Kevin Thomson’s surprise decision to leave Rangers and take charge at League Two new boys Kelty Hearts has left the Light Blues looking for someone to take charge of the B/Colts team ahead of their debut in the Lowland League.
Thomson has worked alongside Brian Gilmour since a reshuffle saw Graeme Murty take a more senior role while Peter Lovenkrands left the club completely.
After clubs approved Rangers and Celtic fielding Colts in the fifth tier for a single season, Thomson was expected to be in the dugout for the Gers.
However, he’ll now be in the hot seat for the ambitious Fifers and Rangers need to replace him ahead of the Lowland League getting started next month.
Old Firm rivals Celtic are reportedly considering hiring former Falkirk, Ross County and Inverness CT boss John Hughes to take charge of their Colts so it will be interesting to see if Rangers go down a similar path.
Here we take a look at some possible candidates for the Rangers Colts head coach role – with one or two well-known names cropping up:
Graeme Murty
Murty has taken a number of roles at the club in his time at Ibrox and is now in a more overarching role than his original position as under-20s head coach.
The former interim first-team boss could take charge of the side on match-days without impacting him main job but it seems unlikely that he’ll take on the additional duties.
Despite having a mixed reputation amongst fans, Murty is still a very good youth coach and would bring a lot of expertise to the role if he was to take it.
Neil McCann
The former Rangers winger recently left Inverness CT after a short stint in charge of the Highland side.
McCann is thought to have rejected the chance to speak with several clubs over taking the reins this summer so he may see his future away from coaching.
The Rangers TV pundit would be a popular choice with fans if he was to take charge.
McCann’s experience as a player at Ibrox would really help but after recently taking up a consultancy role it’s unclear whether he’d be interested.
David McCallum/Brian Gilmour
The current Gers Academy coaches could well simply absorb the extra duties and with the Colts team likely to be heavily reliant on McCallum’s under-18s, it would make a lot of sense for the head coach of that group to take charge.
Gilmour has worked with McCallum – as well as Thomson – so knows the players well. Might be viewed as an underwhelming pick given the reported interest from Celtic in Yogi Hughes.
Both Gilmour and McCallum have done impressive jobs in the Academy at Ibrox and the club’s hierarchy may see the chance of leading the Colts as a reward.
Michael Beale
The least likely of all the options given his importance to Steven Gerrard’s first-team squad but the 40-year-old has publicly admitted he would like to manage and take charge of a club’s Academy in the future.
This could be the first step towards that although there is very little chance of Gerrard wanting to give up one of his most-trusted lieutenants.
Stranger things have happened though.
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