Here is everything that was asked and answered during the Rangers AGM.

Looking back at this time last year when we welcomed a fantastically experienced Dutch management team, after the year can Mr Wilson explain why we don’t have a single Dutch player?

RW: The way we work our recruitment here is that the Rangers manager, whether that’s Michael or Giovanni or Steven would have the final say on every player that is signed here. Our previous manager Gio, who I would also pay tribute to for some big achievements in his time here, would also have the final say on every player who came in. There was one Dutch player who we agreed terms with over the summer who then agreed to join another club but that was the only Dutch player that the manager brought forward as one he’d like to bring in over the summer.”

Could Douglas Park please take this opportunity to speak directly to shareholders and supporters and outline his detailed vision and ambitions for the club if he remains as chairman? Can he specifically outline the plan for the next five years to return the club to success on the pitch and greatest competence and accountability off it?

DP: The plan for the next five years is to win as many trophies as we can, to build a team that can win as many games as we can and to reinvest in the club as much as we possibly can. Can I just add personally and on behalf of the board that we have absolutely no problem having Club 1872. The problem between the board and Club 1872 is quite the problem and I would like to see it resolved as soon as we can. But the reluctance to sign an NDA, the same as every other individual does, creates a problem. But Club 1872 are welcome any time. We need supporters and it’s not my intention to fall out with anyone. I’m speaking on behalf of myself but I believe the board would agree with that.

Can I ask a question about the number of players who’ve been long-term injured and the chances of getting them back?

RW: The injury situation has been a concern to Gio, to myself, to our medical team. It was widely predicted ahead of this season and it was something managers up and down the Premier League were discussing at every single press conference, particularly clubs who play in Europe and with players involved in international football. It was predicted that ahead of this World Cup there would be more injuries than ever before. There’s no doubt we’ve experienced that here at Rangers with a mixture of injuries that have happened during the season and long-term injuries, like Ianis Hagi’s which happened last season. But we are really pleased that in the last week since Michael took over that we’ve seen players return. The group is getting stronger on a daily basis with people coming back and that’s pleasing to see. But it’s important to say that we don’t take injuries lightly and we are constantly evaluating our people, our processes and structures inside the club to make sure at every area we can have the strongest possible Rangers.

MB: It’s been pleasing over the last week or so to hear that players are coming back quickly, which is important. It’s important we don’t rush them because we want them back to play consistently between now and the end of the season. Some of the players that are missing certainly make us a stronger Rangers team. In the last 12 months, the team have gone from training a certain way to a different way with a lot of changes of staff, which never helps the players in terms of having consistency in their training base, changes in those things can cause some discomfort with players. It’s important moving forward we get that consistency back.

Have any further loans been repaid to RIFC board members John Bennett and Julian Wolhardt since the period covered by the recent annual report and if so can you confirm how much was repaid, how much interest was payable and the level of any loans that are still outstanding and to whom?

JB: We addressed this last year. The outstanding loan on the seven-year facility - which now has six years to run - is £8m. It’s the same interest rate as last year, which is six per cent. Can I put that in a wee bit of context just on my own personal commitment to the club? Some of my loan has been converted to equity, £500,000. I’ve since then bought shares as well, so I’ve gone to 5.1 per cent of the equity. I’ve got about £8m of that long-term debt and I’ve also in recent weeks given the club a £10m overdraft facility at five per cent. So my commitment is now £23m. Yes, they’ve been partly repaid over the seven-year facility on the agreed terms. My outstanding commitment to run is down to £8m. This time last year I think we were at £13m and a bit so that is now £8m but like any business, we have seasonality in our cash flow. Our fallow period starts in February, the club will have to start to draw down on my £10m facility at five per cent. That’s a new working capital facility that I provided to the club. That’s £5m or so, £8m left on the loan which will be repaid alongside the agreed schedule but £10m of new. The repayment of loans has to be seen in the context of this increased commitment to the equity by myself but also the new facility. I think that’s valid context.

This season so far we’ve made a profit on player trading of somewhere in the region of £15m but have we had a positive balance in terms of the players that have come in? If you take out Tillman and Colak, the others only played an average of six games out of 27. So have we had value for money from the players who’ve come in and is the policy consistent?

RW: I think when you sit second in the league at Rangers you are always going to be disappointed with the return from the whole squad, rather than focusing on the seven players who came in the summer. Whether it’s me as Sporting Director or Michael in the seat he sits in, you are always going to be disappointed in the return we’ve got. There’s no question about that. However, we have a lot of belief in this squad and Michael touched on that earlier on. He also used a word that is really important to us – identity – and making sure we have a team on the pitch that represents our shareholders and supporters proudly every single week. At this moment in time, of course, we’re not happy with the return. That goes without saying. I noticed that you pulled some of the players that have done well out of the statistics you said. We definitely feel some of those players have made a fantastic return for us and others haven’t made a strong enough return yet. That goes without saying. It’s up to all of us inside the club, led by Michael on the pitch every day, to get the best out of this squad that we possibly can. And we certainly believe there is more to come from them.

I’ve been following Rangers since the 1950s, why am I only a silver Rangers supporter with MyGers and how can I become a gold Rangers supporter?

SR: It’s a perennial problem at Rangers. It’s supply and demand and tickets is the starting point for how we try and satisfy as many of you as we can when it comes to different games, especially the big games. We understand there’s always disappointment amongst a large proportion of the fanbase when it comes to the games. We’ve tried different ways over the years to try and reward loyalty. You’re obviously hugely loyal in terms of the years you’ve followed and supported the club. Obviously, the way we’re doing it at the moment doesn’t seem to work for you but we’re never going to find a way that satisfies everybody, unfortunately. We’ve tried changing it and it’s worked for some people and not for others. Whilst supply and demand is out of kilter the way it is we’re always going to have a challenge there I’m afraid.

When you have a season ticket and you ask for your family to sit together, my son and my granddaughter sit together but not me. If you put your name down for your season ticket for the three of us to sit together which is it just two of us?

SR: If you’ve ticked those boxes on the form, you should be together. Can you come and see me at the end and I’ll get your details and I’ll try and find out what’s happened.

I asked a question last year about the customer service being poor and it really isn’t much better. My question to James Bisgrove is about record merchandising sales because as far as I can see we don’t have much in the way of merchandising. We’ve got stores that sell Castore gear, do we run them or do Castore run them and the choice outwith them is shocking and who sanctioned a commemorative poster from our worst-ever home defeat in history?

JB: I think the journey we’ve been on and the journey we’re on with Castore is continuing. When we first entered into that partnership clearly there was a focus on playing kits and training wear. That was the nature of the deal. In the last year to 18 months, there’s been a real strong emphasis on licensed products and on some of the accessories. We’re now up to five Rangers stores in the UK and I think this Christmas in this trading period there is the broadest range of official Rangers products that we have had in many years. But I agree with you that we shouldn’t stop because there is a strong appetite for new products emerging all the time. The relationship as such with Castore is that we are very collaborative on product development and I can assure you that as we move forward to the partnership next year and beyond there will be a broader product range both in stores and I’m particularly excited about the new store that will open in New Edmiston House in January. Two floors of retail space. I talk often with Castore about our ambitions of having a 360-degree retail experience in our stores so I invite you to come and see that in January and hope you will recognise some of the progress that we’ve made and additionally online to make sure that our supporters whether they be in North America, India or the Middle East can access Rangers products through the online network.

Was there a focus group recently on merchandising and did anything come out of it?

JB: Yes, we had a session with around 15 to 20 MyGers members and the retail team who work in our department and we took on board a number of different points and feedback. A lot of that was specific to product development and that’s formed part of our meetings with Castore. I’m actually in Manchester tomorrow meeting Castore myself. It’s a very collaborative relationship and the supporter input from that fans forum went directly through to Castore and it’s actually informed some of our kit designs as well for next season.

At the 2019 AGM, two figures were provided. The estimated value of the squad was £55m and the potential to be £103m. Can you provide an update on those numbers to give comfort we are still on the right track?

RW: That number was a notional number given by chairman Mr King at that time. There wasn’t any science behind that number at all so I wouldn’t be prepared to answer that question because I would be picking a figure out of the air and I don’t think that’s the right thing to do with shareholders.

What was the thought process behind the Champions League match package and why did the board go in at the highest level that UEFA allow considering everything that we’re going through at the moment and can Jimmy Bell be honoured with a place in the Hall of Fame?

SR: Jimmy was a huge character throughout the club and he’s missed by everyone at the club. Every one of us knew Jimmy well and I take your point. Jimmy epitomised so much about the club. He really was Rangers through and through. Taking your point about prices, I get the point you are making. We had a lot of debate about what the pricing structure would be and we landed on the numbers we landed on. Each game was sold out, I’m not saying that makes it right or wrong but the demand was there for the games “You have seen with the numbers we have presented today we are fighting for everything to try and keep on a level playing field with our competitors both domestically and in Europe. We try and maximise it, but I get it was the high end of the scale and I take the point that you’re making.

When you look at the players signed during your tenure, there has been very few successes and a lot of failures, Juninho Bacuna cost £2m, Aaron Ramsey was reportedly upwards of £3m, Zukowski cost £500k and played one game and did you action the signing of a centre back from Hearts when he missed 44 games over the last two seasons and does the board firmly believe that Ross Wilson is the right man to develop this playing squad?

SR: The short answer is yes. There is a lot of work that goes on, I think you underestimate the work that goes on within the football department and at this football club. The progress we have made since Ross Wilson joined has been incredible on the football side of the club. Your criticism is there and everyone has got an opinion so that’s fair enough. Ross can chat to you about specific players but in terms of where we are as a football club compared to where we were three years ago in the football department, we are miles forward.

RW: Without being too direct, none of your figures are correct. I don’t like talking about individual players because there’s myself, the manager, the scouting team, all of the coaches and everybody is involved in that process. Ross Wilson doesn’t sign football players. Clearly, it’s a department that I oversee and I work very closely with Michael. I don’t like talking about individuals but I’ll talk about two that you’ve named there. Standing at the mic and saying Rangers bought Juninho Bacuna for £2m is complete nonsense. He was a free transfer who was brought forward by the coaching staff at the time and we actually made a profit on him. That doesn’t mean he was a good signing. Secondly, we all went into the John Souttar signing with our eyes wide open. We know he’s a big talent and well also know that his injury track record is difficult for us. We believe that we can deal with that. We might be wrong with that and we always have to have the humility to say that we get things wrong but we believe we can sort that out. We believe that John can be a strong player for Rangers. Every player that we sign doesn’t have to play 60 games in the way Connor Goldson has over a number of years now. We will have players that also have to be part of our squad and we also need to make sure that we’ve got Scottish players in our squad to meet the European rules as well. All of that needs consideration.”

When we were humiliated by Celtic in September we had five players who were signed during Mark Allen or Frank McPartland’s time and when we finished the game it was six, that isn’t forward-thinking or success.

SR: You have to look long term from where the club was and where we are. We got to a Europa League final last season. We won the Scottish Cup so we’ll have ups and downs. The short-term situation is that we’ve had injuries as well. Everybody views it differently and everybody will have an opinion on it, I get that. That’s one of the beauties of the football club and the supporter base that we have. But when you see the amount of work and the foundations we have and the systems, structures and processes we have in place behind the scenes now, it’s miles away from where we were years ago and it gives me the confidence that we’re moving forward in the right direction.

I’ve got access to some high-net-worth individuals looking for investment and loan opportunities. Is there an opportunity for external investment nationally or internationally?

JB: Can I give a short answer to that? Subject to some resolutions passing today, yes.

Can you say hand on heart that you showed honour to your fellow human beings in 2021 when people like me got a blue letter and did not comply with tyrannical instructions from the Scottish Nasty Party. They implemented digital ID by coercion and you complied. People like me were not allowed to come into the stadium, we were outside like dogs. That was segregation, it was discrimination.

SR: Can we move onto the next question, please?

All the Rangers fans want rid of MyGers because it’s not working. The fans are not getting the tickets when they should be getting tickets. I’m disabled and we’re not getting any tickets for the away games.

SR: Let me deal with the disabled one. You and I have this debate every year. I have some breaking news, we’re making some progress in the disabled tickets with some of the clubs. James will give you a quick answer to your MyGers question.

JB: The challenge we have with away tickets is the demand and the supply. That limited supply we have when we’re getting 15 to 20,000 applications from supporters and there might be one or two thousand tickets available. What we’ve tried to implement is a loyalty framework whereby supporters who’ve had season tickets for the longest period receive the most tickets. We are constantly trying to adapt that and will take different opinions on board. For us, ours is a really important supporter initiative. We’ve got 52,000 members now and the funds go directly into the first team and we use it for a lot of different things. Experiences at the stadium for younger fans, whether that be Christmas parties or Halloween events, open training sessions. I acknowledge that it potentially isn’t perfect. There are lots of different opinions and we welcome those opinions because we want to continue to shape it but it also stands for a lot of good initiatives. The away tickets challenge is one I think we’ll never get right because we’re always going to disappoint the majority, unfortunately.

Rangers Review: (Image: NQ)

The disabled facilities are looking spot on, when is it intended to start?

AD: There is still a lot of work to be done on the investigation of it. The hope is that it will start in the summer of 2023. That is the current timescale that we’re looking at.

Why have three key players (Kent, Morelos and Goldson) been allowed to run their contracts down?

RW: They are not being allowed to run their contracts down. We would absolutely, and Michael said it in the press conference, like those two players you have mentioned to commit their futures to Rangers. You saw during Kenny’s presentation that there is a clear willingness from the board to invest in the squad. However, for a player to sign a contract and stay here, there needs to be certainly two parties willing to commit – the football club and the player. You also need the agent, you sometimes need the wife, you sometimes need the mum and dad and everyone involved. The two players involved – Ryan and Alfredo – are two very different situations. I don’t think it is fair to go into why they are different but they are different situations. There is definitely a willingness from the club for the boys to stay. There is definitely a willingness from the manager for the two boys to be part of Rangers moving forward. Time will tell if we can get there. Certainly from the club’s point of view, we want the players to be with us.

Why not try to move them on in the summer?

RW: Again, you would need two things to happen there. You need a buyer and a buyer to commit to a level of finance that we think would be reflective and good for Rangers at that moment in time. With both players in the past, we have rejected one offer from both players. It was significant on the basis that the money for the player was good but we thought they brought more value to our squad at that time and we went on to become league champions in that same season. In our minds, that justified our decision to be the right one. We would certainly like those two players to continue with us if we can reach an agreement in the coming weeks and months.

DP: Can I just add, that the board have tried to negotiate with both players. There comes a stage, like in any negotiation, where you try to settle. If the terms that maybe people are looking for are unattainable, you sometimes have to accept that you have done your best.

What is the policy for the Albion car park and why can’t I buy a year’s pass to get in?

AD: We are away that there has been issues with the Albion car park and other areas around the stadium with disabled parking. It’s an area we’re trying to resolve and we are also looking at bringing in a new way of dealing with QR codes and scanning to make sure there’s availability for disabled parking within those areas. I’d like to think that that would be up and running within the next couple of months.

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