Kev and Paddy’s Road to Nowhere Finally Ends
Andrew Cavenagh flew in from America on Monday to give everyone’s least favourite bumbling duo their matching orders, and not before time. The Kevin Thelwell and Patrick Stewart era at Rangers is finally over. Now, as the club attempts to fix the catastrophic mess they’ve left behind and truly kickstart the takeover, we’re left surveying an opening stretch of the season that’s been marred by error, indecision, and outright failure.
The timing was undoubtedly a surprise, especially after the recent hire of more of Thelwell’s former colleagues, coupled with his sit-down interview with Rangers TV just last weekend. But it absolutely had to happen. The club was essentially handed a winning lottery ticket in the summer, and the pair turned what should have been one of the most exciting new eras in our history into the worst start to a season we’ve ever endured.
The appointment, and then inexplicable backing, of Russell Martin, who looked out of his depth from day one, played a huge part. So did the scattergun approach to the transfer market, where millions were thrown at players lacking the mentality or the quality required to play for a successful Rangers, as Saturday’s flat 2–1 win over relegation-favourites Livingston demonstrated.
Neither of them ever came across as astute, impressive senior figures capable of leading a global football institution.
Stewart brought nothing to the table. He didn’t speak well, didn’t present well, and never looked like the confident, assured presence you’d expect from the CEO of Rangers Football Club. His failure to sack Philippe Clement after the Queen’s Park humiliation, followed by his public backing of him, only to perform a massive U-turn a week or two later, was an early sign he wasn’t the man for the job. The pathetic handling of the Souness tifo in May confirmed he was never going to succeed at Ibrox, and, in hindsight, the trigger should have been pulled then.
His equally uninspiring mate didn’t fare any better. Since being handed the Sporting Director role by the new owners, Thelwell almost instantly set about assembling one of the poorest top-flight Rangers squads of the 21st century, while paying over the odds for the privilege, along with intermittent bursts of hiring his pals. And his 26-year-old son.
Fan backlash had reached extreme levels of toxicity. Seeing banners, slogans, and photos of both men with targets on them in the stadium must have gone a long way toward Cavenagh making the call.
It was refreshing, actually, to see blunt, ruthless leadership from the American. He didn’t mince his words in the club statement or his interview with Sky. No sugar-coating, no “mutual agreement” nonsense, it was more a case of: “these two are failing miserably, and we need change.”
That attitude has been missing for too long. And now a manager, a CEO, and a Sporting Director have all been shown the door under his and the 49ers’ stewardship.
The new era technically started in the summer, but let’s put the past few months down to bad hires and teething problems, and unofficially mark today as the real beginning. It starts now, but the next appointments must be absolutely spot-on.
Hearts have started dropping points. Their form was never sustainable, and while they’ve improved following their own investment, they were never winning the league. Injuries are creeping in, and over the Christmas period, it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see them drop even more points, giving us a chance to claw back a gap we absurdly allowed to balloon under Martin.
The other club above us is a riot, a bona fide basket case that is only a couple of bad results away from complete meltdown. As a support, they are chomping at the bit to declare all-out war on their board, in keeping with their in-built stance of being in permanent fight mode, always searching for a fictional cause to rage against. They’ve been itching to turn on their own board for a while now, and we’ve ironically helped keep a lid on that in recent years by stumbling from crisis to crisis ourselves. That needs to change. We need to make their pending explosion spill over the edge.
We are, somehow, in what you might call a title race, but I don’t trust this current crop of players, assembled by Thelwell, to deliver it. January is enormous if we want even a sniff, and it can only be good news that Thelwell won’t be leading the planning.
Röhl is a talented coach who knows what he’s doing, will likely have an eye for a player, and crucially, will have a contact list that goes beyond the lower leagues of England. I don’t doubt his honest feedback to the owners regarding the state of the squad played a role in today’s decisions, and I wouldn’t be against letting him lead the January recruitment. If he gets us to the window while continuing to close gaps and stack up wins, he’s earned the right to pursue signings without the need for a Director of Football to rubber-stamp everything.
Longer term, of course, that isn’t sustainable, nor is it the model the owners want, but for the upcoming transfer window, it might be the most sensible option, and it feels entirely possible he’d sign better than what we’ve already got.
As for replacing Thelwell, the early bookmakers’ favourite is former captain David Weir. Despite sitting at even money, that feels a stretch given his new role in France with Strasbourg. The list also includes ex-player Bruno Alves, who most recently held a similar post at AEK Athens. The two real standouts, for me, are Carlos Bocanegra, formerly of Atlanta United, and the dream appointment: Ralf Rangnick. A highly respected, deeply experienced football mind, and someone with a past connection to our current manager at RB Leipzig.
Rangnick is probably a pipe dream, having just led Austria to the 2026 World Cup, but it’s one worth keeping an eye on.
Whoever replaces Thelwell, and Stewart, for that matter, needs to be an unequivocal success. The takeover has been a major disappointment so far, and this needs to be day zero.