The Scottish Sun claims that James Bisgrove’s abrupt departure for a position in Saudi Arabia has left Rangers executives “stunned.”
The Ibrox CEO, who was previously the club’s commercial head, left his position just over a year after taking over as leader, and the Glasgow hierarchy was caught off guard by his announcement on May 30 via the paper’s website that he was leaving for the recently promoted Al Qadsiah.
In an effort to preserve consistency throughout the summer, chairman John Bennett will now temporarily assume the role of executive chairman.
Although Bisgrove’s resignation doesn’t have to ruin things at Ibrox, it doesn’t seem like a good start to a crucial summer if those he leaves behind were taken by surprise. John Bennett left in charge as Philippe Clement began the Rangers revamp.
Furthermore, it feels like an unwanted repeat of what turned out to be a disastrous transfer window for there to be yet more turmoil at the top of the team, with Philippe Clement starting a complete revamp of the squad a year after Michael Beale was assigned the same assignment.
Stewart Robertson exited as CEO a year ago amid a great deal of change in key positions behind the scenes, and a period of stability would surely have been preferred, even if Bisgrove was perhaps not best suited to the job in the first place.
The remaining leadership will need to make sure that better decisions are made this time around after Beale insisted he could take on all responsibilities last summer and seemed to finally end up with too much power as he overhauled the playing staff in a way that got him fired by October.
Overall, it’s possible to trust Clement and Nils Koppen more than the previous manager to bring in the right players, but the Belgian is already under pressure given his late-season form collapse.
Given the lucrative incentives in Saudi Arabia, the majority of clubs face the possibility of losing players or employees. While organizations must prepare for workforce fluctuations, Rangers’ leadership turnover is more of an undesirable trend, similar to the team’s repeated failures to defeat Celtic on the field and the departure of managers.
