John Bennett accused of Rangers contradiction as old interview dragged up in national newspaper
Scottish Mail on Sunday columnist Gary Keown has blasted vice-chairman John Bennett for contradicting himself with his actions at Rangers.
Speaking to the Louden Tavern Podcast in May 2021, Bennett said how Rangers’ recruitment would be the biggest thing going forward after their 55th title win.
However, since then, the Gers still have a very similar squad, have given new contracts to ageing players, failed to give contracts to – or sell – high-value players and have lost ground on Celtic.
Keown has slammed Bennett for his empty words but admits that he and Douglas Park aren’t going anywhere from Ibrox just yet.
“It’s almost like everyone in the upper echelons forgets what they promised after Gerrard stopped ten in a row. Vice-chairman John Bennett, for example, made an appearance on a podcast from a pub, back when the club were leading the way with the blockbusting idea of refusing to speak to anyone from the mainstream media unless they paid them tens of thousands of pounds up front,” said Keown in the Scottish Mail on Sunday (page 108, 5 March).
“‘Recruitment is king here,’ crowned Bennett. ‘I think where we are now is absolutely quality over quantity. We think we can achieve every success we want to achieve at home and in Europe within the bandwidth of a successful model.’
“Where do you even start with that and everything that has contradicted it since?
“Of course, Bennett and chairman Douglas Park, who never says anything about anything, are going nowhere. Their cash shores the place up and means they are in with the bricks.”
Rangers fans made their feelings about the board very clear on Saturday as they beat Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership.
While things under Michael Beale have been better this season than they were under Giovanni van Bronckhorst, the fact remains that we’re falling further and further behind Celtic.
Last weekend’s Viaplay Cup final defeat to the Old Firm rivals was a stark reminder of that.
Anger has rightly been turned on Stewart Robertson and Ross Wilson, who’s failed to prove that he can sign players who’ll take Rangers back to within a whisker of Celtic.
Wilson’s done well in a couple of outgoing deals with the Nathan Patterson and Calvin Bassey transfers bringing in a lot of money to Ibrox.
However, what’s been done with that money has been terrible.
Either money isn’t being spent on transfers at all or it’s being spent on poor signings.
Beale’s top players are ones who haven’t been brought in over the last couple of years and ageing players have been kept around way longer than they should have been either due to blind loyalty of because Wilson hasn’t the ability to go out there and find someone better.
He’s got to go as soon as possible so a replacement can be brought in with the view to the summer transfer window being the best one we’ve had in years.
In other Rangers news, a BBC pundit has slammed Willie Collum for missing a Kilmarnock player incident at Ibrox on Saturday.