Ben Banks and Martyn Simpson discuss what Rangers heroes could return to the club as part of a shake-up behind the scenes.
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00:00So Rangers have appointed Ish, a new technical director in Nils Koppen.
00:06He has been overseeing football recruitment and first-team transfers at Rangers in his
00:11year in charge of that department but now moves into a more encompassing role involving
00:16a few other areas of the club.
00:18He's provided a pretty honest interview via Rangers TV and club media and in that he's
00:23suggested that there will be some Rangers heroes of the past or certainly former Rangers
00:28players returning to Ibrox in some capacity if his master plan is to be pulled off for
00:34reinvigorating the academy there, which is falling on, well, currently without an academy
00:39chief but also perhaps not developed the players it would have liked to in the last four or
00:43five years in terms of first-team minutes.
00:46So I suppose, Martin, the big question is what type of people are these ex-players going
00:52to be?
00:53I think the obvious name that will spring to fans' minds will be Kevin Thompson, formerly
00:57part of the coaching set-up there.
01:00I think some people even talked him up as a potential first-team coach when he was in
01:03the ranks at Rangers.
01:07Barry Ferguson will be one that gets mentioned, he's obviously had a bit of managerial experience.
01:11Craig Moore potentially, he obviously works as an agent which might complicate things
01:16but certainly has contacts within the game, however, perhaps not an academy role, maybe
01:21more of a consultancy-based thing would suit him there and his expertise, but who would
01:28you think fits the bill?
01:31He's not directly said, Nils Koppen, that it's going to be the academy that these guys
01:35come into, but just generally at Rangers, what are the type of guys you could see coming
01:40back to the club?
01:42Kevin Thompson is the obvious one.
01:43If you were going to bring anyone in on a permanent basis and give them a contract,
01:46it would be him.
01:48I think just his track record of working with young players and his experience in management
01:54and his methodology and his style and just what he's about, yeah, he's the obvious one
02:00you would bring in.
02:01Like you said, there are lots of ex-Rangers players out there with managerial and coaching
02:07experience and even ones that don't.
02:09If you're just talking about bringing guys in as a one-off or for a couple of training
02:14sessions just to maybe speak to some of the younger guys, give them a few tips, tricks
02:20of the trade and all that, like you say, Barry Ferguson would be a good one, a Rangers legend
02:26in every sense of the word, one of the greatest players Rangers have had in the past 30 years
02:31and that's saying a lot because they've had a lot of great players in that time.
02:35I think the thing about Barry Ferguson that you always point out is anyone that's ever
02:41played with him always just talks up how good a player he was.
02:47I honestly think it wouldn't be fair to call Barry Ferguson underrated and that's saying
02:52a lot because of how highly rated he is in Scotland, but I still don't think he gets
02:56maybe the credit he deserves, but yeah, he would be someone that you could bring in and
03:01certainly would have plenty of words of wisdom and there's so many other players, someone
03:05like Kenny Miller, someone else who's had lots of experience, would be a great person
03:12for the young strikers to learn from, even if it's just a couple of training sessions
03:15with a youth team here or there, but yeah, I mean, it could be anyone.
03:20It's interesting because we've just had the Masters tournament there and you forget, you
03:25almost forget because someone, obviously remembering Pedro Mendes and that was a great coup for
03:32Rangers when they signed him, he proved every inch of the quality player we expect him to be.
03:37Bruno Alves, Bruno Alves was a Champions League winner, do you know what I mean?
03:41If you can't learn something from him, yeah, he was past his best when he came to Rangers,
03:45but still, there was a quality player in there, having someone like that and these guys, if
03:51they're willing to come and represent Rangers at a five-a-side kickabout in Aberdeen, then
03:58you would have to believe that they'd be willing to come over and impart a bit of wisdom
04:03onto the younger Rangers players.
04:06So they've got no depth of top quality players and legends that have such an affiliation
04:17with that club that I'm sure would be happy to come back and just do whatever part they
04:25can do to help, whether it's the younger generation or whether it is the first team, whatever.
04:32Like I say, I think these guys just have such a love for Rangers from their time there that
04:38they would be willing to go just that little bit extra to try and do something to help the club.