FOLLOWING the appointment of Leanne Crichton as the new Head Coach of the Women's first-team, Women's and Girls' Managing Director, Donald Gillies, reflected on a vigorous recruitment process, why Crichton emerged as the outstanding candidate, and his excitement for what lies ahead.
Here's what he had to say:
Donald the club have confirmed the appointment of Leanne Crichton as the new women's Head Coach, how delighted are you to get that over the line?
I am absolutely delighted - Leanne was an incredible candidate throughout the whole process.
Over the last 7-10 days knowing that is has been confirmed and knowing that she was the one that was successful throughout the process has just built a level of excitement and I am just really looking forward to getting her in front of the players, the staff and the wider club.
I think she will be a fantastic ambassador for the club, but more than that, I think what she'll be able to do here is build on the point that we are at and where we want to go in the future.
It was a long recruitment process, tell us about that and why it took so long to get it done?
From a strategic perspective, it is always good to have a plan in place for elements that happen in the job and our succession plan was already in place, but ultimately you never know when you are going to need it. We weren't expecting Jo [Potter] to leave - she had a year left on her contract and we were working through recruitment, style of play and philosophy.
All of those are elements we would evolve, so when it is a sudden change, you then need to go back to the plan that is in place to make it more relevant for the time that you are in. We had to make sure we went to market looking for the appropriate skillset that we felt was required for that time and moment.
Once we had done that, the process gathered momentum with incoming résumés, identifying potential candidates that we liked before almost jumping to the end of that process. You say ‘right ok when is the drop-dead date that we absolutely must have a head coach in place?’
You start planning for the season with the first round of the league and then work backwards, and then you say ‘right when is our last friendly, when is the pre-season camp, when is our recruitment requirement absolutely needed? Can we do that without a head coach in place based on the identifying factors that we have got for this team?’
We didn't feel that we needed to rush it in the next day or next week especially given the calibre of the résumés and applications for the job that had come in. Making sure that we were diligent and spent time with the people that had strong résumés was a longer process – that pushes it down the road a little bit, but it also means that when you get to the next stage of initial conversations you're starting with a far stronger base.
The quality of the candidates was really high and so that probably extended the process a little bit longer because you then go towards round two and round three, and you involve other key people from the club such as the Sporting Director, the Chief Executive and the club psychologist - all those things. We just really felt we had time and space to be thorough - yes we would have liked it to have got over the line sooner, but looking back on the process I think we are all pleased there has been no stone left unturned.
What made Leanne stand out as the leading candidate?
You look at the elements that we have as a coaching staff and as a team, and you are looking for someone that can complement the identity, the philosophy and skillset of the people that we have there already.
Yes, you are looking for the best candidate, there is no question about it. But at the same time you are looking for the perfect piece in this jigsaw. Somebody that will be able to mould this playing group and staff as a whole - whether it's medical, performance, coaching or kit management together in a way that creates one successful unit. To get a person to do that requires somebody with a high emotional IQ. Someone that has had experience of several different environments, at a high elite performance level. Someone that is great on the pitch, and someone with a high level of coaching qualifications, and Leanne has got all of those.
When you get into the actual recruitment process and you’re speaking to Leanne and she was sharing more of her identity, the things that make her unique, for us it was a ‘yes’ – and she was really attractive for that position. She has all these great ideas, she has all these clear philosophical viewpoints on the game, but more than that, she is someone that you can have a conversation with and be able to see how she will bring the best out in others around her.
You've opted for someone with no previous managerial experience, what is the thinking behind that?
We didn't necessarily see it as a barrier. The most obvious thing to point to is Jo previously, who hadn't been a head coach before she took on the job and so going into the process, we didn't necessarily feel like that was a prerequisite.
We did, however, feel appointing someone that had the experience of working and delivering at an elite level was more important. Leanne has been coaching for over a decade already - she started that working down at Loughborough FC alongside Tanya Oxtoby the current Northern Ireland head coach. She has got fantastic experience in the WSL as well.
It is not all of a sudden that she has retired and then thought ‘I am going to take up coaching’ - it takes a long time to get to the pro-license level she is at. She has also been an assistant at a club with an incredibly strong historical reputation for success.
Therefore, bringing her to Rangers even though she hasn't got experience as a head coach was trumped by those other elements that she has got. It is not a doubt that taking that step into the head coach role is something she is more than capable of delivering on.
She was a successful player that won so much, going on to be an assistant coach and she knows the league well, how much do you think that will help her in the role?
That will be massive. I think it is important to know that what we want is success in Scotland. If we get success in Scotland, then we get access to European football. European football provides the challenges of Arsenal, Atletico Madrid - the teams that we played last year. That then allows us to challenge and lift the standard and lift the bar, but you don't get there unless you are successful in Scotland.
We absolutely could have recruited from outside of Scotland and the qualities of the people that would have come into that role would have been applicable in Scotland. However, having someone that knows the Scottish landscape, knows the European landscape, has played in quarter-finals of the Champions League, has played and experienced what it is like at European Championships, at Women's World Cups, was certainly a really attractive factor for bringing her in.
When looking to have that Scottish identity at the club, bringing in someone of that calibre and what she did for the national team, how much are you looking to shape things around that? And how keen are you to see as many players as possible in the national setup?
We recognise that the Scottish game needs to be successful as a whole, and Rangers as a club needs to play a leading role in that. We want the reputation of the women's game to continue to evolve in Scotland. That allows us to attract more players and that allows us to be in a stronger position from a commercial and financial perspective.
Having someone in place that values the development of young Scottish talent and senior established Scottish talent will, in turn, help the national team. We have seen the kick-on impact of the Scottish Women's national team qualify for the Euros in 2017. We have seen the impact on them qualifying for the World Cup in 2019 which led to the professionalisation of this club and others. Knowing that if we continue to support the development of young Scottish talent, it allows us as a club to be more successful concurrently, not just with the national team, but with the SWPL and on the European stage which has benefits for us intrinsically as a club too.
This is your first head coach appointment since you started in the role, how big is it for you personally?
Again it was making sure that succession plan took account of the things that I have observed over the last 18 months in the position. The success of Jo, how the players have interacted with Jo, the wider coaching staff, the environment at the training centre, the matchday experience, the hierarchy of the club and the other influencing factors whether it is commercial, whether it is financial, or media-based matters.
All of them allowed me to almost get a sense of what I think would and wouldn't work within that environment. I had a really good working relationship with Jo and we saw the success that Jo had over the last two years, but there is more than one way of doing it. For me personally and professionally, working towards all of those elements and recruiting somebody that I think will not just continue but will elevate over this season, the next season and beyond was a task that I relished. I enjoyed the process of going through it, because it helped shape my vision along with the rest of the club for where we can go as a girls and women's department as a whole.
It is key to highlight the need to win straight away at this football club?
It is no different for any other team that is competing with a Rangers crest on their shirt. We need to win. That is no change to the DNA and the fibre of what this club is.
We have been so close over the last three years, but been short in some way across each season. The team and the staff never stop asking how or why have been short in that area, whether it is player recruitment, academy graduating players, staff recruitment or style of play, those questions are continuing to be asked on a daily basis.
Yes, nothing changes at this football club, we need to win but it is the way that we go about it and the constant need to drive standards, the constant need to continue to excel and be better than what we were yesterday that is going to continue to drive us. It has been incredibly frustrating not getting over that line in the league, but it is not going to stop us asking difficult questions and answering them to lead us to success.
Lastly the club has had so many success stories in the youth academy over the years and still has so many good young players in the squad as well. How keen is Leanne to buy into that and try to continue to give youth a chance moving forward?
It was a part of the recruitment process as part of our identity is developing talent from within this country. There is one thing having a youth pathway, but there is another thing in translating into first team appearances.
We are a club that is recruiting globally now - American players, European-based players - all of those markets are ones that we are looking at now. The challenging thing for young players at the club is that makes it even more difficult to then take that step from the academy into the first team. Giving those players an opportunity and time to evolve knowing that we are not expecting the finished article, but also finding space within that first team environment is crucial.
We cannot dismiss talent out of the hat when you don't know what it is going to look like in the next three or four years.
I think the opportunity to bring players like Lily Boyce, Sophie Black and Sophie Townsley on pre-season camps whether it is last year to Valencia or this year to Italy, demonstrates that while we recognise there is still a journey for these players to go on, we need to provide that opportunity to allow them to go and elevate and understand what it is like against Inter Milan, against AC Milan and Levante, against their peers in the group, and the head coach needs to lead that. We had that with Jo and we'll continue to have that with Leanne.
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