With three signings confirmed,
and another four currently on trial, there are tentative feelings that, should
the trialists all win deals (far from guaranteed), it will be the first time ‘new-look’
Rangers can truly be applied.
Currently the only borderline
certain two starters from the fledgling Warburton regime signing ‘spree’ are
Rob Kiernan and Danny Wilson, both defenders. And even they are not absolute stick-ons
given it is uncertain just how big a role Darren McGregor, last season’s Player
of the Year, will have.
Nevertheless, if we go by the
general assumption that a new manager usually elects to select the players he
signed himself, then Wilson and Kiernan, and conceivably Foderingham will form
the core backbone of the side that Warbs will take to Easter Road two weeks on
Saturday.
But what of the trialists?
Currently Murray Park is hosting
the well-documented (and mildly bizarre) case of John Eustace, the ex-Bradford
and Dundee Utd (and Rangers) midfielder Andy Halliday, former Manchester City
right back Reece Wabara, and Manchested United youth product midfielder (and equally
adept at left back) Jordan Thompson.
If all these won deals within the
next two weeks, Mark Warburton’s maiden bow at Easter Road could see:
Foderingham in goal, a back four
of Wabara, Wilson, Kiernan and Wallace, a midfield of Halliday, Thompson,
Eustace and McKay, with Miller and Shiels up top.
Naturally, this is absolute
guesswork, including the formation and striker selection. But one universal
fact is new managers want to put their own stamp on the team, and if given the
chance to make a host of new signings, they are much more likely to use the
players they have chosen to bring in, rather than inherited.
So the team that ends up starting
v Hibs could, if Warburton’s signing endeavours go the way he (and we) hopes,
be dramatically different to the one which fumbled so horribly at Fir Park.
I concede that previous entries
were worried about the lack of deals, and that the team that starts said match
could be made up of much of the rubbish which failed so horribly last season;
this situation, currently, still stands. Not enough transfers have taken place
yet to truly feel at ease with the surgery on the squad.
But the trialists in conjunction
with potential new recruits does give a crumb of hope that a genuinely and
pleasingly unfamiliar Rangers team might line up in just over a fortnight.
There is, however, a great deal
still to do.