Rangers have just made a major £6M announcement yet kept it very quiet

It has been confirmed Rangers settled Sports Direct out of court for £6M, £2M shy of the £8M we were informed of but still in a similar ballpark.

This announcement among the accounts, rather quietly shuffled underneath all the headlines, does actually deserve a bit more credit – the board spent modestly north of £5M getting rid of Mike Ashley once and for all permanently, bringing conclusively to an end any lingering embers of power the SD tycoon had over Rangers.

Now, many would argue those on the boardroom themselves are barely any better than Ashley these days, but that would be an unfair argument. Ashley was a deeply toxic force both at Ibrox and for Newcastle, and now both clubs are completely free of him.

Sadly, he is trying to get his claws into other clubs, a number of Championship sides being potential victims if he can seize control – indeed, Coventry actually rejected him despite his having enough money. They just didn’t want him in control.

And Rangers, to the tune of £6M, paid what really was a small price to get completely shot of Ashley, even if SD still violate certain laws happily by selling Rangers’ shirts and leaking the design. How they are managing to do that we’re not entirely sure, but there you go.

End of the day though, Ashley’s grip on Rangers is gone, he has no more sway on anything to do with Rangers, and indeed never even made any comment on the club during the decade his mitts were all over us.

This was definitely one of the good things the board did, regardless of who actually did it – the relationship was completely severed and the club and fans were finally free of Sports Direct and Ashley.

£6M very well spent if you ask us.