Rob Kiernan. Danny Wilson. Scott
Allan. Stuart Dallas. Reece Wabara. Andy Halliday. Wes Foderingham.
A combination of captured
signatures, and just a few of the names linked with joining them. But among
that glut of speculated (and confirmed) personnel, the one type of player
conspicuous by its absence is that of striker.
The only notable goal-getter
Rangers have been linked to this window has been Stevie May and he is currently
at Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship so
any move for him has been speculated as a loan. And unlikely – a solid English
Championship switched for the Scottish incarnation? Remote.
Beyond him, there are not a lot
of scorers linked with Ibrox, even less with concrete interest, and that is a
problem.
Right now, Rangers are furnished up
front with Kenny Miller, Dean Shiels and Nicky Clark.
Messi, Suarez and Neymar it is
not.
Add Callum Gallagher to the mix
and it is a position Rangers are quite desperately in need of fresh blood for,
with Miller certainly not the player he once was, Clark already having peaked
at his previous club it seems and Shiels being patchier than a pair of 80s
jeans.
There is not one player in that
clutch that fans can feel excited about, and none who score freely.
What does Mark Warburton do about
this? Behind the scenes the new boss is feverishly trying to get deals done,
but there is only so much he can do – the Scottish Championship is a ‘hard sell’
as he puts it; it is extremely tough to persuade decent strikers from the
English Championship or even League One to give up that standard for their Scottish
equivalent, with only money being plausible motivation.
Unfortunately it is even tougher
to persuade Scottish Championship rivals like Queen of the South and Hibs to
sell their best strikers to Rangers – these teams want promotion as much as
Rangers do, and getting a Jason Cummings or even a Derek Lyle is not as easy as
it once was – Rangers cannot just flash big cash and get their man now.
As I said in my last entry,
Warburton is not a miracle worker and will struggle to get the quality Rangers
need. Fans will need to cut him a lot of slack, and chances are the striking
pool come the 25th will be much the same as it was during the
playoffs.