Davide Ancelotti as Rangers manager is staring masterstroke and calamity square in the eye – Keith Jackson

If it is to be Davide Ancelotti – and the clues have most certainly been stacking up again in the Italian’s direction over the last 24 hours or so – then it seems safe to make the following conclusion.

Either the men in charge of making this decision on Rangers' behalf will eventually be credited with pulling off some sort of masterstroke.

Or they’ll be accused of overseeing a catastrophically high risk appointment on the basis that, having only just arrived on the scene as relative outsiders, they completely underestimated the size of the task waiting for them on the ground in Glasgow.

On this occasion, and with this particular process of recruitment, It’s difficult to see where there can be any grey areas in between.

If it transpires that Ancelotti Jr, at the age of 35 and without a single game under his own managerial belt, has all the qualities required to drag Rangers up by the boot straps in such an alien, unforgiving environment then sporting director Kevin Thelwell and Gretar Steinsson of the San Francisco 49ers will present themselves as borderline geniuses.

It seems logical that it was Thelwell who initially identified the Real Madrid coach as a serious candidate, given that he was once previously keen on exploring the chances of giving him the top job at Everton instead.

And Steinsson has played a major role in the interview stage too, with the former Iceland international thought to have travelled to the Spanish capital in order to vet Ancelotti’s credentials for himself.

Perhaps surprisingly, recently appointed chief executive Patrick Stewart appears to have had very little to do with the identification of his club’s next manager.

Rather, it has been left to Thelwell and Steinsson to conduct the search even