RANGERS chief executive James Bisgrove has rejected claims the Ibrox club have paid a high price for allowing Michael Beale to spearhead their recruitment drive this summer – but admitted that new manager Philippe Clement will concentrate on first team matters going forward.
Beale oversaw the Glasgow outfit’s squad rebuild after sporting director Ross Wilson, who had been targeted by angry supporters towards the end of a trophyless season, departed for Nottingham Forest in April.
He brought in no fewer than nine new players – Leon Balogun, Jack Butland, Jose Cifuentes, Danilo, Cyriel Dessers, Kieran Dowell, Sam Lammers, Abdallah Sima and Dujon Sterling – at a cost of around £15m before the 2023/24 campaign got underway.
The Englishman was sacked earlier this month following a dire run of results - Rangers lost cinch Premiership games to Kilmarnock away and Celtic and Aberdeen at home and failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage after suffering a heavy defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the play-off.
Bisgrove denied that Beale had sole responsibility for identifying and bringing in the new recruits after Wilson moved on – but he revealed the football board will lead recruitment along with the new sporting director in future.
“The reality is that the decisions that were taken in terms of the summer transfer window were taken over a period of time, three months, six months, a year even, before by the scouting team and even the previous director of football working with the manager,” he said.
“They put that plan in place. There was involvement from the scouting team, the chief scout and the former director on the football side. The manager was at the heart of that. But it wasn’t only the manager that was taking the decisions. So when we got to the transfer window it was very clear what we were going to do.
“What’s fair to say is that results and performances have not met expectations. But what’s also fair to say is that there’s still 30 games to play in this season and there’s a lot to play for in terms of the league, the League Cup, the Scottish Cup and European football.
“I don’t believe we’ve seen the best from the squad. We believe it’s a strong squad with a lot of potential and we hope that Philippe is the man to get the best out of that squad.”
“The manager has a strong voice and influence on that process. But the manager’s primary responsibilities are managing the team, picking the right team and getting the best performance level and results out of them at the weekend.
“We want to get the right balance so that the manager has a stake and an influence in that conversation – but he is not the single and only decision maker.”
Meanwhile, Bisgrove, who made increasing fan engagement a priority when he succeeded Stewart Robertson as Rangers chief executive in April, has denied that supporters, whose unhappiness has led directly to the departure of Beale and his predecessor Giovanni van Bronckhorst, now wield too much power.
He stressed the Ibrox board of directors had chosen to make a change in the dugout because they had been concerned with what they had seen on the park at home and abroad this term.
“When the team isn’t winning the supporters are frustrated and at times angry,” he said. “We share in that frustration. That was what underpinned the decision to part company with Michael and his staff. The standards didn’t meet the expectations in terms of performances.
“The fan engagement that myself and other members of staff at the club are undertaking goes a lot further than results. Winning at Rangers is paramount, but we will talk about facilities at the club, about safe standing, about singing sections, about how tickets are allocated.
“We want to make sure that as an executive team we are engaging with supporters. We are transparent in our decision making. We have another fans’ forum in a few weeks’ time, we have supporter consultations in another couple of weeks. There is a lot more emphasis on and interaction with supporters than we have had in years before.
“The supporters are the lifeblood of the club. As Philippe said on Tuesday, the power they can have when they are behind the team and the energy they can put onto the players’ performance is huge. It is something that is fundamental to our strategy.”
Bisgrove continued: “Where we are really fortunate is that the supporters will thrive on the performances of the team when they are winning games. We have seen that be so, so powerful.
“When the supporters are frustrated, they will let the club know, they will let the players know. We share in their frustrations. We are one with the fans, the staff here at the club, when things aren’t going well. We are very in tune to that.”
“We definitely don’t want to go through that process for a long, long time,” he said. “On a personal level, Michael and I built a really good relationship because we spoke every single day. The CEO-football manager relationship was a really, really close one.
“But both Michael and I understood when we had that conversation that that is the nature of football and that is the nature of Rangers. We shook hands and I wish him well in his next venture in football and also his staff. They gave everything to this club and we wish them well wherever they go next on a personal and professional level.”
