Rohl is looking to the future after a week of key departures at Rangers... and Ibrox boss admits he has a 'big job' ahead to improve squad

The positive light in which Danny Rohl is perceived after a month in charge of Rangers might be less to do with what he is in the eyes of supporters and more to do with what he isn’t.

When Russell Martin’s disastrous reign was brought to a halt after just 17 games, the club’s owners took a hands-on approach to identifying his successor.

While Kevin Thelwell and Patrick Stewart were referenced in chairman Andrew Cavenagh’s open letter to fans at that time, it was clear that he and vice-chair Paraag Marathe would be making the big call.

After a lengthy recruitment process, Rohl was the eventual choice of the Americans. Thelwell, who’d championed the cause of Martin, was no longer the loudest voice in the room.

It only took another month for the vilified sporting director’s demise to be finalised.

His sacking by Cavenagh on Monday was brutal and sudden yet hardly ill-deserved. The responsibility for a summer recruitment drive which Rangers legend Ally McCoist this week described as ‘appalling’ was all on him.

While Rohl is clearly never going to divulge the key points of the report which he submitted to his paymasters during the international break, it would have been remiss of him to gloss over the standard of player which he inherited.

This alone may not have been enough for Cavenagh to act as he did. But it may well have been the straw which broke the camel’s back.

‘I think it’s my job to look over,’ the head coach said. ‘I give my information to the board, to the club, what I think, how I see the situation, how I see the squad at the minute, which parts we have to improve.

‘I think there’s no secret we know that we have to improve all of our players here. I think this is crucial to understand.

‘We have some very exciting players and we know we want to bring them back to the highest level.

‘This is a big job and it’s my job to do this with my coaching team. Then, of course, we probably also have to look in the future, to the next window, what we can bring, what we can edit.’

On Monday, Cavenagh spoke of how he believed Thelwell and Stewart didn’t ‘align with their vision for the next chapter’.

A less charitable view might be that having seen the pair preside over one dismal transfer window, they weren’t going to be trusted with another.

Rohl is having to make the most of a mess which Stewart and Thelwell largely created. It may be some time before it’s cleared up.

And although the process to fill both key vacancies is already underway, it’s clear that the heavy lifting for January is going to fall on the shoulders of those who are already in the building.

‘I’m close to Andrew, we are in contact every day, we speak to each other,’ said Rohl. ‘But there are also good people around who support me. I think this is crucial. I cannot do this alone, make decisions alone.

‘It’s important to understand that we have a good structure in the club. Of course, it has changed now, but we have an interim CEO, Fraser (Thornton), who is very experienced. He will help me.

‘We have some guys from the board, from the 49ers around me, and we also have a recruitment department. We all have to go together in one direction. Let’s see what we can do.

‘We are in a good communication process and this is what we have to do. I have to watch the videos from the recruitment, think about this, but also to prepare my team for the next games.’

Starting with tonight’s match against Braga, Rohl will oversee nine matches until the turn of the year. That’s a lot of football. Enough, he contends, for those summer arrivals who haven’t yet looked up to the task to change the perception of them.

‘Every game is an opportunity for players’ he said. ‘I had some conversations during the week with some players that didn’t get the opportunity.

‘I think that is also important, when I look to the schedule with Thursday, Sunday, next week again and again. So, game by game, there are opportunities.

‘My first job, I want to bring the potential of some players out.’

It’s fair to suggest Youssef Chermiti has some way to go to realise his. With one goal in 13 appearances, no player to date has summed up how unsound Thelwell’s assumptions about Scottish football were than the £8m signing from Everton.

As the former Sporting Lisbon forward prepares to go under the microscope against an old foe from Portugal, Rohl must hope that he starts to show something in a Rangers jersey.

‘I must say today he was really lively in the training, maybe it was his best training since I arrived here,’ said Rohl. ‘It gives me also a good feeling about him. But football is about consistency and not about just one training session.’

With Rangers presently without a point from four games and bottom of the 36-team Europa League table, it’s going to take a Houdini-like act of escapology if they are to have any interest in the latter stages of the competition.

With trips to play Ferencvaros and Porto yet to come, a win against Braga would seem non-negotiable.

Rohl’s cause hasn’t been helped with news that Derek Cornelius is likely to be out until the end of January after undergoing surgery on a muscle injury. John Souttar and Mikey Moore remain sidelined, while Dujon Sterling has been added to the European squad for the remainder of the league phase.

‘We know we need points in this competition,’ added Rohl. ‘It’s important to play without mistakes, to play on the front foot, to bring the crowd behind you, try something instead of being passive and just waiting.’