San Francisco 49ers have completed their acquisition of Rangers football club
Departing Rangers board Alastair Johnston has expressed his excitement at the confirmed takeover of the club by the San Francisco 49ers and claims the club can now begin to ‘extinguish the rot’ which he believes has derailed the Ibrox side’s progress on the pitch for a number of years.
Johnston was ousted from his post as chairman when Scottish businessman Whyte bought Rangers from majority shareholder Sir David Murray in May 2011. It ended a seven-year-association with the club which had started in 2004 when he became a director before assuming the position of club chairman five years later in 2009.
Johnston was a part of the setup to see the club win four league titles but left the club just a year before matters took a sudden turn for the worse as the club entered administration in February 2012 before being consigned to liquidation three months later, before Rangers re-emerged in the bottom tier of Scottish football as a new company.
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Alastair Johnston looks forward to exciting new era
Former Rangers chairman Alistair Johnston is predicting a bright new future for the club under their American owners after a difficult period on the pitch. Johnston predicted then that it would take a decade for the Govan club to recalibrate at the time of their financial troubles in 2012 and though he was out by a year as the club were crowned champions in 2021, it’s now been four years since the Gers last won the league title and it’s fair to say that Celtic have been viewed as the dominant force in Scotland for the best part of 15 years.
Johnston, who returned to the board as a non-executive director in 2017 when South Africa-based Dave King was chairman, is standing down with a new-look board taking shape, and he’s optimistic that the new group are the right people to get the club moving in the right direction. He has reflected on AGM statements he made that appeared odd at the time to some, but it was directly influence by knowledge the 49ers were coming in.
He told the PA news agency: “I was asked to respond to a question at the Rangers AGM last December as to the options available to the club in order for it to return to its glory days.
“My comments were reported at the time as being somewhat bemusing. I responded by describing the current circumstances in English football about so many of the leading clubs being taken over by American investors and, in several cases, their approach included an ownership model that involved multiple teams. I was careful to insinuate that this was a hypothetical possibility.
“In truth, I was already aware of the interest that a group involving the 49ers had shown in Rangers and that we had already engaged in early-stage discussions with its representatives. Intense negotiations were conducted covering all facets of such an acquisition, and I am delighted we were able to capitalise on a collaboration that we believe will provide us with a platform to extinguish the rot that had befallen the club for a decade since the Craig Whyte fiasco.”
What can Rangers expect from the San Francisco 49ers?
Martin is known for having a possession-based style of play with great emphasis on playing the ball out from the back and dominating the midfield battle. This worked to great effect when Martin was in the Championship as he steered the Saints to promotion via the play-offs but began to unravel in the Premier League as the club won just one of their opening 16 matches.
Martin is a familiar face to Rangers fans from a brief loan spell in 2018 and will hope to implement a clear playing style which has been lacking at the club in recent months. He’s also expected to have plenty of funds to spend for a rebuild of the squad if the appointment is confirmed, with several outlets suggesting around £20m will be made available to spend on incomings.
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