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John Gilligan hints Jim Gillespie's Rangers chairman job withdrawal 'set club back'

John Gilligan speaking to Rangers TV
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


John Gilligan has hinted that Jim Gillespie's decision to pull out of talks to become Rangers' new chief executive "set the club back" in their hunt for a James Bisgrove replacement.

The 72-year-old spoke to RTV for the first time in his role as interim chairman following the resignation of John Bennett who stood down for health reasons. Gilligan also met the press earlier this afternoon as he was asked how close the club were to finding their new CEO.

The retired businessman revealed they were close in their search but he went into further detail about Gillespie who was their number one candidate. The vice chairman at St Mirren was close to a move to Ibrox only to withdraw himself from contention.

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And Gilligan, albeit without naming Gillespie specifically, explained how that threw a spanner in the works for the Glasgow giants who have now outsourced the hiring process to a recruitment agency.

“What happened is we were almost there,” Gilligan told the club's channel. “And the candidate withdrew late in the process. Which is absolutely acceptable, that’s none of our business.

“But it sort of set us back, but what you do is go back again and certain other candidates that were there. We can pick up with them again and we’ve opened it up to some more people by employing a recruitment agent and we’ll do that now, that is now in place.”