THE SCOTTISH SUN 🔵 Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart tells Gers fans how many new signings they can expect this January
THREE wins in 11 away games.
A staggering 20 points from a possible 33 spilled on the road.
Their biggest rivals out of sight long before the turn of the year.
Throw in the Ibrox stadium shambles and it all amounts to another catastrophic campaign of failure for Rangers.
Yet new chief executive Patrick Stewart believes Philippe Clement’s side ARE good enough to challenge Celtic – they just need to show more consistency.
Stewart said: “If you look at the squad when you’ve got players that are fit and playing at their peak, then the team has shown it is good enough.
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“Consistency is the reason, consistency is the challenge.
“The players are clearly good enough.
“You don’t beat Celtic 3-0 at Ibrox, you don’t beat Nice 4-1 away from home, you don’t go toe-to-toe in a cup final and many would say the team should have won, you don’t draw against Spurs with players that aren’t good enough.
“But consistency is an issue and I’ve acknowledged that.
“It’s clear that that team is capable of going against the very best teams.
“We also need to make sure we’re consistent week in week out and that is the challenge.
“I’ve not ducked from that so I accept there’s been inconsistency and we’ve got to address that.
“That’s something that we are looking at and I know Philippe is working hard on as well.
“Rangers as a club has to be winning every week and that’s what the supporters expect.
“It is what makes this club special and pressurised, but those are the standards we’ve all we’ve all got to embrace and those are the standards that we need to make sure permeate the entire club.
“So everyone should understand that and if they don’t we make sure they understand that we’re meeting these expectations consistently.”
Stewart and the rest of the Rangers board are backing Clement for now.
But in the face of a fans’ revolt, the Belgian has been warned results MUST improve.
Yet it seems unlikely he’ll be able to strengthen significantly in January with Stewart ruling out three or four new arrivals.
And while he’s adamant the likes of Hamza Igamane won’t be sold either, Stewart said: “We have no intention of selling the players who are performing on the park at the moment and why would we expect any other club that’s challenging for trophies to do so.
“It’s a very low likelihood that top quality players are going to be on the market.
“Just to be clear, I’ve not said that we’re not doing business but we’ll only do business that’s right for the long-term benefit of the club.
“A quick fix I just don’t believe is the responsible thing for us to be doing as an executive team and for me to be doing as a CEO.
“The question of whether or not we do business is about both looking at the short-term impact but it’s also going to have a long-term benefit as well.
“In that case, it wouldn’t be as many as three or four, no. We’d be looking at one, possibly two.”
Stewart also announced yesterday that he’s undertaking a root and branch review of operations at Ibrox.
For him, success needs to become a habit again – not just hope fans carry with them.
Stewart said: “Ultimately, long-term sustained success is built on culture.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’ve got a culture that’s framed towards winning and so we need to build an environment where success becomes a habit, not just a hope.
“This isn’t just about the manager, it’s more about what’s going on at the football club.
“There’s been several years where we’ve been underperforming and there’s something deeper rooted here.
“So I think that’s what we need to do, we need to look beneath the surface.
“Managers and coaching staff will continue to come and go in the future, that’s understood.
“Again, that is football.
“But what I’m looking to do, again, this is a team effort, is build a solid foundation and a real long-term football plan for the club.
« If we rush and react every time there’s some poor results, we’re in danger of just being back in the same place in a year’s time or 18 months’ time or however long.
“So we’re doing a root and branch review of the entire football department.
“Everything is in scope and it starts on Monday.
“I think if we’re honest with ourselves as a club, and on being honest to the supporters, if we look at everything in its entirety, the football club has not been where it wants to be for several years now.
“We’re going to review everything that we’re doing at Auchenhowie and we’re going to look at it from a number of different angles.
“We want to ensure that we’ve got structures in place to succeed.
“Every decision that we make needs to be focused on one goal, which is bringing success to Rangers and making our supporters proud.
“This isn’t just another internal review, which will take an inordinate amount of time and produce a report that nobody ever reads.
“I am going to be bringing in external football people that have experience of working with clubs to help drive growth and success.
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“I think they’ll provide firepower.
“They’ve got no axe to grind, no agenda, and they’ll make sure that we can accelerate the process, but also, importantly, support us in executing recommendations as well, so that this doesn’t become one of these reviews that everyone rolls their eyes at and says, not another one.”
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