The brutal reality of a large portion of Patrick Stewart's time at Manchester United has been put forward ahead of the CEO's impending move to Rangers.

The Aberdeen-born chief executive will assume his new role at Ibrox on Monday, December 16.

The appointment was officially announced by Rangers at 9.30am.

He spent 18 years at Man United working in various roles, most recently as interim CEO. He also worked as United's General Counsel and Company Secretary.

And while Stewart did work under the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, David Gill and Martin Edwards, the last 11 years have hardly been a roaring success at Old Trafford both on and off the field.

Simon Jordan raised that point when discussing the appointment with Jim White on talkSPORT this morning. 

The former Crystal Palace owner quipped about how working for Man United didn't exactly paint the best picture given their decline over the past decade. 

White started the conversation on the airwaves by saying: “He’s been at Manchester United a long time, interim chief executive, but they had to do something didn’t they?

“Why are you screwing your face up?”

Jordan replied: “Well I’m screwing up my face because I don’t really think Manchester United are the blueprint for successful off-field activity, do you? It might be better than nothing.”

White came back in: “Exactly. No chairman. An interim chairman in John Gilligan, a man I know well and a lovely fella. Now, for real, they have a chief executive.

"It’s my understanding that Stewart is regarded as a guy who has vast experience with one particular club and that club is Manchester United.

"He’s a strong character, Scottish and this is a very exciting appointment.

"But they’ve left it long enough - you’ve got to have someone behind the scenes to make the right decisions.”

Read more: 

Jordan said: “You do. How that all affects the material opportunity on the field is a different discussion.

"Whether that bodes well for the incumbent manager, who seems to be going through a particularly torrid time at this moment in time, we’ll see.

"But it certainly alleviates the observations that they’re rudderless. Whether he’s a good oarsman, we’ll see.”

Rangers are currently 11 points behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership. 

Online rumours surfaced last night suggesting that Philippe Clement had left the club, but these were swiftly quashed. 

However, White reckons if things haven't improved in terms of Rangers' league position come the start of 2025, then Clement could well find it very difficult to retain the faith of the club's board.

White added: “Clement stays in a job despite the disappointing draw with Dundee United at the weekend and there is some distance between Rangers and Aberdeen, who are in second, and even more distance between Rangers and Celtic who are top.

"If Aberdeen are in-between the two of them come the turn of the year I detect that’s when life might get a bit more hot under the collar for Clement.”