'Absolutely horrendous' recruitment has given Danny Rohl 'no chance' at Rangers, says Ally McCoist during Europa League defeat against Brann
Updated 24/10/2025 at 08:33 GMT+1
Ally McCoist labelled Rangers' recruitment as "absolutely horrendous" during their 3-0 defeat against Brann in the UEFA Europa League. The match in Norway was Danny Rohl's first in charge since his appointment, but McCoist believes the German has "no chance" of taking the club to their previous levels, given the state of the club he has walked into. Rangers are yet to pick up a point in Europe.
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Ally McCoist believes Rangers’ new head coach Danny Rohl has "absolutely no chance" of taking the club to their previous heights due to "absolutely horrendous" recruitment.
The appointment of Rohl brought to an end a protracted search for a new boss at Ibrox following the sacking of Russell Martin, who was dismissed after winning just five of his 17 games in charge.
But McCoist believes Rangers’ problems go deeper than the man in the dugout.
Commentating on their 3-0 UEFA Europa League defeat away against Brann on TNT Sports on Thursday night, former Rangers forward McCoist said: "From what I've seen, I've got to be honest, I might sound overly critical - Danny Rohl’s come in and he can only work with what he's got.
"Can he improve them? He probably can. Can he take that squad of players to a level that Rangers should be at? Absolutely no chance, no chance.
"The recruitment’s been horrendous, absolutely horrendous. It’s agony for me to say, but they look like wee boys sometimes in the majority of games I've seen.
"It's a heavy jersey, and it's a really heavy jersey when things aren't going well, I can assure you that.
"[Rohl] might be the best coach on the planet, but I'm not sure he's got an awful lot to work with at this moment in time."
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Rohl left Sheffield Wednesday in July, having previously worked under Hansi Flick at Bayern Munich and with the German national side.
Rangers’ defeat against Brann was their third in three games in the Europa League this season, leaving them at the foot of the league phase standings.
Following the loss in Norway, no team in the competition has let in more goals, with the Scottish side conceding six so far.
Domestically, Rangers sit sixth in the Scottish Premiership after eight games and are 13 points adrift of leaders Hearts.
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Former Rangers defender Alan Hutton echoed the thoughts of McCoist, pointing to the club's poor recruitment.
He told TNT Sports at full-time: "It was painful at times to watch, to have one shot on target against the lowest-seeded team in the competition is really poor.
"Defensively, same old, we've seen it all season. They tried to be narrow, but gaps appeared from everywhere.
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"I think this goes deeper than managers. I know Russell Martin didn't work out, but you can't judge Danny Rohl over one game. It's going to take time.
"But it's more than that, the recruitment's the big issue for me. It was crying out at the start of the season to get experience, to get leaders within that dressing room.
"They didn't, they went down a different avenue, it didn't work out and look where they are right now."
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