Rangers are counting down the days until their long-awaited Ibrox Stadium return with former Light Blues star Alan Hutton admitting the controversy surrounding their exile from their home sums up the “mess” the club finds itself in.
Philippe Clement’s men haven’t played at the Govan ground since they came back from two goals down to beat Dundee 5-2 in their final home Scottish Premiership game of last season and it’s the Dark Blues who return on Saturday for a tea time Premier Sports Cup quarter final.
Work on the Copland Road stand was delayed due to the late arrival of steel from the Far East and forced Rangers play to key early season games at Hampden Park. Ex chief executive James Bisgrove has had fingers pointed at him over the fiasco with the Englishman having left his role to move to the Saudi Pro League and still hasn’t been replaced.
Chairman John Bennett was left to carry the can and has since stepped down from his role due to health reasons, with former supremo Dave King offering to return while ex director John Gilligan holds the fort. Meanwhile, on the park a report in Europe claimed Rangers failed in a move for a Netherlands international midfielder. Here, Record Sport rounds up all the latest headlines in what looks to be a frantic week that started with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Dundee United at Tannadice.
What a mess
Ex Rangers man Alan Hutton reckons appointing an outsider could be the best option as the club hunt for a long term solution to the chairman’s role and also a chief executive, after St Mirren vice president Jim Gillespie recently pulled out of the running.
Hutton told Premier Sports: “There’s loads of a questions and it is a little bit of a mess. I genuinely feel a little bit sorry for the manager. I know he’s signed a new contract so they obviously believe in him and his vision for the future but I feel as if his hands have been tied behind his back with everything going on. I understand these guys (the current board) have been there at the top and have ploughed a lot of their own personal money but sometimes I wonder if it’s better to bring someone in with experience of running a huge company that’s not necessarily 100 per cent a Rangers fan so they’re not making decisions through the eyes of a fan.
“Sometimes step away and get someone in who has done all this before and make better decisions going forward. With Ibrox at the start of the season, why would you even start that? You know it’s not going to be done so it just ramps up the pressure right away when the manager is trying to do a rebuild. We’ve spoken about this before rinse and repeat and how it has to change but they keep making the same mistakes.”
Gers ‘miss out’ on Klaas act
The transfer window might be closed but a report from Belgium claimed that Rangers had made an audacious bid to land Netherlands midfielder Davy Klaassen only to be rejected by the 31-year-old who is said to have opted to return to Ajax – who he left to join Everton in a £23.6million transfer – after leaving Inter Milan.
He has won 41 caps for his country and won multiple major honours and would have been a real coup for the Light Blues.
Home is where the start is
Robin Propper reckons the return to Ibrox will spark Rangers’ season into life. The Ibrox side go back home for the first time in this campaign when Dundee visit in the quarter-finals of the Premier Sports Cup. The match will see Rangers play at the Govan ground for the first time, as their Copland Stand delay meant they had to controversially rent Hampden for the first part of the season.
Propper, who is likely to make his Ibrox debut on Saturday, claimed: “That can have a positive impact on the season. It was nice on Sunday (at Tannadice) to see how many fans were cheering for us. I’ve never experienced that before in Holland at an away stadium with so many fans. If we can do that at a game at Ibrox together, that would be really special. That’s going to make a big difference for us. I’m looking forward to stepping out there a lot.” And boss
Philippe Clement added: “It’s amazing to go back there. You see already today, our fans made it almost a home game, with their support, so at Ibrox it’s ten times more. So all the team, all the staff, everybody in the club is looking really forward to fill this energy out at Ibrox”
Former Aberdeen and Everton chief executive Keith Wyness claimed on Football Insider that Rangers could bank up to £2m per game with their return. He said: “They’ll be able to stop paying the rental fee for Hampden, that’s a big factor. They will get all the food and beverage revenue as well. I think Rangers will be getting an extra £1-2million in revenue per game now they are back at Ibrox.”
King return blocked
Dave King made a bold public bid to return to the role of Rangers chairman but Record Sport told on Monday how that looks set to be dashed. The ex-chairman has offered to replace outgoing Ibrox chief John Bennett, who announced he was stepping on Saturday due to health reasons. But Record Sport understands King’s former allies in the boardroom have no plans to dispatch an SOS to his base in Johannesburg following a bitter bust-up that followed his shock Ibrox exit back in 2020. King left his colleagues stunned when he chose to walk away from the chairman’s seat at the height of the Covid pandemic in order to focus on ensuring his South African business survived the pandemic. And the likes of Douglas Park and George Taylor are in no mood to forgive and forget.
Changed needed
Gers strike legend Ally McCoist said on talkSPORT: “There’s no chief exec, there’s no chairman, at this moment in time, it’s not good. A lot of Rangers fans, including myself, are very, very concerned. I just think, I’ll be brutally honest, there’s change needed, change required – I mean, of course, I’m stating the obvious. If you’ve not got a chief executive, you’ve not got a chairman, there’s massive changes needed.”