The star of Rangers AGM was undoubtedly Deputy Chairman John Bennett and as one of the biggest shareholders he can never be someone accused of not putting his money where his mouth is.
With the Ibrox club producing losses totalling nearly £16million, ongoing investment is key and Mr Bennet revealed that not only has he put his hands into his own pockets but that he has been joined by other like minded individuals, as reported by The Daily Record:
“We’d like to think the recovery phase is coming to a completion but it doesn’t mean you stop. You can’t stop. You have to go for growth, you have to go for winning, that takes investment.
“Everything we’ve got in mind takes investment, even just to finish the recovery phase. As you can see from the annual report, substantial investment is required.
“We need absolutely every shareholder to stay aligned and help us deliver.
“I think I’m right in saying that since March 2015 the current group of investors have invested around £65million, and rising.
“In recent days and weeks, the chairman, Julian Wolhardt, myself and Alastair (Johnston) have all invested further.
“We’ve recently been joined, I’m happy to say, by three successful Scottish businessmen.
“So again, it’s a broadened church, if you look at that group of investors, and what they’ve committed and continue to commit, it’s very sizeable.”
Dave King’s long term plan was always for fans to have a big influence in the boardroom at Ibrox, ideally he would like that to be through Club 1872 but as Bennett pointed out, almost 95% of the shares owned in Rangers are by fans of the club.
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The front loaded investment needed to return the playing squad and facilities to a standard befitting of a club like ours was always going to lead to heavy losses initially but we are closing in on being able to look after ourselves through the four pillars that the Deputy Chairman also spoke about – it helps having wealthy fans to chip in from time to time though, and for that, we will always be grateful.