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Figure caption,Rangers chairman Cavenagh gives backing to Rohl
ByTom EnglishBBC Scotland's chief sports writer- Published17 minutes ago
Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh says a "summer of substantial change" will happen at Ibrox after the failings of this season.
Manager Danny Rohl will not be one of those changes. Cavenagh backed the German, who took charge in October and made a promising start to his tenure before falling away badly post-split, with Rangers losing four games in a row and finishing 10 points behind champions Celtic.
Under Cavenagh, and his consortium, Rangers have spent between £30m-£40m on players in the year since taking over the club.
He says their third-place finish in the Scottish Premiership has left a "bitter taste in our mouth but we'll use that bitter taste to fuel our ambition".
"It's not been nearly good enough and we need to be better. It's that simple. We're disappointed, we understand that they [the fans] are disappointed and we will do what we believe is necessary to bring titles," Cavenagh added.
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Rohl lost the support of some Rangers fans as the club's title challenge collapsed. Cavenagh is fully behind the 37-year-old, though.
"The season has been incredibly frustrating and disappointing season for the club, for the supporters," Cavenagh said.
"Success for Rangers is winning a title, and we didn't succeed. Our goal is obviously to bring titles to Rangers in the future, beginning with next year. And in order to do that, we believe Danny needs to be our coach.
"We believe Danny is the right coach and that the two things he really needs to succeed are a revamped squad and a full pre-season.
"With those two things, we believe he can succeed. Danny wants to be here, we want Danny to be here, and most importantly we believe he is the best manager to bring a title to us next year."
On the squad rebuild, Cavenagh would not put a precise number of first-team players he feels are required but suggested strongly it would be a high turnover.
"When we talk about what we plan to do this summer, we absolutely think we need to increase a lot of the nuanced pieces that build a good team," he said. "And so that does include leadership, it includes chemistry, it includes experience, football intelligence, if you will.
"I don't want to get into specific positions or specific numbers, but it will be a summer of substantial change. We need to bring in a number of players. It's not about volume, it's about quality and within the quality, it's about those attributes that we think combined with what we have today, lead us to a title.
"The season was incredibly disappointing from our perspective and to get so close and then have it slip away makes it even harder."
Asked if too many Rangers are too soft and lacked mental strength, he said: "I wouldn't use the word soft, but I think adding more experience, people who have been in these tough situations, is essential.
"If you look at the squad, we played great at times, but we didn't string it together consistently and that's what you need to do. So again, with the pieces we have, we add steel, we add experience, we add leadership to that. We think we can win [the title]."
Tavernier chaos 'not right look for the club'
Image source, SNSImage caption, James Tavernier was presented with a commemorative shield by Rangers legend John Greig before what was supposed to be his farewell appearance
The club have splurged a relative fortune in the transfer market. Last season they finished second with 75 points. This year it was 72 points and third.
In the past four seasons their points tally has fallen year on year - 92, 85, 75 and now 72.
"The way I look at it, again, is binary," Cavenagh said of falling from second to third. "You either win a title or you don't. And so this season, again, not a success because we didn't win a title.
"I'm not going to spend any time parsing points per match, second, third, none of it matters. We didn't win and all we care about is winning."
The one area where it does matter is qualification for a shot at the Champions League. Rangers have failed to do that, too. How could the club spend that amount of money and go backwards?
"I don't see it as backwards," Cavenagh said. "I understand the math you've done, but we didn't win. And so it's exactly the same.
"When we look at what we have spent, when we look at our squad, we think we have good players, but we don't yet have a good team. And so our focus is to build a good team.
"You could be gutted, angry, disappointed, distraught, all of those things. But all of those things end today. And tomorrow we build."
Cavenagh addressed the circus around departing captain James Tavernier, a veteran of 11 years at Ibrox, who was supposed to be given a farewell to Ibrox last Wednesday against Hibernian.
Rohl selected Tavernier on the bench instead of allowing him to lead the team out - and chaos ensued, with Tavernier withdrawing from the squad.
"Tav is a Hall of Famer at the club and we hold him in the highest regard," said Cavenagh. "If we look on the events of Wednesday night, I don't think any of us look back and think that was the right look for the club.
"My view is always going to be club comes first and anything that we can do to ensure that the club looks good is the most important thing. But having said that, it's water under the bridge, it's over.
"Nothing will change our opinion of Tav and we assume we'll have a great relationship with him going forward. The way I look at this is it should have all been handled in-house because it's not a good look.
"It's unfortunate it played out the way it did. All of us would look back and say we could have done things differently but it's beyond us and we're moving forward."
Could he give any assurances to supporters that things will be a whole lot better next season?
"Our first focus is on recruitment. We need to improve the squad and that's not just bringing in players in certain positions with certain skills but it's in bringing a certain mentality. That is by far the number one thing."
