Everything the Rangers manager said to Rangers TV.

How do you feel about the departure of Ross Wilson?

Firstly, you are disappointed to lose a good person. Someone I have worked closely with for the past three and a half years in two spells at the club. Ross was hugely positive in his day-to-day work here at the club. He brought a lot of departments together and his job was to oversee obviously first team football operations, medical, academies and recruitment. He had to bring all that in line. We’ve seen good success during his time here and he was obviously influential in me coming back in. He is a person who I spoke most here at Rangers and was between me and the board so I feel as though I have lost a good ally. One thing I would say about Ross and one of his best strengths was that he never mirco managed anyone, allowing them to grow in their roles. In the short term there is a void in terms of Ross leaving but the heads of departments are ready to step into their roles. A lot of our plans for next season in terms of pre-season and our eyes on recruitment have already been done. I have been aware for the last couple of weeks. I’m disappointed for Rangers that Ross has moved on, but I am happy for him and his family that he feels this is a challenge he’d like to take. Having known Ross for as long as I have, I know this is not the first opportunity to come his way so if he feels this is the right thing for him we wish him well. He did a good job here but now it’s time to move forward strongly and that starts with the St Mirren game.

In the summer, how does Ross' departure impact recruitment?

In terms of recruitment and targets myself and Ross have been working closely on that. We have an extensive recruitment team and analyst staff. The meetings have already been held.  Pre-season and recruitment has been pretty much finalised and now it’s just about ticking one or two boxes on some areas. Maybe some players that see their futures elsewhere. The main part of the recruitment process in terms of identifying players has already happened. Now it’s about executing those deals.

In the short term, what does his exit mean?  

He doesn’t play and score goals on the pitch but he does give a positivity around the environment.   I will fill that void as manager and oversee some of the departments for the moment, strongly supported by Stewart Robertson and John Bennett and the board. We have a really experienced staff. Ross allowed people to flourish in their roles as heads of departments. So the heads of departments will naturally step up and then we’ll see how we go. There is only a small portion of the season to go. And then we’ll assess everything in the summer, as any club would do, in terms of their structure. Nothing changes massively in terms of the team preparation, that’s on me, in terms of the training and how we’re going to play and approach each game. That’s on me and my management team. We’ve trained well this week and it’s work as normal in that aspect.  

How's the squad looking for the weekend?  

From last weekend, Connor won’t return. He’ll be more likely to back for Aberdeen, or certainly the semi-final at the end of the month. We’ve got one or two bumps and bruises and players didn’t train this morning. There was a game on Tuesday against Chelsea reserves in which Scott Wright, Ianis Hagi, Leon King and Rabbi Matondo were able to play and get some valuable minutes. So we’ll assess again, then pick the squad for the weekend.  

RED MORE: Ross Wilson exit: Do Rangers even need a Sporting Director?

What sort of challenge do you expect from St Mirren?  

It’s strange having played 21 a domestic games that we haven’t played against St Mirren yet. They’ve been going great guns. I think they’re three points off third. European football is very much an opportunity for them to grasp. We are now entering into a part of the season where you play teams around you. Aberdeen and St Mirren are those teams, then we go into the split. So it’s likely we’re going to play those teams two more times. We know Stephen Robinson sets up his team very disciplined and resolute in terms of their defensive shape and very good in terms of counter-attacking. We think it’ll be another tough game at home. It’s important we bounce back from the disappointment of last week, but there were a lot of positivity out of the game in the way we played. We managed to score two goals again, one goal obviously disallowed that we thought was a good goal. We’re positive. It’s important we come out of this week with a strong home performance and three more points.