Rangers finally replaced Russell Martin when the club announced the appointment of Danny Rohl as their new head coach on Monday evening, over two weeks after the hapless former Norwich City defender was sacked by the Ibrox club following the club’s worst league start to a season since the 70’s.
Since Rohl’s appointment he has gotten to work quickly, having already taken the first team squad for training on both Tuesday and earlier today ahead of the squad’s flight out to Bergen to face Norwegian side SK Brann on Thursday evening in the UEFA Europa League.
The former Sheffield Wednesday manager has already started putting his coaching team together with the appointments of two fellow Germans as his assistant coaches: Sascha Lense, who we exclusively revealed would be reuniting with Rohl, who he worked with at both Hillsborough and at RB Leipzig, as well as former Ajax assistant Mathias Kaltenbach.
Sal Bibbo, appointed with Martin, will remain as goalkeeper coach, having also worked alongside Lense and Rohl at Wednesday.
Lense will be the “off-field” coach that Rohl mentioned at yesterday’s press conference, with a background in psychology, he was Sports Psychologist at English Premier League side Manchester United under Ralf Rangnick, whilst Kaltenbach will be his “on-field” coach.
He also mentioned at his presser that he will: “Try to bring a former Rangers player with a good background here as well, because for me it’s important to take this advantage from a guy who knows Rangers and who knows the league.
“This would be a perfect setup for me.”
There has been no confirmation on who this coach is as of yet, with under 19’s coach Stevie Smith still helping out with first team training today, but he may not travel to Norway as the youth squad have a SFA Youth Cup match against Darvel scheduled at the Rangers Training Centre for Friday night.
Names linked with this role include former Rangers captains Lee Wallace and Steven Davis, who took interim charge of the team when Michael Beale was dismissed in late 2023, as well as former Rangers assistant coach Neil McCann, who was touted to be Kevin Muscat’s expected assistant at Ibrox had the Australian taken the role.
One name that the supporters would be keen on however is Maurice Ross, the former Rangers full back spent five seasons at Rangers between 2000 and 2005, having come through the youth ranks at the club. He has gone on to manage in Norway, coach in England and had a spell as a manager in Scotland with Cowdenbeath.
He appeared as co-commentator for Rangers TV’s coverage of Saturday's home match against Dundee United and supporters were impressed with his knowledge of the game and tactical analysis and have used this as reasoning as to why Ross should get the free ‘Rohl’ in the coaching staff.
One supporter said: “[Rangers] could do a lot worse than get Maurice Ross on board.
“He was absolute class on co-comms today. His analysis and insight was spot on.”
This was backed up in the replies by another fan who said: “Totally agree, he did not hold back with his assessments on the style of play.”
“Never really took to him as a player, but he seems to understand the game very well, for sure,” said another.
More supporters of this idea said: “Definitely a shout there,” “Spot on” and “He made it sound so simple, it was like he was carrying out a live interview.”
Some hefty praise from the support, but not all were in favour, with another saying “Being good on comms doesn’t make you a great coach, it is totally different.
“Many can talk the talk, but not many can walk the walk.”