What does the future hold for Patrick Stewart and Kevin Thelwell?

The two Ronnies. Laurel and Hardy. Morecambe and Wise. Ant and Dec. Comedy double acts have played an enduring role in our society. The newest duo to add to that list is Stewart and Thelwell. The pair’s tenure at Rangers has been a farce, littered with incompetence and absurdity. Unlike most comedy acts however, there is little dark humour and no joy to be found in watching them flounder, flop and fail.

Arriving in December last year, Patrick Stewart’s arrival appeared to have some excitement and glamour about it. He arrived from an 18-year spell at Manchester United after all; one of the world’s biggest clubs. On the other hand, he arrived from Manchester United; one of the world’s worst run clubs. And whilst the maelstrom of calamity that is Man United cannot be pinned on Stewart, he did little to resolve and restore the club.

One of Stewart’s major decisions at Rangers was the appointment of the vacant Sporting Director role. For that position, he chose Kevin Thelwell. Thelwell arrived at Ibrox held in high regards by many in the footballing world. He has had spells at Wolves, NY Red Bulls and most recently, Everton where he was Director of Football. For the Toffees, he is credited with bringing financial stability to a club that was financially unstable when he arrived. Through smart, astute signings such as Iliman Ndiaye and Jake O’Brien for relatively low fees, healthy sales like Richarlison and Anthony Gordon, and retaining key players like Jarrad Branthwaite despite big clubs circling, Thelwell left a positive impression during his time at Everton. There were some failures too of course, but on the whole, he was regarded as a commendable and competent pair of hands.

At Rangers however, many fans believe those same hands are strangling the club. It should be noted though, that his time at Rangers so far has been brief having joined at the end of last season. The few months he has spent at Ibrox though, have been tumultuous. Firstly, fans have not been impressed with many of the signings made with question marks hanging over most of them. The Youssef Chermiti signing is the embodiment of Rangers fans reservations over the summer transfer window. At £8m, he is the 2nd most expensive signing in the club’s history. And with six appearances in the last year, he is perhaps the club’s riskiest. Given the frankly abysmal player trading of Rangers in recent years, and the unconditional requirement to bridge the gap to Celtic, Rangers are in no position to take risky gambles.

With the exception of Gassama, all of Thelwell’s signings have failed to hit the ground running. Of course, the caveat to that is they have been playing under Russel Martin. Unfortunately for Thelwell, that fails to absolve him as he and Stewart were the men to appoint Martin. And they were also the men who failed to sack him until it was too late. Similarly, under Philippe Clement, fans had been baying for blood long before he was sacked. Not even the home loss to Queen’s Park was enough for Stewart to take action. He has referenced that changing a manager is not always a “silver bullet” but in the cutthroat world of football, sometimes you need to fire the gun early. Having failed to do that twice, that starts to look like a pattern.

The salt in the wounds to all of this is Thelwell’s appointments. First came his mate from Everton, Dan Purdy as technical director. Now of course, when it goes well, there is nothing wrong with appointing someone you have previously worked with to ease a transition to a new environment. But when things are not going well, as is the case, this starts to look like an act of cronyism. Particularly when you look at his next appointment. To fill the role of head of recruitment, Kevin Thelwell appointed none other than his son, Robbie. Whether or not he has the required experience (which he does not) and whether or not he is the right man for the job (which he is not), how is Kevin Thelwell meant to remain objective when working with his son? How is he meant to maintain a strictly professional relationship? Ask almost any father if they could do so with their son and the answer would be an almost unilateral no. It is as outrageous as it is improper.

So where do Stewart and Thelwell go from here? Quite frankly, it is hard to see a way up for them. The fanbase have become careworn with the vacant promises and bad decisions from the myopic duo with many doggedly married to the idea that they are running the club into the ground and must go. To see how a club should be run, look no further than our humiliators Club Brugge. Like Scotland, the Belgian league is on the fringe of Europe’s top leagues. However, thanks to cogent planning and smart strategies from their CEO Bob Madou, combined with sublime player trading headed by Maarten Dedobbeleer and Dévy Rigaux in director of sport roles, the Belgian outfit are now Champions League regulars, have risen year on year in the UEFA rankings, and have posted profits of £40m and £34m in the past two seasons. Their sporting structure is one Rangers should emulate. Can it really be said with any confidence however, that Stewart and Thelwell will be the pair to deliver that?

They of course, would answer yes. And they might be right. But they have just one chance left to prove that. It all comes down to their choice of the next manager. If they get him in quick, if he gets the most out of the summer signings, if he gets the results and performances that have been long overdue and engenders a revitalisation, then Stewart and Thelwell may start to see a light at the end of the tunnel. If they choose wrong again, that light may end up being an oncoming train.