Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart admits the Ibrox board are not “oblivious to the noise” which surrounds the recruitment of new head coach Russell Martin.

After Kevin Thelwell was officially installed as sporting director on Monday, the 39-year-old former Southampton boss, who had a loan spell as a player at Rangers in 2018, was confirmed in the Ibrox hot seat on Thursday morning.

However, the appointment was not met with universal approval from many Gers supporters who registered their disapproval of the new board’s choice before and after his arrival.

While noting fans’ views, Stewart believes the Ibrox club have taken a diligent approach to finding a successor to Philippe Clement, who departed the club in February, before former captain Barry Ferguson took over until the end of the season.

“Firstly, we’re always very sensitive and aware of supporters’ sentiment on any issue,” said Stewart.

“And yeah, I’m aware that supporters have strong views on who the right person for the role is.

“So we’ll always factor that into a degree, but equally, I’ve been talking a lot about process and making sure we’ve got people and experts in that are qualified to make decisions.

“So we’ve really put our trust in our process, making sure we’ve got right people in to make decisions. And so it has been following that with a lot of discipline.

“We’re not oblivious to the noise at all, not at all.

“But I think we are confident that because we conducted such a thorough process to take us to this point where we’ve appointed Russell, that we’re confident that the supporters will get behind him, particularly when they see him in action.”

Stewart believes the appointment of Martin, which also comes on the back of last Friday’s takeover by an American consortium led by Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises, underpinned a “seismic” change at the Ibrox club.

Stewart said: “It clearly is incredibly significant.

“That’s two seismic changes. In fact, three, if you look we’ve had a change of ownership, followed by our sporting director coming in, followed by a head coach being announced.

“That’s an awful lot of activity for one club in one week.

“So I think it does herald a really positive new chapter for the club.

“It is a seismic period for the club and sets a really strong foundation for the future.”

After a trophyless season for Rangers, Stewart outlined his expectations for Martin, saying: “First and foremost, taking the current squad that we’ve got and making it better, then also adding to the squad over the summer.

“And it’s about competing again.

“I think we all accept that last season just passed, we were way off, and that’s not where we want to be.

“That’s not acceptable as a club. So it’s about competing again on all fronts and that is the expectation.”

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