Southampton director Ross Wilson has opened up on his decision to turn down Rangers after they approached him to become director of football.
Wilson is currently Saints’ director of football operations and held talks with the Light Blues in March about joining the Ibrox executive team.
He ultimately decided to turn the job down despite being impressed by the Ibrox club, and Mark Allen was appointed instead.
The 35-year-old Wilson has enjoyed a meteoric rise in football after a first job with Falkirk led him to positions with Watford, Huddersfield, and now Southampton.
Speaking to the BBC, Wilson explained the reasons behind his decision to reject Rangers’ advances.
“There was a lot of media conjecture at the time. There was contact, there were some discussions. They were fantastic. Great conversations with Andrew Dickson, Stuart Robertson, Graeme Park, Dave King. The conversations were really, really good,” Wilson explained.
“Everything they said was hugely ambitious, great plans for what they’re trying to do with the club, but ultimately it just wasn’t the right time for me to leave England and come back to Scotland. It was just something that worked for me at that moment in time.”
“The size of the club itself makes that task exciting. Mark Allen is there now and he’s got a huge task on his hands, but rather than look at it as a huge task, it’s an exciting task. It wasn’t even a Premier League thing. It was more at that moment in time to leave Southampton just didn’t quite feel right for me, at that point.”
OPINION
Wilson’s rise from Strathclyde social sciences graduate to Premier League club director is certainly an impressive one, and Rangers would have done very well to secure his services. However, it was not to be, and Rangers made an astute appointment in Mark Allen. The fact that Wilson is speaking out about the talks now is interesting, and his comments show that a job offer from Gers is a great compliment for directors like him. All Rangers fans will be hoping for is that Allen helps the club make the right decision when it comes to appointing their new boss, sometime in the very near future.