Rangers hope for late September Ibrox return

Rangers hope to be playing home games at Ibrox Stadium again after the next international break but chairman John Bennett admits the return may “slip beyond” the end of September.

The club arranged to play their August Scottish Premiership, League Cup and European home fixtures at Hampden Park after a delay to works on the Copland Stand at Ibrox.

The hold up has been caused by late shipment of materials, with the first of three having already arrived and the second and third expected in August, “subject to slippage”.

Rangers’ only scheduled home match in September as things stand is against Hibernian on 28 September.

“When I think about timelines, it’s an aspiration at this stage,” Bennett told club media.

“I’m caveating it, there is still uncertainty. We can aspire for that to be at the end of September but it’s an aspiration. I am sorry that I have to caveat this, it frustrates me so much that I have to caveat this.

“Yes, I can have an aspiration – get our people back into our home, final game of September but yes, it could slip beyond that.”

Bennett, who thanked the Scottish FA for the use of the national stadium, said he understands that “nature abhors a vacuum”. The last official update regarding the Ibrox issues came with confirmation of the temporary move to Hampden a fortnight ago.

And he said he is “hopeful” season ticket-holders would get an update about where they would be sitting at Hampden later this week.

Bennett, who hopes to “have some news pretty soon” regarding a new CEO, also spoke about the club’s finances.

“Upon becoming chairman, my number one mission off the pitch was to rid the club of pre-player trading losses,” he explained.

“That number to June 2023 was £10.5m. That’s unsustainable. It takes action. If I look at that number, that is well on the way to being eradicated.

“Football clubs are brilliant at wasting resources. Football clubs are really good at spending other people’s money. We were good at that as well and that’s changing – big style and fast because it had to change fast.

“We’re not done in terms of that cultural change, there’s more to come.”

On the pitch, six players have been recruited so far in the summer window. Five first-team members left under freedom of contract, Abdallah Sima and Fabio Silva returned to their parent clubs and Sam Lammers was last week sold to Twente.

Bennett said Rangers are committed to £11.5m in “transfer payables” so far in 2024, excluding costs associated with loan deals.

Manager Philippe Clement replaced Michael Beale in October, with the latter having joined the previous November in the wake of Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s year-long stay.

Bennett explained he and Clement agreed at their May review session that the club was facing “a bigger rebuild” than previously thought and that the manager is “all in”.

And he backed Clement’s view that Rangers must recruit for the long and short term.

“That’s a really challenging route to navigate and it’s not done in one window,” said the chairman.

“Recruiting only for the short term has caused problems historically. Lessons and, at times, brutal lessons have been learned.

“Look at the amount of changes this club’s had in recent years at manager level. While I’m chairman, I want to end the years of rinse and repeat.”