Rangers' £12m New Edmiston House spend is no "vanity project"

Drilling multi-million-pound international football stars on grass that had to be inspected for glass and dog shit was not going to cut it for the Little General whose high standards were known, and feared, across Holland. He began to campaign for a facility befitting the club he now controlled with an iron fist. Several city centre options were quickly thrown out for failing to match Advocaat's highly specific demands.

The chairman David Murray pushed back with an ultimatum. The Dutchman could have his dream football base but the £14m expense would come from the lavish spender's transfer budget. It's to Advocaat's eternal credit that he had the courage of his convictions and plumped for the Training Centre, a decision many now see as his enduring legacy. Players come and go with the seasons, but bricks and mortar remain. More than 20 years on, Auchenhowie remains the beating heart of the club.

In time New Edmiston House, the club's first project even close in ambition to what was opened in 2001, will be seen the same way.

And yet, the arrival of recent accounts showing that at least £12m has been spent on the structure seems to have raised discontent amongst some fans. "Bad timing" given the poor performance of the squad say some. Others bemoan a level of cost that could have instead been used to improve the team. Branding it a "vanity project" is a popular, if slightly baffling refrain on social media.

The truth is there are many reasons for NEH to have been built. Each taken on their own is important, but when are pulled together they create a compelling case.

The first is as a revenue builder for the future. We know Rangers have to defeat Celtic on  the field but off it the club's closest rivals have nearly 10,000 more seats to fill with season ticket holders. For Rangers to compete financially, they must fill this gap, which runs to several millions.  The club predict the facility will make £1m profit every year to channel back into the playing side, a nice chunk of change in challenging times.

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It's also, finally, a place for supporters of all ages to congregate, have a pint or a coffee and relax in a sheltered environment ahead of and following the game. While many of us go to the football for the 90 minutes of action, everyone's different and we live in an age where comfort and of decent food and drink options abound in cinemas, theatres and sporting events. Football can't continue to lag or it will be left behind and Rangers are not immune from this reality. While some will point to beloved bars around the ground already filling that gap in the market, what about kids? Having somewhere for families to go ensures the next generation of fan grows up with the same passion for attending as their parents. 

Lastly, there's the museum. Every supporter agrees Rangers is more than a club - it's a bona fide Scottish institution with a rich and fascinating history going back 150 years. Anyone who's travelled around Europe knows that major European clubs welcome tourists to their ground on a daily basis, selling them merchandise and helping spread their unique story far and wide. Rangers can stand tall amongst the continent's giants as a brand and should tell its story proudly. After all, few match the romance of four lads who had a dream. The museum will reflect that to the world.

A Southside Glasgow tourist bus run by City Sightseeing will pass Ibrox as part of an eight-stop circular route, taking thousands of visitors to the Burrell Collection and the House of the Art Lover. Rangers will be part of that, with people able to stop off for lunch at the Blue Sky Lounge, visit the shop and take a tour of the museum. So it's not just the club showing off its history, there's money to be made too.

So that's three very good reasons why NEH is a very solid idea and I haven't touched on the new sports bar that will open in the former retail space or the gigs and events that will keep the facility in perpetual motion for nearly every day of the year.

Of course, when Rangers lose, everything comes under the microscope and nothing is safe from criticism but it's important to think back once again to the Training Centre. Is there anyone out there who looks back on the Advocaat era and would swap Scotland's best facility for two or three extra players nearly a quarter of a century ago? It's not as if spending money guarantees success after all. Rabbi Matondo, Ben Davies and Ridvan Yilmaz arrived for around £10m in the summer and you can be sure NEH will stand as a better testament to the club's progress long after their retirement - no matter how good or otherwise they end up.

And two decades from now, as fans come together in anticipation of another exciting match at Ibrox, they will be glad that someone long ago had the foresight to develop an idea that brings people together, under one roof.

There should be no divisions about such a place.