Philippe Clement is set to have a busy summer and it won’t just be new players that Rangers need as the club undertakes another rebuild.
The manager has spoken extensively about fixing the issue with injuries, but he will also want to see in place plans to see more academy players brought through into the first-team, something that could benefit success on and off the pitch.
After a short tenure that promised much and delivered little, Zeb Jacobs is heading to the Eredivisie to pick up a similar role with Feyenoord whilst Rangers have turned their attentions to a new academy chief who has a track record to be proud of.
Rangers eye Gareth Henderby to be new academy chief
According to Scott Burns of The Daily Record, Nordsjaelland’s Gareth Henderby is being eyed to take up the hot seat at Auchenhowie:
“Gareth Henderby is one of the names under consideration to become the new academy director at Rangers.
“Has had major roles at Nordsjaelland and with the Right to Dream academies. Helped to develop some major talent.”
The name might be familiar to some, especially those who followed the transfer of Mohamed Diomande.
Henderby was a founding member of the Right to Dream project that saw structured coaching and development plans for talented young footballers in Ghana with the organisation now stretching around the world.
Speaking about the academy’s foundations, Henderby explained his role in the early days and how Diomande ended up in Europe, via the Rangers Review:
“Tom Vernon became an African scout for Man United and I met him 24 years ago in Ghana. We started to see big potential of talent, especially at the under 11 and 12 age groups.
“The Right to Dream Academy started with an under-12 team in Ghana and grew from strength to strength with academies all around the world now in place.
“At the time Dio joined I was in Ghana as the Technical Director. It was clear from a young age that he had real talent. Dio was quite tall and gangly with a top first touch. A smooth player on the ball who liked to link things and just play football.
“Dio has always had huge potential and was a key player in his age group. There was never any doubt when he turned 18 we’d take him to Denmark to play with FC Nordsjælland and join the first team.”
Henderby would have huge task to transform Auchenhowie fortunes
Henderby cut ties formally with the Right to Dream in April this year given his commitment to Nordsjaelland as their head of academy.
Unlike Jacobs when he arrived, Henderby has vast experience of identifying talent and developing young players and knows what it takes to take children and turn them into professional footballers.
Six of the top 10 sales from the Danish club are players who arrived from the academy at a combined income of nearly £75m.
That is exactly the sort of return that whoever takes over from Jacobs has to achieve.
Rangers have never had a shortage of talented youngsters, however, getting them from being 18/19 and doing well in the B team to starring in the first-team has been a problem for years.
The man who solves this age old problem won’t just be worth his weight in gold, he will make Rangers a pound or two in the process.
