Rangers chairman John Bennett claims Nils Koppen has been appointed at Ibrox for one reason and one reason only – to fix the club’s recruitment.
The Ibrox chief was talking as part of the Rangers AGM with John Bennett asked about the Director of Football situation at the club.
Amid heavy fan protests, Ross Wilson left his Sporting Director role at Rangers to move down south to Premier League Nottingham Forest in April.
Rangers have only within the last week appointed a replacement, with PSV Eindhoven recruitment guru Nils Koppen finally completing the club’s football board.
The lack of Director of Football has led to the suggestion that Michael Beale shouldered this summer’s heavily scrutinised transfer window, which John Bennett has previously claimed cost the club £21m.
John Bennett explains Nils Koppen delay
Expanding on the situation – which has clearly been to the club’s detriment – John Bennett has explained that Nils Koppen is set to take on a very specific role at Rangers.
Explaining that the Rangers Board did not want an overarching Sporting Director in the model of Ross Wilson, the club wanted someone to come in and work specifically on sorting out the recruitment.
This is reflected by comments made by John Bennett about improving Player Trading within the squad following the release of the annual accounts.
As a result of the specific nature of Rangers’ search, and the ambitions of individual candidates, it mean a long and arduous process John Bennett hopes will be worth it with the appointment of Nils Koppen.
“I think it has got to suit both parties, James and I led an exhaustive process on candidates,” said Bennett when asked why it took so long to replace Ross Wilson.
“They’ve got to be right for the club, they’ve got to be available, it’s got to be right for them and for their families, where they will move and where they won’t. All that comes into it.
“We were very deliberate in what we wanted and the role was very important. You could say it’s a split role.
“I talked about the football board being very important and it’s also very important in the board’s view that we’ve actually spread the load.
“You’ll see Nils’ title reflects this. It’s a Director of Football Recruitment, it’s lost on absolutely nobody that it’s recruitment we need to get right systematically, not sporadically.
“That’s why Nils has come in as a Director of Recruitment.”
Rangers didn’t want “celebrity” appointment
Expanding on the situation, John Bennett claims the appointment of Nils Koppen took its time because of the nature of the brief.
According to the Ibrox chief, there are plenty of talented recruitment sorts out there who want the prestige of an all-encompassing Sporting Director title.
This is not what Rangers were looking for and this is exemplified by the club’s footballing board, which sees elements of the role delegated throughout various positions.
“We were clear we didn’t want to go down the road of an overarching Sporting Director,” continued Bennett.
“We met some candidates but it just confirmed and James can add that we did not want the overarching, all-powerful Sporting Director, that was very important for us.
“Did that make it a bit more niche as a lot of people have the ambition, and I speak from experience of interviewing some of these people, they want to be celebrity Sporting Director.
“We don’t need that and we don’t want that. We know what we want to fix, recruitment. That’s why Nils is here. Maybe it’s a bit more specific and it took a little more time.
“Even if you hired somebody in April, did they have a three-month get-out clause? A whole lot has to align. What was much more important for us as a board was getting the right individual for that very specific role, recruitment.”
John Bennett clearly believes that Nils Koppen is the man to deliver for Rangers and here’s what Philippe Clement has had to say about his fellow Belgian.
