Rangers chairman John Bennett stayed true to his promise and addressed the Ibrox support this week.
The Scottish businessman had told fans a bigger, more personal update would follow the news that the club’s supporters are relocating to Hampden amid delays in the Copland Stand project.
Whilst the 22 minute update focused mostly on those delays, Bennett also touched on Rangers manager Philippe Clement and the club’s stuttering transfer business.
But Gers fans may well have spied John Bennett taking aim at Michael Beale in a loaded barb about the club’s transfer expenses last summer.
Bennett frustrated at Beale investment
For all the frustrations of supporters at Ibrox, John Bennett cut something of a defiant if not sympathetic figure.
Rallying fans around the cause of the Copland Stand project, Bennett also took the opportunity to praise the work done in minimising ‘unsustainable’ pre-player trading losses in Glasgow.
But with the Ibrox side’s transfer business – something which directly feeds into success on the pitch – firmly under the microscope there was a combination of honesty and resistance.
Rangers, Bennett claims, have already spent £11.5m on permanent transfers alone since Philippe Clement came into the club.
Despite this, Bennett has claimed Clement came to him at the end of the season with the belief that the Ibrox rebuild he’d undertaken was bigger than he initially expected.
This, according to the Rangers chairman, explains Clement’s comments about the situation with the squad earlier in the summer.
And in a loaded barb aimed at former Rangers manager Michael Beale, Bennett was forced to agree.
“Philippe talked about ‘this is a bigger rebuild’,” said Bennett.
“We sat down in May and reviewed the season. ‘This is a bigger rebuild than I expected’ and that was what he was referring to recently.
“That’s the first thing he said to me when he sat down for the review in May and I says ‘Philippe, me too’.
“Not least given the investment we put in the prior year and that’s what we’ve got, we need to grip it and he gets that.
“We talked recently about the alignment, he’s all in on this and he’s aligned, he and his team and we’ve strengthened the team recently with the appointment of Andries (Ulderink), and we’re fully aligned with (player trading).”
Rangers revamp transfer model
John Bennett has previously claimed Rangers put in £21m to back Michael Beale in the transfer window last summer.
The bulk of this cash went on the likes of Danilo, Cyriel Dessers, Sam Lammers and Jose Cifuentes.
That Rangers have sold the latter two names on that list is an indictment on their lack of suitability for life in Glasgow.
The other two remain in situ with the jury very much out on both for differing reasons.
It’s clear from the comments that the Rangers chairman expected bigger bang for the club’s buck and never got it under Beale.
With Clement here to stay, a fresh approach to player trading is set to transform the squad over the long-term.
But with money also tight, one wonders where we’d be if we’d put that substantial financing to better use under a different manager.
