DESPITE some considerable unrest around Ibrox these days, the Rangers AGM came and went without too much in the way of fireworks.
Points were put forth and frustrations made clear as the club's board sat down to take questions from shareholders. The Q&A section at these meetings is always a thoroughly unpredictable affair and you never quite know what's about to happen next as the microphone is passed around the room.
More often than not, it leads to some colourful and, at times, awkward exchanges. Tuesday morning proved no exception as the 2022 edition served up a few such moments, ranging from angry to downright bizarre. Here are three that stood out.
Why no Dutch players?
Transfers, and specifically Ross Wilson's role in them, was a strong theme throughout. The under-fire sporting director, having defended his record when speaking to the media, will have been braced for this but the first question thrown his way was still a bit of a curveball.
Wilson was bluntly asked why, given Rangers had a Dutch manager for a year in Giovanni van Bronckhorst, did they not sign any Dutch players? But he was able reveal that 'well, actually...', the club very nearly did recruit from the Netherlands.
He replied: “The way we work our recruitment here is that the Rangers manager, whether that’s Michael or Giovanni or Steven, they have the final say on every player that is signed here. Our previous manager Gio had the final say on every player who came in.There was one Dutch player who we agreed terms with over the summer who then agreed to join another club. So that was the only Dutch player that the manager brought forward as one he’d like to bring in over the summer.”
'Scottish Nasty Party'
Proceedings took a thoroughly bizarre turn midway through with a moment that sums up the wholly unpredictable nature of these Q&A sections when one punter took the microphone to lay into the SNP, blasting the club for "complying" with now scrapped vaccine passport rules.
He said: "Good morning, my name's Billy. First of all, you've had some tough questions today.
"My question is a little bit different. Firstly, I want to congratulate you for delivering positive results for Rangers as a board. Rangers got to the European Cup Final, we won the Scottish Cup and we got into the Champions League. However, my question to the board - apart from Michael (Beale) - is: Can you really say, hand on heart, that you showed honour to your fellow human being in 2021, when people like me got a blue letter like this, and did not comply with tyrannical instructions from the Scottish Nasty Party.
"They implemented digital ID via coercion, and you complied. People like me, who have supported Rangers from a young age, not allowed to come into the stadium, outside like dogs. That was segregation, discrimination. It's been proven that the vaccine-"
"Can we move on to the next question, please?" Robertson interjected, as the individual was shouted down by others in attendance.
Wilson under fire
Finding himself on the receiving end of the brunt of frustration, Wilson was subjected to one particularly scathing assessment, which went as follows: "This is mainly a question for Ross Wilson. You replied to Alan Harris there that he missed out the success stories of signings during your time.
"When you look at players signed during your tenure, there's been very few successes and a lot of failures. You could maybe pass (Ianis) Hagi, (Kemar) Roofe, (Jermain) Defoe and (Calvin) Bassey as successes, but when you look at the failures under your watch - going by reports - it's quite expensive. We spent £2m on Juninho Bacuna; Aaron Ramsey was reported to be anywhere from £780,000 to £3m; Zukowski was signed for £500,000 and played one game; (Amad) Diallo came up from Man United, failure. We also signed Rabbi Matondo for £3m and he's not hit the ground (running).
"You also spoke about injuries and how it was unpredictable. Did you action the signing of a centre-back from Hearts when he's missed 44 games over the past two seasons? (Crowd starts applauding) It's also worth noting Hearts usually play Saturday to Saturday, over the past few years we've been Sunday-Thursday-Sunday, that player was never going to be able to cope with the demand. Also, this question is mainly for Stewart Robertson and the rest of the board - does the board firmly believe Ross Wilson is the right man to develop this playing squad? (More applause)"
Robertson was quick to back Wilson, replying: “The short answer is yes. There is a lot of work that goes on, I think you underestimate the work that goes on within the football department and at this football club. The progress we have made since Ross Wilson joined has been incredible on the football side of it. It’s an individual opinion, and that’s far enough. In terms of where we are as a football club compared to where we were three years ago before Ross joined, we are miles forward.”
Wilson himself then defended his record, insisting there were numerous inaccuracies in the question. He said: “Without being too direct, none of your figures are correct. I don’t like to talk about individual players because in terms of sales the manager and scouting department are all involved in that process. The first thing I will say is that Ross Wilson doesn’t sign football players.
"I don’t like to talk about individual players, but I will talk about the two individuals you have named there because to stand at a mike and say Rangers bought Juninho Bacuna for £2million is absolute nonsense. Juninho Bacuna was a free transfer who was brought forward by the coaching staff who were here at the time. We all bought into it, he was a free and we actually made a profit on him. That doesn’t make him a good signing, I’m not saying that.
"Secondly, we all went into the John Souttar signing with our eyes wide open. We know he is a big talent but we also know the injury track record makes it difficult for us. We believe we can deal with that. We might be wrong with that and we always have to have the humility to say that we will get things wrong. But we believe we can sort that out and we believe that John can be a strong signing for Rangers. Every player that we sign doesn’t need to play over 60 games in the way that Connor Goldson has for us over a number of years. We will have players who will be part of the squad and we need to make sure we have Scottish players in our squad to meet European rules. All that needs consideration.”
