When will Rangers REALLY go for 55?

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When will Rangers REALLY go for 55?
 Article by: Greg Roots

The infamous “going for 55” banners at the start of last season provided our enemies with what they believed to be evidence that we, ourselves, firmly believed that we would win our 55th league title upon immediate return to Scotland’s premier division.

Despite that, I have not met a Rangers fan who genuinely believed that we would win the league last season. The early signings of Rossiter and Barton may have provided us with (misplaced) optimism, but a title win was never expected.

The Rangers hierarchy admitted that Warburton’s appalling transfer business last summer set the club back in its 5-year plan to get back to winning the title. This all begs the question of what should we expect from next season.

Pedro Caixinha has already come under fire from certain supporters due to his erratic team selections, but in his defence he openly admitted he would treat the remaining period of the season as an experimental process to allow him to fully judge the ability, or clear lack of, in the playing squad at his disposal. Total disapproval of Pedro, in my opinion, is highly unfair at this stage due to the sheer incompetence of some of the players we have in the team.

It is often said that new managers should be able to lift a previously poor-performing team, however Warburton, Murty and Caixinha have all failed to get anything out of this squad on a consistent basis. I put it to the reader that the problem clearly lies in the playing squad and that Pedro should be allowed to build his own team before he is thoroughly judged.

There is no denying that serious investment is required before we can consider winning the league. As it stands, Celtic have a wage budget 150% bigger than ours so we need to get value for money, something which we failed to do last year.

Without significant investment, we will be consigned to second at best. A position which most fans will not accept for much longer.

I can’t see Celtic having as good a season next year as they did this year but where we can improve next season is by dominating against the teams below us. Far too many points were dropped against relegation fodder, and ultimately that is why we finished in 3rd place.

Turning the silly draws vs Ross County and Kilmarnock et al into wins will go a long way in terms of cementing second place and building up a challenge to Celtic. If we can do that, given the difference in playing budgets, it wouldn’t be a disaster of a season.

However, Rangers fans will always want the title but I stand by my view that it will take serious investment (£10m – £20m perhaps) for 55 to become a reality.

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16 COMMENTS

  1. Yes Rangers fans will always want the title but I stand by my view that it will take serious investment (£10m – £20m perhaps) for 55 to become a reality,as much as i agree with most of this i disagree about the amount of serious investment i know £10/20m is a lot of money but to nail it and keep us there for three or four seasons then we got to be starting at £50m that is what i think i could be wrong but the longer it takes the more money it takes we need this money coming in now

    • Totally agree with ur assessment john but 50mil will only come if we make good transfer choices. As much as it pains me to say but Celtic have a great transfer strategy and the money they have made in the last 5 years is the reason they have such a big budget, nothing to do with outside investment in the slightest. Players like foster , wanyama, van dyke and small players like ki , kayal , hooper have all made serious profits . We need a a better transfer policy in order to rake in the cash from the massive markets in the Bpl and championship . how much is that Celtic team worth compared to ours, overrated but the profit they will make from dembele will be Huge, Sinclair for 3mil ffs , we need to invest big time

  2. John,

    We don't have $50M. I don't and I don't know anybody who does that would give it to Rangers expecting nothing back. King is not going to pump money in that can't be repaid. He and the others have put in millions, I believe £18M to cover ongoing losses. These should hopefully now cease. But there will be £3-5M this summer, tops. And the same again the next couple of years, added to whatever we can make in Europe. If we can get better commercial and sponsorship deals, that total will rise, but it is not going to get to £50M.
    Let's accept that and move on

    • Scots

      The article was "When will we challenge for 55"…I think, under our current model, if things remain as they are at present, we have a further 7 lean years before we can realistically produce a team capable of competing, why produce? because we cant buy any that's for sure.
      Not sure where you get the figure that King has put 18 anything's into Rangers, his short arms deep pocket strategy means he puts jack shit in… the others have funded his blazer so don't lose the sight of that.
      To get anywhere we need investment and no one will invest in a basket case with a criminal toxic chairman….so top 5 is as good as we can hope for until they start producing what we cant buy…to improve we need change at the top or my 7 lean years will be a reality …how many in a row will that be for them by then?…..scary the thought

      GSTQ

  3. In reality £10m to £20m, this kind of money will not come from the board that we have in place now, but then no one has come along to offer any big money or even try to help us get back to where we as Rangers fans think that we should be in the league so where is this money coming from, you all seem to forget that in 2012 we as a club were near to dead … totally… we are so lucky to even have a club and be where we are now, all you do is slag the team off week after week , if you really think that we will win anything for the next 2/3 years then you are all living in a dream world , we as a team will be lucky to finish in 2/3 in the league for a long time, yes we need money, but ,it is not going to come … god cant you all just support the team and be happy that we still have a team to support or do most of you have such short memories … by the way I am 61 and have been a supporter of GLASGOW RANGERS all my life ….that just for the brain dead dicks that would normally say that I was a tim from piggery … well I am not ,I am a true bluenose …..AND I LOVE GLASGOW RANGERS THROUGH GOOD TIMES AND BAD

    • Respect to u Jockomack! A little bit more realism and patience is what we need, will be a long road but if we stay the course the corner will be turned. At some point there will be light at the end of it.

  4. It will be a long hard slog before we get to 55 again. But we will! The time will come when we get there. It will be emotional but it will be so so sweet!

  5. It won't take as much as everyone is saying, 5 million will give us the team to beat everyone else in the league. That's what Celtic can do. It will come down to the head to head game. To think last season was the worst rangers team ever in the spl yet we managed 3rd… the rest are shocking and asling as we can win all our games against them we can give it ago

  6. The way for Rangers to build right now is to first of all create a gap between themselves and all the rest (minus Celtic) The way to do this is to cherry pick the best players from the SPL – Paterson from Hearts, Jack Aberdeen, Moult M'well would be a good start. This will weaken the rest of our rivals and make us more difficult to beat with players used to Scottish football and tried and tested in the SPL. if each year we canberra add to this 1/2 players around the £2million mark then within three years – just maybe – we can compete with Celtic and stop 10 in a row. Pedi worries me though. He has no track record of building anything. No experience of Europe (important to our finances to try and reach the group stages – if not this year then definitely next). I fear we may end up with another fire sale this time next year!

  7. The current Celtic team cost 15m-20m to assemble so a similar spend from us, and getting the signings right, would see us challenge again.

    The aim for next season should be to turn 10 draws or whatever it was into victories. We lost less league games than Aberdeen but drew far too many. Convert draws to wins and we'll be comfortable 2nd and a year closer to a proper challenge for the title.

    • Not sure how much Celt team cost but do know every buy doesn't work out way you had hoped, so you end up buying 2 maybe 3 players to turn up one gem. Add to that its a squad game & the money runs up quickly.
      I remember watching gers teams winning 9 in a row & wanting the board to spend money on players to stop it. The reply was always the same, we ( Celtic) had to get our own house in order & stop looking at others, it was not easy to take at the time but we are reaping rewards now. The Rangers board need to put in forward thinking foundations to set new records.. NOT just to win one league title to stop Celtic, I know as a fan its not easy watching rivals winning but got to set a plan & stick to it

  8. To be honest I don't think that it will take much more than 10 million quid to get us back in as Serious challengers.
    The bench mark is septic and they are Not Great…. good yes but Far from being Great.
    2 CB.s– RB—LB– Def Mid–Creative Mid, a real good Winger and Striker Worthy of the name, maybe 2.

    So 8 or 9 good players and we WILL Be mounting a proper Serious Challenge, if not winning the Title.

    So Mr King, KEEP to your WORD (which isn't meant to be good) and GIVE Podro ALL the Season Ticket monies.

  9. Well done Greg Roots, you have given Ibrox Noise another very good article to read and think about. It's all about opinions and keeping Ibrox Noise at the forefront of all things Rangers.

    Personally I will be heartened if we can buy the two Portuguese centre halves and some Mexican players who Ped the Ted knows well + some imput from SPL experienced players to boost our starting 11.

    Celtic perhaps have too big a lead over us at the moment, but Aberdeen should be 3rd or 4th next season, but only if we can improve enough. WATP.

  10. Great to read lots of realism coming through in the comments. At this stage nobody (including the board) knows enough about Pedro to trust him with 10-20 millions to get real value for money. He knows his budget (probably a few million) and we and the board should see how he goes about spending it. The season after next is critical when Pedro should eiĺher be getting a bigger budget or the boot. Let's hope it's the former.

  11. Good things come to those who wait.. My maw always told me which is true, or patience is a virtue take your pick… 55 will come in time I ain't got a crystal ball but I do believe it will be before they hit 9..Celtic are strong at present they've a Manager who's lifted them, also a good set up for youth football ( Rangers are improving ) feeding the first team.. HOF and Scouting they're stronger too we can't deny that yeh. Rangers improve that area quickly then it will pay off sooner rather than later.. 20 million tops 10 on players 10 on wages and we'd be streets above the rest and giving that mob a real go.. The Board will get sorted at some point with Merchandise deal hopefully – Europe – Sponsors.. Onwards & Upwards we must go

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