Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart has revealed Philippe Clement will remain the club's manager despite growing pressure from supporters.

Former Manchester United chief Stewart - who took up his role at Ibrox less than a month ago - admits it would have been "the easy decision" to sack the Belgian boss following frustration from fans. However, he insists his time at Old Trafford proves constant managerial change is not effective.

Stewart did warn results must improve with no "cast-iron guarantees" offered to Clement, whose side have won just three away league matches this season and began this weekend 15 points behind Celtic. He also dismissed the suggestion that a lack of finances is behind the decision to keep the 50-year-old at the helm.

A "root and branch review of the entire football department" will begin on Monday with external assistance - lasting between six to 12 weeks - as he aims to tackle the issues that have blighted the club on and off the field in recent seasons.

He also revealed Rangers will look to add "one or two" players in the January transfer window with centre-back a position they have been looking to address since December.

Here are the key points as the Gers CEO spoke to the media...

"There's been a lot of talk about results, and there's been a lot of talk about the manager, and I know that the spotlight is on [chairman] Fraser [Thornton] and myself, but particularly on me. But that's the job, I'm okay with that.

"I need to make some tough decisions, it comes with the role, but I am committed to making the right ones for Rangers, not just the popular ones.

"So cutting to the chase, we are backing Philippe at this time as a board.

"It's about taking a deeper look at the issues, addressing those problems, and staying focused on building a stronger future for the club.

"Changing a manager isn't a silver-bullet solution.

"You know where I've worked previously, and that isn't something that has been effective there, it's not effective at a lot of football clubs where there's constant change of manager.

"What I do need to do, and what the board are supporting me with, is uncovering the underlying issues and addressing those.

"There's been several years where we've been underperforming, and there's something deeper rooted here, and I agree with that.

"So I think that's what we need to do, we need to look beneath the surface. Managers and coaching staff will continue to come and go in the future, that's understood. Again, that is football. But what I'm looking to do, again, this is a team effort, is build a solid foundation and a real long-term football plan for the club.

"If we rush and react every time there's some poor results, we're in danger of just being back in the same place in a year's time or 18 months' time or however long. But I want to be clear, look, I'm not saying everything is fine, and I think the fans are frustrated, I get that.

"I've been a football fan my entire life, I've been in that position, we're also all frustrated. And particularly if I look at the away results, you know, the record is there, it's been discussed, it's not good, and it's not what's expected for Rangers.

"So we are working with Philippe to address consistency issues, and I'm also not going to speculate on what happens if results don't improve.

"If results don't improve, obviously I can't give Philippe any cast-iron guarantees. He and I have both been around football long enough to know that isn't the case.

"Equally, I'm not going to get into how many games does Philippe have to save his job, that's not what we're about. We're about helping Philippe to identify why is there the inconsistency and let's address that.

"This isn't a financially-driven decision.

"To be clear, sticking with Philippe isn't about trying to avoid a tough decision.

"In fact, I think if anything, changing a manager would be the easy decision, because a lot of supporters are calling for that. I'm aware of that, I've seen the statements.

"I've worked with several managers and Philippe is as hard-working and committed as any I've seen. First in the training ground, last out, he's always on, always available, always thinking about it.

"He is absolutely committed to bringing success to the club, and we're committed to providing him with that support."

"We're doing a root-and-branch review of the entire football department.

"Everything is in scope and it starts on Monday because I think if we're honest with ourselves as a club, the football club has not been where it wants to be for several years now.

"We want to ensure that we've got structures in place to succeed. Every decision that we make needs to be focused on one goal, which is bringing success to Rangers and making our supporters proud.

"We also want to ensure that we've got a plan that works, one that's joined up from the training ground to the boardroom, and that we have processes geared towards building winning teams across the board, men's and women's academy.

"Typically these processes take somewhere between sort of six to 12 weeks depending on how much resource you throw at it and also what you find and what I'd expect.

"Ultimately, long-term sustained success is built on culture. We've got to make sure that we've got a culture that's framed towards winning and so we need to build an environment where success becomes a habit, not just a hope."

"I think in well-run clubs, it's the club that signs the players, not the manager. The manager does play a significant role. He should be influencing the plans and should have a veto right over signings. I also expect a manager to be pushing me and technical director Nils [Koppen] to invest in the squad.

"I expect that challenge [and] equally I'm going to push back and say 'I want you to make the most of the players that we've got' and I think you need that kind of healthy tension where Philippe is pushing for more players and, as he said in a recent press conference, every manager wants more players and you'd want that from a manager.

"We're all working to back the club it's not the club backing the manager it's really everyone backing the club to make sure we're signing players for the club or for the long-term benefit of the club.

"The January window generally isn't a particularly fruitful window. Most selling clubs do not want to sell their best players. We have no intention of selling the players that are performing on the park at the moment and why would we expect any other club that's challenging for trophies to do so.

"All of that said… I think there are a couple of scenarios where it can be really effective. Firstly where a club has suffered injuries such as we have - particularly a centre-back - it is an opportunity to make a reactive signing. This is a position we've been looking at since December and so we have been active in discussions.

"The second scenario where the January window can work is to accelerate the signing of a player that we were planning anyway. So that does provide an opportunity and again that's something that we're focusing on just now.

"There is activity. Whether that translates into players coming in depends on whether we can get the right profile of player in a deal that is right for the club. We're going to be really disciplined about that."

When asked how many signings fans should expect, Stewart added: "We'd be looking at one, possibly two."

He continued: "January is not just about bringing players in though, it's also an opportunity to move players on. Again I just want to be clear we are not intending to sell any players that are contributing on the pitch. That is not within our plans. There are other players though that for one reason or another are not getting much game time and we're having discussions with them and their agents to see if there's a kind of win-win solution there. Again that's a benefit of the January window."

When pressed on if Rangers could sell in-form Hamza Igamane, he said: "We don't want to sell Hamza in January, we want him to be here for the second part of the season, I'll be very clear on that."

"It's about building a squad for Rangers to win on a sustained basis. Winning the odd cup here and there, that's not the aim it's about being serial league winners, challenging on multiple fronts on a consistent basis that's where we need to be as a club.

"There are essentially three profiles of player that we are focused on when it comes to player trading. Firstly younger players who have the mentality to play for Rangers and who fit within our financial parameters. And then we have a first-team management group that develops those players so that they're contributing minutes on the pitch immediately and they're also increasing in value on the transfer market.

"Second category is talented Scottish players and we want a talented group of young Scottish players not just young just Scottish players that are going to form the core of the squad.

"Finally I think every successful squad has a good balance of youth and experience so we also look at a profile of player that will bring that experience to the squad and be there as role models to help development of players."

"It's the summer window that's the key trading window. No club starts at the beginning of the season and says 'right and this is what we're going to do in January'. It's all the focus is on summer and we did a lot of transfer business in the summer 2024 window."