who hasn’t even worked at the level they are currently at.

The Gers chairman is already under pressure, getting such a key appointment wrong would only ramp this up even further.