"There was probably 15 years of zero investment in this club. If I did that with my house, in 15 years the thing would be falling down. And that's what we had at Ibrox. We nearly had the stadium closed because of the roof. There was a night where a bit of metal almost fell off and we were 24 hours from the stadium being closed. That was the state of the place back then."

In one paragraph, Rangers’ managing director Stewart Robertson paints a vivid picture of the crumbling nature of the club that was wrested from the clutches of undesirables in 2015.  

Since that December night when part of the Ibrox roof cladding came loose, causing fans to be moved out of a section in the Sandy Jardine Stand and into the Broomloan for their safety, much has thankfully changed. 

From the Championship, they now sit in the Champions League - but don’t for a minute think that means anyone at Ibrox is being allowed to rest on their laurels. 

While seven players were brought into Ibrox this summer, calm waters were disturbed by inaction on the final day of the transfer window. Painful 4-0 defeats to Celtic and Ajax turned the water choppy and soon, larger questions were being asked about exactly what Rangers had done with the money garnered from three key player sales and revenue raised from reaching the Europa League Final and the continent's elite competition for the first time in 12 years. 

Cognisant of the mistakes of the past, Robertson emphasises time and again the importance of using the club’s money to build revenue-generating assets that can pay off in the decades to come. But there is also the not insignificant matter of making sure Ibrox is fit for football. Seven years on, the stadium's roof has been causing new issues.

"We have spent £3m on the roof and it's still not finished,” he admitted. “If you are at the game next week you will see the cladding on the Govan stand that is going in. We have still to do the Broomloan. So there has been capital expenditure we have had to do otherwise we'd have nowhere to play football. And that's a direct result of a lack of investment over a long period of time.” 

It’s amid this backdrop that vice-chairman John Bennett revealed £23m has been spent on projects to improve the assets of the club. A lot of this money has been spent on areas fans might not necessarily directly think about. Places like the pitch (an eye-watering £1.5m), state-of-the-art lighting rigs to ensure the good condition of the grass, LED advertising boards and bringing the training ground up to Steven Gerrard’s exacting standards aren’t exactly imbued with tabloid snap and sizzle, but they are incredibly important. 

A Tom Lawrence for example, with Premier League options on the table, might just be swayed by the elite environment presented at Auchenhowie to up sticks in the knowledge the training ground can help him take his career to the next level.  

At the forefront of all this is the ambitious project to rebuild Edmiston House. Slated for a December opening, it will house a club shop over two floors, an area to host up to 1300 fans on a matchday and, arguably the jewel in the crown for a club with 150 years of history to tell, a museum.  

While costly, and a drain on current resources, Robertson stresses the board is playing the long game with the building projected to bring in a million pounds a year in profit. 

He said: “With something like New Edmiston House, we understand that it's money that could be spent on the pitch, and we had that debate before we initiated the project.  

“That will generate £1m a year for us in clear profit. The museum, the conference and concert venue, it will give us a proper fan zone on a match day that can accommodate 1300 people inside. We know there is a bigger demand than that but it allows us to facilitate fans and families.  

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“We have been working on the museum for four of five years now pulling together all the artefacts and memorabilia we have here. It's about telling the story to current and future generations but it's also for people who aren't Rangers fans. Glasgow gets a lot of visitors and we want to spread the word of the Rangers gospel as far as we can and make the museum one of the top attractions in the city for people coming in. All of this will generate revenue we can put onto the pitch in due course.  

“Likewise for Castore, we have a two-storey space in there to expand retail and that should allow us to take the shop and turn it into a sports bar and hospitality space in the future.” 

Another addition is a fresh take on hospitality in the Sandy Jardine Stand. The Blue Sky Lounge will see an informal approach that’s very different from elsewhere in the stadium. 

The idea was gleaned from directors’ experiences travelling Europe over recent seasons, getting a first-hand account of what modern looks like at top clubs. 

It is taking shape at this very moment with the hum and whirr of machinery occasionally providing punctuation for a question or answer from the managing director. 

Robertson is clearly proud and excited about what this new offering will bring to the table.

He said: “The Blue Sky Lounge and is going to allow us to slightly increase the capacity. There's a couple of hundred seats going in there. So there will be three new rows of seats, a glass wall and a new lounge.  

“The inspiration for that has come from the European matches and seeing the grounds in Europe. What is good these days? Our boxes were 30 years old.  

“30 years ago people wanted to come and watch football through glass from their box. Not now. We are more informal in terms of dress and the whole approach. Again, that's revenue-generating which is really important. 

“The purpose of all of that is to make sure the club is in good shape for the long term.”