RANGERS club chiefs insist they never had any intention of walking away amid fan fury at Ibrox.
The Light Blues have had a disastrous start to the season under Russell Martin who won just five of his 17 games in charge.
Those who appointed him in the summer haven’t escaped the furore, with supporters demanding that chief executive Patrick Stewart and sporting director Kevin Thelwell also leave the club.
They are here to stay for now and took a number of questions from reporters at the unveiling of new boss Danny Rohl on Tuesday.
Both Stewart and Thelwell faced questions about their positions at the club, the way the handled the recruitment process, the signing of £10m Youssef Chermiti – Rangers most expensive players in 25 years – and the appointment of Thelwell’s son to head of recruitment at Rangers.
Here’s what they had to say…
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On fan anger
PS: “I totally understand the frustration and hurt that the supporters are feeling because the results this season haven’t been good enough.
“Nobody’s happy with those. The hurt and frustration they feel is mirrored within the boardroom, and I also understand that there has to be an outlet for those frustrations.
“And, as chief executive, I’m a lightning rod for those and my role as a leader is to absorb that.
“But also now we’re going to work hard, work harder and make sure that we turn this around, so we’ve got to earn that trust.”
Did you ever think about walking away amid the anger?
PS: “No, I’m determined to work incredibly hard together with everyone else at the club to take Rangers back to where it belongs.
KT: “We’ve got to do much better, but Rangers to me is something that’s worth fighting for, and so what I’m going to do next and we’re all going to do next, is work as hard as we can to give the fans and this football club something they can be proud of.
On signing Youssef Chermiti
KT: “I think Youssef Chermiti is a player in particular who’s got huge potential.
“I’ve never doubted him in any way shape or form.
“Again I think Danny will help to get the best out of Youssef.
“It’s very early days for him, he’s a young talent and of course with young talents they sometimes take a little bit of time.
“But I’m certain over the course of his career here, he’s going to prove that he’s a very very good player.”
Criticism from fans appointing your son Robbie as head of recruitment
KT: “It’s always uncomfortable to hear and optically that we all agreed when we made this step to appoint Robbie that he was going to be seen in a particular way.
“But the reality of the situation is that we want to bring the very best talent here to Rangers Football Club.
“My view on Robbie’s career, Robbie’s situation is he doesn’t need my help in football, he worked at Aston Villa as a senior scout.
“He then moved to Norwich City as head of scouting and then got promoted to player pathways manager and, before we recruited him, two Premier League clubs wanted to take him.
“Dan Purdy, who is the technical director whom he will work for, wanted to take him to Everton when I was there.
“I told him that shouldn’t be the case and I didn’t think he was ready but, when the situation came around again and Dan wanted to take him again, it was very difficult to say no.
“What we did do, right at the very start of that process, was to talk to Patrick and Andrew and the board and talk to them about the situation.
“I was extremely transparent about that’s what Dan wanted to do and I think Robbie probably went through a more rigorous process than probably anybody else who’s employed by the football club truth be known.
“What I do know is he will work 25/8 to bring success to this football club and him and Dan work very closely together and very well together.
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“I’m looking forward to him proving that he’s going to be an excellent employee for Rangers.”
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