Nils Koppen backed to solve Rangers transfer woes as Phillipe Clement reveals what convinced him about PSV recruit

Former PSV scouting chief is new head of recruitment at Rangers

Rangers manager Philippe Clement addresses the media ahead of facing Hearts on Wednesday. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Rangers manager Philippe Clement is convinced that attracting Nils Koppen from PSV Einhoven to the club’s head of football recruitment role will avoid the summer missteps in the transfer market that continue to haunt the club.

The Ibrox side appear to have derived little value from the £7m in fees lavished on Cyriel Dessers and Sam Lammers, but Clement is convinced their modest budget will go much further through Koppen’s global reach. The former Brugge manager refusing to be drawn on Rangers expanding their horizons to dip into the South American and African markets.

“He has a good track record in PSV bringing players in who are not too expensive,” said the Belgian. “That is a reality in this club, we are not the one with the most money in the world and can buy whoever we want. In these days a lot of people play the games on Playstation or Football Manager or whatever and you have the budget and it works or it doesn't work then you put the computer to one side. It's not that easy a job. It's also totally different because you also have the competition with a lot of teams.

“I know this because with Brugge I had a similar budget to here and we were competing with the same players. So PSV are a little bit in the same world. There’s a lot of teams like that in Europe so it’s really important to be first with the players, and to recognise them first. The club have made a really good step. I’m convinced, and so is everyone at the club, that we can be faster and better at that.

“I am really demanding and the club is really demanding, and [knowledge of markets] was also one of the questions [asked of director of football recruitment candidates]. In these talks we spent a lot of evenings and nights, for a long time, with many people having discussions around that.

"There were really good candidates who were really strong on the UK market, but didn’t really know the European market. Then you take a big risk that the pool is too small to make the right targets. Nils was one of the best candidates in knowing the markets we need to aim for.”