Mike Rigg’s Fulham revolution suggests he’d be ideal as Rangers’ Director of Football

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That Fulham are pushing for promotion owes much to Mike Rigg’s nous – but could he have the same impact at Rangers?

Rangers wide-ranging search for a new Director of Football remains ongoing, the Daily Mail reports, with Southampton’s transfer guru Ross Wilson and Stuart Webber, the brains behind the rise of Huddersfield Town, both turning down approaches from Ibrox.

However, the publication reports that Rangers have also held talks with the highly-respected Mike Rigg who, until recently, had been operating as the Head of Football Operations at Championship side Fulham.

And if his name rings a bell then there’s a good reason. According to the BBC, The Cottagers had identified Mark Warburton, Rangers manager until last month, as the ideal successor to Kit Symons at the capital club, with Rigg playing a major role in choosing the managerial candidates.

The former Brentford boss was not to be moved, however, and remained enticed by the prospect of dragging Rangers back into the top flight – a feat he achieved last season.

Eventually, however, Slavisa Jokanovic, who won promotion with Watford in 2015, arrived at Craven Cottage and instilled an exhilarating brand of attacking football that has put Fulham within a whisker of the play-off positions.

Clearly, Rigg is a good judge of character. Arriving at the London club in 2015 as Head of Talent Identification, the former Manchester City and QPR director has also demonstrated impressive nous in the transfer market.

On his watch, Tom Cairney, Tim Ream, David Button, Stefan Johansen, Sone Aluko, Floyd Ayite, Tomas Kalas and Chris Martin have all arrived at Fulham on free transfers, loans, swap deals or relatively small transfer fees and have formed the spine of one of the league’s strongest starting XIs.

In fact, the most expensive of lot, Cairney, cost just £3 million when arriving from Blackburn in the summer of 2015 according to Sky Sports. These days, a player described in some quarters as the best in the division is reportedly valued at £20 million, The Sun claim.

Rigg has played a major role in transforming Fulham into a Championship force and a side capable of challenging for promotion. No wonder Rangers are keen.