Rangers new CEO: Keith Wyness ‘worried’ by John Gilligan reveal
Aberdeen’s former chief Keith Wyness has urged Rangers to hire a “very experienced” new chief executive to “re-launch” the club after recent struggles.
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, the 66-year-old – who served as CEO at Aberdeen between 2000 and 2004, had lengthy spells as the chief of Everton and Aston Villa and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – claimed he is “worried” about internal politics becoming involved in the crucial appointment at Ibrox.
Rangers’ former CEO James Bisgrove left the club for the Middle East earlier in 2024 after a year in the role.
As per the BBC (23 September), interim chairman John Gilligan insisted a new hire in the role is his “main priority” and expects the process to be complete in “a few months”.
He said: “The person needs to be multi-faceted and good at everything. He needs to be an assertive character and we are looking much more to provide for the CEO via the chairman.”
Rangers must appoint ‘very experienced’ new CEO, says Wyness
Wyness claimed the right candidate will have experience in dealing with both commercial and footballing matters to right the ship at Ibrox.
He told Football Insider‘s Insider Track podcast: “I saw John Gilligan’s interview about the CEO, he said they were quite far down the road with an appointment.
“Rangers is an unusual beast of a club. They have history and tradition – but that holds them back in many ways.
“I’d worry about too much politics being involved in this appointment.
“The last CEO, James Bisgrove, was a commercial person rather than a football person.
“That’s where they need to focus. They need to get revenue streams up to compete with Celtic, they are lagging behind.
“But they are a football club, and the main way to do that is winning football matches.
“I wouldn’t go for the young, bright, up-and-coming commercial guy – they did that before.
“I would go for a very experienced chief executive who understands the football side and the commercial side.
“Let him hire a team on both sides. The experienced heads need to come together and come up with a re-launch of Rangers, in many ways.
“I don’t think a newbie or someone coming from outside football would be the right choice.”
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