No managerial appointment is ever entirely free of risk. But, when Rangers handed the reigns to Philippe Clement last year, this felt a safe and as a sure a bet you could wish to make.
Mick Beale’s replacement, after all, had enjoyed real and sustained success in a league of a similar stature to the Scottish Premiership. Belgium’s 2019 Manager of the Year guided KRC Genk to the Jupiler League title before winning the thing twice with Club Brugge.
Philippe Clement also arrived having recently guided Monaco to third place in France’s top flight. Rangers may be one of the most historic and well-supported clubs not only in Britain but in Europe as a whole, though Clement’s appointment felt like a coup. Successfully luring a man who presumably would have had offers from clubs in more well-heeled competitions.
But if Clement was a safe bet, then another manager Rangers held talks with would have been viewed – at least from an outside perspective – as far more of a risk.
Rangers held talks with Ajax-bound Francesco Farioli
When the Glasgow giants held talks with Fransesco Farioli back in 2022, the Giovanni van Bronckhorst era coming to an end following a disastrous Champions League campaign, Farioli was a 33-year-old coach who’s CV was in sharp contrast to Clement’s (The Athletic).
The Italian had worked as a goalkeeping coach in a number of places – including with Qatar’s U16 side – and had only ever taken up senior managerial roles at Turkish duo Fatih Karagumruk and Alanyaspor.
Two years after Rangers met up with Farioli about a potential and eyebrow raising move to Ibrox, their pursuit of the now-OGC Nice boss feels increasingly ahead of the curve.
Rangers, in short, liked him before he was cool.
Swapping France for the Netherlands
ESPN are reporting that Farioli, his reputation greatly enhanced after turning Nice into one of the most defensively-drilled sides in European football, is expected to be appointed as Ajax’s first foreign head coach since 1997 on Thursday.
Ajax, who finished in a very disappointing fifth this season, are paying around £850,000 to free him from his contract on the French Riviera.
They do say managers are getting younger these days. In an era where Julian Nagelsmann can take the Bundesliga by storm in his 20s, when the Premier League’s big-hitters are fawning over Ruben Amorim and Kieran McKenna, Farioli feels increasingly like a fully paid-up member of Europe’s next generation of supercoaches.
Had Rangers handed him the keys back in 2022, it would have been phrased as one of the most bold decisions in the club’s modern history. But, as is becoming increasingly apparent, there is a very good reason why Rangers were willing to overlook Farioli’s less-than-glittering CV and his youthful visage.
‘Compare him with Louis van Gaal’
“If there is a trainer he comes very close to, I would compare him with Louis van Gaal,” ex-Netherlands winger Jeremain Lens explains to ESPN, having worked with Farioli in Turkey a couple of seasons back.
“Van Gaal was the trainer during my time at AZ (Alkmaar), when I was 18 and 19. Then there was so much emphasis on playing football from the back. No unnecessary long balls, always looking for the footballing solution.
“If I compare (Farioli to another manager), then with Louis van Gaal.”
“The way he conveys (his plan) makes you listen to him very carefully. And you also believe it and want to apply it,” adds Lens, dismissing concerns over Farioli’s relative lack of experience.
“I had missed the Dutch ‘football school’ and he brought that back. The football he wanted to introduce was what we are used to in the Netherlands. Playing football from the back, no long balls and always looking for the footballing solution.
“He has authority and personality. The way he delivers (his plans); not shouting, but not whispering either. His way of talking is penetrating, which makes you really listen and become interested.”
