Rangers ‘did not screw up’ appointment of head coach – Andrew Cavenagh

Cavenagh insists Rangers never had a prime candidate and rejected the idea that Ruhl was third choice behind Gerrard and Muscat.

There have been talks with several managers in London beyond Ruhl, Muscat and Gerrard, and Cavenagh says there are five names he would have been happy to move forward with.

“We have interviewed a number of great candidates,” he said. “We spoke to a number of other candidates that you’ve never heard of before.

“We left London 10 days ago, having had a whole bunch of meetings and I said to our group how pleased I was that there were five candidates – not the three that had been talked about – that I was very comfortable with being great managers of Rangers.”

When asked why Rangers were unable to complete a deal for Gerrard or Muscat, Cavenagh described the two situations as “complicated”.

“We didn’t rank people number one, two or three,” he said. “We had 10 days at that point, maximum, to get a bus into the building, so we went after all five at once.

“Has anyone been offered the job? That’s not how it works. You don’t have a big party and send someone a letter with a bow on it.”

The American pointed out that the role was not officially offered to Gerard or Muscat, as they were pursuing several candidates at the same time.

“You’re working on a whole bunch of different details at the same time,” he added. “The two people you mentioned are complicated.

“They’re halfway around the world, they have families, they have to move, and they’re coming in the middle of the season.

“So what you try to do with each candidate is just constantly try to move the ball forward and think, ‘Can we make this happen?’ And again, we’re doing that with five different people at once.”