Chairman Andrew Cavenagh insists Rangers did not "screw up" the process of appointing head coach Danny Rohl, though he admits it may have appeared "clunky" from the outside.
The Ibrox club came close to hiring both Steven Gerrard and Kevin Muscat before finalising a deal with Rohl — who initially withdrew from discussions before eventually accepting the role.
Both sporting director Kevin Thelwell and chief executive Patrick Stewart have faced criticism from supporters for their perceived roles in the club’s poor start to the season, but Cavenagh defended their handling of the managerial search.
“The misconception out there is that somehow [Thelwell and Stewart] screwed it up,” Cavenagh said. “I was involved in every call, every meeting, every minute with both Gerrard and Muscat. They didn’t walk away because of Patrick or because they didn’t want a sporting director. Timing was the biggest factor — partly theirs, partly ours in Kevin’s case. Behind the scenes, we had already re-engaged with Danny, and we’re delighted he’s now our head coach.”
Cavenagh added that some of the media coverage during the search was inaccurate, which led to public misconceptions.
“There’s asymmetric information — what’s in the press versus what’s actually happening,” he explained. “It looked clunky from the outside. It wasn’t clunky from our perspective inside the club.”
Cavenagh stressed that Rangers never had a single ‘first-choice’ candidate, and rejected suggestions that Rohl was third on their list.
Talks were held in London with several coaches beyond Gerrard, Muscat, and Rohl, with Cavenagh revealing there were five candidates he would have been “delighted” to appoint.
“We interviewed a number of great candidates,” he said. “Some you’ve never even heard about. I told our group how happy I was that we had five strong options — not just three — who could all have been great for Rangers.”
When asked why deals with Gerrard or Muscat never materialised, Cavenagh described both as “complicated situations.”
“We didn’t rank people one, two and three,” he explained. “We had about ten days to get a coach in, so we pursued all five simultaneously. It doesn’t work like a formal job offer — you’re managing multiple discussions at once.”
He implied neither Gerrard nor Muscat were formally offered the position, as negotiations with several candidates were ongoing.
“They’re on the other side of the world, with families, and it’s mid-season,” he added. “We were moving several conversations forward at once, trying to see what could realistically happen. In the end, we’re thrilled it worked out with Danny.”
