Former Falkirk manager John Hughes has insisted that he is not at all surprised that Rangers have brought in Ross Wilson as their new sporting director.
Wilson has left Premier League club Southampton to move back to Scotland and become the new sporting director at Ibrox.
He has replaced Mark Allen, who announced in September that he was leaving Rangers for family reasons.
Wilson started his career at Falkirk before moving to the south of the border to work at Watford and Huddersfield before becoming director of football operations at Southampton, where he spent the past four years.
Hughes worked with Wilson at Falkirk and has given a glowing endorsement of his work, insisting that the 36-year-old will take a massive amount of workload off Rangers boss Steven Gerrard’s shoulders, which would allow him to focus on the team’s preparations.
The former Falkirk boss provided a sneak peek into the 36-year-old’s work ethic and insisted that Wilson is smart enough to take advice from the experts as he has not played football at any level.
He believes Wilson was a Rangers fan growing up and is not surprised to see him ending up at Ibrox.
Hughes told The Athletic: “He’ll take so much off Gerrard’s desk it will be unbelievable: ‘I’ll deal with that, I’ll deal with this.’
“It’ll allow him to get on with the coaching and management. I did all the recruitment myself but he’ll not get caught short.
“He’s always a step ahead.
"We had to take every tiny budget into account and weigh up all the pros and cons.
"Ross was always at the forefront of that: ‘Should we sign a Scottish guy who’s not going to cost us any accommodation?’ Mindmapping where we want to go, organising, networking with agents. That’s Ross.
“The only downside for Ross is that he’d never played football so, in terms of seeing it how coaches and professionals see it, he hasn’t got that.
“But he’s clever enough to realise that he needs the experts around him to spot a player and he’ll do the rest. He’ll bring it all together.
“Rangers have a good boy. I take a bit of pride in playing a little part in his development but it’s all down to him.
“He was always looking for the next step and where he could go, so it’s no surprise that he’s moved to Rangers as I think he supported them as a kid.”
Wilson will hope to build a strong relationship with Gerrard as they look to get Rangers back to the top of Scottish football.
