Rangers return to Ibrox, and John Bennett deserves the credit | OneFootball

Rangers finally, at long last properly return home to Ibrox this weekend, albeit obviously only with half of the Copland Road stand open.

We will have full coverage in due course of that particular fillip for Rangers, and some of its implications, but for now we want to discuss outgone chairman John Bennett, who has gone from fans’ worst enemy to universally-praised, in the way he might have benefited from while in the post, especially given Dave King has also been adding to the man’s plaudits.

And the relation to the topic of Ibrox reopening is of course the credit Bennett deserves for putting his cajones on the line by guestimating a return date of late September, and getting it right.

It is thanks to our departed Chairman and no one else that Rangers are able to return to Ibrox this early, after he took on the entire Ibrox shambles himself after CEO James Bisgrove left him deep in the brown stuff, and managed to get the thing sorted quickly enough to get the club back there this weekend.

It was all too much for him in the end, and he had to step down, but Bennett’s leadership meant Rangers have our home again, considerably earlier than it had looked in June. Earlier than it looked after Bennett’s September estimate, when information suggestion it could drag on deeper into October.

We are delighted that the man is no longer being dragged through the bushes, undeservedly, and that he’s being given a bit of credit for what he achieved in getting us home bang on when he said he would.

Pity it cost him his health and his proud position as chairman.