Rangers have a new chairman – does John Bennett have money?

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Rangers have a new chairman – does John Bennett have money?
The chairman isn't sitting happily on these numbers....

Yesterday’s chaotic news of Douglas Park’s resignation followed by the immediate replacement of John Bennett was greeted with mostly celebrations from fans, who believe Park was not great at his job at all and now want to see other suits quit in tow.

The big ones they want rid of are Sporting Director Ross Wilson and Managing Director Stewart Robertson – the former has not been a resounding success in the transfer market, which is where he is generally judged, while the latter allegedly chose and appointed Pedro. ‘Nuff said.

But Park’s replacement, Bennett, is an interesting change, one we predicted a long time ago.

From one look at his CV, he’s not exactly an awful lot better than Kyle Fox, being a guru in investment but not actually having his own money. He doesn’t own any big companies that we know of, he doesn’t have a huge kitty of his own, and his jobs are always investment gigs where he’s director of finance.

He is, of course, one of us, so we do do him a bit of a disservice comparing him to Fox, someone he dislikes intensely along with the rest of any sane Rangers man and woman, but in terms of his financial muscle it’s not exactly clear.

He has ploughed millions in, but as loans, as overdrafts, and unless we’re completely off the mark, that money wasn’t his, but hedge fund based – aka, the companies he works with and for.

So he does have access to funds, legitimately, and he does have a significant stake in Rangers as well – he’s not penniless, but he’s not big cash and he’s not going to plough in serious fortunes that we ‘don’t have to pay back’.

Are we in safe hands with him? Yes, he’s a good egg and he’s reliable. He’s one of us and he speaks well, with more assurance than his predecessor. But anyone hoping he’s got big money to spend and hurl into the club has another think coming.

The saviour he isn’t. But hopefully we now see a lot less of the Park brand of cars and busses and coaches sponsoring everything at Ibrox.

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