D-Day looms for McCoist as Wallace sets his goals

Short-term survival, brighter long-term future for Rangers.

That’s about the most straightforward way to describe Chief Executive Graham Wallace’s plans for Rangers.

They were delivered at the end of a week in which he rolled out his much heralded 120-day business review.

Acknowledging the extent of the challenge posed by Dave King, he insisted the directors had no problems with the South African-based businessman buying into the Govan outfit.

And as he prepared to meet Ally McCoist tomorrow to discuss funding for new signings, plus the recruitment of a Football Operating Officer to help the manager identify talent, he appealed for fans to give the current regime their support.

“Next season is coming down upon us, so we’ve got a two-pronged attack,” said Wallace, who was Manchester City’s Chief Operating Officer for four years.

“One is for this summer in terms of what we need to do to keep going. The other is looking at the architecture that keeps us for the summer after and beyond that.

“That is where the new role comes in. As the manager has said, our football capability has been woefully short in certain areas.

“I’m talking about the support, football operation, scouting, recruitment, performance analysis, medical and sports science. All have not been at the levels of capability they should have.

“Some of that you can understand because it’s been a financial reality of where the club has come from. But in terms of building to be competitive back at the top level, the level of infrastructure is not there.

“I am talking about scouting, recruitment, talent identification, managing and driving value from sourcing players. We have no-one looking at that, and the hunt for this person begins now.”

He concedes that of more immediate concern to his manager is the recruitment of players to strengthen for the bid to get up to the Premiership.

“The manager is obviously interested in the financial budget,” he said. “I’ve committed to him that we’ll sit down together and, that by tomorrow, he will know exactly what we’ve got to do. We’ve talked about it. He knows we’re going to make funds available for the summer.

“He doesn’t know the magnitude, the number. We’ve still to sit down and agree that.”

What they already agree upon is the importance of looking beyond the current parlous situation to a brighter future.

Manager McCoist admits: “I’ll not be happy until the club are back playing top-flight European football that’s where I see us in the not too distant future.

“We all watch that with our kids and our families because that is the pinnacle of football, the ultimate club competition.

“I was watching Real Madrid-Bayern Munich with my mate and our kids and my youngest didn’t believe me when I told him I’d played in the Bernabeu.

“He said: ‘Aye, right!’

“But it’s only five years since two clubs from this country played in the Champions League. It’s only six since we reached the UEFA Cup Final and 11 since Celtic did it.

“You’ve got to be optimistic and we’ll work to make ourselves into a force again.”