As part of an exclusive Record Sport series, the German reckons he could have won the league in his second season
12:00, 25 Jul 2026
Rangers head coach Danny Rohl and chairman Andrew Cavenagh
Danny Rohl believes he’d have won Rangers the title in his second season at Ibrox if he’d stayed on as gaffer.
But now he’s backing new boss Derek McInnes to finish the job he started and make them champions. The German coach expected to be in charge of Gers this term after just 30 weeks in the job.
Rohl’s side looked favourites for the title going into the Scottish Premiership split – but four defeats killed them as they finished third in the table behind Celtic and Hearts.
This summer, he moved to Austrian side RB Salzburg while McInnes took over the Ibrox hot-seat.
In an exclusive interview with Record Sport, Rohl says he could have got Rangers back on top. But now he’s praying that McInnes gets his hands on silverware.
Rohl said: “We needed a pre-season as a minimum to prepare something more at Rangers. Did I feel confident if I’d gone back that I could win the title? Yeah, of course. That was my conviction and it’s what I started.
“From the outside, I see some changes at the club now that we started. I was very clear on what we needed. We spoke about leadership and refreshing the changing room. There were some tough decisions to make on the football side.
Rangers Head Coach Danny Rohl (Image: SNS Group)
“But to take the steps forward, we needed a restart. That was the feeling I had and it was a good feeling. I had the support of people around me (Rangers hierarchy) and they knew it was necessary. At Rangers, I had two days before my first game against Brann Bergen then we played through until February with midweek games again and again.
“It was all about results at Rangers. This is what I learned very quickly and it was a great experience for me. So I had to compromise a little bit. But against Hearts at home (4-2 win), I think we showed what we could be.
“For 50 minutes against Celtic at home (2-2 draw), we showed how Rangers should be playing in the future. We showed in some games what direction we wanted to go in. But in others, we dropped back to old habits.”
McInnes is hoping to get his Rangers managerial career off to a flying start in the first Premiership game of the new campaign against Dundee United on Friday night. He got the better of Rohl as Hearts boss last season and the German insists the former Ibrox player – along with chairman Andrew Cavenagh and the club’s American owners – can get success.
He said: “Rangers will play really strong football. It won’t be too complicated, it might be more simple in some moments. But they will be really well organised and will have a great attitude. They’ve made some good signings and there’s no reason why they can’t attack and win this league.
“That should be the goal. I think Derek knows it because he’s been there as a player. Maybe that’s a small difference because if you understand Rangers you can prepare yourself and he will. I wish Derek and Andrew all the best for the future.
“I’ll always look back and say it was a great time. I’m still in contact with some of the players but now it’s a new time for them with new ideas. I’m convinced they can build up – not from zero, because we did a lot of things right to put them in the right direction – but they can build from this point on.
“The owners can get the club back to where it belongs. When they took over, they couldn’t do everything straight away in the first weeks or months. They also needed to experience it. They now have 12 months experience of what it means.
“Sometimes it has to get harder before it gets easier. I compare it to when you meet a new girl but she has just split fresh from an old boyfriend. When you’re the second one, it’s not a good idea – because there are still some old feelings around.
“It’s a little bit like that for the owners. I think with myself, it was clean and now with the new set-up, Rangers can move forward. They will make a lot of things right.”
Record Sport’s Scott McDermott sat down with Danny Rohl at Red Bull Salzburg’s training ground – don’t miss the explosive exclusive series over this weekend.
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