The full transcript of Andrew Cavenagh, Kevin Thelwell and Patrick Stewart's press conference after the unveiling of Danny Rohl.
The interview took place yesterday but was embargoed by the club until 7am Wednesday.
Q: Andrew, you spoke about Russell Martin not working. Some supporters would argue that it hasn't worked with the chief executive and it hasn't worked with the sporting director. Do the guys either side of you still retain your full backing and if so, why?
Cavenagh: They do retain my full backing. Everybody makes mistakes. I think we have made some missteps along the way. I know we've made some missteps along the way, and we owned it. And if you make a mistake you need to try to improve. And we're committed to improving. That goes for everybody at this club. So it's it's Patrick, it's Kevin, it's myself, it's Paraag. And everyone in the organisation and going forward, we're all accountable.
Q: So what message would you have for the supporters who have protested for a few weeks now and again at the weekend? We saw the scenes. What would your message be to them?
Cavenagh: Our message is that we recognise their frustration. We know why they're frustrated. We're frustrated too. The results have not at all been where we want them to be. And I think that's really what this comes down to, is that we want to give them something to be positive about. And that's winning football matches. I mean, that's what this all comes down to, is if we can win football matches, then we can harness this fantastic energy that our supporters have in the right direction.
Q: Are you worried about such negativity, damaging the supporters feelings towards you and the new ownership of the football club?
Cavenagh: I think you'd have to say you're worried about it. Obviously, you want to be held in a positive light by the supporters. They're so important to this club. We've said that we have gotten things wrong. We've owned it, and we're trying to rectify it. We are committed to making it right. I think if the supporters look at they look at me, they look at the Paraag, they look at the new people that came in as part of our group. I hope what they see and what they hear are our words, our actions, see the capital that we've invested in the club, and I hope that gives them the correct impression, is that we love this club and want to get it back on a winning track.
Q: Just to follow up on that, I don't know if it's perhaps a question for Kevin as well as yourself, Andrew, but with Danny obviously starting, you talked about that financial backing. You have spent a lot of money. The question of the supporters is going to be, is that kind of backing available in January because they feel there might be a lot of work still to be done. Would they would that backing financially be there for Danny in January to go and do what perhaps he needs to go and do in the market?
Q: Yeah. We, we being our group that came in as well as some of the existing owners, put approximately £20m into the club last summer. And we never said that was the full amount that we would put in. And so we will look at the squad with Danny, with Kevin, over the next 45 days prior to the next window and determine what we need and if we need to make further investments, we're prepared to do that. I think it's probably a great opportunity for us to spend a little bit of time talking about almost the summer window, and where we see the squad, and Kevin and I can probably do this together, but we never expected to get the squad where we wanted it to be in a single window. It normally takes you two or three windows to do that. And so we look at the squad probably the same way our supporters do and say it's a bit incomplete. We need to have a balance between younger players who can rise in value, because that can then be reinvested in the club. But you also need some older, experienced players and the balance is probably a little bit wrong. Right now. We need a little bit more steel, we need a little bit more leadership and a little bit more experience. For us, and we know, we know that as we left the window that that was the case. We're a little bit heavy on loans. We have a little bit too little depth on left back. So we know that the squad needs some work, almost independent of where the results have been. And we're committed to getting the squad where it needs to be over the next couple of windows. And again, we'll do that in conjunction with Danny after we get to see this next series of matches, and obviously in conjunction with Kevin.
Q: Not to look back, but last year Scotland did an interview where he stated that the UK market was probably limited in value for a club like Rangers. This year you've pivoted back to that more than anything else. Could you just give us your thoughts on that?
Thelwell: Yeah. I don't believe that the the UK market is limited for Rangers. I know this is difficult for me to say here in this moment. Because the results and ultimately the performances haven't been good enough. But I still do think we've got some good players in the squad that are probably not showing exactly what they're capable of. I think we've got some players in there who've got a much higher ceiling and have a much higher potential. I mean, I'll pinpoint one of the players that has done very well in my opinion, which is Gassama, you know, came from the English market, came from the UK market, translated very, very well.
And we expect him to go on to do even better things going forward, forwards, especially now he's going to be with a head coach that's that's worked with him before and obviously rates him very, very highly. So that's not to say other markets shouldn't be available to us and shouldn't be open to us. And, and in due course we should be looking to those markets as well. But in the first moment, we hope that the players that we brought from the UK market into Scotland will going forward with Danny show show to everybody what they're capable of.
Q: When you came in to to the role, it was, of course, totally different for you. Looking back now, is there a sense of maybe underrating the specific challenges of Scottish football because it is such a unique environment, particularly the way Rangers operate? And is that now something that you can address moving forward?
Thelwell: Yes, it's a really good question. I don't think we've ever underrated Scottish football. Even when I worked in England, we always used to watch a lot of Scottish football and we recognise there's a lot of talent in Scottish football, a lot of very good teams, a lot of very good coaches. What I think I did underestimate is the size of this football club, and I don't think you can understand how great and how big this football club is until you actually come and work here.
We all talk about it in England. We all recognise that it's slightly different and it's a very, very unique football club. But only when you step over that line and you come into the football club and start to work with it, you realise how special it is. And so I think if I was going to take anything going forward from what I've learnt over the last four months, is understand that uniqueness, that greatness, that difference, and make sure we apply that to an even greater level for anything we do, whether it be on the playing side, on the coaching side, on the staff side to make sure that we have everybody fit for purpose and can get hit the ground running at Rangers very, very quickly.
Cavenagh: I'd amplify that comment a little bit or that answer a little bit. And the phrase that we've used is that the lights are brighter in Glasgow. We had players who had who joined our squad, who had played in what most people would say are high-pressure situations. It's different here. And, and we need to account for that when we're signing players and as Kevin said, like, you can't really understand it until you cross the threshold and are part of this club .
Q: One of the things that have been put forward by supporters for a long time now is the squad seems to lack leaders on the field. I know we have a number of experienced players, but it's not the same thing. It's not based on age. Is this something that you feel that the team could do with more leadership, and it can it be addressed in the transfer market?
Thelwell: Okay. Yeah. Well, number one, I don't think you can ever have enough leaders. And for sure we think we want to continue to add talent, but talent plus leadership. But I'd also say and the issue here has been a consistency issue as well, hasn't it.
We've seen examples of really good leadership, really good play. But in reality we haven't seen the consistency through those performances, the consistency in some of those things. That's something we're working hard on with the current group that we've got. And without question, in January, that will certainly be top of our list to be talking about when we're going to recruit next.
Q: A question for Patrick and Kevin, just in terms of recruiting Danny, I think an issue for a lot of the supporters is just how similar it seems on the outside to the appointment of Russell Martin in terms of experience. What can you tell us? What do you see that is going to bring something different to the table?
Thelwell: So I mean everybody's going to everybody's going to talk about the comparisons between Danny and Russell. First of all, they're both got beards and they've both got dark black hair. And and they're both of a similar age.
But in reality they are different people and they have different philosophies, different thoughts about what the game should look like. From our perspective, our mandate to the head coaches hasn't changed. We want a coach that comes to Rangers that dominates all key moments of the football game, in possession, out of possession and then those bits in between. We want to press. We want counter press. We want to have possession but we don't want it to be possession for possession sake. We want it to be ball progression rather than possession.
That's not changed from the first conference that I sat here when we introduced Russell. We didn't get there with Russell. That didn't work out. Danny is very different in his approach. If you look at his background, you look at his experience, you look at his upbringing. There's some very clear differences in terms of, and some similarities because they both worked at Southampton, but generally some very clear differences.
And I'd also say to you, he's worked at the very, very highest level with the German national team, with Bayern Munich. Sure, his managerial experience has been short, but in a very short period of time he's proven very, very capable and we feel after spending quite a lot of time with him, that he's got all of the credentials to take us forward and give us what we think we need. But more importantly, give the fan base what they need, which is a winning team that's going to win in a particular way in time.
Q: And can he sell those who've been asked to? He's been given specific targets to salvage this season. Do you believe this season can still be salvaged with this group of players, as it is now, for the next two months before the transfer window opens again? Can this what can be salvaged from this season?
Cavenagh: I'll take it. We have everything to play for. We've dug ourselves a hole in the league. Certainly a smaller hole in Europa. But we obviously have both cups in front of us. But we're in the same exact view as Danny, which is this is one match at a time. So let's not set goals for for what we are doing two months from now. Let's set goals for Thursday.
And that was one of the things that really impressed us when we spent time with Danny is his ability to to break it down into, 'what are we doing tomorrow? What are we doing the day after that? How are we winning the first match' and build from there, as opposed to talking about sort of ambitious goals for three months from now.
And so it is day by day, match by match, improving little things. I think when you look at this squad there are some really obvious things that if we fixed would quickly tighten up the defense and if we can be a little bit more progressive with the ball in possession, that we're likely to score more goals. So everything in front of us still.
Q: I think he still remains great disquiet amongst the fan base about his his age and lack of experience. And also the fact that from two family members at really what is the cutting edge of the club's business, how was he able to get that past the chief executive and the board?
Cavenagh: I mean, there's no getting it past using that phrase in that Kevin was incredibly transparent and brought it to us before anything happened. And so from a transparency standpoint, it couldn't have been more transparent. When you think about an organisation and you want to bring in talent, we would encourage everybody. We do encourage everybody in the club because we have many roles to fill, that if you know people that will be good for it, bring them to us.
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It is always better to hire people that you know where you have experience, as opposed to looking at a resume and spending 45 minutes across the table with a person. So we actively encourage people to bring in people that they know. We knew about the appointment, we approved the appointment, and we did it because we went through a rigorous process to get Robbie into the seat.
We believe that Robbie is eminently qualified, and if he wasn't, he wouldn't be here. At the same time, we are all well aware that the optics of it were poor. And I think the optics are poor in part because of the time. If we're winning, I don't think it gets the attention. It comes back to what I said is that this club needs to get back to winning, because that's what the fans want. That's where they want to put their energy, and we need to give that to them. And we haven't done it to date.
Q: Kevin, you mentioned earlier that you still have faith in Chermiti justifying his signing and the outlay that it took to bring him to Rangers. Could I just ask you to expand upon that and talk about what specific strengths you feel he will bring to the side, because you haven't seen a lot of what he can offer today? And do you feel he needs to play in a certain style and a certain system for us to see the best of him?
Thelwell: Yeah, I'd probably start by saying if I was to look at the first eight games in the league in particular, we haven't seen the best of any of the players, have we? And so I can completely understand why you would ask the question about recruitment and whether the recruitment has been good enough. I believe that these players are much better than what they've shown so far.
I'm hoping that with Danny in charge, and a slightly different style of play, he will bring the best out of those players that will ultimately not only help us to have better performances from them, but really help us to win games.
Youssef has been a top talent for a number of years and you'll know my history with him. I signed him at Everton and he played. He had some Premier League experience there. I understand how the fans would say, well, come on, he hasn't got a resume yet. That shows that he's going to be capable of doing X, Y and Z for our team or being sold for this number or that number.
But in reality, if he had, if he had even a small resume with some of the best bits of some of the qualities that he's got, he wouldn't be coming to Rangers, you know, in the open market. A player like him who proves that he has the ability to score goals, and that's what he'll eventually be judged on, will be transferred for a number that we just couldn't afford.
And so sometimes you have to take a player that you think is at the start of their journey. Grow and develop them. And then, then, then make that step for us and help us to win going forwards.
Physically, clearly he's a top, top performer. He's as strong as physical as anybody in the group, if not the strongest and the most physical. We understand how that translates and how that helps teams win football games. And we think in due course, in a particular style of play, it will help him to score goals and hopefully you all see the best of him.
Cavenagh: I think it's worth, I think it's worth just commenting that in today's football economy the value of a player isn't directly tied anymore the way it used to be to to their production on the pitch.
People spend more on nines than any other position. He is large and physical. As Kev just said in those positions are, you know, £20, £30, £50, £90m. And so we don't look at Youssef and say he has to be the best player on the pitch. He's the most valuable because he has the potential to be a great player. And he's one of those players that we do expect to contribute, but I think we don't have the expectation that he walks in as one of the more expensive signings and instantly has to be productive. And then inversely, we have some players that wouldn't have the same transfer fee in other parts of the pitch that are probably better players. But that's how football economics works.
Q: A question for Andrew and Patrick. Two of the biggest high-profile names involved in this recruitment saga were Steven Gerrard and Kevin Muscat. Can I ask initially, were either of those offered the job formally? And how damaging has it been that this whole process has played out in public?
Cavenagh: I'll take the question and I'm going to start backwards a little bit and come to. And if I don't answer, please come back to me. We interviewed a number of great candidates. We obviously spoke to the two that you mentioned. We spoke to a number of other candidates that you've never heard about. From the club's perspective, we have to treat this process with the absolute confidentiality or other coaches won't want to engage with us in the future.
And that means there's asymmetric information, what's out in the press versus what is actually happening. And we saw that. So it looked clunky. From the outside perspective, it wasn't at all clunky from our perspective.
Inside the club, we left London ten days ago having done a whole bunch of meetings. And I said to our group how happy I was that we had five candidates, not the three that have been talked about. We had five candidates that I was extremely comfortable would be great coaches for Rangers.
And that gave us confidence as we embarked on that process. We didn't rank people one, two and three. We had ten days at that point, tops, to get a coach into the building. And so we pursued all five simultaneously. And you do that and precisely because of how it played out is that you don't know what's going to happen. Somebody might pull out of the process. And if you put all your eggs in that basket, you're in a real jam. And so we, I think were, experienced enough in these searches to know not to put all of our eggs in that basket.
And so we simultaneously went after or pursued coaches. In terms of your question, was anybody offered the job? So the way it works isn't isn't like that. You don't have sort of a big ceremony and somebody a letter with a bow on it.
You're working on a whole bunch of different details at the same time. And so the two people you mentioned are complicated that they're halfway around the world. They have families. They'd have to move. They're coming in midseason.
And so what you're trying to do in every candidate is just constantly try to move the ball forward and figure out, can we make this happen? And again, we're doing that with five different people at once.
I think the misperception that's out there that I like to just clarify around the names that you mentioned is that somehow these guys (Thelwell and Stewart) screwed it up. And I was involved in every single telephone call, every single meeting, every minute with both of those candidates.
And I don't believe that they didn't come because they didn't like Patrick or they didn't want a sporting director. They're complicated things. And eventually it didn't work. Largely due to timing on their part, a little bit on our part with the case of Kevin.
But while that was going on, we had obviously re-engaged behind the scenes, unbeknownst to people with Danny. And while I'm happy to talk about this, our focus going forward, not on who didn't come, it's on who did come. And we're incredibly happy that Danny Rohl is the head coach of Rangers Football Club.
Q: I think probably for Patrick or Kevin. Just a word on Russell Martin's sacking. I think towards the end it got quite toxic. I think we were all sitting at away matches and hearing what was going on, and seeing that it got quite horrible to watch. I think it's fair to say and I think fans would rightly say that they saw it coming, that the results weren't improving. I just wonder if you comment on the timing of why it took so long for you to come to that decision if fans already knew that was going to be ultimately the end point of him having to leave with a police escort?
Stewart: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure I'm happy to take this one, obviously. We didn't anticipate that he would be leaving after Falkirk with a police escort. What we did look at, was really in a couple of phases. It started during the transfer window where we, you know, for the entire transfer window, we were playing matches pretty much without a settled squad and also with a number of players that weren't available for various reasons. We had a couple of number nines that came back, weren't available for some critical matches, and then departed at the end of the transfer window.
So during that period, we were playing really important matches without a settled squad. And we didn't feel as though until the squad was settled that we could really make a true assessment of the position. We then went into an international break and I think during the international break, Kevin spoke about some of the challenges. And, you know, we wanted to give it a fair shot.
I think somebody earlier commented about 122 days. I think we all recognise it was a short period of time. But when you invest in bringing in a new head coach, you do want to to give it time. We saw elements of improvement that gave us cause to think, well, if we give it a bit longer, it might turn. Ultimately, there wasn't enough improvement quickly enough in the results. And that did lead to the decision post Falkirk, which we accept was unfortunate. And with the benefit of hindsight, we might have made different decisions, but we didn't have that benefit.
