James Bisgrove has started a massive cut in scouting costs at Ibrox with John Brown among those that will have to apply for his current job. According to the Daily Record Bomber is being put through a consultation.
The costs of failing to reach the Champions League group stage, funding the Micky Beale Revolution and barely being able to sell any deadwood is having major implications at the company.
Trying to act like a big club is a costly business with Beale undermining everyone on the payroll with his ability to do every job under the sun.
Dujon Sterling was signed because Beale knew of him as an u-13 starlet at Chelsea, Sam Lammers once played against Chelsea in a youth tournament while Keiran Dowell starred for Everton in youth matches against Beale’s Liverpool sides.
Most of the other signings had been monitored by Beale for a number of years while Brown and others pick up a salary and expenses for going through the motions inside the ‘Scouting Department’.
Scott Burns and Andy Newport of the Daily Record explain:
Rangers trigger major player recruitment overhaul as scouting cull afoot to ensure data drives the way
Club sources insist it is about bringing the club into line with other top European clubs on these particular fronts.
Rangers have kicked off a complete overhaul of their scouting and player recruitment departments.
The move will see the Ibrox side cull swathes of their scouting department as they move towards a more video and data-led operation. Club sources insist it is about bringing the club into line with other top European clubs on these particular fronts.
They also deny it has anything to do with recent results or a bid to cut costs but in the long-term the proposed changes could make that side of the business stronger and bring savings in the long run. It will see Rangers move away from the more traditional move of mainly having scouts on the ground to a process being led by video and data analysis that could then be followed up by sending staff out to watch players in person.
Rangers boss Michael Beale has made a big thing about not signing players unless he has seen them in the flesh. The moves will see the majority of Rangers overseas and part-time scouts go as part of the major revamp. Rangers also have seven full-time scouts and it is understood the plan is those will be cut to just three newly-defined roles under chief scout John Park.
That means that all the staff who want to remain will need to re-apply for one of the new positions, although there will be departures. Rangers included the likes of John Brown, Billy McLaren and Billy Kirkwood among their scouting team. A lot of the remaining scouting staff are already going through a consultation period with the club.
Rangers have not replaced sporting director Ross Wilson who left for Nottingham Forest last season. Manager Beale took over the majority of his summer recruitment himself and was aided by Park.
The summer rebuild saw him spend around £13million to bring in the likes of Danilo, Cyriel Dessers, Jack Butland, Dujon Sterling, Kieran Dowell, Abdallah Sima, Jose Cifuentes, Leon Balogun and Sam Lammers in the summer window. Question marks remain over a number of Beale’s signings as he waits for them to find their feet at Ibrox and in Scottish football.
The pressure has been cranked up on Beale by his own fans after Rangers lost at home to Celtic in the first derby before the international break. It comes after the Light Blues failed to make the Champions League group stage and have won just half of their opening four Premiership games.
It is difficult to imagine Brown being retrained as a digital analysist and being asked to provide the expected goals (xG) for signing targets from Ecuador.
Under Ally McCoist the scouting department consisted of Brown and wee Stevie the IT guru headed up by Neil Murray..
