Dave King says five in frame for Rangers job, including Stuart McCall
Monday 8 June 2015 22:42, UK
Dave King hopes to be in a position to announce a new manager at Rangers within a week and admits interim boss Stuart McCall is one of five candidates in contention for the role.
Mark Warburton – who has just left Brentford after 18 months in charge – is widely thought to be the front-runner, although King said he has not spoken personally with the 52-year-old.
McCall was given a temporary deal at the helm until the end of the season to guide Rangers through the final weeks of the campaign after Kenny McDowall left the club.
His objective was to take his squad into the top flight and while he got a positive response from the players, he ultimately failed as they were beaten by Motherwell in the play-offs.
King was speaking after flying into Glasgow from his South African base and is optimistic of appointing a permanent manager in the coming days.
He wants whoever is given the position to piece together a top tier-standard team after several contracts of senior players expired including Lee McCulloch and Kris Boyd.
King said: “It has been a little bit frustrating from our point of view because it has taken longer than we would have liked.
“To some extent, where we are at the moment, it would be what I would call necessarily long. The awkward part of looking at the management situation for next season has been the play-off issue.
“It was important in terms of what we think is needed for the season coming up – and in terms of, quite frankly, the market for available candidates – that we did resolve that.
“Stuart is still involved as a possible candidate. I certainly haven’t spoken to (Warburton) but there is a committee and a number of people the committee has spoken to.
“We’ve a number of candidates and we’re hoping to make progress, possibly within a week, where we might be in a position to make an announcement.
“At the moment there are probably five realistic candidates that might fit the bill. Obviously with a club like Rangers, there are a lot of names that might come forward.
“The immediate mandate to the manager is to bring in a number of players who are good enough to play in the Premiership over the next few months.”
Along with McCulloch and Boyd, nine others - Ian Black, Jon Daly, Sebastien Faure, Ricky Foster, Kyle Hutton, Bilel Mohsni, Lee Robinson, Steve Simonsen and Stevie Smith - have been released by the club following the conclusion of their contracts.
