I get the scepticism. Trust me, I totally understand why some Rangers fans have their doubts about the promotion of Nils Koppen to the role of technical director at Ibrox.
Let’s be honest, Koppen has a lot of people to win over given that the big summer rebuild he oversaw hasn’t exactly worked out the way the supporters were hoping it would. But, even so, there is something that excites me about Koppen’s new position. And that’s got everything to do with his views on the need for Rangers to be producing their own young players and getting them ready for the first team. If that’s going to be his main emphasis now that he’s been given greater authority to move the club forward then, let me tell you, I’m all for it.
That’s what his background is all about. The CV he built up during his time in Holland tells you he’s a guy who identifies talent and who knows how to nurture it. And that’s exactly the route Rangers need to be going down at this moment in time.
In a recent interview, Koppen talked a lot about the importance of promoting youngsters and developing home grown boys from the academy so that they’re ready to make the big step up, the way some of us did back in the day.
It might be hard to swallow but the unfortunate truth of the matter is that Rangers simply haven’t done enough of that over the years. The production line has to be better.
I’m not going to be greedy about it either and demand that four or five kids are fast-tracked into the first team every season. That would be completely unrealistic. But I really don’t think that one per year is too much to ask for and that’s the first target Koppen should be setting for himself now that he has the chance to influence things from the top.
I’m not saying that that one player should be guaranteed a place in the team every week because you need to earn the right to pull on that shirt. But I do firmly believe, with all the investment that’s going into the youth department, it’s about time they started regularly delivering players who are capable of challenging the senior guys.
When you listen to Koppen talk about his aims and ambitions for improving that side of the club you can hear the passion in his voice. He’s spoken about the importance of youngsters who have the right DNA and the will to win over and above their natural ability. It matters to him. He really gets it. And if that’s going to be his driving aim then he might just be the right man in the right place after all.
I’ve spoken to quite a lot of parents I’ve bumped into over the years and told them exactly the same thing. Ability is great but if your boy is going to make it as a professional he needs to have a strong mentality and a bit of character about him.
Nils seems to be on the same page in that regard and I really like the fact that he’s now talking about bringing in former players to help assist and support the young players and the coaching staff in terms of what is required to be a success at Rangers. It’s all about helping the club to progress and get better and it goes without saying that, as former players, we would do everything we can to make that happen.
But I’m not the only one who understands what it takes. There are plenty of guys out there – and a lot of them are my old team mates – who are qualified as coaches and who have every bit as much to offer. If Koppen reaches out to some of these guys and brings them on board then it can only be a good thing for the football club. And that’s what every single one of us wants.
You don’t stop caring about the best interests of Rangers when you leave the club or hang up your boots – you carry a responsibility to do what you can, wherever or whenever you are needed. Ask any of the guys and to a man they’ll almost all say the same thing. That’s what makes it such a very special football club.
And it’s why it stuck in the throat a little bit the other day when Michael Beale talked about ‘snakes’ coming out of the woodwork and conspiring against him during his time as manager. I’m happy for him that he’s teamed up again with Steven Gerrard in Saudi Arabia and, like most Rangers fans, I wish the pair of them the best.
But let’s get one thing perfectly straight, Beale was entirely responsible for the decisions he made during his time in charge. For him to suggest that people around the club wanted him to fail is simply not the case. I have no idea what he was hoping to achieve by coming away with that kind of stuff as it makes him sound silly. He had his shot and, let’s be honest, it wasn’t a good time for anyone. He should simply move on and accept that it didn’t work out for him.
Remember, this is a guy who was prepared to be seen sitting in the directors box when Gio van Bronckhorst was under pressure and fighting to stay in control.
So maybe he’s not best placed to start talking about the morales of anyone else. It didn’t sit well at the time and it reflected badly on him when, a few days later, he ended up taking Gio’s job. But that’s for Beale’s conscience.
The truth of the matter is that, even despite the way he went about it, all of us who have Rangers at heart wanted him to succeed. It’s the same for every Rangers manager who walks in through those doors. Right now it’s Philippe Clement who is up against it and the Belgian will have his work cut out over the next few weeks as the pressure builds.
What he needs is to get the campaign properly up and running this weekend against Dundee United because he has to get a lot more from the team than he did in the last performance against Hearts which was well below par.
It’s going to be non-stop from now until the next international break in March and that will give him the opportunity to build some momentum. Like I said at the start, there are plenty of sceptics and fed up fans out there right now. It’s time for both Clement and Koppen to start putting smiles back on some faces.