{"id":227597,"date":"2025-10-15T23:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/227597\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T23:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:02:08","slug":"kevin-muscat-in-step-towards-rangers-job-as-he-enters-contract-talks-with-ibrox-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/227597\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Muscat in step towards Rangers job as he enters contract talks with Ibrox owners"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Shanghai Port boss has emerged as the frontrunner for the vacant Ibrox hot seat<\/p>\n

17:50, 15 Oct 2025Updated 19:17, 15 Oct 2025<\/p>\n

\"ManagerManager Kevin Muscat (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Kevin Muscat appears to be on the verge of winning the race to become the next Rangers<\/a> boss after entering into contract negotiations with the club\u2019s American owners.<\/p>\n

The Aussie was interviewed for the position earlier this week following a furious fan backlash to suggestions that inexperienced German candidate Danny Rohl<\/a> was the clear front runner to succeed Russell Martin.<\/p>\n

Rohl is believed to be still waiting for further contact after pitching his credentials to owner Andrew Cavenagh<\/a> and is putting together plans for a backroom team which would include a key role for former stalwart Steven Davis.<\/p>\n

But, while Rohl remains on hold but in contention, claims that first pick Steven Gerrard has returned to the negotiating table are untrue, despite the odds for his potential return being dramatically slashed.<\/p>\n

Muscat<\/a>, meanwhile, has taken a huge step towards finally landing the job he came close to securing two years ago.<\/p>\n

And, as Record Sport revealed, his own right hand man, Neil McCann, has already been primed to step back into the dugout<\/a> in time to take charge of the team for Saturday\u2019s top flight clash against Dundee United.<\/p>\n

Muscat is currently battling to win a second successive Chinese Super League title with Shanghai Port and – with his side two points clear at the top of the table and four games remaining – the potential timing of his release remains unclear.<\/p>\n

He still has one more year to run on his contract with the Asian big guns and Rangers could have to stump up a compensation bill of around \u00a31.5m in order to terminate that deal.<\/p>\n

Sources in the Far East believe Shanghai Port officials have, in the last 24 hours, been made aware of the interest from Scotland and have already kicked off the process of identifying Muscat\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n

Under 19s coach Stevie Smith has been left in charge of first team training this week, as the clock ticks down to resumption of the domestic campaign on the back of the latest international break.<\/p>\n

But Cavenagh and his board would prefer a more experienced set of hands to oversee the visit from United and McCann – who was part of Barry Ferguson\u2019s interim staff last season – is prepared to step in at the 11th hour.<\/p>\n

Maurice Ross, Steven Thompson, Kevin Muscat and Neil McCann celebrate winning the Scottish Cup in 2003(Image: Press Association)<\/p>\n

We revealed yesterday that McCann had previously been identified by Muscat as an ideal right hand man during the process which ultimately led to Philippe Clement\u2019s appointment in October 2023.<\/p>\n

And McCann may now have to keep the hotseat warm for his former Ibrox team mate before settling into a permanent position as Muscat\u2019s assistant.<\/p>\n

That would point to a possible announcement confirming Muscat\u2019s appointment being made before Friday, even though Rohl has not yet thrown in the towel.<\/p>\n

In fact, the 36-year-old has been pressing ahead with his own plans which would include a coaching role for Hall of Famer Davis and a possible position for another ex-Rangers skipper, Lee Wallace.<\/p>\n

Davis is currently part of Michael O\u2019Neill\u2019s backroom staff with the Northern Ireland national team. He had two spells with Rangers as a player and also held the caretaker manager\u2019s job after the sacking of Michael Beale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Shanghai Port boss has emerged as the frontrunner for the vacant Ibrox hot seat 17:50, 15 Oct…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[122247,127104,127105,127285,82409,560,40481,403,99,127106],"class_list":["post-227597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-andrew-cavenagh","tag-danny-rohl","tag-kevin-muscat","tag-neil-mccann","tag-rangers-fc","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-steven-davis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}