Rangers went 'backwards' claim, Celtic envy as Ibrox legend names trio who could replace Ross Wilson

Rangers legend Barry Ferguson believes the club went “backwards” last summer as he named three options to replace Ross Wilson as sporting director.

Wilson’s departure to Nottingham Forest was confirmed on Wednesday night. Despite good success on the pitch and with player trading since joining the club in 2019, he had faced scrutiny from supporters regarding transfer business across the past couple of seasons.

Rangers boss Michael Beale revealed he had “lost an ally” and confirmed “recruitment and pre-season has very much been finalised”, while Ferguson, writing in his Daily Record column, believes it’s now “given the club an opportunity to make a much needed change at the top going forward” with “the recruitment at Ibrox has fallen way short of where it should have been”.

The former Blackburn Rovers and Scotland midfielder noted that Wilson “deserves a big part of the credit for the money that’s been brought in over the last 18 months or so from the sales of Nathan Patterson, Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey” but pointed to Celtic's recruitment under Ange Postecoglou as “the way to work a proper ‘player trading model’ and it’s a sharp contrast to the way business has been being done on the other side of the city”, using the profit made on Josip Juranovic and having Alistair Johnston lined up to replace him as an example.

“The recruitment was not anywhere near good enough for a club which has a duty to keep on moving forward and improving," he said. “Rangers didn’t even stand still last summer - they went backwards. I found it very interesting the other week when Michael Beale said he’s already looking at the biggest budget any Rangers manager has had for a while. And I’m absolutely certain he’ll be looking for a far better return.”

Three candidates

As for possible Wilson replacements, Ferguson suggested former Rangers duo Davie Weir and Craig Moore as well as John Park, who was transfer guru at Celtic for a number of years and joined the Ibrox club in a scouting role last year.

“I don’t know John very well but I do know all about his reputation and it’s top notch," he said. “Davie has been heading up the recruitment at Brighton and when it comes to ‘player trading models’ I don’t think there’s a club anywhere in Europe which is doing it better. Every time the window opens they sell their best players for a small fortune. And, without fail, they bring in even more quality for a fraction of the price. So Davie would be a no-brainer in that regard.

Barry Ferguson has tipped former Rangers colleague Davie Weir for the sporting director role. Picture: SNS

As for Moore, he’s ideally positioned because of the enormous contacts book he has built up in his work as an agent. He’s also the kind of guy who lives and breathes football and could give you a sore head when it comes to talking about players, their stats, their strengths and their inside leg measurements. He leaves no details to chance and he also knows what it means to represent that club.”