STEWART ROBERTSON has confirmed Rangers could appoint a Director of Football as part of a new management structure at Ibrox.

The Gers hierarchy have started their search for Mark Warburton's successor after he left the club on Friday night alongside David Weir and Frank McParland.

The Evening Times revealed on Saturday that John Park, Stuart Webber and Paul Mitchell were amongst the candidates under consideration by the Light Blues board for a key post in the new regime.

And Robertson is confident Rangers are on the right track as they look to move forward on and off the park in the coming months.

He said: “We are continually looking at potential managers for the club.

“At a club of this size, it would be foolish to not be looking at your succession planning as you would in any other business for your key positions.

“We already have a database of potential names that we are aware of and who we have done some diligence on already.

“We’ve been inundated with lots of people already sending us applications for the position. We are sifting through those applications and then we will draw up a shortlist and look to interview.

“It is important to say that we are also looking at a Director of Football role and that will be a key appointment for the structure of the club.

“We have a very clear plan for how we are going to take this football club forward.

“It needs to be a modern football club, we are sitting here in the trophy room and we want to bring back the days where we are adding to the collection of trophies that we have here.

“From a supporters’ perspective, they can take some comfort from the fact that there is a plan in place and that there could be the odd time that you have to take a step back in order to achieve your plan, but we have very clear goals for where we want this football club to get back to.”

The departure of Warburton, Weir and McParland, the Head of Recruitment, leaves Rangers once again in a state of flux as they look to continue on the road to recovery.

The move towards a Director of Football and Head Coach setup would be a change in direction for the Light Blues as opposed to what has been in place in recent years.

And Robertson believes it could be the best way to go as Rangers attempt to return to the top of Scottish football as quickly as possible.

He told RangersTV: “As a club we want to be a modern football club, and we see that sometimes when managers leave a lot of the structure leaves with them.

“That is no use, you put a lot of time a lot of investment and a lot of resource into developing that side of the business and you can’t have that changing every time a manager changes.

“The Director of Football gives you that continuity. They oversee the overall football department, all aspects of it, including the Academy, Performance and Preparation, Analysis and everything as well as the first team.

“It means then that if a manager or a coach does leave, you are only replacing that one person and the clubs philosophy continues unbroken if you have that Director of Football there.

“We haven’t at this stage spoken to anyone about the manager or Director of Football roles. We are just gathering the facts and we will take our time as they are two key roles.

“We are really focussed on making sure that we get the right people and I’d rather take an extra week to make sure we have the right people, than to rush into anything.”