A comprehensive victory over Celtic made everything in the Bisgrove Garden a little bit rosier this week but Rangers’ new chief executive knows the hard work is just about to get started.
And James Bisgrove has enough on his plate without having to bring interior designers to the Rangers Training Centre next season to pull down and replace The Most Successful Club In The World logo that dominates the reception area. Yet, that’s exactly the scenario facing the man who is about to become the new CEO if Celtic’s domestic dominance is allowed to continue and their collection of cups keeps on growing.
Rangers might have 117 trophies in the bag but Celtic’s silverware surge will bring them to within one of that haul if they win the Scottish Cup - and a repeat of what would be a Treble next term will see the Ibrox club overtaken. Bisgrove is smart enough to know that won’t look great on his watch and he insists he’s ready for the challenge to make sure it doesn’t happen.
There was no grandstanding as the 38-year-old spoke to the media on Friday, but he was slick. Said the right things without giving too much away as he spoke of the need for Rangers to engage more with bodies such as the SPFL and their rivals across the city when it comes to ticket allocations for Old Firm games.
But ultimately, Bisgrove and his first team manager will be judged on results and the recruitment they believe will lead to those results being better than those that have resulted in another trophyless campaign. On Celtic breathing down their neck in the trophy race, Bisgrove admitted: “It is another driving force behind our ambition to be successful to ensure we return the club to winning trophies, being successful and ultimately being the dominant club.
“We are not saying that lightly, we know it is not going to be easy because we have got really strong competition but we believe in what we are doing, we believe in the manager and we believe in the plan that is going to underpin that.
“Anyone who is in a leadership position at Rangers feels the expectations, feels the pressure. The players, when they put on the shirt, and anyone that is in the boardroom, anyone that is here, understands the expectation, they understand the pressure.
“What we are trying to build are individuals that will thrive on that because that isn’t for everyone. Is there pressure and expectation? Yes, absolutely, but that is what Rangers is all about.
“It comes with the territory that comes with being at Rangers. For me it is a real privilege, an honour. I recognise the immense responsibility to step up as the CEO of Rangers and I do that because I believe in the strategy, I believe in the plan, but also because I feel I have a board behind me in John Bennett, George Taylor, Julian Wolhardt, Graeme Park and Douglas Park as well as some of the other investors, and they really want to back that plan. So actually my mindset is positivity and optimism in terms of what is ahead.”
Rangers will have to hit the ground running next season - and with a revamped squad. Bisgrove is determined to give Beale the tools he needs to get the job done.
He added: “We recognise and have said that it is a transformative period for the club. We are quite clear the priorities and where we want to focus and in the next two or three months you’ll see that focus on player recruitment, you’ll see that on recruitment off the park - in terms of the leadership positions - and you’ll see that in the manner we run the club, in terms of being financially sustainable and making sure we have those resources to back the team but also invest in the infrastructure.
“For us it all goes back to the strategy. The strategy wasn’t written a week ago. As I came into the job it has been there and we have evolved it. John, Michael and I are really clear in our communication and that allows us to be agile. And allows us to take decisions in an effective way.”
Bisgrove might be a thoroughly modern CEO but he isn’t daft enough to ignore the advice of some Rangers legends who are steeped in the history of the club, which is why he had a cuppa with Graeme Souness at Ibrox last weekend. That led to speculation that the former Gers manager was heading back as sporting director. That theory is wide of the mark but Bisgrove is ready to tap into the experience of Souness and others.
He said: “Graeme is an icon and our strategy is to have good relationships with a lot of our club legends. I spoke yesterday with Richard Gough and have texts with Kevin Thomson and Craig Moore. It’s important that we have those touch points with people who are so, so important to the club’s history.
“Graeme was in Glasgow for a private engagement and dropped in for a coffee. It was an informal conversation and hopefully in the future he will be involved in more opportunities in an ambassadorial sense. That’s for Graeme to decide. But the extent of the rumours probably went a little bit further than the reality.”
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