With the championship in the bag,
the cups finished (For Rangers anyway) and only an unbeaten record now
remaining to play for, attention has turned in earnest to preparation for next
season’s travails in the Scottish Championship. Already confirmed as participating
next year on top of Rangers are relegated SPL outfit Hearts, existing
Championship sides Raith Rovers and Livingston, and fellow promoted League 1
side Dunfermline.
There are a few slots yet to be
finalised (potentially including the other half of the Edinburgh coin, Hibernian) but the SPFL’s
second flight next season looks like being the strongest it has ever been,
boasting at least 5 former SPL teams for sure among its ranks.
So, it is safe to say it will be
a considerable step up from League 1 through which Rangers bestrode like a
colossus, but the Ibrox men currently do not sit pretty in terms of the
personnel at their disposal and the form they carry.
Manager Ally McCoist has indeed confirmed
his own doubts about the present team’s ability to cope with life in a higher
division next season.
“Absolutely, the prospect of a big club
like Hibs coming down worries me. No-one has a God-given right to win games.
I’ve already said it will be a hell of a competitive and interesting
league.”
While Rangers’ squad is not
abysmal, their form is, and targets have started to emerge as early as April
regarding badly-needed enhancements to the squad. Let us take a look at the
speculation.
The first one is the big name.
The ex-player. Kris Boyd, currently plying
his trade at Kilmarnock, and sitting pretty on
19 goals this season, Boyd has even managed an SPL Player of the Year
nomination. The former Ibrox striker has matured greatly, adding intelligence
to his game including setup play, and when he has appeared on BT Sports as a
pundit, his knowledge and insight, and even charisma, have been a remarkable
improvement on the monosyllabic shy-looking individual he once was.
There had been promising reports
Boyd had signed a conditional two-year deal worth £7,000 doubling to £14,000 on
promotion to the SPL, but according to the Daily Record the player has denied
any contact has been made.
It has been reported that McCoist
has definitely received a conditional ‘yes’ from one Bosman of the two he has
spoken to, with Scott Allan of West
Brom, Dundee United’s defender Gavin
Gunning and Motherwell’s Shaun
Hutchinson three such candidates.
If the ‘yes’ is not from Boyd,
the money has been placed on it being Scott Allan, given the young Scottish
midfielder’s reported desire to ‘return home’.
A name not mentioned but who
yours truly believes would be a bargain is Albion Rovers’ impressive 25-year
old stopper, Ross Dunlop.
Outstanding at Ibrox in the cup quarter, the Wee Rovers’ defender would be an
inexpensive outlay and a fine acquisition.
Two other names tenuously linked
are also former players; Madjid
Bougherra and Kenny Miller. Both
have strenuously stated their desire to return, with the Algerian especially
eager given his willingness to ‘play for free’. Miller, on the other hand,
would require a wage, but if it is a modest one his presence cannot surely harm
the team.
What is for sure is a vast change
is required this summer, especially in central defence, with the hopeless Lee
McCulloch desperately needing replaced. Bilel Mohsni, after a fine start, has
become extremely unpopular among supporters despite (or as a result of) this
author’s view that he has had to carry McCulloch in defence.
Gunning, Faure, Mohsni, and
Dunlop would be a half-decent central defensive pool to choose from at
Championship level.
However, McCoist has also
reiterated all of this is totally moot until CEO Graham Wallace confirms what
his budget is this summer, following the long-awaited business review’s
conclusion around the 25th.
And that, my dear bluenose
friends, is another story entirely.