Everything James Bisgrove said to the fan media at New Edmiston House yesterday.
What are your thoughts on the museum?
I’m incredibly proud to come here and see the museum come to life displaying 150 years of history of this great club and it's I think it’s an incredibly proud moment for us to bring supporters and media in here this afternoon. Completing Edmiston House as well, which for us was another flagship and milestone project. So yeah, we're feeling really positive about it.
You're now officially the CEO of the club. How does that feel?
The transition has been intense, but you wouldn't want it any other way! You wouldn't want any other way at Rangers and we've been so focused on trying to move things forward. You've seen the pace in which we've moved in terms of player recruitment. We feel really, really happy where we're at now with the number of players that have joined Michael Beale's squad and the manner in which the board, myself and Michael have executed that plan and in time for the season starting on Saturday. We've made some, I believe, really exciting appointments outside of football and some of those leadership positions. We have a new chief commercial officer. We're imminently going to announce the new chief finance officer and some of the other members of that executive team to take us forward and implement the 2025 strategy that we've spoken about. The museum epitomises this but there's so much work going on with the infrastructure projects here. We've now completed Edmiston House, The Blue Sky Lounge and the Sports Bar is not too far away. And then next, some of the significant work will start on the stadium in terms of the disabled facilities which is such an important project. And also some of the stadium expansion so we've been busy. But we've got to make sure that every aspect of the club is as prepared as we possibly can be for this season and that it's a successful one.
Where are we at with the appointment of a new technical director?
I think we're keeping our options open at the moment. We did meet some candidates that had some really great experience in terms of that director of football or sporting director role. We, at the moment, have stayed very, very focused on the summer transfer window and delivering on that plan. And I think once the transfer window closes, we will have a board meeting and we'll discuss what's right for the club moving forward. But I think the collaboration between the chairman, John Bennett, our board, myself and the manager and his recruitment team - that's been so strong and we believe that the outcome and the results from the transfer window are so positive that we'll come back to that. We'll come back to that before we take a definitive decision. We're keeping an open mind, I would say at the moment.
What’s the situation with safe standing?
We're continuing the trial and our current feeling is that the trial has been successful, but we want to make sure that we take really careful feedback from all of the stakeholders, but I know from talking to the first team players, the manager and a cross-section of supporters that the enhancement to the atmosphere, that let's be honest is already really, really unique and special, we've seen some of the benefits, so we want to continue to learn from that. We want to continue to drive it, but we want to be really cognizant of what that means. What does that mean for supporters displaced from their seats? They might not be part of their season ticket, but of course, they are used to having that first option to reserve that seat, so we need to make sure that we get that balance right and we need to be front-footed in terms of the consultation in terms of the dialogue. I know that Greg Marshall and some of our other colleagues will host a session at Edmonton House where we will open up the floor and we'll continue to take on more feedback so that when we get into a position where we need to decide what we're going do for next season that we've got as much information as we can. But I've really enjoyed seeing the spectacle at the friendlies. I'm really looking forward to seeing it in the cup game as well.
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