A management structure that involves a Director of Football is exactly what Rangers need to move forward, says former Scottish FA chief executive Gordon Smith.

Smith worked as Director of Football at Ibrox for 10 months during Craig Whyte's tenure, departing after the club entered administration in 2012.

Gers managing director Stewart Robertson revealed yesterday that the club are looking at creating the role after manager Mark Warburton left last week. 

Read more: Stewart Robertson: Rangers could appoint a Director of Football as part of new management structure

Smith believes that such a move would be beneficial to Rangers, but warned that everyone must be behind the structure in a way that it wasn't during his time in the role.

"It works provided everyone involved in the club is willing to get behind it," Smith told BBC Scotland.

"I feel it's the right way ahead. It's a continental strategy. We've been a bit reluctant in Scotland to apply it but you have some clubs now who are doing it, and Hearts are a good example.

"It's working well there so I think that's exactly what Rangers need to do to take the club forward in a very positive sense.

"If it's something that comes in from the higher echelon then there's more chance of it working.

"When I went in six years ago, there was no, I would say, good feeling about it in terms of the people that were already there. They didn't think it was required and I found it very difficult to do my job even in terms of the reports I had done, the changes that needed made.

"The person who goes into that job actually has to operate the strategy of the club. I was trying to put a strategy in place at that time that was uniform and that everyone could adhere to but I had difficulties with it."

Smith also warned that implementing a new management structure may not reap immediate rewards and instead offers a longer term path for the club.

"You're looking at a medium to long term strategy," he said.

"What you're looking at is to say 'OK we need to put things in place; the club in general has to run in a certain way'. The first team will still have a coach and there will still be pressure on the first team manager to deliver results.

"But other than that, you need to put something in place for the club as a whole in terms of youth development and the scouting department and everything to do with the media and all that sort of thing so the club runs in a very clear and good operative manner.

"It could take a while there's no doubt about that. It needs finance coming in as well to compete at where Rangers want to be."