Rangers vice-chairman John Bennett spoke out on Tuesday morning as addressed a range of issues surrounding the club.
Speaking to Rangers TV, Bennett addressed fan concerns on topics from summer signings to money banked via Champions League qualification and admitted communication with punters has fallen short. Bennett accepts the Rangers hierarchy must do better but also pointed to the club's successes over the past years - including winning the Premiership title and Scottish Cup, plus reaching the Europa League final and returning to UEFA's top table after more than a decade's absence.
He also noted successes in banking big transfer fees after the sales of Nathan Patterson, Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey in the past 12 months. Bennett was keen to stress the "reality" of what Champions League finances really means for the club - warning that it doesn't mean cash will simply "fall from heaven". You can read every word of his 17-minute address, set to be followed by a second instalment later on Tuesday, below.
Can you give your assessment of the club's performance since the Covid pandemic in 2020?
"I look at those two-and-a-bit years and a lot's happened, in so many ways. I talk quite a lot to non-Rangers fans, living where I live, and we talk quite a bit in tune if you actually just look at the facts of what we've achieved.
"In two-and-a-bit years, what's the club done? We've won the league; won a Scottish Cup for the first time in too many years; gets to a Europa League Final and qualifies for the Champions League for the first time in too many years.
"And when I do talk to people here, and also other people within the club, they find that very impressive indeed. What I'd say to you, is that it's very impressive, indeed, but you don't rest on your laurels.
"Going back two-and-a-bit years, if you'd told me those would be the achievements of this football club, is there a Rangers fan out there who wouldn't bite your hand off for that? I've said to people, if we just take a pure business perspective - very, very hard in any football club - because football is not like any other business, it's not a normal business in so many ways.
"But if we were just to stand back and try to take a dispassionate, business perspective, this is the hardest challenge I've ever taken on in my business life. I've actually said that almost from day one seven-and-a-bit years ago. I looked under the bonnet and thought 'my goodness, I knew it was bad but I didn't know it was that bad'.
"Even in the last two-and-a-bit years it's been seriously challenging because, of course, you've had Covid, apart from anything else. Again, without too much of a sense of satisfaction - you can never have that, especially at Rangers, you can't dwell on success for too long and you should never dwell on failure too long, incidentally.
"But you can't dwell on success for too long at Rangers especially, because when you dwell on success in life you risk complacency and we must never, ever have that. But if I do look at the off-field facts, easy to forget but reality, hard cash reality, that in the three years that will end 2023 - our fiscal year is the end of June - so 2021, 2023, 2023, add them up - £23million spent on capital expenditure, some of it to be spent."
How you would assess the performance of the football department in recent times?
"If you offer me or, I would suggest any Rangers fans, two-and-a-bit years that look like the last two-and-a-bit years? Give me it all day long. I know we're talking at a time, it's September 2022, the season is weeks old, we've had - and they're not just my words - from the manager, throughout the club, we've had the words 'unacceptable performances'.
"I'm talking off the back of a performance that was, in my book, a Rangers performance against Napoli. It wasn't the result we want for Rangers but it's a performance. I would suggest I watched a Rangers team the other night, I didn't watch a Rangers team in Amsterdam or in the game before that. That wasn't a Rangers performance and that's why the manager and others used the term 'unacceptable'.
"Let's not dwell on it. Fix it. And I see the football department doing everything, from Ross (Wilson), throughout that department, I see them doing everything in their power to fix it. At Rangers, that will always be the case.
"At this club, the bar only rises. The bar of expectation only rises, on and off the pitch. I see a lot of people, led by the football department if we have to term it that - we're a football club, all other departments are there to support the football department, in my book."
How do you view the new signings' impact?
"The first thing I'd say about that, because I know there's a lot of noise around that just now... on the back of those two unacceptable performances, there's quite a lot of noise around that. Some of it justified and, as always, some of it less justified.
"I learned long ago not to judge a new Rangers player within weeks. I go way back over my supporting life as a Rangers supporter, I've seen more players take time to settle than those who hit the ground running.
"I can talk about individuals if you want but I certainly looked at Tom Lawrence and thought 'there's a player who's hit the ground running' and then events, things happen, injury. He's hit the ground running, others haven't for various reasons. So, I would say this to you - we're six or so weeks into the season, I won't judge a football player who comes to Rangers within that period of time, I've learned to wait a bit longer.
"We haven't seen enough of them, we haven't seen them enough. We will see them. If you take another young player we have signed - (Ridvan) Yilmaz - yes, we spent significant money on that transfer but we signed him for five years, not five weeks, not five months.
"I won't wait five years to judge him but nor will I do it after five weeks. I would say if we need a very recent reminder of why we shouldn't judge players early in their career - I suggest Calvin Bassey, I give you Rangers vs St Mirren in the cup and I do remember a noise - maybe not a clamour - but I do remember a noise around young Calvin, negative noise and questioning him.
"Look at him now. When it comes to young Calvin, a finer young gentleman you're unlikely to meet. He represented this club on the pitch and off the pitch, impeccably. Another very valid point, and it's one that's easily missed, especially around transfer windows, is that investment in the playing squad is not exclusive to new signings. What about the investment in the existing squad, the squad that got us to a Europa League Final?
"I actually remember, only a few weeks ago, some negative noise about giving certain players of a certain age new contracts. It's not as though the board somehow makes that decision in a vacuum. The board is listening to Gio (van Bronckhorst), to Ross, and taking recommendations, be they new players or existing squad members. To repeat, a squad that got you to a Europa League Final.
"The recommendation comes and the board backs it. I come to the other night, to the Napoli game, some of those players to whom we gave new contracts - the goalkeeper, Steven Davis, Scott Arfield - more than played their part in what was a Rangers performance. Not a Rangers result but a Rangers performance against Napoli.
"If we return to the new signings, some weeks ago I listened to the vice-captain of the club say it's the strongest squad he's seen at Rangers since he's been at Rangers. I know for a fact that is a player who doesn't miss a training session. And if that's a player who doesn't miss a training session I trust his judgement, because he sees those players every day.
"And, I trust the judgement of the manager, who says he's happy with this squad. I happen to believe this is also the strongest squad since I've been at Rangers, since Connor (Goldson) and others have been at Rangers. It's September, let's see if we're right on that as the season progresses."
How do you view questions around the club's finances?
"Isn't it in some way ironic that the questions around the club's finance have gone from 'goodness, where's it coming from? How are we going to look in three months, six months?', and those were very real questions to, and I've seen some stuff recently about £100m dropping from heaven, £40m dropping from heaven, headline numbers - it's never been more true to say 'don't believe the headlines'.
"I've seen one about Rangers 'hoarding cash' and all sorts of stuff. Now, there's something I want to say about that. We can rail against that, we can say 'well, that's lazy journalism' or 'that's the usual suspects coming out and being opportunistic as ever, having a crack at the club at the earliest opportunity, a couple of bad performances on the pitch let's go and have a crack at them'.
"You can choose to rail against that, you can choose to point the finger and say 'the usual suspects' or whatever you want to call them. Let's look at ourselves and where, perhaps, we've fallen short. We've fallen short in our communication of what, for example, qualification for the Champions League group stage actually means in financial terms. We fell short. I'm sorry if certain people within the club feel I'm criticising them - I'm owning this, because I'm part of the club, we must all own it together. Let's look at ourselves before we point the finger elsewhere.
"We missed a trick, we could've come out after the PSV game and said: 'Let's celebrate, we're back... but this is what it really means.' There was something of a vacuum and that vacuum was filled. Whether it was agenda-driven or not, I'm not particularly interested in that.
"It was filled with 'where's the money gone?' Rangers is not going to be sat on piles and piles of cash as this year progresses. Rangers continues to invest on and off the pitch and we will continue to invest because the bar only rises. I accept some of the criticism about communication. I accept that. That is not the lone responsibility of people in communication, we as a board own it. I say it in my day job, own it, all of us own it. We're side by side, aligned. If you're going to preach that stuff, live that stuff. Own it.
"The thing that strikes me when we get money falling out of the sky and unplanned windfalls, I haven't known them at Rangers, I'm afraid. I've known unplanned costs, I can tell you and we would spend this entire interview itemising that as there's so many. But unplanned, particularly when it comes to player trading and I do want to talk about this, to imply that it's falling from heaven, it's so wrong. Very much part of the model... let's go back to the AGM, where I spoke about four pillars. What was the fourth pillar? And I said it wasn't yet standing.
"Maybe four pillars isn't the analogy and it's four cylinders in an engine? I don't know. But if an engine's going to work on four cylinders you have to have all four firing. The player trading model wasn't up and running, wasn't up and firing. Here's the fact, it's only been up and running, up and firing, for months and it's called January 2022 with the sale of young Nathan (Patterson). The development of young Nathan in that academy has been years in the making. Players were moved on in the first team specifically to make way for Nathan and for Calvin.
"They both came in, took their opportunities, grabbed the bull by the horns and sadly - from a football perspective, from my perspective - are no longer part of our squad. But that's the reality, they were seen, identified, targeted and they're now plying their trade at the top level."
How do you and the board plan to address issues raised by supporters?
"There's a myriad of issues and there will always be issues and challenges at a club like this. What is Rangers about? Rangers is about winning. Again, in my day job, I operate in a league table business. Fund management business is a league table business. It's very public - is your fund at the top or bottom of league tables? And investors buy and sell your fund based on your position.
"Thankfully, in my day job, that tends to be over a rolling three-year positioning. In football... there's many an ex-player at Rangers has said, and it's very apt, at this club you're only as good as your last pass. At Rangers, that's the bar of expectation and I wouldn't have it any other way.
"We must accept there will always be challenges, challenged by our own support and rightly so, rightly so. They are the lifeblood, that's who really owns this club. I don't know about you, I was very struck by English Premier League fans and their reaction in certain clubs to that whole Super League stuff. That told the owners of those clubs who really owns the club. I'm a part owner of Rangers but I'm every bit as much an owner of Rangers as a fan, a supporter, as I am somebody who happens to own some shares. Never will we take them for granted.
"That's why I'm annoyed at some valid, valid criticism, observations, that our communication with our fans hasn't been good enough recently. Let's fix that. They own the club, they're the lifeblood. It's not just a phrase, they own the club."
