CALUM CROWE: There's been enough talk about the US takeover ... now it's time for Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart to put some serious meat on the bone

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All the talk in San Francisco over the past few days has focused on two main issues. Firstly, the upcoming NFL draft, which is to be held later this week.

After a disappointing season which saw them miss out on the play-offs and fall well short of their targets, the 49ers are looking to rebuild and bring some fresh talent into the building.

The second point of discussion has focused on a new contract proposal for star quarterback Brock Purdy, which would see him paid around £50million per year.

If the first of those issues will feel familiar to Rangers fans coming to terms with another season of abject failure, the latter is a concept with which they are wholly unfamiliar.

While Chris from California calls the American equivalent of talkSPORT or Clyde Superscoreboard to moan about a poor season, poor old Graham from Govan can only dream of spending £50m on one player.

Graham is not his real name. We’ve kept his identity hidden to spare him the indignity of being outed as a Rangers supporter at this moment in time.

Rangers fans have been understandably excited about the prospect of American takeover

It's high time that Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart gave fans a major update on negotiations

The £50m per year contract being proposed for star quarterback Brock Purdy shows just how far apart the 49ers and Rangers are financially

Listen, all joking aside, the fact that the Niners operate in a different financial stratosphere from Rangers is unarguable.

In their last set of accounts, total revenue for the five-time Super Bowl winners was around $680m, while Rangers’ was just over £88m.

The numbers make it clear that these two potential bedfellows operate on a different planet from each other.

However, Rangers fans are entitled to wonder who their own Brock Purdy might be - if and when the proposed takeover goes through.

The club will embark on their own version of the NFL draft when they hold a major clear-out in the summer and bring some fresh faces through the door.

While the proposed takeover may have been pushed down the pecking order in terms of talking points in San Francisco recently, it continues to be the talk of the steamie in Glasgow.

Which is why all eyes and ears will focus on Patrick Stewart on Wednesday night when the Rangers chief executive holds a Q&A session with supporters at Edmiston House.

Beyond a couple of in-house interviews with club media, this will be his first public engagement with supporters and the first time he will have faced questions from the floor.

Barry Ferguson was never likely to be allowed to extend his caretaker management role beyond the end of the season

Now the entire Rangers squad is subject to a major overhaul taking place this summer

Health tycoon Andrew Cavenagh's attendance at Rangers matches has been warmly welcomed by supporters

It hardly requires the foresight of Nostradamus to predict what the main issue is likely to be as fans try to gain some kind of concrete update on the takeover process.

The official party line from Rangers is that everything is continuing to move along very smoothly and in a very satisfactory manner.

Over recent days, senior figures within the club have insisted that the US investors have now wrapped up the 51 per cent of shares they require to take control.

Everything is now in the hands of the lawyers, with the necessary paperwork set to be finalised within the next month or so.

But if it’s simply a case of now dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, it’s beginning to feel like someone has lost their pen.

Nobody is naive enough to expect these major, multi-million pound takeover deals to be completed as soon as someone clicks their fingers.

There’s a process of due diligence to go through. As one source put it, when any new couple ties the knot, they need to give each other a full road test before they decide to get married.

Given the lack of official updates from either side, though, you can understand why Rangers fans are now becoming slightly fearful that things may have stalled slightly.

Takeover will be strictly business for powerbrokers like Paraag Marathe, with no emotion or sentiment attached

Supporters will want to know if Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart will be overseeing the process when it comes to recruiting a new manager

Or will it be left to Nils Kopper, the Belgian who was promoted from recruitment chief to technical director?

We are now essentially six months down the line from when these talks were said to have initially begun last October.

Again, while nobody would be foolish enough to expect these huge deals to be completed in the blink of an eye, it does feel like things are now just beginning to drag on a bit.

The silence is deafening. Hence why Stewart can’t hide behind confidentiality clauses and legal gobbledygook when he addresses supporters on Wednesday. That simply won’t cut it.

It’s time for the Rangers chief executive to put some genuine meat on the bone and explain not only how the deal is progressing, but what the future might look like if and when the takeover is completed.

As one insider put it to Mail Sport recently, Andrew Cavenagh and Paraag Marathe are serious business people with a global reach.

They have no emotional attachment to Rangers. They see this as a business opportunity, nothing more.

If they feel like they are wasting their time, or that things aren’t progressing in a satisfactory manner, they’ll walk away. It’s no skin off their nose.

Given Cavenagh’s continued attendance at recent matches, nobody is suggesting the Americans have reached that point yet.

Stewart needs to lay out a clear plan for how Rangers are going to move forward in future

However, it will be incumbent on Stewart to ease any concerns among supporters and provide a concrete update about the direction of travel.

In his couple of public statements thus far, things haven’t gone especially well. He backed Philippe Clement at a time when it had long been clear the Belgian was a busted flush.

When the club eventually sacked Clement just a couple of weeks later, Stewart was left with serious egg on his face.

That’s not a good look for any chief executive, especially not one who is only five minutes through the door and seeking to make a positive impression.

Stewart needs to lay out a clear plan for how the club rebuilds and moves forward in the summer.

Barry Ferguson was never a serious proposition to become the next manager. He still hasn’t won a home game despite being in the job for the past two months.

A tame and toothless display in Bilbao last week finally ended any lingering notion that he could be keep the job beyond the summer.

The recruitment of a new manager now becomes pivotal. As does the rebuilding of a playing squad which will undergo the footballing equivalent of open heart surgery.

Who will be overseeing that process? Will it be Stewart? Will it be Kevin Thelwell, latterly of Everton, who is in pole position to land a key role as sporting director or director of football? 

Will it be Nils Koppen? The Belgian, who was promoted from recruitment chief to technical director last November, remains at the club for reasons unknown.

How can Koppen, who signed duds like Robin Propper and Nedim Bajrami, be trusted to oversee such a major overhaul of the playing squad?

What level of finance will be provided by the Americans? What level of influence will they have? These are questions to which we simply still don’t know the answers.

The longer the uncertainty continues, the more it will set Rangers back and put them behind the eight-ball for the start of next season. It’s time for answers.

Finest stadiums? It just had to be Tynecastle for me 

If you haven’t already done so, pour yourself a cuppa and spend 10 minutes or so reading Mail Sport’s brilliant journey through all 41 football stadiums in the SPFL.

Compiled by the peerless - and ageless - Hugh MacDonald, it is an illuminating odyssey that ranks every stadium in order from 1 to 41.

Everyone will have their own opinion on which venue should sit top of the pile and rarely will two people agree. After all, one man’s cowp is another man’s paradise.

What makes a stadium special? Is it the sheer size of the place? The sound? The history and memories? The way it makes you feel?

It’s probably all of the above, and there’s no doubt that the privilege of working at these places and sitting in the press box colours your opinion.

Tynecastle would come top in our columnist's own personal list of favourite stadiums

If you think hormonal teenagers can be a bit stroppy about a dodgy WiFi connection, that’s nothing compared to a journalist trying to file a match report on deadline.

For me, it is hard to beat a packed house at Tynecastle. Especially working in the old press box, buried away in the heart of the old main stand, there was nothing like it.

You were essentially in among the punters in this tight little row of seats. It was chaotic and very sweary - and that was just the match reports.

Positioned right on top of the dugouts, you had the best view in the house.

It was the finest press box in the country, bar none, and had a brilliant atmosphere to go with it.