4-4-2 boss the “frontrunner” to replace Rohl at Rangers

Glasgow Rangers head coach Danny Rohl is facing an uncertain future with the Scottish Premiership side amid interest from Austrian side RB Salzburg this week.

The Bundesliga team are in talks with the Scottish giants over a potential deal to hire the ex-Sheffield Wednesday tactician as their new manager, which would leave the Gers in need of a new head coach.

Rohl is reportedly not pushing to leave the club, however, and it is all down to Salzburg to agree a compensation package with Rangers in order to then tempt him to make the move.

The Light Blues opted to back the former Bayern Munich and Germany coach at the end of the season, despite losing four of the five games after the split to finish third in the league and ten points adrift of Celtic in first.

Now, after keeping faith in the manager after a dismal end to the campaign, Rohl could be on his way out of Ibrox to move to Salzburg in the coming days.

Rangers considering move for Premiership manager

Beating Falkirk 5-2 on the final day of the season when their place in the table was already confirmed was the only win that the German boss produced after the split.

Now, the club are reportedly looking at another Premiership manager who outperformed Rohl and could arrive as an upgrade in the dugout for the Scottish giants.

According to Sky Sports, Glasgow Rangers have already drawn up a shortlist of candidates to potentially replace Rohl if he completes a move to Salzburg in the coming days or weeks.

The report claims that Hearts head coach Derek McInnes is one of the managers under consideration to take on the role if it becomes vacant, which means that he could reunite with Lawrence Shankland.

Rangers, of course, recently signed the Scotland international from the Jam Tarts on a permanent deal, after he scored 16 Premiership goals for McInnes this season.

A further update from journalist Pranav Shahaney suggests that it is McInnes who is emerging as the “early frontrunner” for the vacancy, ahead of the likes of Steven Gerrard.

How Derek McInnes can be Rangers’ new Steven Gerrard

If the Light Blues can convince McInnes to replace Rohl in the dugout in Glasgow, the Scottish tactician could arrive at the club as their next version of Gerrard.

Rangers have not won the Premiership title since the English boss led the team to an unbeaten league season in the 2020/21 campaign, before leaving to join Aston Villa in October 2021.

The way that McInnes has improved Hearts during his time at Tynecastle suggests that he has the potential to have a Gerrard-like impact at Ibrox, by helping them to improve and to compete for titles once again.

He arrived at Hearts in the summer of 2025 after they picked up 52 points and finished in the bottom half of the table in the 2024/25 campaign, and led them to a second-placed finish this term.

They were a draw away from winning the Premiership title on the final day last month, and even took the lead in that match against Celtic through Shankland, but they fell just short.

Given the disparity in finances between Hearts and the two Glasgow clubs, evidenced by their club-record signing being less than £2m, McInnes even leading them to second was a phenomenal achievement.

The 54-year-old boss has not only earned plaudits in recent times, though, as former Gers striker Kyle Laffety said in 2023 that he rates “him next to Walter Smith” after their time together at Kilmarnock.

Being compared to the late Walter Smith, who won ten Premiership titles as a manager, is high praise and shows how highly he is rated by his players.

McInnes may not have won the Premiership in his career, yet, but he has a rich history of overperforming with teams in the division, finishing second with Aberdeen four times and finishing fourth with Kilmarnock two seasons after winning promotion from the Championship.

The 4-4-2 coach has consistently improved the teams that he has managed, as Gerrard did when he arrived at Ibrox to win them their first title since they came back to the top-flight, and that is why he could be the club’s next version of Gerrard.