MARK WOTTE has sympathy for Rangers but a warning, too.
The Scottish Football Association's performance director was the manager at Southampton when they went into administration in 2009, those bitter experiences making him ideally placed to offer his condolences and support to the Ibrox club as they wrestle with deep-rooted financial problems of their own.
Southampton emerged stronger from their experience in administration, largely as a result of the emergence of a wealthy benefactor who helped bring them back from the brink. It was not entirely pain-free, however, with uncertainty and fears over the future eventually leading to job losses and the team dropping into League One.
With typical Dutch honesty, Wotte describes those summer months in administration as "not the best time in my life" and hopes Rangers can recover just as Southampton did nearly three years ago. "I'm worried about the situation at Rangers as it's a massive club that has been around for ages," he said. "Everywhere you go in the world people know Rangers and Celtic. Rangers also have a Dutch history with a Dutch manager and a lot of Dutch players.
"To go into administration is devastating when you have it during the season as it affects the dressing room and all of the club. Everyone has insecurities. The hardest aspect for me was dealing with players who were worried they couldn't pay their mortgage any more. Everyone was asking questions. So I had to inform a lot of people. I told them to be patient and wait for better things to happen. There were redundancies, too, and it's never easy to see good people leaving the club.
"It wasn't the best time in my life when Southampton was in administration but after three months everything was sorted. Everyone was down and out in June and by August they were all cheering. The debts were wiped away and everyone got a piece, there was a new owner, a billionaire, who bought the club, and now Saints are in the top two of the Championship. But it is a tough thing for Rangers to go through and it's not helping Scottish football. You have to trust the people in charge and hope there will be a better future." Wotte's immediate concern, however, is developing young Scottish talent and he hopes that whatever happens to Rangers they don't decide to abandon their investment in youth. "It's up to the people who run the club to decide if they will cut their youth development programme," he added. "But that would be very irresponsible. Your youth development programme is your lifeline. If you keep producing youth players who can play in the first team for a few years and then are sold to a bigger club, then you can have a healthy club.
"If you cut youth development from the main club then they will struggle. How can you generate money in football? It is tickets, TV rights and a good transfer policy. You should not be ashamed that sometimes you have to sell a player as it generates a lot of income. Most youth players are reasonably cheap wages-wise then if you can sell them later for several million then that's a healthy policy. I hope that whatever Rangers do in the future they don't ignore their youth development. That would be short-sighted."
Wotte yesterday unveiled Dean Gorre as the SFA's new under-17 coach. Gorre, who was with Wotte at Southampton, does not have such happy memories of administration, RBC Roosendaal, the team he was managing in the Dutch second flight last year, eventually going into liquidation and never recovering. A phoenix club set up by fans now plays in Dutch football's ninth tier.
"It was a very difficult experience," Gorre said. "That was my first job as a manager and all I had to do was keep them in the league, and I managed that on the last day of the season. But two months later the club was finished. When I was in charge we had points deducted as we had financial difficulties, like being in administration here, so we went to the bottom of the league. It was good experience for me from the point of view of seeing how people operate when they don't get paid and how you keep them motivated. It's not easy to do that but I'm open.
"I told the players if they wanted to make a living out of football this was a chance for them to put themselves in the shop window. They reacted to that, as they knew they were going to be on television. So I can empathise with what Ally McCoist is going through, as it's a very difficult situation. I wouldn't wish that on anyone."
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