It's been a busy start to life as Rangers CEO for Patrick Stewart who was thrust straight in at the deep end when he took on the role last month.

Stewart started his work the day after a heartbreaking Premier Sports Cup final defeat to Celtic on penalties and earlier this month saw the Light Blues thump their rivals 3-0 at Ibrox in the New Year derby.

But despite that win, Rangers are trailing the Hoops by 15 points at the top of the Scottish Premiership table with woeful away form leaving Philippe Clement fighting for his job. Record Sport were at Ibrox as ex Manchester United chief Stewart and new chairman Fraser Thornton sat down with the media to discuss plans for the future. Thornton, who replaced interim chairman John Gilligan, kicked off the press conference and said: “It's been pretty well documented around my background and life.

READ MORE: Patrick Stewart reveals Rangers January transfer plan as Ibrox chief outlines Hamza Igamane stance

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“I am a I'm a lifelong Rangers fan, and the only real relevance to that I would suggest is that people should be reassured that any and every decision that I am involved in at this football club will have been taken with the long-term interests of the football club at heart. There can be no doubt about that."

But it was all about Stewart's plans with Clement's future at the forefront. Here's the Q&A in full.

On Philippe Clement's future

“There's been a lot of talk about results, and there's been a lot of talk about the manager, and I know that the spotlight is on Fraser and myself, but particularly on me. But that's the job, I'm okay with that.

“I need to make some tough decisions, it comes with the role, but I am committed to making the right ones for Rangers, not just the popular ones. So cutting to the chase, we are backing Philippe at this time as a board. It's about taking a deeper look at the issues, addressing those problems, and staying focused on building a stronger future for the club. Changing a manager isn't a silver bullet solution.

“You know where I've worked previously, and that isn't something that has been effective there, it's not effective at a lot of football clubs where there's constant change of manager. What I do need to do, and what the board are supporting me with, is uncovering the underlying issues and addressing those.

“And there's been quite a lot of supporters' comments, and one that particularly jumped out at me was, you know, some supporters' comments are, we want to change a manager. I think others are, look, this isn't just about the manager, it's more about what's going on at the football club.

“Because there's been several years where we've been underperforming, and there's something deeper rooted here, and I agree with that. So I think that's what we need to do, we need to look beneath the surface. Managers and coaching staff will continue to come and go in the future, that's understood. Again, that is football.

“But what I'm looking to do, again, this is a team effort, is build a solid foundation and a real long-term football plan for the club.

"If we rush and react every time there's some poor results, we're in danger of just being back in the same place in a year's time or 18 months' time or however long.

“But I want to be clear, look, I'm not saying everything is fine, and I think the fans are frustrated, I get that. I've been a football fan my entire life, I've been in that position, we're also all frustrated. And particularly if I look at the away results, you know, the record is there, it's been discussed, it's not good, and it's not what's expected for Rangers.

“So we are working with Philippe to address consistency issues, and I'm also not going to speculate on what happens if results don't improve. I spent time with Philippe, I spent a lot of time with Philippe, a lot of time at Auchenhowie, I was with Philippe last night, and we discussed the need, the imperative for results to improve.

“If results don't improve, obviously I can't give Philippe any cast iron guarantees. He and I have both been around football long enough to know that isn't the case. Equally, I'm not going to get into how many games does Philippe have to save his job, that's not what we're about. We're about helping Philippe to identify why is there the inconsistency and let's address that. And again, to be clear, sticking with Philippe isn't about trying to avoid a tough decision.

"In fact, I think if anything, changing a manager would be the easy decision, because a lot of supporters are calling for that. I'm aware of that, I've seen the statements. But I think that would be easy and I'm looking at this from a long-term perspective and thinking what's in the best interests of the club. So, I'm putting the club first, not my own interests and whether this decision is going to be viewed as positive or negative. I'm really thinking about the club first. So, it is very much about making the right decisions for the long-term success of the club. And again, Philippe understands that.

"I do want to say about Philippe, he's really committed. I've worked with several managers and Philippe is as hard working and committed as any I've seen. First in the training ground, last out, he's always on, always available, always thinking about it. So he is absolutely committed to bringing success to the club, and we're committed to providing him with that support.

"But just to reiterate, it's a results-orientated business, so we know that results have to improve. But talking about the longer-term success of the club, I met with all of the football departments at Auchenhowie last Tuesday, and it was to introduce myself to them, as we'd done an all-staff at Ibrox that some couldn't attend, so I wanted to make sure that we'd done an all-staff at Auchenhowie when we could speak to everyone. But it was also to inform them that we're doing a root and branch review of the entire football department.

"Everything is in scope and it starts on Monday, Monday as in two days' time. ‘Because I think if we're honest with ourselves as a club, and on being honest to the supporters, if we look at everything in its entirety, the football club has not been where it wants to be for several years now. So, we're going to review everything that we're doing at Auchenhowie and we're going to look at it from a number of different angles.

"So, we want to ensure that we've got structures in place to succeed. Every decision that we make needs to be focused on one goal, which is bringing success to Rangers and making our supporters proud. We really want to make them proud of the club. We also want to ensure that we've got a plan that works, one that's joined up from the training ground to the boardroom, and that we have processes geared towards building winning teams across the board, men's and women's academy.

"We want to invest in people, we want to make sure we've got the best people for the club and help them develop and reach their potential so that everyone's pulling together and growing the club. Ultimately, long-term sustained success is built on culture. We've got to make sure that we've got a culture that's framed towards winning and so we need to build an environment where success becomes a habit, not just a hope.

"So that's really what I've got to say on the manager situation, but more importantly they're getting into the roots of the issues and what we're doing about it and I'm happy at this stage to pause and take questions.

The cynic would suggest that you're not dispensed with the manager right now because the club can't afford it. How would you respond to that accusation?

"We wouldn't make any decision on a manager based on financial reasons, absolutely not. That isn't in the long-term interest of the club, that's not putting the club first. So every decision we're making is looking at the long term and we've got good revenues, we've got record revenues. You saw that from the results that were released prior to the AGM, so this isn't a financially driven decision, no."

How big a concern is it if, in many respects, anger has given way to apathy amongst the support? The Rangers supporters association are not particularly vocal, but they were one of the first ones to put a statement out this week. How big a concern is it that the fans could completely disengage? There was talk of not turning up on Sunday for the St Johnstone game. If you don't have the supporters engaging, then the club is a major issue.

"No football club can be successful without an engaged supporter base and Rangers’ supporter base is huge, and certainly not a supporter base we're taking for granted, just to be clear. So I go back to what I said earlier, the easy decision would be to say ‘right we'll change the manager’ because that's what some supporters are calling for, but I'm not here to make the easy decision. I'm here to make decisions and take actions that are going to create long-term success.

"One of the reasons I'm here is I want to speak to supporters to say we're not happy with results, no one's happy with results, but equally we're not happy with the short-term quick fixes that have been applied in the past and not worked. We've got to dig deeper and we're really committed to digging deeper and doing it quickly. I obviously have some initial impressions which I'm not going to share because I don't want to pre-empt this review. There will be multiple reasons that are all quite complex and interconnected, otherwise if it was easy we would have found the answer sooner and fixed it. So this is about really taking a step back, digging deep and we're doing this to create long-term sustained success - not just the odd trophy here and there.

Would you concede that if results don't improve then your position will change?

"Football is results-based and I'm not offering any guarantees as to length of tenure because it's all about improving results. Philippe and I have had that discussion so it would be foolhardy of me to say we retain any employee irrespective of results. Of course it's results-based but equally we all want to work together to improve that and that's what we're focused on at the moment."

What makes you and the board think that it's going to get any better under Philippe because the away form in particular, it's not just been up in the last few weeks, it's, you know, last season as well was an issue?

"I've only been in position for now I think five, six games. Obviously, I've watched several before that and there have been several very good performances where we've beaten or gone toe to toe and got good results against very strong teams, so you can see what the team is capable of. You can also see that some of the players that we've brought in, in summer 2024 but also January 2024 and then their loans became permanent signings, you can see those players have gone from being question marks - are they going to cut it or not in the SPFL - to actually they're really performing well so that's why there is confidence that progress is being made. However, it comes down to consistency so what we're doing is looking at why are we being inconsistent, what can we do to change that and make us more consistent and that's something that we are looking at, and I know Philippe is working hard on as well.

You say in there that the board is backing Philippe but there are no guarantees, results from the business, if that trend continues does a club have a succession plan in place?

So every good well-run club should have a succession plan in place for key positions and we would always have a succession plan in place for every key position whether it's manager, whether it's me, whether it's a chair, so that's something that I'm looking at introducing across the board so all key positions will have a succession plan because. It's not just a case of the club deciding to part company with a key employee, key employees can leave so we always need a succession plan for every key position so, you know, that's not unusual.

From a supporter's point of view, some supporters will be angry and they'll not agree with this decision but there'll be another sort of perspective and they'll say okay fine we agree with that but they'll also ask both of you at the same time what support then are you going to give Philippe Clement. So are the board then in recognising that he's their choice at the moment in time, are they prepared to help him because what he's got isn't working and that's what the fans will ask?

"Yeah and again I think they're quite right to do so. If I look at the last eight months, nine months or so, there's been a huge amount of instability and I think expecting any manager and any club or organisation to operate to their full potential when there's instability and also not permanent leadership in there to support them but also to challenge them, I think that's hard. I'm not going to point to the board, it's on me, I've got to work with Philippe, I've got to support him, I've got to challenge him and discuss with him you know what can we do to, because I've talked about the review and that's more looking at things from a long-term perspective but that's not to say we can't also look at the short term.

So we've got to do both and so as I said I spent a lot of time with Philippe, I was there just yesterday for a couple of hours and these are precisely the sort of discussions that I think haven't been there for you know at least you know some period of time and so I do have some sympathy for Philippe in terms of, everybody wants support and challenge from within the organisation and maybe that's not been there as much as it could have been.

You've not mentioned Nils Koppen yet, in terms of his promotion that obviously was announced before you came in, could you tell us a little bit about that, is that an all-encompassing director of football or is it a bit more of a lighter version and are there any plans to put some support in there that you mentioned in that sort of long-term strategy?

"Everything is within scope for the review and that includes looking at structures and roles and you know whether that means we have a you know a technical director and or a sporting director, all of that is in scope so you know we'll be looking at it as part of the review.

So at the moment on the way that the football department is structured, there's basically three people that report in to me directly, so Philippe for the men's first team, Donald Gillis for the women's club as a whole and then Nils that deals with everything on the sort of the football side that doesn't fall into one of those two buckets."

How long would you expect the review to take and when do you think you'll be in a position to kind of take action on it?

"Typically these processes take somewhere between sort of six to 12 weeks depending on you know how much resource you throw at it and also what you find. We don't want to just do it and then we get a report and put it in the desk, it's going to be a lot of execution as well as reviewing, we're going to be executing changes to reflect what we're finding. But I would expect to be able to update you at some point in the future in a kind of, I would say within a couple of months there or thereabouts so don't hold me to that precisely but I would expect there to be some sort of tangible outputs."

How many players could be signed in January?

It wouldn't be as many as three or four, no. We'd be looking at one, possibly two.

It would suggest to you that the players just now aren't good enough, that's why the club is 18 points behind Celtic.

If you look at the squad, when you've got players that are fit and playing at their peak, then the team has shown it is good enough. Consistency is the reason, consistency is the challenge. The players are clearly good enough. You don't beat Celtic 3-0 at Ibrox, you don't beat Nice 4-1 away from home, you don't go toe-to-toe in a cup final and many would say the team should have won, you don't draw against Spurs with players that aren't good enough. But consistency is an issue and I've acknowledged that. It's clear that that team is capable of going against the very best teams. We also need to make sure we're consistent week in week out and that is the challenge. I've not ducked from that so I accept there's been inconsistency and we've got to address that.

Are you in a position where you'd have to offload players to either bring in transfer fees or bring the wage bill further down before you could do business this month?

"We look at everything over the course of a year, not over the course of a single window."

Should an offer come in for Hamza in January would the club definitely not consider selling him?

"We don't want to sell Hamza in January, we want him to be here for the second part of the season, I'll be very clear on that."

Is it a case that there hasn't been enough attention paid to the type of players coming in? You've talked about short-term fixes, has that put pressure on the sporting director? Does he need to improve in that sense, the pattern of players that have been coming in over the last two or three years?

You've answered that question, he's only been here since January 2024, so he's actually only had one transfer window. So he certainly takes no responsibility for the problems that I identified that have led to that financial situation. His track record is from summer 2024 onwards.

Would it be irresponsible if you didn't sell a player that you got a good bid for in January?

I would be told it was irresponsible if we sold a player. There's always a balance, but January is not typically a window in which those sorts of transactions take place. We're always, as a board, going to be looking at the long-term and striking a balance in the long-term. That's our duty, but Hamza's only came into the team and started scoring, and we want him to be here for the second part of the season, as I'm sure all the supporters do as well.

Have you had offers for Cyriel Dessers?

I'm not going to discuss specific players.

Can you be satisfied that there's going to be the money available looking ahead to the summer window to match your ambitions for the club?

My ambitions are to create a club that's financially sustainable, but also sustains success on the pitch. I'm not saying we need money to do X, Y, or Z. My job is to make sure we're well run, and so that we are using all the revenue we've got really smartly. That will involve making decisions about how we use the money, and there'll be some things we can do, there'll be some things that we can't do. That's not just on the football side, that's across the board, including in things like how do we invest at Auchenhowie? What's the best facilities to invest in?

How do we best invest in the stadium? Everything is joined up, and we've got to look at everything from a holistic perspective. I'll certainly be making recommendations, and hopefully very strong recommendations, for the board to endorse. We've got good revenues, but we also need to use those wisely in every decision we make.

Will further external finance be required, and do you have assurances from shareholders and investors that they will provide that for the length of time that you need them to?

My job is to make sure that we don't have to go... I don't want to be in a position where we're relying on existing shareholders or external shareholders putting their hand in their pocket. That's very different from looking at long-term investment. That's something that every club in the world, bar a couple that are lucky to be owned by the state, every club in the world is looking at long-term finances, so of course we're doing that.

You said that Philippe will be able to bring in one or two players in January. How does he feel about that? Are the manager and the board aligned on this?

It's not like Philippe can bring in one or two, but in a January window, no club should be in a position from the summer window where it's having to do massive transfer business. That's just irresponsible. Philippe, myself, the board, we're discussing all the time. There's a healthy tension. Will Philippe be happy? Maybe yes, maybe not, but I'm wanting him to challenge me and I'm equally challenging him back. We're aligned in that we're putting the club first and we all want the same outcome for the club, which is for it to be successful immediately, but also in the long term.

Will review that be an external review with experienced football consultants or is that something being undertaken?

I'm really glad you asked that. This isn't just another internal review, which will take an inordinate amount of time and produce a report that nobody ever reads. I am going to be bringing in external football people that have experience of working with clubs to help drive growth and success. I think they'll provide firepower. They'll also provide expertise so that we're not just looking at this through a Rangers lens or, in my case, a Manchester United lens. Also, they'll be impartial. They've got no axe to grind, no agenda, and they'll make sure that we can accelerate the process, but also, importantly, support us in executing recommendations as well, so that this doesn't become one of these reviews that everyone rolls their eyes at and says, not another one. No, this is something that I'm very focused on making a meaningful difference.

Will you plan to share who's doing it at some point, or will that be after the event?

I'm sure it'll come out in due course.