Kevin Thelwell: Season start not good enough, but Rangers heading in right direction

Rangers sporting director Kevin Thelwell admits their start to the season “has not been good enough”, but insists the club is “heading in the right direction”.

The Ibrox side are yet to win a league game, with four draws from their first four Premiership fixtures, and have been dumped out of the Champions League in a humiliating 9-1 aggregate defeat to Club Brugge.

Thelwell, who joined in the summer after three years in a similar role at Everton, says they “must do better”, but believes they are on the right track.

In a wide-ranging interview with Rangers TV, he also touched on his relationship with Russell Martin, who he describes as “one of the best” head coaches he has worked with, and the current situation around star midfielder Nicolas Rankin.

“It has been an extremely busy period, there has been a huge amount going on and that has been well documented.

“There has been new ownership, a new sporting director, a new technical director, a new head coach, a new coaching team and then a lot of new players. We have been working away at trying to build a team that hopefully in due time everyone will be very proud of.

“I appreciate that hasn’t translated just yet into performances on the pitch and fundamentally into results. We all understand what needs to happen here, we need to win football matches and of course, we are disappointed and frustrated with that start we have made. We also understand the fans are frustrated.

“I would turn to one game in particular, which is the most disappointing and that is the game away to Club Brugge. It was a very difficult game for everybody, and I think we all understood after that game that we needed to put it right quickly.

“Clearly, we must do better. Let’s be honest, what we have delivered has not been good enough. We understand that has to improve and we are frustrated by that.

“I would say that there is a huge alignment in the building and in the leadership team and ownership that believe we are heading in the right direction. We believe we can deliver that success that everyone is craving with the group we are working with. We will be working tirelessly to deliver that. I appreciate that it needs to be delivered quickly.

“What I can’t do is say ‘we need patience and time, and people need to wait’. We haven’t earned that but there needs to be some perspective. We are working as hard as we can to deliver what we know everyone wants, which is a winning and successful team.”

Pressure is growing on head coach Russell Martin, with some fans already calling for him to go just ten weeks into his tenure, following the disappointing start.

However, Thelwell has backed him to turn it around and praised him as a “very good” coach and “one of the best” he has worked with.

He said: “I have been very lucky over the course of my career to work with some very good head coaches, and I have to say he is one of the best.

“He is a very good coach, he is very good on the grass, he is very well organised, and he has an extremely high energy. He cares about the group, about the results, about the performances and he cares about the staff here.

“We have got a clear message in terms of what we are trying to achieve and that hasn’t changed from the first moment. We want an aggressive team, we want a team that has a high level of intensity, we want the fanbase to be proud of a team that holds and has similar values of honesty, hard work, respect and humility out on the pitch.

“We have seen glimpses, but I don’t think we have quite put together a body of work that says we have seen that consistently.

“What I see on a day-to-day basis is a group of coaches who are working very, very hard in terms of delivering strong messages, strong coaching sessions and strong support for players to hopefully get everybody to understand exactly what is required.”

Rangers have also had a string of issues with the playing squad, including Hamza Igamane apparently refusing to go on as a sub in the 1-1 draw with St Mirren before being sold to Lille, and last year’s player of the year Nicolas Raskin missing key games.

Raskin was linked with a move away on transfer deadline day, but that never materialised and he will return to Ibrox after the international break.

Thelwell revealed conversations will be had on his return, and says it is in everyone’s best interests for the Belgium international to get back to his best and produce on the pitch again.

He said: “At a football club there is always going to be some of these things going on, so it’s the same as everywhere else, really, and most of it circles around the transfer market.

“We forget that these players are young people, and when there is conjecture or speculation around their future, if they are going to be at Rangers or not going to be at Rangers, that can be difficult for some of them to balance, understand, and make sense of on a daily basis.

“With Hamza in particular, it was clear that there was some interest in him, and there was some clarity that if he had the opportunity, then he wanted to go, so that’s just a normal part of football.

“My hope is, now that the transfer market is closed, that these things naturally settle down anyway and the focus turns to what we need to do with everyone working together to create a stronger Rangers team.

“Nico is away on international duty just now, so he will come back as a Rangers player and when he is back here Russell and I will sit down with him and talk about what we do next.

“It is very important to understand that we all want the same thing: we all want a stronger Rangers team and a winning Rangers team.

“It’s also important to point out that this is a very important year for Nico, he is a terrific player and a full Belgium international with a World Cup coming up, and I’m sure he is going to want to be a big part of that.

“So doing his best for Rangers is important for him and important for us, so the conversation will be had in due course.”