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Rangers take Ross Wilson from Southampton as director of football

<span>Photograph: Greig Cowie/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock</span>
Photograph: Greig Cowie/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock

Rangers have appointed Southampton’s director of football operations, Ross Wilson, as their director of football. The 36-year-old will start on Tuesday after four years in the Premier League.

Wilson joined Southampton as director of scouting and recruitment, and shouldered more responsibility after the sacking in November of Les Reed, now the technical director at the Football Association, as vice-chairman.

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Wilson, who was also on the club’s board, was influential in bringing Ralph Hasenhüttl to the club as manager and was central to the arrivals of Virgil van Dijk and the captain Pierre-Emile Højbjerg.

The club have largely enjoyed success in recruitment but, more recently, there have been a series of blots, notably the appointment of Mauricio Pellegrino as manager and the £19.2m club-record signing of Guido Carrillo, who has made seven league appearances and is on loan at Leganés.

Southampton intend to recruit a football director who will be tasked with leading recruitment, analysis and the academy. The chief executive officer, Martin Semmens, is leading a review of the structure at the club under the Chinese owner, Gao Jisheng. Ralph Krueger stepped down as chairman in April, leading to Semmens taking charge of the day-to-day running alongside the managing director, Toby Steele, who oversees the financial operations.

Wilson, a long-term target for Rangers, will replace Mark Allen and work in tandem with the manager Steven Gerrard and the managing director Stewart Robertson.

Wilson, who has also worked at Falkirk, Watford and Huddersfield, turned down two previous offers to join the club, saying the time was not right but the Scot is relishing a new challenge. “He [Wilson] shares our view of what is required to restore Rangers as the dominant force in Scottish football,” said Robertson.