Rangers vice-chairman Paraag Marathe appealed to fans of the Ibrox club to get firmly behind their new signings at a shareholder meeting in Glasgow city centre today as manager Derek McInnes was backed to deliver long-term success.
McInnes’s new-look side have got off to a disappointing start this season – they have drawn with Dundee United away and lost to Hibernian at home in the William Hill Premiership and were beaten in a Europa League qualifier to Jagiellonia Bialystok in Poland.
Supporters of the Govan outfit have been unimpressed with the contribution of summer acquisitions like Lawrence Shankland, Ross McCrorie, Ivor Pandur, Dan Neil and Vanja Dragojevic in their outings so far in the 2026/27 campaign.
But Marathe – speaking after chairman Andrew Cavanagh confirmed that between three and five new arrivals should join in the remaining weeks of the transfer window – stressed that Youssef Chermiti overcame early criticism after his £8m move from Everton last term and urged fans to give their backing.
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"Let's just go back in time and talk about Youssef,” he said. "Think about the weight that he carried with him, the burden he carried. There were questions about how much we paid for him, whose fault it was and if he could play in the Premiership.
"He was wearing that and it was heavy. But internally we all put our arm around him, supported him and let him know that we felt we made the right decision signing him.
"Then look at how the second half of the season turned out for him. Now we're in a position where we’re asking how much value there is in him potentially. So we need to do more of that.
“Let me just turn this to you all as well. We need your support. You need to support these players as well. They need to believe that you believe in them because it's a lot easier to crumble if they don't believe that you believe in them.
“Give them a chance. We are early in the season so give these boys a chance and show them that you support them. If they fail, they'll fail and we'll be here a year from now very frustrated, but please give them a chance."
Cavanagh echoed those sentiments and indicated that, as Rangers edged closer to landing PSV Eindhoven winger Couhaib Driouech for a £7m fee, more quality signings would be made in the coming days.
“You can see it is a little bit clunky, but that is how the window works,” he said. “The transfer window isn’t a supermarket where you can go to the winger aisle and grab two right wingers and move on.
“Different parts of the window move at different paces and oftentimes you can get stuck. There are three weeks to go and we expect activity. I would expect three to five players are probably coming in and I would expect a number of players to go out.
“We continue to believe that we have a blueprint that works. We are not there yet and we know it. It sucks that we have to play a bunch of matches, including really important matches, before we are done. But we have to deal with it.”
Rangers fans have also been critical of the appointment of former Hearts manager McInnes in recent days – but Ibrox chief executive Jim Gillespie stressed the Scot was the unanimous choice to replace Danny Rohl because of the style of football he favours.
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“It’s very simple,” said Gillespie. “There are two different types of managers – you get a Klopp-type manager and you get a Guardiola-type manager.
“We wanted a Klopp-type manager, who was on the front foot, who played aggressive football and who created chances and scored goals. Derek McInnes is a Klopp-style manager.
“We have always got a list of managers who we believe fit our squad and game model. At the time when the managerial appointment came about, there was only one name that ticked all the boxes for us to go and get and it was Derek.
“We have strong beliefs – and I know we have had difficult results – that Derek will bring success to the club. No one gets a free ride. You don’t get a job at Rangers unless you’ve gone through a thorough process and we believe we have the right person for that role.”
Meanwhile, American healthcare tycoon Cavenagh defended Rangers’ recruitment since the consortium he fronts completed their takeover last year and stated the hierarchy take collective responsibility for their on-field failures.
“It is a team effort,” he said. “It will continue to be that way. Those of us on this stage will never point fingers. We are going to win together and lose together as a team. We are not going to say ‘it is Derek’s fault’ or ‘it is recruitment’s fault’.
“We all have responsibility or nobody has responsibility. We chose to have everyone responsible and we will win together or lose together.”
