Manchester City Academy Director Mark Allen has been appointed as the new Director of Football at Rangers. Allen, who has been with City since Sheikh Mansour’s takeover in 2008, has been responsible for the Premier League side’s academy and is highly thought of down south. With overall control of the day-to-day operations at the City Football Academy, Allen has overseen a detailed overhaul of the development side of operations at the Citizens and has implemented a detailed, long-term, philosophy based on a 4-3-3 formation and a fixed coaching syllabus to ensure players get the best coaching and development possible.
In recent years, City’s Academy has been one of the most successful in England and is starting to bear fruit for Pep Guardiola’s first team.
Allen had a short playing career, coming through at Swindon Town, before heading to the US where he undertook a business and accountancy degree and returning to the UK aged 24. After that, a 13-year stint as Managing Director of MTV’s broadcast division gave him a strong understanding of what it required, from a business perspective, at one of the biggest entertainment brands on the planet. Now aged 54, Allen is set to take control of the day-to-day football operations at Ibrox as the club’s board of directors look to push the club to the next level.