Rangers have appointed Mark Allen as the club's new director of football.

Allen arrives at Ibrox from Manchester City, where he spent seven years heading up the English Premier League side's youth academy. He will now head up footballing operations at Rangers as the club aims to progress in domestic competitions and in Europe.

The 54-year old, who was a youth player at Swindon Town before spending 13 years working with MTV, will take up his role in Glasgow next month.

Rangers had announced in February that they intended to appoint a director of football, restructuring their football operations following the departure of manager Mark Warburton. The new role would have responsibility for "the academy, performance and preparation, analysis and everything as well as the first team."

The club spoke to candidates for the role, including Brentford's head of football operations Robert Rowan, but did not fill the vacancy before appointing manager Pedro Caixinha.

The club said they wanted to ensure they made the best appointment and managing director Stewart Robertson said they had found the right man in Allen.

"We are delighted Mark has agreed to move to Glasgow and become our new director of football," he told Rangers' official website.

"We said we would not rush into an appointment as we wanted the right candidate and we feel Mark is the best man for the job. We look forward to working with him closely in the years ahead in what will be an important role at the club."

Allen said: "I loved every minute of my time with Manchester City, they are a club with fantastic people and fantastic supporters but the time was right for me to look for a fresh challenge and I am joining one of the world's truly great football clubs.

"Steeped in history and tradition, I am honoured to join Rangers and work with the board of directors, Pedro Caixinha, his management team and the staff at the club."