Rangers boss Philippe Clement has hinted that Nils Koppen is ready to kickstart the Ibrox club’s transfer business.
Speaking after the 2-0 victory over St Mirren, the incoming Rangers manager was being quizzed on the club’s new Director of Football.
Claiming that the ex-KRC Genk and PSV Eindhoven man has a vast knowledge of players within Rangers’ budget, Philippe Clement expanded on the appointment.
With Nils Koppen now tasked with making Rangers’ Player Trading model more functional, it all points to fresh and early investment in burgeoning talent.
“It’s a very important position,” said Clement. “I don’t want to look too much to the past of the last couple of months, I want to look to the future.
“(Nils Koppen is) somebody who is really into players. He knows a lot of players. He has a lot of information.
“He’s also someone who has a lot of experience with working data wise. He’s somebody that can lead the team.
“It’s the thing we need in the club for the moment to guide the recruitment, to find in this pool that we can pay that we can find the best fish.
“But we need to be really early with that because there are a lot of people in the same pool, so we need to be really early.
“We all think in the club that Nils (Koppen) can help in a really good way like that.”
Philippe Clement meets Nils Koppen at Rangers
Philippe Clement has also been talking about Nils Koppen from his time with KRC Genk and a potential Rangers link in Belgium.
But whilst both men worked in important roles within the Belgian Pro League side, Philippe Clement’s role with the first team never crossed over with Nils Koppen in the Academy.
Moving to PSV Eindhoven only six months into Clement’s tenure, the Ibrox boss claims the club’s new Director of Football missed an almighty party as a result.
“I had been talking with all the candidates together with the members of the board,” Clement said.
“The first time I talked with Nils we said it was a pity that we missed each other in Genk. We were there six months when I was working with the first team and he was working in the academy.
“He left after six months and went to PSV and that year we won the championship and he missed the big party!
“So I didn’t know him before we first talked but of course I took some information from people who worked with him in PSV and Genk. Everybody was really positive.”
Rangers appointed Nils Koppen as Director of Football last week and he’ll assist Philippe Clement in a hotly anticipated January transfer window next month.
Rangers media partners Heart & Hand have also been rebuffing claims attributed to the outlet regarding potential exits from the club.
