Revealed: Rangers chief announces changes at Ibrox

Rangers’ Director of Football Mark Allen has confirmed several upgrades and expansions are to be made to Ibrox to bring it closer to ‘elite’ status, albeit we’d argue it’s already close to being there as it is.

The ex-Man City Academy chief confirmed, among other things, a new gym to be installed for the players for warm-ups before kick off, and a switch in where Steven Gerrard, as manager, will be based.

He said to the official site:

“I think we have started here at the Hummel Training Centre first with the pitches and some of the canteen facilities, which everyone is aware of. The next phase is to fine-tune some of the stuff at Ibrox so the matchday experience for the players is right and proper for what you would expect in an elite environment. There will be a dining area put in for players to have their prematch meals there, there will be a players’ lounge and there will be a little gym area for the players to get ready for games. The manager will move a little bit and become closer to the first-team changing room, and we will create that elite environment so the players go from the [Hummel Training Centre] to the ground, and it should be seamless. It is all part of the bigger picture – it is about players, it is about the manager and it is about the team but it is also about the environment.”

It’s part of an overall picture in improving the basic facilities at Ibrox so they’re conducive to a more professional and elite experience for the staff who are under incredible pressure to perform as it is.

We’ve all seen the improvements to Auchenhowie – even the catering has been hugely overhauled and diet is taken so seriously now as opposed to the ‘monster munch brigade’ of years ago, and Ibrox is set to follow suit.

It’s gradual. This stuff can’t happen overnight, but Dave King promised infrastructure improvements to the training ground and the stadium and having been in control now for three and a half years he’s slowly coming good on it.