Rangers have released initial images of the training kit set to be worn by Steven Gerrard and his team when they return to Auchenhowie today for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic put a halt to football in Scotland.
🆕 Castore training wear ready to welcome back the first team squad tomorrow at the Rangers Training Centre.#ANewEra | #BetterNeverStops pic.twitter.com/gkmURBNomE
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) June 14, 2020
As always, the news was met with a wide and varying response, from those happy to throw their money at the club regardless of how it looks to those moaning about an embossed badge and the fact that the Castore logo is squint – it isn’t.
Intriguingly though, the new training wear is remarkably similar to the the leaked images from the beginning of May which were produced before even the official announcement from the club and sportswear company about the new merchandise deal.
On the documents that were seen by fans were also drawings of the strips that the team are alleged to be wearing in 2020/21, given the accuracy of the training kit mock-ups, it isn’t too far a stretch to suggest that these could be what James Tavernier et al are wearing this season.
— Rab Muir (@rabmuir) June 15, 2020
— Rab Muir (@rabmuir) June 15, 2020
Fans of the Ibrox club will be dying to get their hands on the new strips knowing that the money they are spending is finally going into the club’s coffers rather than the back pocket of the biggest drain on the club’s resources in history.
Rangers fans had thought that they had finally seen the last of Mike Ashley after a £3million pay-off a in 2017 but stories emerged earlier this season that the Sports Direct supremo was now involved with Elite, the company charged with selling and distributing the Hummel range of strips and training wear.
As with anything related to Ashley, it is never straight forward, and although the club are now – finally – free of him with the new Castore deal, they are having to take legal action to claw back over £3m owed to them from sales made over the last two years.
With plans afoot for the redevelopment of Edmiston House for the club’s 150th anniversary in 2022 and Ashley finally out of the picture, Rangers fans have a lot to look forward to, there is just one thing that remains to be achieved as they look to finally put behind them the last ten years of hurt.