Paraag:
“The short, medium and long term goal is to win. It’s win the league, it’s win cups, it’s all of the above. Do we think we have what we need to win? Absolutely. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t. We definitely have big belief in Kev and Russell to lead the football side. This is about building the right foundation and about doing it intelligently and thoughtfully, not just throwing money at it.
“Throwing money might solve something short term, but this is about trying to build something that will last, and outlast our tenues with the club and keep Rangers on a great trajectory it deserves to be on.”
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Paraag:
“We’re not trying to benchmark ourselves against that other club. We are trying to be as successful as we can be. That is a self-evaluation. What that means if we end up winning a title, then we end up succeeding. But we are not trying to compare ourselves or contrast ourselves to other clubs, we are trying to be as good as we can be.”
“Really trying to stay disciplined and focus on the process.
“The result will matter. I’m not saying they are irrelevant, but if you focus more on the process then chances are you’re going to be right more than you’re wrong.
“What’s different is that here, there’s not many clubs in the world where you have the hope and the expectation of being able to win the league, play in Europe and to win cups.
“And Rangers is a crown jewel of Europe. And every year we get to have that hope and expectation. Frankly, that’s different.
How will you split your-time between 49ers/Leeds/Gers and what about fears Gers being a feeder club to Leeds?
“It would be a disservice to Leeds and Rangers to consider one a feeder club to the other.
“Consider them both closed-loop universes that deserve proper attention and nurture and care – we will designate and assign resources approximately.
“But look, there are opportunities to learn from each other, whether it’s commercially or competitively on the pitch.
“I mean, it could just be simple things. If there’s a plumbing issue and we go through certain plumbers who are terrible and certain ones who are good, If Elland Road had a plumbing issue, we’re certain to want to call and figure out who the best plumber is!
“You can apply that analogy to an agent, so there’s lots that you can share.
“So me being able to sit across both means I can help navigate those too.
“In my mind it’s a real positive to have two clubs like that but there’s not one that is subordinate to the other. That would be a disservice.
Uefa competition – no Crystal Palace/Lyon situation?
“We have checked the box with those that we need to to make sure that if and when there is ever even a situation when there is a perception of a conflict, we would solve that.
“That has already been solved, so we’re good there.
“As far as my time… [over to Chris]
MARATHE – YOUR TIME
As far as my time, I don’t see it as hours in a day, days in a week or weeks in a year. I really don’t. To me, I hate losing and I want to win. I will do whatever I need to do to keep me on the winning side of the ledger at any club. That is all I care about. I don’t even know where I was two days ago. Honestly. Right now I am here and thinking about this. That is all that drives me.
MARATHE – BENEFITS OF 49ERS
I think it is pretty objectively true that the San Francisco 49ers are one of the biggest sports brands in the world. And certainly one of the most recognisable. Rangers is a gem of European football. What the 49ers can bring is a certain global gravitas and awareness to Rangers. Now, take the States or other places where the 49ers are top of mind, now all of a sudden Rangers are in that same sentence. Why does that matter? It matters when we are out with commercial partners who care about how many times they are going to be mentioned, how many times their name will come up. That has monetary value. It has helped us with Leeds. In terms of one not being subordinate to the other, selfishly speaking it actually helps the 49ers too. Bringing it more into the conversation globally and bringing that awareness, I know from my experience at Leeds and I am already seeing some of the early returns. It matters to players that we are out recruiting. Oh wait, a second, the 49ers are involved in this. This must mean that there is a certain extra gravitas that comes to it that helps us in the recruitment of players.
MARATHE – CHANGES TO FOOTBALL
One of my core beliefs and what Andrew and I have talked about is that the world is becoming a smaller place. It is so much easier to consume Rangers football, to consume the Scottish Premiership, because it is easier to watch through streaming or whatever. Football is borderless. It is the worlds great game. It is one of the reasons why we wanted to be involved here, it doesn’t have a border and we are one of the biggest clubs in the world with 600 supporter clubs and millions of fans around the world. The more people that consume the brand, consume the sport, consume the matches, the better for us. It is really borderless.
MARATHE – KEEP PLAYERS
That is the first test of our disciple to our philosophy. Fortunately we have hired Kev and hired Russell who will speak to the specifics of the football decisions we need to make. As Andrew alluded to, the resources are in place to allow us to make the best decisions for the club without being forced to make a decision because of club economics or finances. We don’t want to speak about any specific players but we have the ability to do what we need to do to be successful this season.
Timescale for stadium redevelopment? Capacity you looking at?
“I don’t think we’ve got to the point where we’ve crystallised exactly what we want to do and how much we want to expand if at all. There are cosmetic short-term things that we are looking at already, whether it is in hospitality areas or different ways of consuming the match a little bit better for supporters. Long term, that will require a thoughtful process with supports, with feasibility studies with all the things we are looking at. One thing we do know is that we have the supporters base here. If we had 200,000 we would fill the stadium. It is just a matter of doing it in a thoughtful way. As Andrew says, everything is put back on the pitch to make us more competitive.”
49ers Blueprint. What can you take from there to Rangers?
“It is going to sound simple and basic, but it is the discipline to stay true to these things is what I think matters. First, if we are doing a good job, you are not going to hear from us much. If we are doing a good job then we will let our actions speak for themselves and we will speak when we have something to say. But if we are successful at what we are doing then that means we have hired the right team, we have empowered them to make decisions and not be afraid to make challenging decisions and not be afraid of where the idea comes from, however high or however low, inside or outside the club, the best idea comes from. We have given that team the right resources to be able to succeed and then we have held that team unaccountable. That is pretty simple and basic. It is the philosophy that I applied at the 49ers, that I apply at Leeds now as well. Ultimately that foundation is built upon discipline, thoughtful, analytical, data-based decision making.
We don’t want to be in a position where we are just shooting from the hip and just making gut decisions. There is time for gut decisions, not everything is done by a calculator. But the more we can stack the odds in our favour and have proper thought to a decision that we need to make before we make it. The more often we can do that with the hundreds and thousands of decisions that we make we will be right more than we are wrong. That is essentially the blueprint. There is a lot more detail to that and it sounds so basic and simple, but there is a discipline to that blueprint which stops unsuccessful teams or average teams from reaching that pinnacle. We are going to be pretty consistent in adhering to that blueprint.”
Lessons from Leeds? What can’t you apply at Rangers?
“What I have learned is the jeopardy and what is at stake with every single match and every single minute. European football is a pressure cooker like no other. I thought the NFL was intense because we have 17 games. It is next level here. You really have to be able to see the forest through the trees and not just making rash, emotional decision, whether it is on a player, on a manager, on anything, just because something didn’t go your way. You might have had all the right thought process behind something, you might have been 80 per cent the chances are you are going to be right, but then the ball just bounces the other way.”