Chris Jack: Mark Allen’s time in blue is no case of black and white for Rangers

Bonnyloyal

Well-Known Member
By Christopher Jack @Chris_Jack89Group Senior Sports Writer

AS a person and a project, Mark Allen was difficult to gauge and judge at various stages of his tenure. Now that he has left, it is perhaps only time that will deliver the best verdict on a Director of Football that split opinions both on and off the park at Ibrox.
His departure late on Friday evening - after just over two years in the role - was greeted with surprise by supporters, but it wasn’t a completely unexpected development. Once the transfer window had closed, Allen’s successes and failures could be easily plotted and his future debated.
A statement was praiseworthy of Allen’s efforts and Steven Gerrard reaffirmed those sentiments after the win over Livingston on Saturday. Not every member of staff was disappointed to see Allen leave, though.
Allen positioned himself closely to Gerrard on trips abroad and seemed to always be in and around the football staff in public. At home, he was often seen on the training ground during the week and was a noticeable, perhaps out of place, presence when he joined in with the celebrations after big wins for Gerrard’s side.

Many will see nothing wrong with Allen having such a public profile, but a Director of Football should operate in the background, be heard every so often and seen even less.
On the occasions he did speak, Allen gave little away. He was pleasant enough to interview, yet there was often plenty of words but not enough details when the time was there for him to really sell his vision and to add substance to conversations over his role and his vision.
In Portugal back in pre-season, he skipped around questions about the status of the Joe Aribo deal, despite the midfielder already being in the country and official confirmation from Rangers being minutes away.
The move for Aribo was certainly one of the success stories of the summer for Rangers but it was the business Allen did going the other way that counted against him.
The Ibrox board had to sanction pay-offs for Graham Dorrans and Joe Dodoo and Rangers still fail to recoup significant funds when it comes to offloading unwanted players. Kyle Lafferty lasted just a year, while another handful of arrivals either failed or have unconvinced so far.
Plucking the likes of Borna Barisic and Eros Grezda out of Osijek is a risk and the rewards haven’t been forthcoming for Rangers.
The left-back remains in Gerrard’s squad and, if he did move on, it wouldn’t be at a loss on the £1.5million paid for him last year.
But Grezda has never looked like fitting the model of buy low and sell high. The Albanian is nowhere near the first team squad and efforts to move him on, even on a loan deal, proved fruitless in recent weeks.
No transfer policy can ever be completely successful, but deals for the likes of Ryan Kent and Jermain Defoe were down to Gerrard’s influence, while those for Allan McGregor and Steven Davis were no-brainers.
Nikola Katic does look a shrewd investment and if Filip Helander can justify his £3million outlay and George Edmundson and Jake Hastie progress as hoped, there will be long-term advantages to the strategy Allen has overseen in the market.
There are other lasting measures of the Welshman’s tenure around Ibrox and the Hummel Training Centre and Gerrard, of course, is the most important one of all for Rangers.
The new lounge for players before home matches is an impressive upgrade behind the scenes, while the training ground is a more professional and polished environment as investment has been made in staff, infrastructure and facilities.
Gerrard’s influence now runs throughout Rangers and Allen certainly played his part in taking the club on as it emerged from the most difficult period in its history.
His ambition was to leave Rangers in a better position than he found on his arrival from Manchester City. In that regard, it was a job well done.
Allen can now search for his next project, while Rangers must find a replacement, and an upgrade, for a position that needs to be filled.
 
We can be grateful to MA when he came to the club he had a blank sheet, and he rebuilt the club from the ground up, that is the structure of the club, he had nothing but empty space, and now everything is up and running, and with less to do, and him being away from home over two years I guess he felt it was time to go home to the family, I for one thank him for all his effort and his time spent in Ibrox.
 
I don't agree that a DoF shouldn't be in the public eye. His closeness to the first team and the management/coaching staff is crucial I think.

IMO the only way that the role can fulfill its true intentions (continuity in player recruitment and footballing philosophy from manager to manager) can only be achieved with the DoF being front and centre of the club.

Mark Allen never hid - and I liked that about him. We are a fickle support and if he had been totally anonymous we would have been calling for his head a year ago.

The article although decent is speculative and correct in one thing - only time will tell exactly how effective he was in the role. Until then we can only guess - the same as Chris Jack has just done.

Hopefully we get a superb replacement and one that pleases the Gaffer.
 
No doubt he done plenty good with putting things in place to move forward but he does come across JTesque if he’s been out on the training ground etc.
 
I don't agree that a DoF shouldn't be in the public eye. His closeness to the first team and the management/coaching staff is crucial I think.

IMO the only way that the role can fulfill its true intentions (continuity in player recruitment and footballing philosophy from manager to manager) can only be achieved with the DoF being front and centre of the club.

Mark Allen never hid - and I liked that about him. We are a fickle support and if he had been totally anonymous we would have been calling for his head a year ago.

The article although decent is speculative and correct in one thing - only time will tell exactly how effective he was in the role. Until then we can only guess - the same as Chris Jack has just done.

Hopefully we get a superb replacement and one that pleases the Gaffer.


The crucial detail being that it’s speculative, much like most of the shite that gets posted on here about him. I’m sure ID10 has a genuine reason for his opinion given his connections but since he never divulges the info on why he holds that option (no issue with that btw) I can’t say much.

But from the outside looking in, he did a reasonably good job and I wish him well. I’ll leave speculative pish to the media and the zoomers here.
 
He was often on the training ground in the RTV videos, especially pre season the last 2 years.

Surely that is part of the criteria the role required, and TBH I didn't mind that. I'm curious as to what we expected of the role.
 
He’s not well liked amongst people I know

Loves himself, is extremely rude & patronising - treated many members of staff like absolute shite. Man managed absolutely everything, way outside his remit even to point he wanted to manipulate tours etc

Failed to deliver many promises he made on signings then subsequently failed to correct these issues, these are ones he pushed for

He has cost us deals for players by being poor & elusive to deal with

Caused issues on the training pitch & in the dressing room (Celebrating with players etc - travelling on team bus)

Openly leaked information to carry favour & was subsequently cut out of deals to stop stuff being leaked

Amongst some of the things I have heard directly from people about him & I have long spoken about this & the fact this would come to an end

Personally, the dealings I have know of I am delighted he is gone

There are amongst my reasons for not liking him

Now I’ll also add this, Mark Allen was in the squad photo on Thursday afternoon

By 5pm that evening he was away

What sort of person, who knows he’s leaving, (for family reasons) sits in those pictures? You can make up your own mind to whether or not you think that family reasons is true etc


Allen undoubtedly did good things, to suggest he done them properly or people will lose sleep over him leaving are entirely different


People can make up their own minds on this also, but the article above is hardly praise for Allen & that’s from an extremely Rangers Friendly journalist with club based connections (Rangers must find a replacement and an UPGRADE)

Allen put Gerrards name forward, King then took it on. He oversaw a rapid turnaround & uptake - he wasn’t terrible but he certainly isn’t irreplaceable either

We move on

(I have praised Allen where praise is due, I have maybe even been too generous of that in earlier days - that changed rapidly the more I found out)

Very interesting perspective. Maybe the journo has inside knowledge and that's why the article isn't very complimentary.
 
He’s not well liked amongst people I know

Loves himself, is extremely rude & patronising - treated many members of staff like absolute shite. Man managed absolutely everything, way outside his remit even to point he wanted to manipulate tours etc

Failed to deliver many promises he made on signings then subsequently failed to correct these issues, these are ones he pushed for

He has cost us deals for players by being poor & elusive to deal with

Caused issues on the training pitch & in the dressing room (Celebrating with players etc - travelling on team bus)

Openly leaked information to carry favour & was subsequently cut out of deals to stop stuff being leaked

Amongst some of the things I have heard directly from people about him & I have long spoken about this & the fact this would come to an end

Personally, the dealings I have know of I am delighted he is gone

There are amongst my reasons for not liking him

Now I’ll also add this, Mark Allen was in the squad photo on Thursday afternoon

By 5pm that evening he was away

What sort of person, who knows he’s leaving, (for family reasons) sits in those pictures? You can make up your own mind to whether or not you think that family reasons is true etc


Allen undoubtedly did good things, to suggest he done them properly or people will lose sleep over him leaving are entirely different


People can make up their own minds on this also, but the article above is hardly praise for Allen & that’s from an extremely Rangers Friendly journalist with club based connections (Rangers must find a replacement and an UPGRADE)

Allen put Gerrards name forward, King then took it on. He oversaw a rapid turnaround & uptake - he wasn’t terrible but he certainly isn’t irreplaceable either

We move on

(I have praised Allen where praise is due, I have maybe even been too generous of that in earlier days - that changed rapidly the more I found out)

Thanks for the info ,

Doesn’t sound great , He certainly wasn’t very good at trimming the squad that’s plain to see.
 
Thank you for your comments on Mark Allen ID10, I only met him once and was not impressed with him at all, I believe everything you have said about him, the guy is a w#nk
 
More than once SG was asked about loan deals etc in press conference and he gave out what turned out to be inaccurate answers.

I think those answers gave a hint that there may have been some disconnect somewhere in the player personnel department.
Bottom line was it looked like SG wasn’t really on top of day to day operations.

Wouldn’t surprise me that the next DOF may have some connection to SG.
 
I said to my cousin that I thought it was cringeworthy as fk he was on the track after the Spartak game; that he must have made a conscious decision to start making his way down from the Director's box to trackside minutes before the final whistle to join in the celebrations like a member of the first team training staff. It all seemed pretty weird.
 
He’s not well liked amongst people I know

Loves himself, is extremely rude & patronising - treated many members of staff like absolute shite. Man managed absolutely everything, way outside his remit even to point he wanted to manipulate tours etc

Failed to deliver many promises he made on signings then subsequently failed to correct these issues, these are ones he pushed for

He has cost us deals for players by being poor & elusive to deal with

Caused issues on the training pitch & in the dressing room (Celebrating with players etc - travelling on team bus)

Openly leaked information to carry favour & was subsequently cut out of deals to stop stuff being leaked

Amongst some of the things I have heard directly from people about him & I have long spoken about this & the fact this would come to an end

Personally, the dealings I have know of I am delighted he is gone

There are amongst my reasons for not liking him

Now I’ll also add this, Mark Allen was in the squad photo on Thursday afternoon

By 5pm that evening he was away

What sort of person, who knows he’s leaving, (for family reasons) sits in those pictures? You can make up your own mind to whether or not you think that family reasons is true etc


Allen undoubtedly did good things, to suggest he done them properly or people will lose sleep over him leaving are entirely different


People can make up their own minds on this also, but the article above is hardly praise for Allen & that’s from an extremely Rangers Friendly journalist with club based connections (Rangers must find a replacement and an UPGRADE)

Allen put Gerrards name forward, King then took it on. He oversaw a rapid turnaround & uptake - he wasn’t terrible but he certainly isn’t irreplaceable either

We move on

(I have praised Allen where praise is due, I have maybe even been too generous of that in earlier days - that changed rapidly the more I found out)

After reading this it just compounds what I though before and I still have one question.
Going forward will this be a positive or a negative factor for Gerrard’s tenure with us?
Or have no impact either way what so ever?
 
Some interesting opinions here.

My take is that he came in and improved structures around the club. He did a good job there. His record at buying players was mixed. His record at selling for profit is at Martin Bain levels. We cannot afford to be paying players off and his inability to shift players (equally as important as bringing them in) needs to be held against them.

Finally i can't comment on how he was perceived by those working at Rangers but i am friends with a former youth coach at Man City who said he was a laughable joke character at the club. He was known as David Brent by many there. You do see a big split at clubs at non-footballers in footballing roles and it takes a strong character to overcome this. It sounds like it's been an issue at Rangers too.

As mentioned by Chris Jack, we shouldn't be seeing DOF's on the training ground and near the dug out. That seems strange to me.

The exit has been handled professionally so hopefully we move on to better things.
 
He’s not well liked amongst people I know

Loves himself, is extremely rude & patronising - treated many members of staff like absolute shite. Man managed absolutely everything, way outside his remit even to point he wanted to manipulate tours etc

Failed to deliver many promises he made on signings then subsequently failed to correct these issues, these are ones he pushed for

He has cost us deals for players by being poor & elusive to deal with

Caused issues on the training pitch & in the dressing room (Celebrating with players etc - travelling on team bus)

Openly leaked information to carry favour & was subsequently cut out of deals to stop stuff being leaked

Amongst some of the things I have heard directly from people about him & I have long spoken about this & the fact this would come to an end

Personally, the dealings I have know of I am delighted he is gone

There are amongst my reasons for not liking him

Now I’ll also add this, Mark Allen was in the squad photo on Thursday afternoon

By 5pm that evening he was away

What sort of person, who knows he’s leaving, (for family reasons) sits in those pictures? You can make up your own mind to whether or not you think that family reasons is true etc


Allen undoubtedly did good things, to suggest he done them properly or people will lose sleep over him leaving are entirely different


People can make up their own minds on this also, but the article above is hardly praise for Allen & that’s from an extremely Rangers Friendly journalist with club based connections (Rangers must find a replacement and an UPGRADE)

Allen put Gerrards name forward, King then took it on. He oversaw a rapid turnaround & uptake - he wasn’t terrible but he certainly isn’t irreplaceable either

We move on

(I have praised Allen where praise is due, I have maybe even been too generous of that in earlier days - that changed rapidly the more I found out)

Not on your Christmas card list then?
 
After reading this it just compounds what I though before and I still have one question.
Going forward will this be a positive or a negative factor for Gerrard’s tenure with us?
Or have no impact either way what so ever?

If I am reading between the line's correctly then I think Gerrard will be glad he's gone. I would also think Gerrard will have a big say in who his replacement is, the relationship between the DOF and manager is critical if both roles are to be a success.
 
After reading this it just compounds what I though before and I still have one question.
Going forward will this be a positive or a negative factor for Gerrard’s tenure with us?
Or have no impact either way what so ever?

Hope all is good big man!

I reckon is SG wanted him to stay, he'd have stayed. My feeling is that SG is content with this move.

My take - if we allow Stevie G to have a say in a replacement then it is a risky game we are playing. The role of the DOF is to ensure the medium/long term heath of the footballing side of the club is in a good place. The manager is more concerned with short term results.

The DOF needs to be detached from the manager and have a succession plan in place for all roles. Should SG leave, he'll likely clear out all key coaching roles and potentially scouts and a DOF if he has had a say in them too.

We all love the manager and want him to succeed but this isn't a healthy position to be in.

A DOF should be detached and ensure that a succession plan is always ready.

Now, i'm not sure that SG really wants the classic 'DOF' above him and we may thus need to be a little bit flexible on how we manage this going forward. Stevie mentioned 'technical director' in the press conference which is a slightly different role, someone less in control of first team issues.

Maybe we need to go down this route at least whilst SG is our manager, with a view to making it more of a DOF when SG chooses to depart.

Interesting time ahead.
 
Hope all is good big man!

I reckon is SG wanted him to stay, he'd have stayed. My feeling is that SG is content with this move.

My take - if we allow Stevie G to have a say in a replacement then it is a risky game we are playing. The role of the DOF is to ensure the medium/long term heath of the footballing side of the club is in a good place. The manager is more concerned with short term results.

The DOF needs to be detached from the manager and have a succession plan in place for all roles. Should SG leave, he'll likely clear out all key coaching roles and potentially scouts and a DOF if he has had a say in them too.

We all love the manager and want him to succeed but this isn't a healthy position to be in.

A DOF should be detached and ensure that a succession plan is always ready.

Now, i'm not sure that SG really wants the classic 'DOF' above him and we may thus need to be a little bit flexible on how we manage this going forward. Stevie mentioned 'technical director' in the press conference which is a slightly different role, someone less in control of first team issues.

Maybe we need to go down this route at least whilst SG is our manager, with a view to making it more of a DOF when SG chooses to depart.

Interesting time ahead.

Hey mate,
Great to hear from you.Hope you and your family and Sis are all doing good,

Mate I completely agree with you.
I just hope this doesnt put a ‘spoke in the wheels’ with SG and the mgmt team going forward.
It does seem Allen was instrumental (depending on who you believe) in either suggesting or securing Gerrard so anything that may jeopardize Gerard’s stay with us in any form can’t be good.
Hopefully FB is correct and Gerrard is cool with everything, and he stays out of anythingto do with DOF.Couldn’t agree more mate.
 
Fair enough FBB.

I just hope it doesn’t jeopardize Gerrard’s future with us in the long run.

I think any choice moving forward will be done in consultation with SG, bear in mind here that someone of the standing of SG is also going to have a relatively big ego and sense of self-worth and may not to be over enthused about having a "Boss" above him in the footballing department.

This is why I think while we will see someone come in to take on a role but I don't necessarily think it will be in the same role Mark Allen had/fulfilled. Ultimately the board NEED to make sure SG is happy with whatever happens going forward.
 
Agree with that too.
It’s important keeping SG and his backroom team sweet.

Anything in that rumor about Ross Wilson being interested this time FBB?
Or just hear say…
 
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Never met him but I have not been impressed by job hes done. Undoubtedly some positives but overall nothing I wouldnt have expected anyone in his position to do

On Gerrard I believe Dave king probably sealed that deal.

The selling and offloading of players record is criminal for me.

Happy to change it up
 
The fact of the matter is hes gone now, we move on

Everybody will have their own opinions on his tenure.
One thing for sure is we are certainly in a better place than when he first arrived.

How much of that is actually down to him who knows
 
Never met him but I have not been impressed by job hes done. Undoubtedly some positives but overall nothing I wouldnt have expected anyone in his position to do

On Gerrard I believe Dave king probably sealed that deal.

The selling and offloading of players record is criminal for me.

Happy to change it up

Even though the man himself says otherwise? Christ
 
He’s not well liked amongst people I know

Loves himself, is extremely rude & patronising - treated many members of staff like absolute shite. Man managed absolutely everything, way outside his remit even to point he wanted to manipulate tours etc

Failed to deliver many promises he made on signings then subsequently failed to correct these issues, these are ones he pushed for

He has cost us deals for players by being poor & elusive to deal with

Caused issues on the training pitch & in the dressing room (Celebrating with players etc - travelling on team bus)

Openly leaked information to carry favour & was subsequently cut out of deals to stop stuff being leaked

Amongst some of the things I have heard directly from people about him & I have long spoken about this & the fact this would come to an end

Personally, the dealings I have know of I am delighted he is gone

There are amongst my reasons for not liking him

Now I’ll also add this, Mark Allen was in the squad photo on Thursday afternoon

By 5pm that evening he was away

What sort of person, who knows he’s leaving, (for family reasons) sits in those pictures? You can make up your own mind to whether or not you think that family reasons is true etc


Allen undoubtedly did good things, to suggest he done them properly or people will lose sleep over him leaving are entirely different


People can make up their own minds on this also, but the article above is hardly praise for Allen & that’s from an extremely Rangers Friendly journalist with club based connections (Rangers must find a replacement and an UPGRADE)

Allen put Gerrards name forward, King then took it on. He oversaw a rapid turnaround & uptake - he wasn’t terrible but he certainly isn’t irreplaceable either

We move on

(I have praised Allen where praise is due, I have maybe even been too generous of that in earlier days - that changed rapidly the more I found out)
Coming soon to a tabloid near you, a regurgitated negative Rangers clickbait story.
 
Pretty clear he rubbed journalists up the wrong way, they way Guidi spoke about him the other day, along with this article from Chris Jack, both saying more or less the same things about him being too involved with the 1st team etc make it seem like they weren’t getting what they wanted from him.

Gerrards comments seemed genuine and he seemed to get on well with him.
 
I’m guessing his failure to recoup money on the outgoing players has cost him his job. But then surly the board should not have sanctioned the pay offs and got deals done to move on players.
 
If I am reading between the line's correctly then I think Gerrard will be glad he's gone. I would also think Gerrard will have a big say in who his replacement is, the relationship between the DOF and manager is critical if both roles are to be a success.
The crucial point in all of this is where Gerrard's thoughts may be in this article
 
I’m guessing his failure to recoup money on the outgoing players has cost him his job. But then surly the board should not have sanctioned the pay offs and got deals done to move on players.

In truth, I have sympathy for him if he was binned for that reason alone. It can’t be easy getting fees for players the club don’t want.

Something I haven’t seen anyone mention yet is a pay off.

It doesn’t read like he’s been sacked so I’m guessing there’s been some severance involved, which makes the idea that he was elbowed because we paid off too many unwanted employees more than a little ironic.
 
I don't agree that a DoF shouldn't be in the public eye. His closeness to the first team and the management/coaching staff is crucial I think.

IMO the only way that the role can fulfill its true intentions (continuity in player recruitment and footballing philosophy from manager to manager) can only be achieved with the DoF being front and centre of the club.

Mark Allen never hid - and I liked that about him. We are a fickle support and if he had been totally anonymous we would have been calling for his head a year ago.

The article although decent is speculative and correct in one thing - only time will tell exactly how effective he was in the role. Until then we can only guess - the same as Chris Jack has just done.

Hopefully we get a superb replacement and one that pleases the Gaffer.
Sorry GG you little or nothing about his role if you think it is ok for him to be on the training field with players or on the park celebrating with them after victories.
These things were his downfall and did not go without notice of SG. I think in time you may even hear of the real tensions in the Gerard and Allen camps.
Any manager worth his salt will not allow interference in his territory at any football club
 
As @ID10 has mentioned his manner and behaviours towards staff at times was shocking and bordering on oppressive at times. Staff at the HTC stifled due to fear of losing their job. What I would say is that he did bring in a more professional outlook at HTC which was badly needed. As the article indicated his failures outweighed his successes. Let's just say that the biggest smile you are seeing at the HTC just now is the person who smiles the least. Hopefully he will go to pastures new and leave things as they stand.
 
The DoF is supposed to supersede the manager, and have a say in who the manager is, not vice versa. I think if Gerrard has his pick it sets up a very strange chain of command going forward.

It’ll be interesting to see how it works.

It's going to be a Technical Director rather than a DoF with Gerrard here. Might have been the case that with a Murty or Pedro it was a DoF needed.

Allen wasn't a DoF either before coming here though. He's helped turn the club around. Now we've got Stevie G, I'd be happy for an upgrade in the role that sits in the DoF / TD area
 
The DoF is supposed to supersede the manager, and have a say in who the manager is, not vice versa. I think if Gerrard has his pick it sets up a very strange chain of command going forward.

It’ll be interesting to see how it works.
That’s why we won’t have a DoF, we will have a Technical director who’s remit won’t include First team as that will be SGs dept.
 
His output seems to be ok, but it was a bit of an open goal to be honest. Improvements to Ibrox and HTC were obviously needed.

On his player dealings, if he’d been ‘better’, we might have seen Grezda and Barasic out the door, but also Morelos and Tav sold for a big profit. That’s the model, after all.

I’m not sure he can negotiate that well, or we may have seen Kent arriving sooner and cheaper, along with the departure of AM & JT.
 
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